Joseph R. Justice 2727 Duke Street # 1407 Alexandria, VA 22314 703-567-5057 (home) E-Mail: jrj@saltmine.radix.net WWW: http://www.radix.net/~jrj Work Experience 05/96 - 04/01 West Group Alexandria, VA Programmer / Analyst and Software Engineer for West Group (formerly AlignMark Information Publishing) (formerly the HR Publishing unit of Research Institute of America Group, a part of the Thomson Corporation), a print and electronic publisher of information for professionals. Primary focus was design, implementation, and support of electronic publications (for human resources professionals) and SGML-based publishing systems (both Folio / CD-ROM and on-line / Internet / WWW based). Also provided support as needed for print publications and for computer systems in general. Folio / CD-ROM product work included reverse-engineering and re-implementing, then further enhancing, individual Folio 3 infobases (especially Federal tax and non-tax code and regulations, newsletters, indexes, what's new, and other misc. infobases) used in the Human Resources Advisor, Compensation and Benefits Advisor, Equal Employment Opportunity Advisor, and Payroll Guide CD-ROM products, and other portions of these products in general. Worked on the design and implementation of the Workplace Safety Advisor CD-ROM product. Also worked on design and implementation of the overall production system (workflow, processes, data delivery) used to produce these products, and on documentation of the individual products and the overall production system. (Human Resources Advisor won awards from Human Resource Executive Magazine as a Top 10 HR Product of the Year for 1996, and as a Top 10 HR Product of the Decade for 1997.) Also provided support on CD-ROM product production issues (e.g. "I made a mistake in the source data; can I edit the infobase to fix the link?") as required. Worked on conversion of infobases and the overall production system to Folio 4. Worked on 1999 updating of installation programs written in C++ (Nightcrawler, etc) used to install products from CD-ROM, especially for new tax forms information from CLR. Worked on implementing web-based versions of Folio infobases, products. Work required extensive programming in Omnimark of SGML to Folio 3 flat file conversion programs. Also did significant amounts of modification and enhancement of DOS batch files & "Make" files used in the CD-ROM products production system. Worked on emphasizing program code, data, and process / workflow sharing between products. Online work included extensive efforts on the design, development, and implementation of the HRWire (www.hrwire.com) online product, especially on backend editorial production systems, SGML to HTML data conversion, delivery of HTML data to web site host, generation of reports for editorial use, and general technical advice. Also provided ongoing work on enhancements and maintenance as required. (HRWire won an award from Human Resources Executive Magazine as one of the Top 10 HR Products of the Year for 1997.) Also worked extensively on HR-ESource (www.hr-esource.com), International HR Advisor (ihradvisor.westgroup.com), and HR ITWire (itwire.westgroup.com) online product sites. This work included special emphasis on backend editorial production systems, data conversion programs, generation of content in HTML, implementation of electronic mail capabilities for the sites (mailing lists, "share this article"), integration and maintenance of interactive online surveys using a third-party application, NT system installation & systems administration, Microsoft IIS4 installation and administration, MS Exchange Server installation and administration, generation of reports for editorial use, mentoring of less experienced programmers working on the sites, domain name registration and Verisign certificate acquisition, and ongoing and continuous technical administration and maintenance of the production websites and systems. This work required extensive programming in Omnimark of data conversion programs from SGML to HTML, SGML to SGML, and Lotus Notes to SGML. Also did significant amounts of VMS command file modifications and enhancements. Did work on design and implementation of structure and organization of workflow, processes, and data delivery. Did some ASP page modification and debugging, some work with SQL using MS SQL Server, and some Perl5 programming. Other work performed included Y2K technical reviews of in-house authored software, production systems, and CD-ROM products, with modification of programs and systems as required. Developed a system for a case citation cross-reference table for the GTEH print product. Wrote software to generate XML-format table of contents information for much of the HR Advisor on the Web product on a new web publishing platform (Novus). Did work on Tigre / WriterStation (custom in-house developed SGML authoring / editorial system) software update automation, requiring VBScript programming. Provided consulting and advice on general computer-related questions or topics as needed. Provided some support of end users from editorial and administrative units, ranging from "How do I make this computer do this task" to "My computer won't turn on - how come?" Did maintenance of other systems, especially involving VMS-related work. Attended several training courses through Thomson University and Learning Tree. These courses included: Folio 4 infobase design and development; introduction to C++ programming for non-C programmers; Microsoft Windows NT 4 Workstation and Server; Microsoft Internet Information Server 4; Microsoft Site Server 2; Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Administration. Skills: IBM-PC, DEC VAX; MS Windows NT 4, OpenVMS, MS IIS 3, MS Exchange Server 4, Omnimark 3, MS Active Server Pages (ASP), VBScript, HTML, SGML, Perl5, MS Windows Scripting Host, C++, makefiles 03/95 - 04/95 Community of Science Baltimore, MD Programmer and internal / external technical support person for the Community of Science, an electronic publisher of information about major research universities in North America. Primary accomplishments were writing software in the Perl programming language (developed in part under MS-DOS, but targeted for OpenVMS) to automatically generate "on the fly" documents (directories of faculty members, mailing labels) in Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF) from database records provided in a structured