Allen Wyke

Current

• Chief Online Technologist at 4mm Games, LLC
• Advising Chief Technology Officer at Savory Cities
• Web and Internet Technology Consultant at Ripple Group

• Author at Various Book Publishers

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Past

• Chief Technology Officer at Crispy Gamer
• Chief Technology Officer at iVillage Properties / NBC Universal
• Director of Engineering and Support at Redwood Software

• Chief Technology Officer at Blue292
• VP, R&D at Engage
• Multimedia Manager at Ventana Communications

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Industry

Online Media

Allen Wyke’s Summary

Turnaround or critical launch technologist available for onsite work in New York City area, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington DC, Boston and Charlotte.

Since 1995 I have worked for Internet technology companies. Unlike many technology executives making the leap from Enterprise to online, my entire career has been in the interactive Web space making it easy for me to assess situations, plan and execute. Generally brought in for quick movement: turn around, rebuild, transition, or startup. But not just a technologist - applying technology to drive business and revenue is what excites me.

Worked for software and media companies to build and run development, QA, documentation, technical support, professional services, project and product management, and information systems teams. Worked with or for Microsoft, Lycos, c|net, Ask, McAfee, Sony Online, Modiv Media, Zumobi, Ringleader Digital, Global Grind, Hearst, RadarOnline, and approximately 100 others.

Experience includes mergers and acquisitions, mobile advertising, online/interactive media, content management systems, open source and commercial software, Web/Internet standards, online communities, SEO, and nimble ways to execute with immediate impact - most times well under budget. Very hands on in defining and driving product and technology strategies and execution.

Standards participation include co-founding and initially chairing the Emergency Management Technical Committee at OASIS, participating on P3P Working Group at W3C and CPExchange at IDEAlliance, and working on early online advertising standards effort (adXML). Written over a dozen books, numerous articles, and a training video on standards, Internet technologies, and programming languages such as XML, PHP, JavaScript, .NET, and Perl. Most recent authoring is on open source CMS and using Mac OS X for small/home office.

Often brought in by a CEO or COO and available as a consultant or a full time position if the circumstances are right.

Allen Wyke’s Specialties:

Technology strategies, product strategies, contract negotiations, staffing strategies, building engineering teams, mergers and acquisitions, mobile advertising, online/interactive media, content management systems, open source, commercial software, Web/Internet standards.

Allen Wyke’s Experience

• Chief Online Technologist

  4mm Games, LLC

  (Privately Held; Entertainment industry)

  February 2009 — Present (10 months)

  Rockstar Games pushed boundaries with its Grand Theft Auto franchise. Two of the co-founders, together with a couple of industry vets, formed 4mm Games to reinvent the rollout of new titles using the Web.
  
  Brought in originally by their CEO on to architect and plan their first online community platform, which will be tied to the upcoming title, Def Jam Rapstar. Since then, I have been responsible for all of the digital/online efforts, including standing up a development team, handling budgeting, working to layout a Product and SEO Strategy, and defining the Product Roadmap, as well as starting the initial efforts around the Revenue Model.
  
  While on the surface, www.defjamrapstar.com exhibits what you would expect in any online community, the undercurrent drives it to be a personna promotional platform/machine. The intent for the content and capabilities here to stimulate aspirational emotions, and then leverage/harness that power to ground swell the consumer base to grow the brand and franchises ability to sustain itself.
  
  The essence of the effort can be thought of as where Guitar Hero/Rock Band meet American Idol, except to experience this in the digital space...a platform allowing people to promote themselves, archive fame, popularity and celebrity status all while walking the fine line of providing them a clear path to work toward, without explicitly defining it. We do this because we need to be able to handle solid and gift talent, but also instant celebrities, such as those seen in the "William Hung or Susan Boyle Effects" if you will.

• Advising Chief Technology Officer

  Savory Cities

  (Online Media industry)

  November 2007 — Present (2 years 1 month)

  Savory was born when the Founders, like many people, found themselves disappointed that popular restaurant guides were more like a phone book than a trusted source. Or user reviews seemed written by a chef's mother or fired line cook. In April of 2006 the first site, Savory New York, launched with the idea that a combination of in-depth restaurant information, hand-aggregated critical reviews, recommendations from top chefs and documentary-style video profiles of notable restaurants would go a long way toward helping people make better decisions about where to dine out. Since then more cities have launched and the small organization is well on its way to becoming a trusted source of restaurant information online.
  
