Author of e-book for O'Reilly Media, Getting Acquainted with OPML


Recreational web site creation; Bloomington, IN, and Chicago, IL October 1995 - present

Founder of two virtual communities, now operated by volunteer committees: The Republic of Pemberley, a Jane Austen discussion site now receiving more than 7 million page views each month, and PhinisheD, a support group for stalled dissertation writers.

EXPERIENCE

Online Content Manager, National Safety Council; Chicago, IL
August 2005 - Present

• Translate the council's periodicals and some of its books into electronic form.
• Develop new online products.

E-Commerce Developer, National Safety Council; Chicago, IL
March 2001 - July 2005

• Responsible for electronic commerce on the site, and in direct e-mail. Shepherded development of a new shopping cart and other online applications. Counsel internal clients on use of the web as marketing tool.
• Acknowledged as the most technology savvy of the 4-person web staff; called on to work with programmers on database projects outside my e-commerce realm.
• Web skills used: HTML, Flash, Photoshop, Javascript, Cold Fusion, PHP, MySQL, SQL Server.
• Guided the Council's first efforts to develop online learning: chose a learning management system; primary vendor contact, working with instructional designers, content developers and hosting companies; prepare RFPs; train and support customer service personnel. Work with management to define online product development objectives.

Contract Web and editorial work; Chicago, IL
November 1999 - March 2001

• "Retemplating" project for Andersen Consulting. Part of a large team converting Andersen's own site to XML.
• Virtual community (message board and chat room) supervision for AT&T WorldNet Service, and other commercial web sites' community sections. Long-term project through a consulting firm.
• Edit HTML e-mail newsletter for employees of Harvard Business School Publishing.
• Copyediting and news writing for Electronic Packaging & Production magazine, a Cahners publication.

Webmaster; Indiana University Alumni Association, Bloomington, IN
March 1998 - November 1999
Tended the alumni association site. A 1-person show:

• Served as CGI/Perl programmer, writer, designer and idea machine.
• Credited with making the site more interactive, more homey and more "revisitable."
• Managed community tools including message boards and listservs.

Positions held during a former life as a PR practitioner

EDUCATION

• Central Michigan University, 1974 B.A. in journalism
• Polytechnic of Central London School of Photography, Summer 1972

PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

• Former board member of the St. Louis chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators
• Former publications chair of Public Relations Society of America in Detroit

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