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General info

UK, Colchester

Web developer and technology guy by trade, who focuses on social media and emerging technologies.
Currently building AJAX-enabled web applications & Apple iPhone apps.
The future is set within socially-aware concepts increasing digital convergence and rewarding your innovation.


+44 (0) 79220 02260 mobile
+44 (0) 1206 523321 office

Techincal Skills


  • Development

    Accomplished front-end JavaScript AJAX, CSS, HTML 5 skills (6 yrs)
    Un-obtrusive javascript and conforming to WAI ARIA guidelines
    Cross-Browser testing with QUnit and Selenium
    Google Analytics, SEO campaign tracking & optimisation
    LAMP experience, remote versioned deployment, security & firewalling
    Agile / Scrum, code-review, peer-programming, TDD, OOP, REST, MVC
    Competent Photoshop, ActionScript & some Flex skills

    Ruby (4yrs), ASP.NET (7yrs), PHP (2yrs), C# (2yrs), Python/Django (1yr)
    XCode / Objective-C / iPhone Development & Deployment


  • Data

    MS SQL Server schema design, implementation and deployment (10yrs)
    MySQL (4yrs), some PostgreSql & Oracle 10g experience
    Studied SQL BI & active member of the UK SQL user group

    Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
    Microsoft Certified Professional


  • Environment

    OSX SL with Debian & Windows for cross-browser design
    TextMate, XCode, versioning with Subversion, GIT & Mercurial

Experience

  • User Interface Developer
    Ipswich, UK
    Jul 2009 - Nov 2009
    IO Global Limited

    Short-term role with exciting new startup providing location-based lifestyle services digitally via an innovative web, mobile and iPhone application.

    Focused on producing the front-end experience with jQuery and in-house OBJX OO Javascript framework. RESTful services provided by JAVA hosted on Jetty & Tomcat. Followed TDD employing QUnit, template driven architecture provided by in-house MOJASEF server framework.

    Agile methodologies, with frequent code-reviews, peer programming, incremental release cycles, 2 week sprints, morning scrum sessions, estimation & planning poker.

  • Developer
    Toronto, Canada
    May 2009 - Jun 2009
    The Working Group PLC

    Short-term role working with an applications development company based in Toronto, Canada. Producing commercial social-networking software and SaaS web applications within a team environment; Rails, AJAX, Capistrano

  • Developer
    London, UK
    Jan 2009 - Mar 2009
    KeepThinking Limited

    Short-term contract, working with a small team of 3. Produced image converter for Wedgwood Collection using Ruby with WxRuby & FasterCSV. Helped create Horniman Museum Intranet with the CodeIgniter PHP framework, adapting our in-house CMS to requirements.
    Google Maps API development for National Galleries of Scotland 'Artist Rooms' event

  • User Interface Developer
    London, UK
    Oct 2007 - Dec 2008
    MoveMe.com

    Helped win Yahoo's award for most innovative company 2007 by helping construct one of the most unique consumer websites to-date.
    Versatile role working in a team of 8 developers. Agile environment, developing the pioneering Moveme Calendar and Moving Tools using MooTools, Prototype and the jQuery AJAX frameworks; focusing strongly on front-end, cross-browser debugging & adhering to W3C conventions. Implement & tuned WebTrends, Zanox site tagging analytics, client-side A-B testing.
    Branding & bug-testing the ajax planner and mini-tools for integration into partner sites SKY, MSN, AOL.
    Improving performance with YSlow, CDN, lazy-loading, code profiling and helping re-develop back-end web-services in an iterative development cycle.

    Agile environment with 2-4 week sprints, daily scrum meetings, burn-down charting, task weighting, pair-programming, continuous refactoring, code-coverage against tests.

    Winner of Yahoo Peoples Choice Award 2008
    Best B2C Application BIMA Awards 2007
    Best Website BIMA Awards 2007
    NMA Best New Business 2007

  • CTO
    London, UK
    Jul 2007 - Present
    DatesWithMates Limited

    July 2008 saw successful re-launch of this independently run RoR project, porting the .NET & SQL db of a unique double-dating social network. Recently featured on UK television, work is underway on a parallel Facebook app to work with the main site and improve growth.

