Michael Kimsal
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40 Glen Oaks, Youngsville, NC 27596
919 455 8488
mgkimsal@gmail.com

UPDATED: March 27, 2008

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PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
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Senior-level IT professional with 13 years in the industry with experience in
the areas of:

* reducing business operation costs through use of web technologies 
* social media technologies, integration and adoption
* open source technologies (licensing, adoption, integration, customization)
* project management
* developer mentoring

Dedicated leader with a passion for streamlining business operations through
automating business processes and implementing best of breed new technologies. 

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UNPROFESSIONAL PROFILE ;)
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I'm the guy who 

* gets things done that you didn't think would get done
* tackles new problems daily
* takes to new technologies like a duck to water
* you wish you'd had on board for your last project that never quite worked 
    like you needed it to
* you were looking for earlier, before you settled for your last guy
* comes up with a new approach to a problem that you hadn't thought of before,
    but that your users love

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TECHNICAL SUMMARY
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* Languages/technology
PHP, Java, Lucene, SOLR, Erlang, JasperReports, Groovy, Grails, Perl, XML, XSLT, XSLFO, SQL, shell scripting (bash), UML, JSP, ASP, ColdFusion, C#, .NET platform, AJAX, Ruby, Flash / Flex, Red5 / Flash Media Server, Tomcat, Pentaho Business Intelligence

* Methodologies
OOP (Object Oriented Programming) OOA (Object Oriented Analysis and Design),
elements of Extreme Programming and Agile development, test driven development

* RDBMS
MySQL, MS SQL Server, Postgresql, Oracle

* Operating Systems
Linux (RedHat, Fedora, Mandrake, Kubuntu, Gentoo), Solaris, Windows NT,
Windows 2000/XP

* Services and Tools
Black Duck, CVS, Ant, unit testing (phpunit/junit), phpdoc, Visual Studio, MS Project, MS Office,
ArgoUML, Standard Time, Gforge, Apache, Canoo webtest, AJAX, Netbeans, Zend
Studio, phpmyadmin, mysqlcc, RT


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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
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==========
MichaelKimsal.com - Raleigh, NC
2008
Self, Consultant, RabbleRouser
==========
Worked with University of North Carolina's LearnNC division to overhaul
Distance Learning registration management application for BlackBoard.

Worked with WiredTriangle.com to enhance existing Flex application with 
error handling, new functionality and debugging of existing issues.

Worked with StrikeInteractive to enhance existing CMS for 
Spanish-oriented television programming provider.

GrailsKit - starter kit for Grails projects
http://gcforge.grailscrowd.com/gf/project/grailskit

Exploring Flash/Flex audio and video applications
http://audiblab.com


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Open Source Risk Management - Durham, NC
2007 - 2008
Auditor
==========
Responsibilities include:

* Using commercial and custom tools to scan software for known open source components
* Develop remediation steps for license compliance issues

Projects include dealing with:
* large multinational consumer electronics company (US)
* cell phone development company (China)
* legal products software firm (UK)
* open source business intelligence reporting company


==========
BBH Media - Raleigh, NC
2005 - 2007
Senior Software Developer
==========
Technologies: mod_perl php apache xml mysql mssql nt linux java ajax solr ant

* Migrated relational data to SOLR for improved search functionality. 
* Initiated process to standardize AJAX development on Yahoo UI toolkit
  (involved leading a team to review existing systems, define requirements, 
  identify integration points and impact of adoption, and propose adoption 
  guidelines)
* Worked closely with operations team to maintain and extend functionality of
  ticket tracking and CRM tools.
* Identified stakeholders and managed communication between multiple developers
  and external stakeholders for multiple projects.
* Improved and optimized code execution through refactoring, code analysis and
  database optimization
* Kept daily development blog to increase communication between east coast and
  west coast department structure.
* Introduced standard build process for PHP and Perl code using Ant/Java -
  this reduced push time and associated push problems.
* Introduced testing tools - selenium and simpletest - to development process.
* Mentored others in web development best practices.

==========
Conduit IT - State College, PA
2004 - 2005
Senior Software Developer/Architect
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Technologies: php apache xml mssql mysql nt linux oracle

Project Management/Technical Leadership
Managed teams of 2-4 developers, insuring that projects were completed on
regular basis.  

