Technical Overview
- Programming including Java, Perl, PHP, Bash scripting, DOS batch, C/C++, Ruby. (15 years professional experience)
- Networking - including TCP/IP, cabling, security, configuration. (15 years professional experience)
- W3C compliant (X)HTML, HTML5, CSS. XML, XSLT, javascript and all that jazz. (13 years professional experience)
- High quality application support and training. (14 years professional experience)
- Sysadmin and support of GNU/Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Mandrake, RedHat) (13 years professional experience)
- Sysadmin and support of FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems (5 years professional experience)
- Desktop support of OSX machines (5 years professional experience)
- Admin and support for Windows (3.1, 95, 98, NT4, 2000, XPi, Vista, 7) (14 years professional experience)
- Project management experience and planning (12 years professional experience)
- Excellent time management and work prioritisation, including having been a company director for 5 years.
- Outstanding communication skills
Employment History
IT Director
New Internationalist, Oxford
2008-Present
Projects:
- FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Debian, server management- Managed complex,
heterogenous international network of servers including various BSD boxen,
Debian machines and VMs, OpenBSD firewalls and various embedded GNU/Linux
file servers.
-
Jointly responsible for all technical aspects of
newint.org, a busy website powered
by Bricolage CMS. Including template development, database management
and so on. I implemented Varnish caching layer which significantly
sped up the site. Also implemented lots of functionality including a
powerful search facility built with Catalyst and Xapian.
- Website redesign- Worked with colleagues and
Andy Clarke on a
complete redesign of
newint.org.
- Online shops- Migrated e-commerce infrastructure from ZenCart
to Magento e-commerce system. Managed external contractors and contributed
to code as well as managing LAMP infrastructure for multi-million pound
e-commerce sites, New Internationalist
Shop and Amnesty Shop.
Responsible for all technical aspects from managing hosting arrangements to
sysadmin to code development.
Built custom scripts to facilitate stock and order transfer process to
WebRelayXML based system.
- Friends of the Earth Shop-
Designed, built, managed Friends of the
Earth Shop, including developing mobile friendly templates and
working closely with Friends of the Earth staff.
- Easier English Wiki- Set up mediawiki instance for New
Internationalist’s Easier
English Wiki.
- CRM implementation- Initiated and worked on project to
implement CiviCRM to integrate the various New Internationalist databases
and "Friends" scheme.
- New Internationalist for iPad- Provided technical support
for New Internationalist’s implementation of a MagPlus iOS app.
- Tech support and customer service- Helped support and train
colleagues.
Web Developer
Corporatewatch, London
2012-Present
Projects:
- Drupal mapping site build-
Built a Drupal-based mapping site that allows users to see the physical
location of corporate power,
Mapping the Corporations.
It was an interesting project to work on as we specifically wanted to avoid
using corporate infrastructure (eg. Google maps) as much as possible.
- ad-hoc shop support-
I occasionally help out with specific projects on CorporateWatch’s shop.
Voluntary Web Strategist, Developer, Manager
East Oxford Community Association
2012-Present
Projects:
- Site management, migration to wordpress-
I am a volunteer trustee at my local community centre, and helped them
move their website, eastoxford.org
to wordpress.com, which fitted their needs much better than their
previous solution. I helped them to work on some basic SEO and
trained a number of volunteers to use wordpress to keep the site
updated as well as configuring the site.
Sysadmin
OX4
2010-Present
Projects:
- Web hosting, sysadmin- OX4 is a webhosting service for
Oxford-based activists which I help run. We focus on providing extremely
reliable and fairly secure web services including hosting for Drupal 6
and 7 sites.
IT Manager
People & Planet, Oxford
2002-2008
Projects:
- Server migration from Win32 to GNU/Linux- Built and maintained
3 GNU/Linux servers
to provide mail, web, file, NAT, and firewall services, furthering knowledge
of Apache, Samba, iptables, postfix, and cyrus-imapd.
- Intranet development- Wrote and maintained organizational
intranet using perl,
php, Java, css, MySQL and xml/xsl. Later migrated this to a Ruby on Rails
application, using agile methodologies.
- Web administration and developement- Built and administered
Apache server for
organizational website,
this included administering DNS and Exim SMTP and developing MySQL driven
RSS news feeds
which integrated with existing php news pages.
- Image database- Wrote a fully featured Java/MySQL image
database application.
- Spam filtering/antivirus email and webmail system- With support
for 20 users, using postfix, clamav, spamassasin, squirrelmail, cyrus-imapd
and self-written perl code.
- Automating system administration- With perl, php, ruby and
bash scripts.
- Documentation- Including a comprehensive set of howtos, training
materials and a full operations manual.
- Data entry management- Managed and trained data-entry staff and
prioritized data entry workloads.
- Support and maintenance- For a network of 25 Windows 95/98/2000
boxes.
- High quality application and network support and training- For
25 users
- IT Project Management- Managed IT budget, developed and oversaw
organizational IT strategy.
- Office management- Including telecomms support, health and safety
management, and purchasing.
IT Systems Manager
The Hot Group London
1999-2002
Projects:
- System Administration- Of 3 NT4 servers, and assisting systems
administration of GNU/LInux servers.
