Curriculum Vitae
Profile
I began web developing as a hobby back in 1995 at university. I quickly combined it with my other main interest, comedy, and built my first freelance website for the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring in 1996. After leaving university, I joined Dennis Publishing where I stayed for over twelve years to become the longest serving member of the interactive department. During that period I gained vast experience, with an extensive knowledge base and a wide array of skills in all areas of web development. I am passionate about the industry, take great pride in my work and always looking for the next innovation.
Skill Set
Key Skills
Web Development, LAMP Administration (*nix, Apache, MySQL, PHP), Database Design/Query Optimisation, Search Engine Optimisation, Ad Serving Technologies (DART/Doubleclick).
Technologies
PHP, MySQL, XHTML / HTML, JavaScript, CSS, jQuery, Zend Framework, Drupal, PEAR, Apache Web Server, Adobe Flash, Subversion, git VC, ImageMagick, Perl, Content Distribution Networks, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Virtual Machines. Familiar with other web technologies & software (eg Adobe AIR, Actionscript, Wordpress).
Applications
Zend Studio/Eclipse, phpMyAdmin, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat PDF, OpenOffice, Microsoft Office, VMWare, VirtualBox.
Mobile Phone Development
Currently learning mobile phone development. Technologies used include Objective-C/Coca for iPhone & iPad and cross platform frameworks for conversion to Androidd.
Experience
- Lead developer for an on-going web-based project, based on Drupal and PHP5 OO technologies, using LAMP stack.
- Developed numerous custom modules for Drupal, including integrating external standalone scripts into Drupal to give users a single interface.
- Initial build completed within a month of starting project.
- Role includes liaising with non-technical staff to provide support and deal with feature requests.
- Redeveloped existing corporate website to use a brand new content management system, both built using Zend Framework, in an extremely short turnaround time.
- Heavily involved in company wide project to integrate web CMS with third-party print & mobile CMSs, including Woodwing, for repurposing of content across multiple-platforms.
- Hands on in all stages of migrating the Dennis websites from the existing technology partner to a new hosting company, including the tender & selection process.
- Migration included responsibility for the configuration and deployment of server software, including Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Subversion and Trac.
- Managed technical team of 14 people, including organising regular team meetings and training.
- Advised senior management on all technical aspects of the websites.
- Introduced Nagios software to monitor websites in-house and provide out-of-hours alerts (to supplement monitoring service provided by hosting company).
- Converted websites to use Limelight Networks’ CDN for all static content.
- Migrated the website registration database and developed new competition systems, for integration into a new data warehouse.
- Helped convert front-end systems to use Zend Framework.
- Role was expanded to include the mentoring of new and junior members of the technical team.
- Continued to develop portal systems to enable them to be used by international licensees of flagship Dennis print brands, for fast website builds and sharing of content.
- Liaised and trained the international editorial and technical teams from Dennis' London offices, using extensive documentation and VoIP.
- Enhanced portal template systems to allow easier integration with third party software (e.g. phpBB) and websites (“white label” sites).
- Developed Adobe Flash movies to pull content from the CMS database for promotion of articles on website home pages and section index pages, using ActionScript and PHP generated XML.
- Built an early Flash-based video/audio player in 2005, later replacing it with JW Player.
- Worked with Sales and Ad Trafficking to draw up advertising guidelines, e.g. maximum file sizes.
- Trialled and deployed multiple web analytics tools, including HitBox and Google Analytics, across all Dennis sites, to supplement and confirm statistics provided by hosting company and DART reports.
- Developed the first online portal (a single code base, used to drive multiple websites across a common sector) for the gaming division in 2001. This consisted of the technical design and development of both the front-end website and back-end CMS.
- Portal specification and development process necessitated a close working relationship with senior editorial and design teams, to ensure speedy delivery within the six month deadline.
- Functionality built into the portals included automated search engine optimisation, thumbnail generation using GD libraries & ImageMagick, newsletter management tools, RSS feeds and an API for content licensing to other major websites, such as AOL & MSN.
- Trained editorial print teams to use CMS, including preparing content for the web, e.g. image formats.
- Deployed DoubleClick DART tags across all Dennis websites, as one of DoubleClick’s first UK publishers. Tags were setup to allow targeting by section, categories and product details.
- Implemented website search tools, to allow users to search news and reviews based on ratings, price, manufacturer and well as product name.
- Developed personalised advertising campaign software, that connected advert creatives to Dennis' registration database.
- Used PEAR’s Integrated Template library to separate PHP code from HTML design.
- Pre-PHP/MySQL website development used Perl scripts & FileMaker databases to populate HTML pages with article content. Text data was exported into tabbed text files, with images exported and converted using DeBabelizer.
- Developed Perl scripts to drive website competitions, such as Maxim’s Premiership Predictions.
- Converted Photoshop webpage designs (PSDs) to HTML and populating article databases by extracting content from QuarkXPress documents.
- Scanned and touched up magazine images for web use.
Freelance Work
- Initial software design and development of NetGenie and AdGenie platforms, for GenieGroup.
- NetGenie is a web publishing tool that allows non-technical clients to generate a powerful websites using a custom CMS within minutes.
- AdGenie is a targeted advertising tool that allows advertisers to create contextual and demographically targeted adverts using a single creative.
Education
1994 – 1997: 2.1 Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Loughborough University, Leicestershire
1992 – 1994: 3 GCE ‘A’ Levels from Chelmsford College, Essex
1987 – 1992: 10 GCSEs from Shenfield High School, Essex
Other Interests
- Comedy – regularly go to clubs, have helped run comedy nights. Regular visitor to Edinburgh Fringe.
- Television and Film – member of the BFI and lifetime member of the PCC.
- Marathon running – currently in training for 2010 Run to the Beat half marathon, 2011 London Marathon, see comedy.
Twitter: @robsedgebeer
Email: robsedgebeer@googlemail.com
Web: www.robsedgebeer.com