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Mark Phillips
mark@markphillips.com

My major interest in computing is helping to build systems which provide sophisticated access to global information resources, yet can be used by people without advanced degrees in computer science. I have no interest in number crunching per se. Rather, networked computers and particularly the Web represent the first baby steps toward the radically ubiquitous, decentralized, and substantially democratized communication infrastructures of the future. Helping to build them is really fun.

I have an unusually wide experience set for an IT professional, encompassing nearly all aspects of Internet-based computing, from Java-based application architectures and software development to data centers to desktop support to network security. All of my experience since 1989 has emphasized the Internet, making me a fairly early adopter of what is now the dominant technology vision. As I rank my own skill and experience sets, my major talents are for world-class Java and Web-based application architectures; rapid and robust Java application development; enterprise-scale technology needs assessment and corresponding application and infrastructure architectures; mentoring of younger professionals; and contributing to the development of high-productivity teams.

EXPERIENCE

2005 - Present
Senior Consultant
San Francisco Bay Area, CA

I'm currently assisting clients with Internet-based application architecture and engineering projects. In the last few months my clients have included SRA, Google, Macrovision, Revenuebase, Cal State East Bay, Middletone, Aptimus, the Defense Manpower Data Center, SmartMonsters, and others. Projects have encompassed product design; application architecture design; Java and J2EE development; server infrastructure design; network security auditing; technology planning assistance for executive management; project management; hiring and mentoring; and other senior-level tasks. Most recently, I've designed, developed and delivered the new RBEvents product for Revenuebase, a high-profile project completed on time and on budget; assisted Middletone with the Alpha and Private Beta phases of their jaxtr IP telephony product; assisted Cal State East Bay with a re-design of online resources for instructors; and assisted the Defense Manpower Data Center with a major migration of legacy systems to J2EE.

2003 - 2005
Senior Consultant
Senior Software Architect
Macrovision, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA

Macrovision is a leader in digital rights management with approximately 300 employees worldwide. After completing an ambitious J2EE/JSP-based deliverable for their Professional Services group ahead of deadline, I co-architected the J2EE-based redesign of the company's enterprise software licensing infrastructure, including the new FLEXnet Manager product -- a multi-year project building the next generation of a core product line. Version 1.0 shipped on time and budget, winning the Codie award for Best Digital Rights Management Solution in 2004. In 2004 I was awarded the company's "Above and Beyond" special recognition award for my work on FLEXnet Manager and other products. Later in 2004 I transferred to Macrovision's Global Consulting Services group, where I designed and implemented integration and customization solutions for customers around the world.

2001 - 2003
Chief Technology Officer
SmartMonsters, Inc.
San Francisco, CA

SmartMonsters pioneers next-generation multiuser role-playing games, which I believe are an emerging form of literature. As CTO, I brought SmartMonsters' flagship product to market a full quarter ahead of schedule and 40% under budget.

SmartMonsters' Java infrastructure is significant: over 15,000 classes in all. There are two environments with distinct architectures:

TriadCity is a client-server design in which Swing applet clients communicate with a highly-scalable all-Java server. The server combines J2SE 1.4's "NIO" Selector-based networking with a multi-tier architecture enabling unlimited horizontal scalability across application servers, a key enabler of the potentially infinite virtual "world" it hosts. The code makes extensive use of design patterns such as the "Strategy" pattern for reliability, extensibility, and dynamic runtime flexibility. The application design emphasizes speed and robustness, and will easily accommodate thousands of concurrent players. Despite this enormous volume of code, there are usually just a small handful of open bugs.
The SmartMonsters Web site is built around EJB, JSP, and Java Servlets, to create a fully-dynamic user experience in which each page is custom generated at runtime based on the user's profile. Conceptually this is similar to high-end personalization servers such as Kana, offering 80% of the features of these expensive systems at little cost.

These environments share a common data infrastructure using LDAP for directory services and Oracle for object persistence and data warehousing. Deployment is on RedHat Linux, via the Orion application server. Server machines are from Penguin Computing in San Francisco, collocated at Above Net in San Jose. The data center is protected by extensive firewall, intrusion detection, and other security safeguards. Source code is compressed and obfuscated using IBM's JAX. Profiling is via OptimizeIt for thread and heap analysis, plus Java's standard VM tools for tuning garbage collection. The result is a very fast and robust application running on inexpensive hardware.

2000 - 2001
IT Management Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Independent IT management consultant assisting Bay Area firms with a wide spectrum of projects:

Technology due diligence management for clients contemplating multimillion dollar vendor relationships.
Technology needs assessment, matching technology choices to client business objectives and organizational cultures.
Merger and acquisition management, integrating organizations with disparate technology bases and management cultures.
Recruitment, from formulation of job descriptions to resume screens to the full interview cycle.
Data center migration from legacy in-house operations to state of the art first-tier collocation sites.
Network and host security architectures, including monitoring, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion response policies.

