Jon Lesser

Lead Developer, Repower@Home at Alliance for Climate Protection

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Current
Past
  • User Researcher (intern) at Dabble
  • Lab Manager at School of Print Media, RIT
  • Web Developer at JazzTimes
  • Editorial Assistant at Umbrage Editions
  • Research Assistant at RIT’s Digital Media Library Task Force
  • Multimedia Producer at Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Intern at Finlay Printing
Education
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
Connections
153 connections
Industry
Online Media
Websites

Jon Lesser’s Summary

I am a creative technologist with experience designing and implementing web applications. I am interested in how people interface with technology and how to design technology that people can use.

Jon Lesser’s Specialties:

Qualitative and quantitative usability methods. Programming experience with Java, Python, and PHP. Web development with HTML, XML, CSS, and JavaScript (jQuery). Solid visual design skills. Expert knowledge of Photoshop and InDesign, experience with Maya and SketchUp. Experience with machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. Formal training and practical experience in project management. Arduino hacking.


Jon Lesser’s Experience

  • Lead Developer, Repower@Home

    Alliance for Climate Protection

    (Non-Profit; Renewables & Environment industry)

    November 2009Present (1 month)

  • User Experience Designer and Web Developer

    Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

    (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

    November 2007November 2009 (2 years 1 month)

    * Led a 10 month transformation of Zotero.org from a product support website into a community website with over 50,000 registered users and thousands of user created groups.

    * Created interaction flows and wireframes for major features on Zotero.org and worked with visual designers to turn the wireframes into XHTML templates styled with CSS.

    * Used object-oriented PHP (Zend Framework), MySQL, Apache, and JavaScript (jQuery) to architect and build a scalable, high-performance website that serves millions of requests per month.

    * Designed and implemented an ATOM over REST API with the lead developer of the Zotero Firefox extension that enables the Zotero extension, Zotero.org, and eventually outside developers, to manipulate users, groups, and millions of synced Zotero library items.

    * Presented my work on Zotero at the American Studies Association conference (Albuquerque, 2008) as part of a panel titled, “Digital Crossroads: Online Tools for Open and Collaborative Research”.

    * Lead programmer on TeachingHistory.org, a collaboration between Stanford University and GMU. I worked with education experts and project leaders to define requirements and priorities. Used Drupal to create a website with 14,000 pages of content for history educators.

    * Developed research and wireframes for online exhibit building interfaces to be integrated into Omeka, an open source CMS designed for small to medium sized museums and libraries.

  • Web Application Developer

    University of California, Berkeley

    (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

    January 2007June 2007 (6 months)

    * Designed and built software for an NSF funded experiment with Professor Coye Cheshire that explored the development of trust within online networks.

    * Used Python (Django), XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript (jQuery) to implemented a web application in which research participants could engage with different forms of exchange in real time.

  • Teaching Assistant

    University of California, Berkeley

    (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

    September 2006December 2006 (4 months)

    * Developed and led lab sections on Java and graded assignments on networking and cryptographic protocols for Professor John Chuang’s “Distributed Computing Applications and Infrastructure” course.

    * Held regular office hours and worked with students one-on-one.

  • User Researcher (intern)

    Dabble

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    May 2006August 2006 (4 months)

    * Identified and characterized active users by mining logs and user generated data with SQL scripts

    * Engaged active users in semi-structured interviews about their usage of Dabble.com.

    * Provided design feedback and usability recommendations based on my research.

  • Lab Manager

    School of Print Media, RIT

    (Printing industry)

    September 2002June 2005 (2 years 10 months)

    * Managed twenty-five lab assistants in the School of Print Media and administered their quarterly evaluations.

    * Improved the lab’s efficiency with a PHP/MySQL web application that replaced several paper-based procedures and greatly increased information sharing between lab assistants.

  • Web Developer

    JazzTimes

    (Publishing industry)

    May 2004August 2004 (4 months)

    * Redesigned the navigation of JazzTimes.com and implemented a refreshed visual design.

    * Reduced maintenance overhead by migrating presentation code from HTML to CSS, integrating a system of common headers and footers, and reorganizing the backend directory structure.

  • Editorial Assistant

    Umbrage Editions

    (Publishing industry)

    June 2003August 2003 (3 months)

    * Assisted in the production of high-quality visual books including "2-4-6-8" by Brian Finke, "The Last Paradise" by Nicolas Righetti, and "Pandemic: Facing Aids", the companion to Rory Kennedy’s HBO documentary.

    * Set and proofread copy, preflighted QuarkXPress documents for press, and organized and managed thousands of original photographs.

  • Research Assistant

    RIT’s Digital Media Library Task Force

    (Libraries industry)

    March 2003May 2003 (3 months)

    * Researched and reported on software and standards relevant to digital libraries.

    * Helped develop and administer a needs assessment survey to RIT faculty.

  • Multimedia Producer

    Rochester Institute of Technology

    (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

    September 2001May 2003 (1 year 9 months)

    * Produced multimedia content for online courses in color science taught by Professor Bob Chung.

    * Used Final Cut Pro to capture, edit, and compress video and then Adoble Acrobat to combine PDF laboratory instructions with streaming video demonstrations.

  • Intern

    Finlay Printing

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Printing industry)

    July 2001August 2001 (2 months)

    Between high school and college, I took an internship with Finlay, a medium-sized, sheet-fed printer. I rotated throughout the facility experiencing each aspect of their workflow from prepress to bindery. I also did some development using FileMaker Pro and created PDF proofs for client approval.


Jon Lesser’s Education

  • University of California, Berkeley

    MIMS , Information Science , 20052007

  • Rochester Institute of Technology

    BS , New Media Publishing , 20012005


Additional Information

Jon Lesser’s Websites:

Jon Lesser’s Interests:

typography, photography, making electronics, printing (screen and letterpress), drumming, recording (audio and video), visiting museums, backpacking

Jon Lesser’s Groups:

Association for Computing Machinery

  •    UC Berkeley School of Information
  •    Obama for America
  •    RIT Alumni Group - Rochester Institute of Technology
  •    Rochester Institute of Technology - College of Imaging Arts and Sciences Alumni
  •    RIT Students, Alumni, Faculty, and Staff
  •    code4lib
  •    PUB - (RIT)
  •    Baltimore Node

Jon Lesser’s Honors:

UC Berkeley School of Information Graduate Fellowship, 2007
RIT Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar, 2005
Nathaniel Rochester Society Scholar, 2004
International Newspaper Group Scholar, 2003


Jon Lesser’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • expertise requests
  • business deals
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

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