Professional Purpose

Both my professional (and personal) behaviour is guided by a few observations:

• openness, especially communicating expectations effectively, minimises stress in all business dealings and personal endeavours
• being worthy of trust is of real value, and is easy once you commit to it
• esteem can only be earned and respect only given
• if you expect more from yourself than others do, they will rarely be disappointed
• focus on quality and attention to detail are habits worth forming
• the product of passion and skill is preferable to the product of money and skill
• if one focuses on doing the best job, financial reward is a pleasant byproduct

Business maxims which I question (and think are detrimental to good business relationships) are

1. you get what you pay for
2. all's fair in war and business
3. IP protection at all costs

The first is untenable in the face of zero cost open source software - and even more valuable than its low price tag is the fact that it's also free as in freedom - part of the global information commons. The second implies a lack of professional courtesy, and denies the fundamental social contract - to uphold the basic principles of honour and fair-play required by a free market. The last, IP protection, while it does have its place in a few contexts, is anathema to creativity and passion in most: it hinges on making ideas scarce.

Professional Experience

• Co-founder, co-director, and shareholder of the Effusion Group Ltd. - February 2002 to present. The Effusion Group is a software/IT project brokerage, combining the expertise of the 4 "foundation member" companies - Aphid, iOpen Technologies, ZYPE, and Egressive - and a number of associate companies.
• Coordinator of the Openz Open Letter to NZ Parliament and interim coordinator of the nascent Openz Kiwi Open Source Vendor Group - November 2001 to present.
• Co-founder, director, and shareholder of OpenStrategies Holdings Ltd. - April 2000 to present. I am also the original developer of OpenStrategies' Sextant software, Version 1, and am lead developer of Version 2, now being sold and supported by a new company (of which I am also a shareholder), OpenStrategies Ltd.
• Founding member of the Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions (C-fACS) - April 1999 to present. This research centre is affiliated with Lincoln University.
• Founder and Director of Egressive Limited, Christchurch - September 1998 to present - Egressive Limited markets, builds, and supports business computer system solutions based on the Open Source (free) Linux computer operating system. These systems provide a host of services, all customised for the specific requirements of the client site, including file serving, web serving, VPNs, and other communications mechanisms to small to medium sized businesses in New Zealand. Egressive also provides comprehensive web application development services building on a variety of open source technologies, as well as customised scientific software development, and general Linux-related computer consulting services.
• Research Scientist/Software Engineer - October 1994 to February 1999 - Employer: NZ Forest Research Institute (Christchurch). Primary developer of TreeGrabber, a computer vision system for measuring and assessing the geometry and quality of felled tree stems on forest skid sites. Responsible for software and hardware design. Software implemented in a Linux/X Window System environment in C/C++. Included full Graphical User Interface (GUI), photogrammetric, image matching, signal processing, and feature recognition algorithms.

Education

• Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME), August 1994, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. Areas of study: axiomatic design theory, computer modeling and simulation, graphics programming, image processing and photogrammetry.
• Bachelor of Science in Physics, May 1992, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041, USA. In addition to a full physics curriculum, areas of concentration: fluid instabilities, computer modeling.

Professional Skills

• 10 years experience with Linux system administration, extensive development experience on the Linux platform using primarily C/C++ (to develop prototype machine vision/photogrammetry software) and PHP, Python, Bash, Awk (in conjunction with SQL Databases, and XML markup to develop sophisticated web applications).
• Written presentation: I consider myself to be an effective communicator in the English language, writing both for technical/scientific and popular audiences. Due to my writing related to Open Source advocacy, I have been consulted and quoted frequently in publications like IDG's ComputerWorld NZ edition, and I maintain and am primary content provider for the Openz portal site.
• Oral presentation: I am comfortable and experienced with public speaking in front of both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Languages: In addition to fluent (Kiwi and American) English, I have a reasonable reading and speaking knowledge of German.

Interests

Ultimate frisbeeR (a fast paced field sport played with a "flat ball"), volleyball, schtick, singing and guitar - founder of a men's a cappella singing group "Splunge" at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA, and more recently the Possum Brothers (you can download some sample recordings), cooking, aikido, sketching, photography, writing, backpacking, canoeing, cycling, sailing, and more recently swing dancing and a new band project: 3kg, among other activities. ...

Personal

Immigration: I am a US citizen birth (February, 1970), and a naturalised kiwi (dual NZ/US citizen as of 13 November 2003). I have been a permanent resident of NZ since 1996.

Status: I am unmarried, self-employed, and an athletic non-smoker in good health.