    A personal project working with original founders, completely revamped site from wire-frames and design meetings. Using Ruby, Liquid templates, ActionMailer, clustering, GeoCoding, jQuery with daily backups and redundancy, versioned with GIT & github.com.

  • Developer / R&D
    USA / Teleworking
    Oct 2007 - Nov 2007
    MisoVision LLC

    Short-term project, working with developers overseas creating Ruby screen acquisition tools for isolating content for partners YouTube and MetaCafe. Processing and dispatching automatically as XML data for portal use.

  • Developer / R&D
    Tokyo / Teleworking
    Jul 2007 - Jan 2008
    PackPay LLC

    Part-time Ruby project tele-conferencing with partners in the US and Tokyo. Creating first-stage social network with similar functionality of LinkedIn & Facebook. Creating Storyboards for concept work, database models and logic analysis, plus initial code template & carrying out market research.

  • Lead Web Designer / Developer
    London, UK
    Jun 2000 - Oct 2007
    WSP Group PLC

    IS team leader workin with a small team of 3, primarily involved in producing and delivering Web Applications for both internal and external clients.

    Employing .NET, Ruby, C#, PHP, JAVA, JavaScript, XML-XSLT on a variety of projects; plus development and deployment of SQL Server data servers.

    Notable products include forums, corporate Q/A web-based sessions for worldwide use, internal CMS and online procurement application (PRIMO) for global offices. Helped integrate CRM with business SAGE Saleslogix system. Replaced IIS search with Google Mini appliance and XSLT filters. Employing WebTrends analytics to track client traffic. Supported staff with hands-on training of new technologies, staff presentations and technical support. Promoting use of Agile methods within my team, implementing code versioning and improving documentation.

    Responsible for web-server maintenance, upgrade and deployment. Hosted within a virtual n-tier environment, with 5-10 sql servers & 3 IIS servers across multiple physical locations.

  • Software Developer
    London, UK
    Sep 1998 - May 2000
    Reuters Group PLC

    Team member, chiefly responsible for Y2K upgrade of warehouse & asset management systems.

    Developing tools to automate data processing & management of SQL Server. Notable achievements include automated documentation tools, custom DLL libraries, timers, calendars, SMTP and email batch processing. Helped port existing code to better designed OOP layout.

  • Application Specialist
    Chelmsford, UK
    Jul 1989 - Aug 1998
    CanBridge Management Limited

    Focusing on software development, database design with admin duties for company's asset network. Worked as team leader designing IT infrastructure, permanent and part-time while finishing eduction.

    Notables include creating online property management package (GreyWolf), supporting auto-backup, restore, mail-merge, reporting, documentation and accounting. Helped with on-site staff training and learning labs on new technologies

  • Applications Developer
    Chelmsford, UK
    Jul 1996 - Sep 1996
    A & W Gowers Limited

    Contract role while in University. Most notably creating dBase package for local timber yard to handle stock estimation, admin, re-ordering and job tracking. Carried out full life-cycle design, round-table discussions with staff and managers to build the perfect system. After which supplied training, support and on-site visits overseeing final deployment, hand-over with support visits.

  • Database Specialist
    Harwich, UK
    Jul 1995 - Aug 1995
    BroIntermed Lines Limited

    Short-term contract position while in university to help re-engineer existing dBase software for large Harwich-based shipping firm. Refactored code, improved maintainability and produced documentation & black-box testing. Reveloped existing tools to better train staff, presenting final system to managers, along with on-site support.

  • Applications Developer
    Clacton, UK
    Feb 1991 - Jul 1991
    KingsCliff Hotel

    While at college work-experience position arranged by myself and the hotel manager to supply a software package to handle stock-taking and accounting. Carried out staff interviews, questionnaires, group presentations and brain-storming sessions to design package. Developed full RDBMS suite with reporting, backup & recovery, mail-merge and archival; creating framework for future developments. Then provided support and training after final roll-out.

