Summary
- Over 15 years experience designing and writing books, white papers, articles, documentation and online help for all audiences from novice end-user to advanced developer.
- Extremely strong, aggressive, self-sufficient writer with outstanding technical skills and ability to learn new technologies quickly.
- Best-selling author of books on HTML, Java, and Perl
- Programming skills in Java and Perl.
- Expert in FrameMaker template design and implementation.
- Experienced in project management, book design, web design, usability and interface design.
Skills
- Languages: Perl, Java (J2SE, J2ME), C, C++, JavaScript, AppleScript, LISP
- Technologies: HTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, RSS, Web Services (REST, SOAP, WSDL), AJAX
- Tools and Applications: Adobe FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Macromedia DreamWeaver, OpenOffice.com, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Movable Type, oXygen, Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Excel, Quadralay WebWorks, FileMaker Pro, Mozilla, Firefox, Internet Explorer, emacs, vi, cvs, sccs, Teamware, Perforce, Cygwin
- Platforms: Windows (NT/2000/XP), UNIX (Linux, Solaris), MacOS (OSX, 9.x), PalmOS, Symbian
Books
- Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML (1994-1997)
- Teach Yourself Java (1995-1997)
- The Official Marimba Guide to Castanet (1996)
- Laura Lemay's Web Workshop (Series Editor) (1997-1998)
- Teach Yourself Perl (1998-2000)
Professional Experience
October 2005-June 2006: Sr. Technical Yahoo (Lead Writer), Yahoo! Developer Network
- Responsible for all content development and production for the Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN) web site, including writing, editing, design, navigation and front end web development. The Yahoo! Developer Network publishes documentation, tutorials, articles and code samples on a variety of developer topics including web services (REST, SOAP), web service exchange formats (XML, JSON), RSS, AJAX, JavaScript, Macromedia (Adobe) Flash, and PHP.
- Served as lead writer for all documentation produced by YDN. Wrote tutorials and reference documentation on a variety of topics, gaining information through interviews, testing, and reading code.
- Served as managing editor for documentation and other content produced by other groups for YDN. The editorial role involved establishing standards and formats; ensuring editorial, style, and code consistency across pages; and performing conversions as necessary to prepare content for the site. Incoming content could be flat HTML, PDF, wiki pages, or generated HTML (Javadoc, Doxygen, Jsdoc, WebWorks). Wrote scripts (Perl) to assist with conversions to fit content into YDN style.
- Coordinated schedules and product teams for multiple, frequent, ongoing releases.
- Managed back-end content repository (CVS).
- Wrote the Developer's Getting Started Guide and assisted with API documentation for Yahoo! Enterprise Web Services (EWS/Panama), Yahoo!'s next-generation advertising platform. EWS is a SOAP web service with 13 WSDLs, approximately 150 operations and 65 supporting data objects. Wrote all documentation in Javadoc and HTML. Worked with engineering to design and implement a Javadoc doclet to produce custom HTML output.
- Helped establish guidelines for web service development within the organization, providing input into XML schema design.
August 1994-Present: Contract and Freelance Technical Writer
v Contract Technical Writer (MobiTV (Formerly Idetic), 2005)
- Wrote various internal technical and developer documents for a J2ME-based mobile TV product including design and functional specifications, technical overviews, process and troubleshooting guides, XML schema and element references, and scripting language documentation.
v Contract Technical Writer (Ingrian Networks, 2004, 2005)
- Updated the user and administration guide for the beta release of a database encryption appliance. This project required a five-day turnaround and was successfully delivered on time.
- Updated XML API documentation, providing input into the structure of the DTD.
- Developed a unified set of FrameMaker templates based on current documentation practices at Ingrian. Converted all existing documentation to the new templates.
- Wrote an 80-page template and style guide and trained writers in the use of the templates
v Contract Technical Writer (Sun Microsystems, 2003, 2004)
- Wrote introductory programmer tutorials for Sun Java Studio Creator, an integrated development environment for web applications developed in JavaServer Pages (JSP) and JavaServer Faces (JSF).
- Wrote the Personal Profile Programmer's Guide and Personal Profile Samples Guide (400 pages total). Both books provide detailed programmer documentation Personal Profile, a Java development environment for handheld devices (J2ME). For both these books I wrote all the content, developed Java code examples, implemented scripts to automatically generate API summaries from specifications and code libraries, and performed conversions of both books to PDF and HTML for online delivery and Section 508 (accessibility) compliance.
v Contract Technical Writer (TiVo, 2002)
- Wrote various short documents including manufacturing and diagnostics process documentation, test harness user guides, and developer-oriented architecture overviews.
- Implemented a set of FrameMaker templates for the TiVo developer documentation set.
v Books (Sams Publishing)
- Learned the technology in detail, usually with no engineering or company input.
- Wrote the book's content, including designing and developing all programming examples.
- Created all illustrations.
- Set schedules and milestones. Schedules in computer book publishing are usually extremely tight, with the books going from plan to bookstores in fewer than six months.
- Coordinated entirely in email and on the phone, with a team of five to ten editors, technical reviewers, designers, and illustrators.
- Promoted and supported all books after they shipped to bookstores, including working with the publisher's marketing and PR departments, developing lectures, producing support and promotional websites for the book, and answering reader mail.
v Other Technical Writing
- N*able Inc., 1999, Company bought by Wave Systems: Marketing brochure and preliminary user guide for a secure smart card reader.
- Web Techniques Magazine, 1996-1997: Various monthly articles on Web design and development.
- NaviSoft, 1994, Company bought by America Online: User guide for Web browser/editor.
October 1992-August 1994: Senior Technical Writer, Kaleida Labs, Inc.
- Produced several releases of the Field Guide to the ScriptX Language, a 350-page tutorial and programmer's reference. Writing this book involved working very closely with the language designers and compiler engineers, helping to make the language consistent and usable, as well as becoming a proficient programmer in the language itself.
- Designed and implemented a complete set of FrameMaker templates for the Kaleida book design.
- Served as project and production manager for the Kaleida Technical Reference Series (four books, over 1500 pages), including coordinating the production process, supervising document delivery, and helping develop schedules for four full-time and several contract writers.
- Organized, designed and implemented tools for production and release engineering of publications products.
July 1989-September 1992: Technical Writer, Sun Microsystems
- Writer for the 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 Sun NeWsPrint releases, including end-user and system administration manuals, man(1) pages, error messages and installation screens.
- Managed migration of document set to Sun's AnswerBook online publishing system, including incorporating the online documentation into the product installation, and designing and implementing all spot help into the product itself.
Education
B.A. Carnegie Mellon. Major: Technical Writing for Computers (self-defined). Extensive classwork in computer science, graphic design, and cognitive psychology as well as master-level classes in usability testing and documentation project management.