Michael Harrison

SUMMARY & OBJECTIVE

I am a pragmatic web developer. I build web applications for smart companies and for my own projects. For 20 years I have implemented and managed online projects. And I've never been more excited about my work.

I am deeply interested in accessibility and functional programming. I am a Mac, *nix user. I focus on Ruby and JavaScript though I've recently been getting excited about Elixir and Elm.

I am not currently looking for new contracts.

TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE

Ruby on Rails, Rspec, Postgresql

Ruby on Rails, Rspec, Coffeescript, React JS, HTML5, Postgresql

• Mountain Rose Herbs is a large online retailer. I helped maintain and extend their storefront. My duties spanned the entire stack, from Postgres to CSS and HTML.
• I also built a form-heavy React front-end from an existing coffeescript code base for a Rails project, using Jest for testing.

Ruby on Rails, Angular JS, Karma and Protractor for client-side testing, C#

The kofunction web application is a general-purpose simulation engine that configures and runs computational models and analyzes the results.

Backbone.js, StackMob, NoSQL, HTML5, Sinatra

• Alta Ipsum is an online tutoring and organization web application for students.
• The first incarnation of the application targeted web browsers and smartphones with an HTML5 app built on top of StackMob's noSQL datastore and application servers.

Pairing with Bendyworks developers, I helped extend a large Ruby and Backbone.js service composed of several applications communicating via Ajax and server-side APIs.

Ruby on Rails, RSpec, ExtJS, HTML, MySQL

Ruby on Rails, jQuery, jQTouch, HTML, CSS, RSpec, Selenium, Postgresql, and git

As part of a two-person team, I built a Ruby on Rails application for web browsers and mobile devices hosted at heroku's cloud-based Ruby application service.

Ruby on Rails, Prototype.js, HTML, CSS, RSpec, MySQL

PHP, Prototype.js, HTML, CSS, MySQL

I extended out-of-the-box ecommerce software with Ajax and JavaScript to produce more attractive, flexible, and responsive page interfaces for Blind Spot's products.

HTML, CSS, PHP, Perl, Tomcat

HTML, CSS, PHP, Perl, ASP, SQL Server

J2EE (Tomcat, Struts), HTML, CSS, JUnit, MySQL, Humble Pie

To produce a proof-of-concept dating web site to attract investors and partners, I configured a Linux server and MySQL database and built a Java-based web application. Its features included updatable user profiles with photos, a compatibility search with ZIP-code-based distance calculation, profile visibility and blocking controls, and site-based tools to allow members to communicate without revealing personal information.

XML, XSLT, HTML, CSS

• To build a relationship with the content management software company Roxen, Angel used Roxen's XML-based system as the platform for a corporate communications web site for Identrus LLC. As the developer on the project, I mastered XML/XSLT technology, designed the data structures for the site, and programmed dynamic HTML pages.
• To provide Statement One, LLC with a portable sales demonstration, I built a scaled-down version of Statement One's web-based portfolio management application with Roxen Internet Server and an Access DB on a PC laptop.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a weird PHP-like scripting tool you've never heard of.

• I oversaw planning and development of an email and web-based collaboration application called globeclubs, which was built with Pervasive Software's Tango server-side scripting environment and Oracle database software. I also planned the clubs' topic hierarchy and coded data retrieval and display functions. Aggressively scheduled, the application launched on time. (On the Web Archive: globeclubs.theglobe.com)

INTERESTS

User Groups and Conferences

• I chaired the Washington DC Clojure Study Group, which proudly counts two authors of upcoming Clojure books.
• I lead an online group taking the MIT OpenCourseWare class Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs from September 2007 to May 2008 (we needed two semesters).
• Certificate in Object-Oriented Programming with the Java Programming Language. New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. 2002.

Speaking Appearances, Presentations

I'm on SpeakerRate.

• "The Dining Philosophers: Concurrency in Clojure" at DC Clojure Study Group, March 2009
• "Seven Things about Clojure in Seven Minutes" at RubyNation, June 2009
• "Lazy Sequences in Ruby 1.9" at DC Ruby Users Group, August 2009
• "Asynchronous Concurrency in Clojure" Capital Area Clojure Users Group, May 2010
• "Composing Asynchronous Services with Aleph" at DC Clojure Study Group, October 2010

Training

• Clojure training with Rich Hickey and Stuart Halloway, 2010, with the Pragmatic Studio.
• Advanced Ruby training with Chad Fowler and Dave Thomas, 2009, with the Pragmatic Studio.
• Ruby on Rails training with Chad Fowler, 2007, with the Pragmatic Studio.

Education

• Princeton University, 1995. BA Cultural Anthropology. Summa cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
• Fluent in Spanish: I lived in Madrid, Spain from August to December 2001.