Ruby developer. Experienced in software architecture, analysis, object and data modeling, prototyping and coding.
Austin, Texas Area
- Current
-
- Sr. Applications Architect at ERCOT
- Senior Applications Architect at ERCOT
- Past
-
- Developer/Architect (contract) at Handwire
- Technical Architect at QuickArrow, Inc.
- System Architect/Development Director at Mall.com
- Chief Technical Officer at Mediatruck, Inc.
- Technical Director at ideaMarket, Inc.
- Technical Journalist / Editor at Ziff-Davis
- Education
-
- Antioch University
- Recommended
-
7 people have recommended Paul - Connections
-
168
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Paul Bonner’s Summary
My goals are simple, and haven't changed in a long time: I want to do work that matters, and learn all that I can in the process. That model has worked pretty well so far, both in my first career as a journalist, and in my current career as a builder of web-based tools and applications.
The dot.com boom led me to Austin, where I found myself leading the development of what our CEO dubbed "the publishing model for the 21st century". Alas, that little venture failed to survive long enough to even catch a glimpse of the new century, let alone meet its loftier goals.
I spent the next few years living the startup dream as CTO and lead architect of Mediatruck's r.e.d.d. design tool, as VP of Engineering for Mall.com and Demandex, and as a lead Technical Architect for QuickArrow. Later at Handwire, I collaborated on design and technologies with a set of brilliant designers and information architects to build the coolest mapping application ever. Most recently, I've concentrated on delivering the benefits of more agile technologies (Ruby!) and methodologies to an organization otherwise over-burdened with heavyweight processes.
Paul Bonner’s Specialties:
Design, architecture, and coding, particularly of MVC-based web applications. Data and object model design, object-oriented architectures. Agile development techniques and tools--focusing entirely for the past two years on Ruby on Rails. Ability to facilitate communication between business owners or subject matter experts and technology teams. Team leadership and mentoring of junior staff. Full life cycle design. Rapid prototyping. Test-driven methods. State-of-the-art tool set.
Paul Bonner’s Experience
-
Sr. Applications Architect
ERCOT
(Internet industry)
2005 — Present (3 years)
-
Senior Applications Architect
ERCOT
(Non-Profit; 501-1000 employees; Utilities industry)
January 2005 — Present (3 years 9 months)
For the past two years my role at ERCOT has been centered around Ruby on Rails-based development. I pioneered the inclusion of Ruby in the corporate technology stack, assembled a small team of Ruby developers, and have served as lead developer on six internal and external Ruby on Rails applications. In the course of those projects, we've proven Ruby On Rails to be a more agile alternative to the existing J2EE stack, and have successfully integrated with the corporate IT infrastructure and several enterprise-level OTS applications, including Active Directory for single sign-on, Remedy, the corporate ERM, .various SOAP-based services, and Oracle and SQL Server databases.
-
Developer/Architect (contract)
Handwire
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
May 2004 — December 2004 (8 months)
Business- and data-tier architect and lead developer for a rich-client, web-based application that generates and delivers custom directions and maps for pedestrians navigating a huge urban medical campus via four separate classes of client: Flash-based kiosks, two HTML-based web sites, and a web services-based client. We put it together out of Java and SOAP and Oracle and Flash, and had a lot of fun doing so.
-
Technical Architect
QuickArrow, Inc.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)
September 2000 — December 2003 (3 years 4 months)
Architect of an evolutionary migration of this ASP's core product from Cold Fusion to J2EE across multiple releases. Served as principal information architect for the revamped application, defining UI standards and a UI component architecture, and designing a user experience optimized for efficiency, performance and scalability. My other achievements at QuickArrow included designing a J2EE-based MVC presentation level architecture, hiring and managing the development team, establishing coding standards, Java and Cold Fusion coding, data modeling, requirements gathering and analysis, cost estimation, design of the site roadmap, and coordinating the efforts of outside design consultants.
-
System Architect/Development Director
Mall.com
(Internet industry)
October 1999 — September 2000 (1 year)
January 2000. Designed and managed development of a modular set of components providing commerce services (product catalogs, shopping carts, supply-chain integration tools) for both B2B and B2C applications. Applied these components to three separate commerce sites: Shops.com, a mini-mall providing custom e-commerce sites for small B2C merchants; UADE.com, an auction site for B2B used car trading, and Demandex, a B2B exchange utilizing a demand/subscription model to match buyers and sellers of thousands of distinct commodity goods and services. Designed object model and supporting data model for Shops.com, Market.com and UADE.com ecommerce sites. Devised a 3-tiered development model consisting of a presentation layer built in HTML by page design staff, a presentation support layer built in Cold Fusion by mid-level developers, and a core business layer built using EJBs. Hired and managed development team and creative department.
-
Chief Technical Officer
Mediatruck, Inc.
(Computer Software industry)
August 1997 — August 1999 (2 years 1 month)
Architect, development director, and lead programmer for the r.e.d.d. System, a WYSIWYG tool that enables non-programmers to design and implement data-driven ASP (Active Serve Pages) sites. Led effort that took product from concept to market in 18 months with never more than 3 full-time developers. Developed concept of web page as a collection of absolutely positioned “slots” holding replaceable, conditional content, designed supporting object and database models, and developed a custom encapsulation of Internet Explorer web browser object to make it serve as a WYSIWYG design window.
-
Technical Director
ideaMarket, Inc.
(Internet industry)
January 1997 — July 1997 (7 months)
Responsible for all technology issues at electronic publishing/ecommerce startup, hired and managed development / IT staff, developed the core specs for and designed the commerce server around which the business would operate, initiated a redesign of the existing web site user interface, directed development of back-end production and management systems, including editorial workflow and royalty tracking systems.
-
Technical Journalist / Editor
Ziff-Davis
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Publishing industry)
January 1983 — January 1997 (14 years 1 month)
I spent nine years with Ziff-Davis in a variety of increasingly responsible roles, culminating in my appointment as Executive Editor at PC Week, and as a founding Senior Editor at PC/Computing. I went through three startups – Personal Software, PC Week Connectivity and PC/Computing – and wrote hundreds of feature stories, technical analyses and reviews, including over two dozen cover stories. I won a Computer Press Association award for best online feature, and was a finalist for several other industry awards, including the American Society of Magazine Editor’s Public Service Award.
After leaving ZD, I spent five years as a featured columnist for three ZD magazines and as a contributor to a numerous other on- and off-line publications.
Works: 2 books: Customizing Windows (1990) and Visual Basic Utilities (1992), 1000+ feature stories, reviews, columns, and articles for PC Mag., VBPJ, DB Advisor, PC Week, CNet, ZDnet, Windows Sources, PC Magazine and Java Pro.
Additional Information
Paul Bonner’s Websites:
Paul Bonner’s Interests:
Agile development. Business process optimization. Ruby. Biking, Family. Politics.
Paul Bonner’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
