William Edward "Bill" Humphries

Experienced project lead with experience managing internal developers and vendors. Skilled in communicating with technical and non-technical audiences to gather requirements, as well as explain and evangelize technical concepts. A developer with a large and diverse skill set (including JSON, Ajax, XML, PHP, JavaScript, and XSLT) accomplished at working in a small, self-directed team and juggling multiple projects under tight, market-driven deadlines.

Current Interests

• Integrating desktop applications with the web.
• Improving user experience for publishing media to the web.
• Using 'widgets/badges' to export status and heads-up information from applications to the web.

Experience

Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA

User Interface Engineer, .Mac; January 2006 - Present

Developed Ajax and JSON-driven web applications:

My current work is covered under non-disclosure, however I can say that it is for consumer web applications that use Model-View-Controller techniques to manage UI in the browser.

Previously, I've worked on:

.Mac Webmail

Complete revamp of .Mac webmail and address book services

Drag and drop interface, with multiple elements loaded and refreshed through XMLHTTPRequest

Used Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries.

iWeb Comments

Adding comments to .Mac-hosted iWeb weblogs

Wrote JavaScript to read comments (stored as JSON on .Mac user's WebDAV space), then display them by rewriting static blog entry's DOM.

Web Engineer, August 2001 - January 2006

Developed several web applications for Apple Employees and HR professionals, including:

Online Learning

Preventing Harassment course integration

• Bridged Flash courseware to backend learning management system using XMLHTTPRequest.
• Worked with Flash and backend database developers to build a HTTP/REST interface between the two systems.
• Delivered course on-time to 1,000+ managers.

HRWeb

Reworked Apple's online HR manual for 12 countries: US, Europe, and Canada

Updated an existing content management system to:

• Run faster
• Output XML files to make reuse and redesign of HRWeb easier

Developed new HRWeb site

• Unobtrusive JavaScript for menus and presentation
• Worked with designer to use CSS for layout
• Apple Connect for access control to restricted content
• Integrates with Google Search Appliance

HRWeb Dashboard Widget

• 'Live' searches of HRWeb Sites (AJAX)
• Connected to Apple Japan and Apple Asia's HR sites.
• Searches in Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana,) as well as English and other European languages.

Employee Training

Customer front end to Training and Development's FileMaker database.

Created a communication layer between FileMaker and a PHP web app.

Apple Connect for authentication

myPage

Adapted a paper self-assessment tool for the web.

Created a familiar, iTunes-style interface using JavaScript

Converted source material, a 400 page MS Word manuscript, to XML source files

MyPlan

Redesigned an awkward web interface for creating vacation, sick time, and other leave requests.

Used by US, Europe and Asia

2Roam (defunct), Redwood City, CA

Client Development Software Engineer, January 2000 - July 2001

• Developed Java servlets to convert GET and POST requests sent from wireless devices into XML messages sent to eBay's XML API server. Reduced our dependence on transcoding eBay's HTML site, where daily changes to that site resulted in outages to 2Roam customers.
• Developed wireless sites for customers, working from site designs provided by account managers and customers. Worked closely with server team to identify enhancements needed to adapt to complex HTML sites that use JavaScript and/or frames.
• Wrote XSLT style sheets for transcoding XHTML and proprietary XML data for display on wireless devices.
• Assembled am intranet portal for developers. Used ASP and MSXML to provide a real time view of XML schema in our CVS repository, applying an XSLT style sheet.
• Worked with Java developers on server team to determine how to pass XHTML data to our layer of the product and map the URL to an XSLT style sheet.
• Developed working prototypes of wireless sites under tight deadlines for sales team.
• Designed test cases for server team to use as unit test inputs for Catalyst enhancements.

OnRadio (defunct), Scotts Valley, CA

Software Engineer, March 1999 - December 1999

• Managed engineering team for three months when the manager of engineering services had to leave on disability. Kept multiple projects on track while continuing to work as a developer.
• Designed, implemented and integrated database and supporting PHP scripts for single-sign-on to third party e-mail and chat services associated with OnRadio customer sites.
• Designed and wrote content syndication system that leveraged our existing content management system written in PHP/MySQL, and used JavaScript on client side to insert headlines and articles into subscriber's existing HTML sites.
• Designed and wrote prototype of Object Oriented, Database-backed editorial system for use by editors and writers to produce music and movie reviews for syndication to OnRadio sites.

Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA

Web Technologist, April 1996 - March 1999

• Worked as a liaison between external developers and internal customers to resolve issues, champion customer requirements and expedite projects.
• Represented interests of online services group to EPRI's in-house information technologies group, enabling online services to integrate with business systems and eliminate redundant systems.
• Evaluated internal customer requirements for Web-based applications and recommended or implemented solutions.
• Developed standards for web publishing.
• Evaluated candidates and oversaw migration of extranet site from one ISP to another.
• Designed process for managing access control for extranet web site by leveraging data from business systems under tight deadlines, completing project and allowing company to move to a new online infrastructure in less than three months.
• Received a Corporate Performance Recognition Award implementing an online business rules change online, resulting in cost reductions due to data feed coordination.
• Wrote CGI and site administration applications in Perl 5.
• Integrated Infoseek search engine into Internet and extranet web sites.
• Developed rules for indexing pages. Modified Python scripts to generate per-division look-and-feel of results.
• Successfully turned business requirements of Environment, Generation, and Nuclear Power business groups into web content on extranet.
• Enforced use of HTML DTDs to assure cross-platform and cross-browser usability of web site.
• Integrated content provided by external contractors and vendors into extranet web site.

James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council

Volunteer Web master, 1995 - 2004

• Marked-up annotated bibliographies of books considered for award (winners, long and short-list) into XML format. Wrote XSLT style sheets to generate HTML display.
• Managed content for web site using UserLand's Frontier, and updated site as needed.
• Wrote PHP scripts for mailing book suggestions to the Tiptree jury via web forms.

Technical Skills

Programming Languages, Protocols, APIs, and Libraries

Java (1.2, 1.3), JSDK (2.2, 2.3), XSLT (1.0 and 2.0), W3C XML DOM (Lvl. 2 and 3), PHP (3.x through 5.x), Perl (5), Active Server Pages (ASP), HTTP, XMLHTTPRequest, Python, JavaScript, Prototype, SproutCore, SOAP, XML-RPC, REST, FORTRAN, UserTalk (Frontier)

Web Servers

Apache 1.3, IIS 5.0, Netscape Commerce

Markup Languages and DTDs:

XHTML, HTML, RSS (0.9, 0.91, 1.0, 2.0), Atom, CSS (2 through 3), WML, DocBook XML, RML (2Roam proprietary), eBay API (proprietary)

Application Servers and Servlet Containers:

BEA Weblogic (4.x), Apache Tomcat, Caucho Resin, Infoseek, Apache Cocoon (1.x and 2.x), UserLand Frontier (4.x through 8.x)

Databases

MySQL, FileMaker, Oracle 8.1

Application Development Tools:

emacs, Visual Cafe, Exelon Stylus, CVS, Source Safe, Rational ClearCase, Perfect Tracker, Subversion, BBEdit, XCode, TeamCity, TextMate

Operating Systems

MacOS; Unix: Solaris 2.x, Linux, Mac OS X, Ultrix, DG-Unix; Win32: Windows 2000, NT 4

Education

MS (Economics)

University of Wisconsin, 1990

BA (Economics)

University of Texas at Austin, 1987

Publications, Presentations and Editorial Work

• Presentations on RSS and Weblogging at Seybold SF, September 2003
• Building Web Services With FIleMaker Pro, XML.com, October 2001 (http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/10/17/filemaker.html)
• The San-Suds Semantic Web at Software Development 2001 East, Boston, MA, August 2001
• Technical reviewer for XSLT Quickly, by Bob DuCharme, Manning, 2001.
• XSLT for the Real World at XMLOne, San Jose, CA, October 2000
• "URLS! URLS! URLS!" A List Apart, September 2000 (http://www.alistapart.org/stories/urls/)
• RSS Scraper for the Desperate CMS Hacker (http://www.whump.com/moreLikeThis/link/03617)