* Worked with business development to ensure that features required by new and
* existing customers would be supported in new platform.
* Provided direct one on one guidance to developers implementing project
* designs.  
* Worked with QA team to develop comprehensive testing strategies, to test
* both functional sets of code (unit test) and front end interfaces (web
* tests)
* Mentored junior and mid-level developers, performing code review sessions
* and worked on identifying areas of skill improvement.

Technical Experience: PHP, MySQL, XML, XSLT, Ant, RenderX, XSLFO
* Introduced standard build process procedures using Ant.  This reduced
* migration time by 40% and reduced associated error rate by 50%.
* Introduced standard testing platform (simpletest) to allow for common unit
* testing strategy to be deployed.
* Developed next generation object-oriented application platform for new
* product development efforts.  	Application configuration was migrated
* from database to standard XML configuration files.
* Developed real-time on-demand PDF catalog generation system using
* RenderX/XSLFO, PHP and MySQL.

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QuickenLoans - Livonia, MI
2004
Software Developer
==========
Technologies: php apache xml java mysql mssql nt linux

Developed banking software systems.  Researched and implemented two identity
verification systems (VerID and CashEdge) using SOAP.  Worked with
pre-existing banking package (from Open Solutions) to integrate company's
security and identification processes into banking software.  

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Tap Internet - Ypsilanti, MI
1999-2003
Founder
==========
Technologies: php mod_perl asp apache xml java mysql pgsql mssql nt solaris
linux oracle 

Managed web development consultancy of five people.  Implemented dozens of
projects, including ty-retailers.com, ipofinancial.com, wilkinsonluggage.com
and dl.tccd.edu.  Contributed LogiCreate application framework and LogiCampus
classroom management system projects to open source community.  Started first
hands on PHP classes ? developed 5 days of instruction material and presented
to 100s of students from around the US.  Companies served included Eli Lily,
Earthlink, Gannett, Wayne State University, University of Georgia and more.
Largest ecommerce site managed $40,000,000+ per day in orders.

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Fry Multimedia - Ann Arbor, MI
1998 - 1999
Software Developer
==========
Technologies: perl asp apache xml mssql nt solaris

Software Engineer developing web based applications for trade show
registrations (Reed Exhibition company) and auto clubs (AAAMich.com, AAA clubs
in Wisconsin, Illinois and New Jersey).

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Field Technology Partners - Novi, MI
1995-1997
Software Developer
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Technologies: os2 mssql nt mssql lotus notes

Developed client/server applications for sales force automation projects using
Windows, OS/2 and Lotus Notes.


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EDUCATION
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BA Philosophy, Oakland University, Michigan			1995


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EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
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Member, MENSA							2007-present
Member Raleigh area user groups (Java, PHP)			2006-present
Founded Raleigh area MySQL user group				2006-present

Toastmasters, Raleigh						2006-present

Published articles at onlamp.com and phpmag.net			2005-2006

Host of webdevradio.com podcast site				2005-present

Toastmasters officer, QuickenLoans club				2004

Various presentations to Ann Arbor Computer Society and 
Washtenaw Linux User Group					2001-2003

Started and managed Southeast Michigan PHP User Group		2001-2003



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Recent projects
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audiblab.com - Flash-based audio recording system with embeddable player.  Record audio and download as mp3 in real time.  Built with Flex/PHP (integrated with wordpress)

tinypollr.com - small tool to make quick web-based voting polls.  Built with Grails/Groovy/Tomcat/GoogleCharts.

learnnc.org - working with LearnNC to enhance distance learning registration management application.


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General background
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I have extensive experience with all levels of web app development in a variety of languages, 
from early days of basic form processing through creating large scale MVC systems to handle 
millions of visitors. I've additionally taught PHP at various levels, and am comfortable 
presenting technical ideas to different levels of audiences.

I've dealt with classroom applications (logicampus), ecommerce apps, CMS apps, 
custom business logic utilities, catalog management apps, pay-for content and 
membership sites, and more.  If the project will be delivered over the web, 
I've likely dealt with and solved the majority of the technical and 
architectural issues involved in the completion of that type of project.

Recently, I've been digging in to Groovy, Grails and JasperReports technologies.  


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The most recent version of this resume is available at http://michaelkimsal.com/resume
Michael Kimsal's blog is available at http://michaelkimsal.com/blog
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