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Websites that I control, although they are mostly dormant today:
My involvement with the Internet began early in 1990, as I have been involved in the Internet, even joining one of the
first Internet companies that sold (instead of giving away) software on the
Internet, ResNova Software. My InfoPort BBS So as I sold off/or gave away pieces of my dialup business I became more involved in ResNova Software , where as a partner in the business we had taken a graphical BBS, and added telnet access. According to a column in 1993, John Dvorak said InfoPort was the first BBS he dial into and then access the Internet. Meanwhile ResNova, following Alex Hopmann had begun to adopt HTML as its graphical interface in 1993/94 and began making HTTP and Webservers its access protocol. As the pursuits of building graphical collaboration servers and HTTP Internet based servers was too much for our small company, we were sold to get our engineering talent to Microsoft, with the deal closing in late 1996. If it had only been 1999, I would be retired now! After looking at several startup and toying with my own, my Internet adventure continued with Neodata Services in Louisville, Colorado. Neodata was the largest magazine fulfillment and direct marketing company in the world. I worked with such great clients as , Wired Magazine , Times Mirror among others. I was the product manager working with a team of EDS engineers that built the largest commerce site on the Internet in 1996, with over 1.1 million orders received on the site. But when EDS purchased Neodata in early 1996 and renamed the company Centrobe, I was off again. At IBM I started out as a senior consultant, consulting on Internet sites for IBM clients. The Software Group at IBM asked for me to do some consulting for their Internet Server software. I ended up envisioning an Internet brand of software that we code named, "Hurricane". The commercial result is called WebSphere and I managed a couple of products in the line as well as envision new products that can be added to the product line. From a technology perspective WebSphere was based on the Java2 Enterprise Edition serverside Java specifications. The IBM teams developing WebSphere contributed a lot a technology and specifications to the J2EE effort. I was lucky to be involved in such a creative team and have been involved on the future of server side Java specifications. WebSphere is beginning to fill out my origianl vision in late 2000 by adding a complementary set of Internet middleware products that make it easy to start simple and grow fast on an Internet site. IBM has built a broad spectrum of products that makes it difficult to grasp today, but its a spectrum that will affect all businesses in the new millennium. As I wound down my time at IBM, I focused on XML/XSL as the technologies of the future, and merged them with server side Java technologies. But don't expect the technologies to stop there, the real fruit of the Internet has yet to be revealed. I hope to be on the edge, pushing technology down to a usable level quickly. Look for those new technologies on my site, InfoPort. Along the way I have used Open Source software, especially Apache and Linux since the early 90's. I have become one of the evangelist in IBM for the use and giving back to the community for the Open Source movements. Specifically I led the IBM way for the Apache Web Server adoption, and the Jakarta Apache Project . I feel strongly that Open Source makes better software, faster delivery and leaves a lot of room for firms like IBM to make a lot of money. But that's not always an easy pitch to give, especially in a large company like IBM. I was able to parlay an internal mailing list within IBM for Linux and another on Open Source to be on the company-wide strategy team reporting to the IBM CTC (Chief Technology Committee) and CEC (Chief Executive Committee). I am glad to say that IBM has become a leading advocate of Open Source software melding totally free software like Jikes, to the leading edge place for research like AlphaWorks. Look for exciting things to come from the creative minds at Collab.Net. Open Source and commercial interests melding is the leading edge of software in the new millennium. I am lucky to have been able to join Collab.Net where I can help write the rules, not just follow them. Our focus is on the use of the methodologies of the Open Source Community to transforming the entire software economy.
Links to the industry...
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