- Network management and user support and training- Of 35 Windows
98/2000 machines.
- Intranet development and maintenance- Of internal website and
IIS webserver.
- Release Management- Including establishing and maintaining
CVS repository.
- Facilitation of webserver relocations- Twice oversaw logistics
of webserver moves, including assisting with setup.
- Java development- Coded various applets and applications, such
as an automatic email from voicemail generator.
- Deploying and configuring servers- Built NT4 and GNU/Linux
web/mail/file servers from scratch (including hardware).
- Mailserver management- Of Infinite Interchange mail/webmail
server
- Purchasing supervision- Supervised all IT spending, licencing
requirements and stock control. Extended departmental Access database to
simplify the task.
Volunteer IT Consultant
Oxfam Development Education London
1999-2000
Projects:
- Database redesign- Redesigned several Access databases.
- Desktop support- For users of NT network.
- Assisting in organization of major conference- at the University of
Hertfordshire.
Education
- Coursera courses passed, 2013
Coursera- Programming Languages (University of Washington);, Statistics One (Princeton).
- Regular Expression Training Course, 2012
FLOSSUK/Damian Conway- Understanding the Perl regex engine;.
- Advanced Perl Techniques, 2011
FLOSSUK/Dave Cross/Magnum Solutions- Perl 5.10, 5.12;.
- City and Guilds Level 3, 2003
Oxford College of Further Education- C++ Programming (302).
- City and Guilds Level 3 , 2001
Barnet College- Java Programming (7261).
- Developers Certificate, 1999
MicroTech Training Services, London- HTML/JavaScript.
- A-Levels, 1991
Colchester VIth Form College- English Language & Literature (A), General Studies (A), History (B), Economics (C), Politics (C).
-
Seven GCSEs, including
- Maths (A), English (A).
Web technologies
- Dynamic websites using various backend databases - MySQL, postgresql and SQL Server.
- Reasonable knowledge of Drupal -- I run a voluntary Drupal hosting service and have worked on sites like Mapping the Corporations.
- Familiarity with a number of web frameworks including professional experience of Catalyst and Rails. I made SnippIOa pastebin site from an interesting Haskell framework called Yesod, an intranet using Rails, the interactive parts of newint.orgout of Catalyst, the non-interactive parts with Bricolage/Mason, and rebuilt my own site charlieharvey.org.ukwith Dancer not long ago.
- Webserver deployment, configuration and administration of Apache on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows and GNU/Linux platforms.
- Perl, ruby, php, java, haskell development - whole product lifecycle and project management experience.
- Fluent, accessible and standards compliant (x)html, html5, css, xml, xslt, rss, JavaScript, Java Applets.
- Built and maintain online shops for New Internationalist, Friends of the Earthand Amnesty International UK. Configured and managed Magento e-commerce software, built custom modules, project managed software suppliers, created custom themes.
- Have a passing familiarity with node.js
- Experience with Less and Sass CSS preprocessors as well as with writing CSS by hand for large sites (eg newint.org 100-200k uniques/month).
Programming experience
- Perl including familiarity with many CPAN modules. Highlights include web based budget management tool; multiple customized system administration utilities; organizational intranet making extensive use of CGI.pm and HTML::Template; websites using Catalyst and Dancer, sysadmin tools, etc.
- php including configuration of apache. Highlights include xml/xslt based meeting scheduler; RSS feed generator (http://peopleandplanet.org/rss/news.xml ); various web tools.
- Ruby including Rails. Highlights include a version of CPAN's Lingua::EN::Fathom; Rails based organizational intranet with full CMS.
- Bash scripting. Highlights include various tools for Samba administration, task automation server monitoring and so on.
- DOS batch. Highlights include various system administration tools, login scripts.
- Other languages worked with include C, C++, Pascal, Ada, Assembler (NASM), Clojure, Haskell, ML, io, Scala, Common Lisp, Erlang, Prolog, Bash, Javascript, Scheme (I have written an implementationof Scheme) and dBase IV. Remember that?
- Version control using git, CVS and subversion including setting up repositories, branching, merging, svn+ssh, as well as having been responsible for release management at hotrecruit.
- Java including J2EE. Highlights include 10,000 line image database; voicemail to email converter for Argent Branch PBX.
Systems Administration experience
- DNS management using BIND on Freebsd and Linux
- Database administration including managing multiple MySQL and postgresql servers. And nosql tools like redis and mongodb. I once even used to manage Microsoft SQL Server servers.
- Apache: Building from scratch; configuration; modules including mod_perl, mod_ruby, mod_fastcgi, mod_rewrite, etc; security; deployment.
- Email: installation, configuration and management of postfix, cyrus-imapd, squirrelmail, mercury, exim, clamav, spamassassin, amavis, Infinite InterChange, Roundcube, Horde, dovecot, etc..
- Windows 3.1 to 7: Administration, configuration, security, installation, troubleshooting, hatred.
Publications
Hobbies
-
Community and campaigning groups
-
Punk rock music.
-
Anarchist politics and community organizing.
-
Cider.
Professional Memberships
-
FLOSSUK
-
ACM
-
Free Software Foundation Europe
-
Open Rights Group
-
Industrial Workers of the World
References
Available upon request.
Last modified December 2013.