Casey West
218 Dell Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15216 USAMobile Phone: +1.724.681.2000
Email: casey@geeknest.com
URL: http://caseywest.com
AIM: caseyrwest
Professional Summary
Lead developer specializing in high-availability, free software systems. I'm an expert on LAMP-style web applications with a decade of hands-on, customer-facing experience.
Employment History
Independent Software Consultant
March 2009 - PresentProjects:
- Solpath Assumed maintainence and continued development of Grantsfire. Developed in Perl and JavaScript using Catalyst, jQuery, XSLT, Microformats, OpenID, and MySQL. Improved performance; added data and administrative tools, feed validation services, OpenID integration; and performed sysadmin duties. Wrote the hGrant Microformat Specification based on existing work, implementations, and documentation.
- The Energy Foundation Built hGrant feed for display, filtering, and syndication in PHP using Symfony. Developed new Grants Management software to facilitate the grant making workflow in the organization. Developed in Ruby and JavaScript with Ruby on Rails and jQuery. Built interactive, immersive dashboard interface from client mockups with heavy use of Photoshop, CSS, jQuery, XHTML, and modern web design techniques.
- Wikimedia Foundation Built volunteer submission system to give thousands the opportunity to participate in Wikimedia's strategic planning. Developed in Python and JavaScript using Django and jQuery. The application is internationalized (I18N) and localized (L10N) using Django, with additional custom languages added according to client needs. Performed system administration, including detailed Nagios service monitors. Application integrates with MediaWiki using its web service API.
Projects:
- Infrastructure Upgrade (Code Name "Loveboat") Served as developer and project manager for sweeping upgrades to the flagship product and dependent products. Coordinated the migration of the product across three technical teams and several hundred thousand lines of code. Communicated constantly with IS, QA, Product Management, and two Engineering teams to ensure timely delivery and lightning fast response times during testing and deployment.
- Unit Testing Framework Using autoconf, automake, and Perl testing libraries, a unit testing framework was grafted onto an eight-year-old, actively developed, organically grown application. Unit test coverage was expanded from 0% to 10% in just a few months.
Achievements
- Advanced unit testing among product engineers.
- Improved UX through RTE integration and Spreadsheet data validation.
- Managed engineering effort through a comprehensive, 10-month infrastructure upgrade.
Projects:
- R&D, New Products Initiated early prototypes and concepts for people oriented collaboration tools. Worked closely with CEO and CTO on design and requirements.
- Lead Developer, UI Team Planned and executed architecture changes to decouple the UI from the application for more agile development and easier customization; led a team of four. Led effort to clean up UI including HTML, CSS, and assets. Contributed to first in-product release of Wikiwyg, the first wysiwyg editor that converts rich text into wikitext for storage.
- Interim VP Engineering Selected by developers to join executive team as VP Engineering. Split time between active development, team management, and defining company strategy. Worked closely with every department to ensure engineering was positioned for success.
Achievements
- Wikiwyg released on time, by Web 2.0 Conference, 2005.
- Collaborated on OSI Compliant Software Licence for SaaS, CPAL.
- Completed redesign of software which aided in funding.
- Hired five senior software developers; managed twelve.
Community Involvement
- Co-organizerYet Another Perl Conference
One of four organizers for this annual conference. Designed and implemented website, delivered keynotes, and organized social events. 10th Anniversary.
- Co-organizerPittsburgh Perl Workshop
One of four organizers for this annual conference. Designed and implemented websites for each year, managed sponsors, delivered keynotes, and organized social events.
- CPAN AuthorComprehensive Perl Archive Network
Dozens of software libraries released as open source.
Community Achievements
- Shortest Wiki Contest Winner Shortest Wiki Contest on Ward Cunningham's Wiki
- First Mobile Wireless Network HighWLAN
- Participant Friends of O'Reilly (FOO) Camp 2004
Speaking Engagements & Publications
- Session: Bluffer's Guide to autoconf and automake Session: Make Great Spreadsheets OSCONJuly 2009
- Session: Opening and Closing Keynotes YAPCJune 2009
- Session: Build Domain Specific Languages with Perl YAPC::AsiaMay 2008
- Session: MochiKit: Good Tools for the Web Developer Session: Abuse Perl YAPCJune 2007
- Session: JavaScript Archive Network: Infrastructure for Scalable JavaScript Development OSCONAugust 2005
- Session: Managing Email with Perl Session: Beyond the Basics of Class::DBI Session: Five Development Tools I Can't Live Without YAPCJune 2005
- Session: The Perl Email Project London Perl WorkshopDecember 2004
- Session: How to Test it All, or How to Try Session: The Perl Email Project Moderator: Life Hacks YAPC::EUSeptember 2004
- Tutorial: Building Web Applications with Perl Tutorial: Filtering Your Email with Perl Perl WhirlOctober 2004
- Session: Database Abstraction with Class::DBI Session: Managing Email with Perl OSCONJuly 2004
- Building Testing Libraries perl.comMay 2004
- Photo Galleries with Mason and Imager perl.comApril 2004
- Session: Advanced Apache Administration with Perl ApacheCon USNovember 2003
- Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core, Part II perl.comJune 2003
- Tutorial: Filtering and Analyzing Email Perl WhirlMay 2003
- Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core perl.comMay 2003
- Session: Creating Dynamic Sites with Template Toolkit Session: Introduction to Net::DNS YAPC::EUSeptember 2002
- HighWLAN: A Driving Wireless Network O'Reilly Wireless DevCenterAugust 2002
- Session: Creating Dynamic Sites with Template Toolkit Perl WhirlJanuary 2002
- Session: Server Side Form Validation with Imager Session: Data Persistence Made Easy Session: Don't Reinvent the Big Wheels YAPCJune 2002
- Turning the Tides on Perl's Attitude Toward Beginners perl.comMay 2001
Software Development Experience Word Soup
Languages
- JavaScript
- Python
- Ruby
- Perl
- Haskell
- C
- PHP
Operating Systems
- FreeBSD
- Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu)
- Mac OS X
- Windows
Software & Libraries
- jQuery
- nginx/Apache 2
- MySQL/PostgreSQL
- memcached
- Django
- Ruby on Rails
- Catalyst
Standards
- Email Protocols
- I18N
- L10N
- HTTP (REST)
- CSS
- LDAP
Process
- Architecture and Design
- Team Leadership
- Agile Development
- Build Systems
- Scalability
- Plugins and Extensibility
Web Tools
- XHTML
- XML
- CSS
- XPath
- XSL