Customers included Key3Media, gloss.com, SmartAge.com, Softbank Forums, SmartMonsters, and others.

1998 - 2000
Senior Director of International Technologies
Senior Director of Product Development
SmartAge.com
San Francisco, CA

SmartAge.com was a leader of the business-to-small-business space during the dot-com boom. We were a pioneer of the "Application Service Provider" model, providing Web-based solutions to customers numbered in the millions. Of approximately 300 employees, I was employee number seven.

At SmartAge I recruited and led the company's technology organization during the startup phase; formulated technology strategies including platforms, languages, and architectures; managed application development, MIS systems, vendor relationships, and desktop support; designed and implemented the company's data center and enterprise security infrastructures; architected and developed the technology solutions underlying many of the company's major products; internationalized the whole kit and caboodle; and integrated acquired proprietary technologies. Fruits of this experience included over a million customers and $50M in venture funding during the first year. All of these projects were delivered on time and budget.

1997 - 1998
Director of Application Development
Ziff-Davis Comdex & Forums
Foster City, CA

Ziff-Davis Comdex & Forums (now Media Live International) is the largest producer of computer industry trade shows and educational conferences in the world, hosting 2,200,00 IT industry attendees in 1997. The company produces Comdex, NetWorld + Interop, the Java Internet Business Expo, Windows NT Intranet Solutions, Seybold, the Domino Web Developers Conference, and many others.

At ZDCF I directed the Information Engineering group, charged with in-house application development as well as traditional MIS data systems. I expanded the group from 7 to 27 on both coasts; designed advanced next-generation systems based on CORBA/IIOP, Java, Sybase, the Web, Notes/Domino, and others; and assisted in the merger of disparate organizations with contrasting cultures. Applications included event registration, attendee housing, inventory management, sales, lead retrieval, and financials.

1994 - 1997
Director of Advanced Technologies
Manager Of Network Services
Manager of Open Systems
Collegis, Inc.
San Francisco, CA; Chevy Chase, MD; and other locations

Collegis is a national information systems management outsourcing firm specializing in higher education. The company manages IS departments at 30 colleges and universities throughout the country. Clients I worked with included the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Golden Gate University, Menlo College; the College of Notre Dame; Stanford University; and many others.

At Collegis I was most commonly tasked with design and integration of clients' next-generation computing environments. At this time, "next generation" meant standards-based, interoperable, multi-vendor frameworks largely centered on the Internet Protocols: a very radical skill set for 1994 which is now all but ubiquitous. This experience spans a broad range of systems and projects, including these highlights:

Migration of legacy environments to UNIX-based open systems.
Development of "first generation" dynamic Web applications emphasizing CGI, 3rd party middleware such as WebLogic's Kona package, and RDBMS back-ends such as Oracle or Sybase.
Implementation of 4GL development platforms such as Oracle's CASE tools.
Manager or technical lead on major package implementations including PeopleSoft, DataTel, LotusNotes, Oracle, and others.
Network infrastructure design, emphasizing leading edge broadband technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode, FDDI, SONET, Frame Relay, and ISDN. I was utilized especially often as an expert in the Internet Protocols, at a time when networking was dominated by Novell and IPX. As such I managed or assisted in the first permanent Internet connections at many campuses.
Design of network and host security architectures.
Pre-sales and post-sales site assessment, project planning and resource allocation.

SKILLS

Languages and Language-Based Standards:

Java; EJB and the major J2EE APIs including Servlets, JSP, JSTL, JNDI, JDBC and so on; SOAP and XSLT; UML; Ant; JUnit; Struts; Stripes; OO design patterns; HTML; SQL; LDAP; various UNIX dialects.

Management:

Organization building; recruiting; technology needs and risk assessment; technology due diligence; vendor relationship management; data center and infrastructure management; application development management.

Applications:

Oracle; Orion EJB application server; Tomcat; Apache Web Server; Jetty; OpenLDAP LDAP servers; Lotus Notes / Domino; Eclipse; IBM VisualAge for Java; Oracle Designer; various SNMP-based network management systems; and a bunch of others.

Network Protocols:

TCP/IP; IIOP; Java RMI; HTTP; ATM; Frame Relay; FDDI; ISDN; AppleTalk; flat and switched Ethernet; SMTP; DNS; SNMP; NIS/NFS/PCNFS; JDBC; SSL; LANE; X-Windows; and all the usual suspects.

Operating Systems:

Solaris; Linux; Windows; Mac.

PUBLICATIONS

A number of my prose fiction pieces have been published in leading online literary "zines," including Comrades, Physik Garden, Inkburns, the SoMa Literary Review, and others. In November 2002, I was The Blue Moon Review's first-ever guest blogger. I've been "cyberbard" for SmartMonsters since 1999. My travel writing and photography has been published internationally. I am currently (November, 2005) preparing my first photography exhibition.