James Bennett

Current

• Member at Python Software Foundation
• Release Manager at Django
• Web developer at Lawrence Journal-World

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Past

• Freelance web developer (Self-employed)

Education

• Roanoke College

Connections

81 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• The B-List
• Django
• Lawrence Journal-World

James Bennett’s Summary

I'm a web developer.

I've worked freelance and full-time, back-end and front-end, in a variety of languages. I've worked with turnkey systems, I've customized off-the-shelf software and I've developed new applications, both from scratch and with the help of rapid development frameworks.

I'm passionate about good tools. That's why I use and contribute to Django, and why I use and contribute to other open-source software projects. I believe that when you do it right, open source is the ultimate win-win situation. I believe that if you're skeptical of that, I can convince you.

I believe in the Web and in making it work. I believe in talking to the audience and letting them talk back. I believe that code speaks louder than words, but a thriving community speaks loudest of all.

I believe that we've only just begun to see what we can do, and I don't believe in just coming along for the ride.

I've worked on sites which got mentions from CNN and Newsweek, I've worked on sites which have won national awards in the media industry and I've worked on sites that you'd only know about if you lived in certain small towns in Kansas. Those last ones are the ones I'm proudest of, and I'd like to do a lot more like them.

James Bennett’s Specialties:

Server-side technology: Python, Django, Ellington, web frameworks

Client-side technology: HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript

General: software documentation, open-source software

James Bennett’s Experience

• Member

  Python Software Foundation

  (Internet industry)

  2009 — Present (less than a year)

• Release Manager

  Django

  (Non-Profit; Computer Software industry)

  January 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)

  Release manager for the Django web-application framework; I coordinate with the rest of the development team on planning and packaging our new releases, and coordinate and maintain legacy support for older releases.

• Web developer

  Lawrence Journal-World

  (Internet industry)

  February 2006 — Present (3 years 6 months)

  I do both front-end (mostly JavaScript) and back-end (Python, using the Django web-application framework) for the various properties we manage at the Journal-World, including award-winning sites like ljworld.com, kusports.com and lawrence.com. I also help to develop our news-oriented CMS -- Ellington -- and develop new features and applications for use both by internal projects and external clients.

• Freelance web developer

  Self-employed

  (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Internet industry)

  September 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 4 months)

  I did back-end and front-end development work for a variety of clients, mostly implementing sites using PHP and the Textpattern CMS, or Perl and the Scoop collaborative media framework. Notable clients included Washington and Lee University and Josh Marshall's TPMCafe.com, a major collaborative political discussion and weblogging site.

James Bennett’s Education

• Roanoke College

  BA , Philosophy , 1999 — 2003

  Activities and Societies:

  Theta Alpha Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa Club, VFIC Ethics team, College Bowl

Additional Information

James Bennett’s Websites:

• The B-List
• Django
• Lawrence Journal-World