  At Savory I advise on technology and product development strategy, as well as guide technical execution where needed. I can't say enough good things about what is going on here - stay tuned and feel free to reach out to me if you want to know more or how to get involved.

• Web and Internet Technology Consultant

  Ripple Group

  (Online Media industry)

  April 2004 — Present (5 years 8 months)

  Look for challenging scenarios needing immediate results. Startups or big companies that need help with development, IT, technical support, professional services, product development/management, staffing, contract negotiation, and finance.
  
  Lean toward online/interactive/digital media and advertising, mobile advertising, web-based software, and environmental/green companies. Environment agnostic - programming languages (Java, PHP, Ruby, .NET...), architectures (hosted, shared, cloud...), team (staff, onshore, off shore, blended), etc...I can work with any of these.
  
  Can always help with your CMS (homegrown, Vignette, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MT...), staffing strategies, product development process, product roadmaps, SEO, social media... Can be low level enough to work with development team or can easily put on business hat and help chart a course on how your efforts have a positive impact financially. Experience in delivering fast, cheap, and good at all once.
  
  Recent customers include: Russell Simmons' Global Grind, Modiv Media, RadarOnline, VAS Entertainment, Hearst and the upcoming LMK.com.

• Author

  Various Book Publishers

  (Internet industry)

  July 1997 — Present (12 years 5 months)

  Books and articles in and around Internet technologies:
  
  * Running A Small Office on Mac OS X (Addison-Wesley)
  * Up and Running with Joomla Short Cut (O’Reilly)
  * JavaScript Unleashed, 4th Edition (Sams)
  * JavaScript Training Course Video (Prentice Hall)
  * XML Schema Essentials (Wiley)
  * XML Programming Core Reference (Microsoft Press)
  * XHTML Essentials (Wiley)
  * Pure JavaScript, 2nd Edition (Sams)
  * Perl: A Beginner’s Guide (Osborne)
  * PHP Developer’s Dictionary (Sams)
  * JavaScript Unleashed, 3rd Edition (Sams)
  * Pure JavaScript (Sams)
  * Official Netscape Navigator 4 Book (Ventana)
  * Perl 5 Programmer’s Reference (Ventana)
  * HTML Publishing on the Internet, 2nd Edition (Ventana) - Contributor
  * HTML 4 Programmer’s Reference (Ventana) - Contributor
  * ITworld.com: wrote the weekly Windows and Unix Integration email column.
  * UnixInsider: wrote the Webmaster monthly column.
  * Meridian: various TechScape articles and tidbits for former Midway in-flight magazine.

• Chief Technology Officer

  Crispy Gamer

  (Online Media industry)

  July 2008 — December 2008 (6 months)

  Online media startup in gaming space to collect tech-savvy early adopter and influencer 18-49yr males for brand advertising. Founders include CEO from Google, COO from eMusic, Editor-in-Chief from GameSpy and VP Marketing from ClubMom/CafeMom. Brought in by COO as consultant in March 2008 to course correct struggling Development, Infrastructure, and Product efforts - converted to part-time CTO then fulltime before wrapping up release of delayed projects and realigning their process and teams. During my time we developed and delivered approx 50% of the platform - most of which over 8 weeks where same group spent 8 months developing the first 50%. Sample...
  
  * Clip Share Online Community
  * Article comments
  * Separate Game, Video & Screenshot Navigators
  * Video player & related pages
  * Screenshot viewer & related pages
  * WordPress news & separate events sites
  * SlideShowPro system
  * New site branding/nav
  * Initiated initial effort and oversaw countless SEO changes

• Chief Technology Officer

  iVillage Properties / NBC Universal

  (Public Company; IVIL; Online Media industry)

  September 2007 — June 2008 (10 months)

  Worlds largest online community for women, included astrology.com, gurl.com, gardenweb.com, YourTotalHealth.com, webstakes.com. Brought in by CEO/COO on interim basis to turn around and rebuild struggling technology and product teams. Notable highlights...
  