Education

  • BSc with Honors, Information Systems Development
    Chelmsford, UK
    Sep 1994 - Jun 1998
    Anglia Ruskin University

  • ND, Computer Studies
    Colchester, UK
    Sep 1992 - Jun 1994
    Colchester Institute

    Awarded 'Most Outstanding Student' for end of year project

  • NVQ, Business Administration
    Colchester, UK
    Sep 1991 - Jun 1992
    Colchester Institute

References


  • MoveMe.com

    Andy Skipper, Chief Technical Officer

    I would like to recommend John Griffiths as a candidate for a position with your organisation. In his position as UI developer at moveme.com, John was employed in our office from September 2007 to December 2008.

    John was an asset to our organisation during his employment here, and has excellent written and verbal communication skills, is extremely organised, can work independently and in close collaboration and is able to follow through to ensure that the job gets done.

    During his tenure with moveme.com, John was responsible for developing the user interface part of the website using Javascript/Ajax, and was instrumental in the development of our multi-award winning Move Planner.
    He is a very capable Javascript developer indeed, and has mentored other developers within the organisation to assist them in their learning.


  • WSP Group PLC

    Lynn Smyth, Project Manager

    John is a highly motivated, structured senior developer. I worked with John for over 5 years and relied on him as my technical expert in delivering solutions to WSP and their clients. With strong technical and problem solving skills I would highly recommend John in a senior technical architect position. On a personal side John is a top guy and works very well in a team environment. Set him loose and lap up the rewards!


  • DatesWithMates Limited

    Edward Leifer, Director
    London NW3 1NU

    John Griffiths began working with DatesWithMates in July 2007 as our Web Developer and has been responsible for a complete overhaul and redesign of our website in Ruby.

    Throughout this time John has been a pleasure to work with. He is a highly skilled developer and brings an organised approach to his work which has consistently been on time, to plan and far surpassing our expectations in terms of quality. His solutions have worked very smoothly and there have been very few bugs in any of the code John has developed.

    Furthermore, John has a great deal of initiative and enthusiasm for his work and has made several suggestions and recommendations which have informed and improved the functional design of the website.

    In the time that we have worked with John he has had an extremely positive influence on our business.


  • Reuters Group PLC

    John Withers, Software Development Manager

    During his time with Reuters I was greatly impressed with his dedication to each task, should a technical problem arise John would dedicate his work and home time to solving the problem. He is a resourceful and very capable individual who has developed his skills through self-learning and enquiry.


  • Canbridge Management Limited

    Michelle Clark, Interior Designer

    John has a gift with managing every aspect of a project at once, keeping a firm eye on the ball and on the stop-watch. His user-centric views always ensure the end product is something smart, powerful and simple to use. His technical firepower let's him dive into the heart of any problem. Couldn't recommend him more highly

Publications

Projects


  • iPhone Applications

    Working on two incubation apps, one management-based the other game-based with OpenGL. XCode, IB, Keychain libraries and using Instruments to performance test the alpha release. Registered iPhone Developer & iTunes Connect publisher


  • Stanley Bragg Partnership

    Offered on-site technical assistance, css, ajax, html; tracking visitors and ways to improve web presence


  • Red91.com

    Personal blog now 7 years old, discussing technical problems, tutorials and research.


  • Matilda

    Ruby on Rails CMS for blogging. RSS/ATOM feeds, Akismet protection, caching engine with SQLite for minimal footprint. Open-sourced.


  • AtomPad

    Online note taker similar to 37signal's Basecamp, currently incubating for future application

Activities


  • Social

    iPhone World Tech Tour 2009
    Ruby Manor 2008
    BarCampLondon 2007
    Google CodeJam 2006
    Future of Web Apps 2006 & 2007
    Future of Web Design 2007

    Presented talk on "Education and the Internet" at BarCampLondon, offering past experience and support to new projects along the way


  • Interests

    Fluent English, learning French
    Passion for Theatre, Independent music, Photography & Ice Hockey. Amateur guitarist & Film maker

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