ASCII format and writing interactive interface routines in Perl to allow subscribers to CoS's service to specify and generate these documents on demand. Also obtained, compiled, and installed publicly available software (Elm, WWW browsers, etc.) for OpenVMS, MS-DOS, and the Macintosh OS. Skills: IBM-PC, DEC VAX, some Macintosh; MS-DOS 6.x, MS-Windows 3.1+, OpenVMS, Perl, RTF (Rich Text Format), Microsoft Word 6 11/93 - 11/94 Tax Management / Bureau of National Affairs Washington DC Programmer in the CD-ROM Development and Production Group for Tax Management, a subsidiary of the Bureau of National Affairs. Primary responsibility was work on the automatic conversion (using the Omnimark text / SGML processing language) of large text files from electronic typesetting formats (Atex) into SGML, and from SGML into searchable hypertext databases in several different formats required by different DOS and Windows search engines/viewers (primarily Folio Views 2.5). Specifically designed and implemented the conversion process of two monthly newsletters (_Tax Practice Series Bulletin_ and _Tax Management Multistate Tax Report_) from ATEX into SGML and then into Folio Views, including writing the document-specific SGML DTD for each publication and designing the specific look and feel (conforming to overall TM standards) for _TM MTR_; also converted approximately one year's worth of preexisting _TPSB_ newsletters from Folio Views format backwards into SGML. Also responsible for the initial conversion (first pass) of a large (~50 MB ASCII text) Folio Views infobase into SGML under program control. Also processed portions of other text files and documents using programs written in Omnimark. Additional utility and production programs written in the C and Perl languages include the following: Wrote a program in C to manage the automatic updating to local hard disk (transparently to the end-user) of executables and data files distributed on TM's CD-ROM publications. Worked on an internally- developed link validation tool (developed in C) for Folio Views infobases, which included testing the efficiency of various hashing algorithms and C database libraries (gdbm, sdbm), doing elementary parsing of Folio Views flatfiles with C to generate test data, and writing small utility functions for the link-validation tool. Developed and modified a utility ("manifest", written in C and Perl) to do QA on the set of data files used in CD-ROM publications prior to a master CD-ROM being cut for duplication; the utility checked that all the required data files and only those files were present in the directory used to build the CD-ROM image and that the contents of selected files were as expected (according to a manifest of the files expected to be in the directory, including CRC-32 values). Work was done using the C (Borland C++ 4.0), Omnimark, and Perl languages under MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 3.1. Skills: IBM-PC; MS-DOS 6.x, Windows 3.1+, C, Perl, SGML, Omnimark, Folio Views, DOS batch files, SCCS 08/90 - 06/92 School of Engineering, Morgan State University Baltimore, MD System administrator for the School of Engineering. Responsible for VAX 8300 and MicroVAX II running VMS 5, and a MicroVAX II and DECstation RISC (MIPS) workstations running Ultrix, and a terminal room with ~25 mixed text and graphics terminals. Specified and ordered computing (workstation class) and networking (LAN) hardware and software for School's move into new Mitchell Engineering Building. Helped faculty, staff, and student users of the Engineering Computing Center's facilities, and gave advice and suggestions where requested on any question related to computers, LANs, or use of the Internet. Wrote a reference and tutorial on use of VAX/VMS MAIL for local users. Skills: IBM-PC, DEC VAX and MicroVAX II, DEC DECstation 3100 and 5000/200, miscellaneous Ethernet LAN hardware; MS-DOS 5.x, MS Windows 3.1, DEC Ultrix (BSD Unix variant) 2.x and 3.x, DEC VAX/VMS 5.x, C, Perl, shell scripting, general Unix and VMS system administration 09/89 - 07/90 School of Engineering, Morgan State University Performed software design, development, and documentation, using C, Pascal, and assembly, and consulted on miscellaneous software-related issues for a National Science Foundation electrical engineering laboratory curriculum development grant, under principle investigator Associate Professor Peter H. Anderson. Skills: IBM-PC; MS-DOS 5.x, C, Pascal, assembler 10/87 - 08/88 K. L. Ginter and Associates, Inc. Beltsville, MD Worked on specifications, programming, and data analysis for a computer magazine data base written in dBase III+. Assisted in the development of a job lead tracking system written in dBase II. Worked full time from 12/87. Skills: IBM-PC; MS-DOS, dBase II/III+ 07/86 - 12/86 K. L. Ginter and Associates, Inc. Wrote documentation for programmers on an in-house RS232-C serial port driver library written in C. Maintained a repair tracking system written in dBase II, and partially rewrote its documentation. Worked on requirements and specifications for a computer magazine data base. Skills: IBM-PC; MS-DOS, C, dBase II, assembler 06/85 - 08/85 Management Information Systems Corp. Baltimore, MD 06/84 - 08/84 Assisted in the creation of a specification for and then wrote a job cost estimation system for contract cleaning companies written in compiled BASIC. Performed maintenance programming on an accounting system written in compiled BASIC. Skills: Alpha Micro; AMOS/L, compiled Basic 02/85 - 05/85 Department of Computer Science, UMCP College Park, MD Teaching assistant for an introductory course for freshman computer science majors. Planned and led a twice-weekly discussion section. Assisted the instructor in giving exams. Graded quizzes, exams, and student-written programs. Skills: IBM 4341; VM/CMS, Pascal 09/84 - 12/84 Intensive Educational Development, UMCP Tutored students taking the introductory courses for computer science majors. Assisted students in learning the syntax and semantics of Pascal, iterative top-down design and development of programs from written specifications, and the mathematical verification of programs written in several subsets of Pascal. Skills: IBM 4341; VM/CMS, Pascal Education 09/88 - 05/91 Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD Major: Computer Science GPA: 3.38, 4.00 = A 09/83 - 12/87 University of Maryland at College Park Major: Computer Science