  * Built hybrid (on/offshore & staff) team - brought development and project management inhouse
  * Implemented product development and issue resolution process
  * Rolled out documentation (Wiki) and project management (Basecamp) tools
  * Stabilized old and fragile Vignette 6 platform
  * Migrated and relaunched Social Network in 6 weeks - 12 hours off schedule
  * Launched new YourTotalHealth.com on Vignette 7
  * Created syndication platform to power iVillage Turkey
  * Responsible for $12M Cap & Op budget - 25% under budget at time of transition
  * Significant update to registration system and infrastructure
  * Grew from 17M/380M (uniques/PV) when I started to 20M+/480M by hand off to long term CTO
  * Loved weekly commute to NY/NJ

• Director of Engineering and Support

  Redwood Software

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

  August 2004 — April 2007 (2 years 9 months)

  Brought in by CEO. Covered Dev, QA, and Doc teams. Asked to "shake things up" - no new release of ASP/VB product in 2 years. Java rewrite underway for 1 year with only GUI framework and database layer started.
  
  [Highlights]
  * Implemented product and development processes.
  * New version of ASP/VB product in 4 weeks.
  * Beta of Java rewrite in 4 months.
  * Replace team in 8 months due to attrition.
  * Driver behind use of AJAX - before phrase was coined in Feb 2005.
  * Team certified Java rewrite twice with J2EE-DEP (SAP NetWeaver App Server), EP-BP (iView for SAP Enterprise Portal), Microsoft ISV/Software Competency (SQL Server 2000 and Windows Server 2000), and Red Hat Ready for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 launch.
  * Took over IT for US operations after 16 months.
  * Completed network and server refresh
  * Changed procurement strategy - 33% savings on new equipment.
  * Negotiated web and phone conferencing - $30k savings in year 1.
  * Promoted to manage US Tech Support.

• Chief Technology Officer

  Blue292

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  November 2001 — April 2004 (2 years 6 months)

  Served over two phases of company. Started as VP, Technology and Services, which focused on building team and implementing correct process and procedure to run as a new commercial software company. Second phase, was CTO where I worked with VP of Sales to run company and successfully find new source of funding within 6 month window.
  
  [Highlights]
  * Implemented product and development process.
  * Java Crisis Information Management System and .NET XML Web services-enabled Access XP and ASP.NET Environment Management Information System.
  * Worked with James Lee Witt Associates in design and development of CIMS application.
  * Worked with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representatives in Hanoi, Viet Nam.
  * Worked heavily in and around the new Department of Homeland Security.
  * Worked on acquisition of Toronto-based company - monthly trips afterwards.

• VP, R&D

  Engage

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Software industry)

  December 1997 — October 2001 (3 years 11 months)

  Held 4 different positions:
  
  * VP, Research and Development
  * Director, Product Technology
  * Practice Manager, Consulting
  * Implementation Engineer
  
  [Highlights]
  * First hired to install AdManager product - later built and ran implementation services team.
  * Traveled 85% of the time - covering most of US and other countries.
  * Worked with largest customers or those that had the most significant challenges.
  * Worked on standards efforts including P3P (W3C), , adXML (OASIS) and CPExchange (IDEAlliance).
  * Worked with M&A team - technical due diligence and team evaluations.
  * Responsible for driving strategic direction of products into existing and new media spaces, such as wireless, enhanced TV, and streaming media.
  * Responsible for the review, application, and follow-up of patents filed.
  * Managed remote team in US, Hong Kong, and Japan

• Multimedia Manager

  Ventana Communications

  (Computer Software industry)

  September 1995 — December 1997 (2 years 4 months)

  Came to Ventana after being exposed to an intranet site - light bulbs went off. I knew instantly I need to work in and around the Internet, so I sought out a company. Ventana produced Internet connection software, but morphed into book publishing after buyers loved the books included with the software - had the Netscape Press imprint. Company bought by Thomson. Very progressive people at Ventana - building Internet-connected applications running on our book CD-ROMs using Macromedia Director. My highlights....
  
  * Manage design, testing and production of CDs using HTML and Macromedia Director
  * Created templates and process to develop and ship CDs in 2 days - down from 2 weeks
  * Created template-based process to generate monthly issues of Navigate!, an online magazine for Netscape users
  * Reviewed and provided feedback on book proposals as well as provided emerging technology education to acquisition editors
  * Outstanding Performance Award, September 1997