Internet Commons

Part of unassigned

See also Henrik Bechmann: Resumé.

July 2015 - present: Member of Civic Tech Toronto; Project lead of the Toronto Budget Project; joined the Civic Tech organizers team fall 2015.

August 2015 - present: working toward an implementation of a long-term interest of mine, a group information manager, yet to be published.

August 2015: semi-retired (age 65)!

March - April 2015: Production of research paper A Better Taxonomy for the Toronto Operating Budget, and supporting software-generated spreadsheets.

February 2015 - present: Internal tools development for internal project; started with angularjs, shifted to reactjs. Ongoing.

October 2013 - February 2015: QA Analyst and test software developer at Therefore.ca - high tech internet application developer - high quality, multi-channel solutions. The company uses Drupal, and the emerging javascript stack of development tools. It's also agile. Development is Behaviour Driven Development based - modern Test Driven Development. A lot of Protractor usage for Angularjs end-to-end testing.

March 2014 Launched mustertools.net as a repository for the various tools I've developed over the years. It's an experiment to see if I can get them to coalesce into a coherent and interesting set of tools over time.

September 2013: relaunched one of my personal websites vegetablediet.ca using Drupal. It was originally launched in 2008 using PmWiki software. Vegetablediet.ca uses a ressponsive theme, so it looks good in any form, including smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.

March to August 2013: First Drupal application (b-to-b ecommerce) including working through the Drupal learning curve. Brilliant tool, with many challenges. Drupal 7 has many excellent features, and Drupal 8 looks like it will be even better.

That b-to-b application took me about 5 months for the internal mechanics (430hrs), not including learning time, and some theming and other things still for others to do. Drupal is great (productive) except when it isn't; then it's a lot of work. See What is Drupal? for my screencasts explaining the basics of Drupal.

Webmaster and Website Software Developer, 2004-present

2013 Creation of Internet Commons, my internet software and website business proprietorship.

2012 Establishment of publiccommons.ca for CELOS. A major deployment of Muster Wiki.

2010-2012 Development and release of Muster Wiki as open source software.

2008-2010 Development and release of the CELOS Regulatory Research Database subsite of celos.ca. The software would serve as a prototype for Muster Wiki. The website migrated to publiccommons.ca in 2012.

2009 Development of SimpleWiki, a wiki markup parser/emitter (simplewiki.org). Later integrated into Muster Wiki.

2009 Development of a point of sales analysis and reporting system for the Canadian branch of a major global pharmaceutical company (database application).

2009 Development of integration technologies for websites, including maps, database technologies, and data visualization technologies. Includes development of dlml (dynamic layout markup language), and implementation of which was later integrated into Muster Wiki.

2008 Development of a departmental sales and distribution analysis and reporting system for the Canadian branch of a major global pharmaceutical company (database application).

2006-2012 Occasional custom software support provided to the Free Methodist Church in Canada regarding their customized (by others) Traverse accounting system.

2005 - 2008 Development of by-invitation website hosting service for CELOS (now celoswebhosting.ca). Ongoing assembly and development of browser application tools.

2007. Development of custom special pack order system for Reckitt-Benckiser Canada (database application). Deployed in Toronto.

2007 Launch of cityrinks.ca, a website dedicated to Toronto's outdoor rinks.

2005 - 2006. Development of custom point of sale systems for Reckitt-Benckiser Canada (database application). Deployed in Toronto.

2004. Major makeover of dufferinpark.ca, a large community website.

2003-2006: Self-study - internet technologies

Database Application Developer, 1981-2003

2002 - 2003. Internal project development of prototype of O-Links Group Information Manager(tm), extension of Containers from 2001.

2002, 2001, 1999. Development of custom project tracking and marketing modelling systems for Reckitt-Benckiser Canada, a subsidiary of the international cleaning products and food products giant. Deployed in Toronto.

2001. Internal project development of prototype of Containers(tm), an information tracking application program.

1997-2001. Development of several departmental systems for Home Depot Canada, and Home Depot head office (Atlanta). These include proprietary systems for their Store Planning Department, involving specification of in-store infrastructure, warehousing, and ordering of materials for same. Deployed throughout North America.

1995-1996. Development of a prototype Wide Area Network client-server Commercial Deal Tracking system for CB Commercial (now CB Richard Ellis), based on previous implementations. Cross-Canada.

1993-1994. Development of prototype of real estate asset and infrastructure tracking and control systems for the Toronto District School Board.

1992. Development of cheque clearing system for Toronto Dominion Bank.

1986-1992. Development of several iterations of commercial real estate deal tracking software for CB Commercial. This was a distributed system based on custom-written replication processes, and was in operation until 2001. Deployed across Canada.

1985-1991. Involvement with Borland as beta tester, and member of Team Borland regarding their Paradox and Paradox for Windows products. Also writer and contributing editor of Paradox Informant, an independent trade publication. Gave seminars at Borland conferences around North America.

1988, 1989. Development of an elaborate sales analysis system for Benckiser Canada (now Reckitt-Benckiser). Deployed in Toronto, but accessed across Canada. In use until merger with Reckitt in 1999.

1986, 1987. Development of a privately contracted prototype Mutual Fund Management system.

1984-1986. Department manager of custom software development department for an Entre Computer Centres franchise. Staff of 1 - 3.

1981-1984. Began developing custom software with the introduction of the first IBM PC.

Community Organizer, 1971-1980

1978-1980. Self-study: Business systems, software development, and database technologies.

1971-1980 Toronto, Ontario. Community Organizer, mostly Food Co-ops. Founding member of Ontario Federation of Food Co-ops and Clubs (became Ontario Natural Food Coop).

Early years, 1950-1971

1968-1971: Peterborough, Ontario. Part-time University, some arts, some sciences. Self-study: social issues and comparative religion. Small business ventures.

1968: Graduated (as Valedictorian) from Midland Secondary School.

1956 (fall): Immigrated to Midland Ontario.

1950 (August 23): Born, Wetzlar Germany.