David M. Thau: Engineering Experience
- Lead developer for AntWeb, January, 2003 - Present.
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AntWeb has received acclaim as one of the best ant resources on the web. It provides flexible image comparisons, pdf field guides,
maps of species, both on the site, and via google earth, and support for multiple data providers to supply data independently. Its growing
coverage currently includes many places in the Nearctic and Malagasy biogeographic regions, as well as complete coverage of the ant genera
of the world.
- The Global Biodiversity Information Facility, January 2005 - June 2005.
- Drafted a specification for a data model repository, and implemented the beginnings of an open source XSLT generator.
- Programming/Research, University of Kansas Natural History Museum, Jan 2003 - December 2004.
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Performed a number of tasks:
- Primarily worked on the SEEK project, integrating the work of the Taxon group with that of the
knowledge representation group. This work resulted in a paper presented at the second International Semantic Web and Databases Workshop. Also looked into a variety of systems for
assiging unique identifiers to online data and resources. This research led to the adoption of LSIDs by the SEEK project to identify resources in their
metadata catalog.
- Wrote a number of XSLT transformations to add data to the Kansas taxonomic object server, to evolve data from one version of the nascent
Taxonomic Concept Transfer Schema to another, and to cast DiGIR queries into GML.
- Worked on creating an installer for DiGIR using XForms. Decided that the XForms standard and implementations were too immature at that time.
- Extended UDDI to use biological taxonomies for DiGIR using JAXR to provide information about hierarchies. Also, integrated LDAP access into the UDDI
registry.
- Director of Engineering, All Species Foundation, Jan, 2002 - Dec, 2002.
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The All Species Foundation is dedicated to the complete inventory of all species of life on Earth
within the next 25 years. As Director of Engineering I built software to catalog the species, kept
tabs on the state of the art in biodiversity informatics, assisted in producing pitches for investors, attended
and spoke at a variety of conferences, and produced technology for third parties.
- CEO, biancaTroll Productions, Feb, 1994 - July, 2001.
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biancaTroll Productions sites were among the first 500 sites on the web and have received
acclaim and awards far and wide.
In addition to biancaTroll branded products (www.bianca.com), we have also been responsible for
the Official 1994 Lollapalooza site, and interactive software used by
Wired Digital,
Voyager International, and Mother Jones magazine.
As CEO I was engaged in
the complete range of activities that entertain most businesses; from designing, producing and programming the Web sites, to doing the
taxes, handling payroll, hiring and managing staff, and maintaining the budget.
- Director of Software Engineering, Humboldt
Institute for Technlogical Studies, Oct 1996 - Jan 2002.
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The Humboldt Institute for Technological Studies uses the web to teach children
and adults in rural Humboldt County about the wonders of computer technology. H
ITS has worked with a grade school, a K-12 school, and a local
community center, teaching children and adults HTML, Javascript, Perl and UNIX.
Our close work with the faculty of the schools involves integrating computers
and web work into their daily curiculuum. I have been involved in every
aspect of HITS, from drawing up mission statements to teaching classes in HTML,
Perl, UNIX and Javascript. As the project grows, we are reaching out to other
rural communities in the US.
- Senior Scientist, Wired Digital, Jan, 1997 - Nov, 1999.
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As Wired Digital's Senior Scientist, I kept tabs on, and integrated developing web technologies into the HotBot search engine. Most of the new technologies used propositional and statistical artificial intelligence to aid information seeking.
- Director of Software Engineering, Wired Digital (aka HotWired), Jan 1996 - Jan 1997.
- The thirteen engineers I managed in
the software development group were responsible for maintaining all the software on HotWired, including the web server. We
were also in charge of developing new software. During this time, I built a staff, guided the construction of libraries, set up documentation and version control protocols, helped launch several new sections of HotWired, helped redesign old sections, guided the development of new software products and helped engineering work its way towards
a harmonious relationship with the production, design and editorial staffs who contributed to HotWired's excellence.
- Senior Software Engineer, HotWired, Aug, 1995 - Dec, 1995.
- My first project at HotWired involved creating the massive engineering engine necessary to run Adrenaline, HotWired's sports site.
This engine used Sybase to store data about different sports sites and gd1.2 to generate maps of sports sites on the fly. It also included a system by which people could comment on their experiences at the different sports sites. The software created by my team and I for Adrenaline continues to be used throughout the site to this day.
- Software Developer and Director of User Training, Apollo Derivatives, Feb, 1995 - July, 1995.
- At Apollo, an options and derivatives trading organization, I wrote and supported several mission critical programs ranging from
an automated paging system written in Objective-C to the company's trade resolution accounting system, written in Perl. I also ran the tech operations in their London office
for 3 months and created the curriculum used by the company to train their traders how to use the company's network of NeXTSTEP computers.
- Director of Software Development, Streams Online Media Development, September 1994 - July, 1995.
- As one of the founders of Streams, the first company in Chicago to develop web sites for clients,
I directed the creation of the software used in most of Streams' initial projects as well as wrote proposals and acquired clients. Part of this software was one of the first instances of a "shopping cart" for our first client.
- MIS Intern, Mother Jones Magazine, Summer 1994.
- During the Summer of 1994, I was the only person working on Mother Jones's web site. I did everything from designing
icons, to laying out and producing pages, to writing the first version of posting software.
- Helped Design and Program the VideoNotebook, 1993.
- The VideoNotebook is a Supercard interface to an Oracle database used by researchers at the University of Michigan's School of Education to analyze and discuss a new teaching style called Project-Based Science. The database stored pointers to video-clips, classified along a number of different criteria, and also allowed for multiple commentaries by readers and researchers. These criteria and comments were later used to create entire documents suggesting ways to teach different topics. My duties included designing the architecture, coding much of the software, and documenting the software for use by teachers in Detroit.
- Designed Educational Software and Maintained Computers For University of Michigan's Psychology Department, 1991.
- During the Fall semester of 1991, I was hired to develop programs that would be used by students in the experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Michigan. I also maintained the 17 Macintosh IIci's and image-writer which were part of the Mac lab and helped teaching assistants incorporate the often unfamiliar technology into their teaching plans.
- Systems Programmer for UCLA's Marriage and Health Project, 1987-1989.
- My duties as the systems programmer for the Marriage and Health Project at UCLA involved writing a database program for the project's IBM PCs, and maintaining the software written to drive the project's physiological instruments. During my time with the project I rewrote much of the software used to record data from the physiological instruments, and completed the project's database and data-entry interface.