Steve Burnett

Steve Burnett

Information Developer III at HP

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Past

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Education
  • North Carolina State University
  • North Carolina State University
  • North Carolina State University
Recommended
Steve has 19 recommendations 19 people have recommended Steve
Connections
127 connections
Industry
Information Technology and Services
Websites

Steve Burnett’s Summary

I am a technical writer and system administrator in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. I have authored, co-authored, and edited several books on various operating systems and related topics. Much of my career has focused on documenting various systems management applications, including Tivoli, Opsware and HP products, as well as multiplatform environments such as SAS.

I helped start the technical social networking groups Internetworkers, TriLUG, and TriJUG here in the Research Triangle Park area in the mid-1990s, was on the NC System Administrators Steering Committee for eight years, and I have maintained a list of Technical User Groups in RTP as a public resource continuously over that time.

Much of my career I have focused on writing task-based procedural documentation, or "what do you want to do and how to do it". Working as a system administrator aided me in understanding how best to write about what sysadmins do to a reading audience of similarly-knowledgeable people, and writing such baseline books as Mac OS X Panther in 10 Steps or Less kept me aware of audiences with different backgrounds and levels of experience.

I am interested in information, primarily in how to safely archive and efficiently find and access the data when you want it. This leads me to an interest in usability testing and interaction design.

I am also fascinated by the varying approaches of the social networking applications to the problem of how to build communities of people and what to do once the community exists.

I perform improvisational music and create sound art under the name Subscape Annex, working in the areas of ambient soundscapes, field recording and phonography using primarily analog electronics and signal processing.

Steve Burnett’s Specialties:

task-based procedural documentation, information architecture, structured documentation, Internet applications, systems administration, systems integration, SGML, XML, usability testing, user research, interaction design, question analysis, Linux, OS X

Steve Burnett’s Experience

  • Information Developer

    Hewlett-Packard

    (Public Company; HPQ; Computer Hardware industry)

    November 2007 — April 2009 (1 year 6 months)

    (HP acquired Opsware effective November 2007.)
    Creating install, user, and administration guides for HP SAR (Service Automation Reporter, formerly Opsware OMDB) and HP Live Network (formerly TON) on Linux, Solaris, VMware, and Windows platforms. Sole documentation support for OMDB (1.0, had contributing author for the 1.0.2 release), SAR (7.0, 7.50), and HP Live Network connector (1.0 to 1.30). Web QA for the HP Live Network Portal.
    Tools: FrameMaker 7, WebWorks, ClearCase, subversion, RapidSVN, Eclipse, Bugzilla, HP Quality Center, Collabnet, BIRT Report Designer, WebEx, Microsoft SharePoint.

  • Senior Technical Writer

    Opsware

    (Public Company; OPSW; Computer Software industry)

    January 2007 — November 2007 (11 months)

    Created install, user, and administration guides for Opsware OMDB (Operational Management Database) and TON (The Opsware Network) on Linux, Solaris, and Windows platforms. Worked with Technical Support on content management system selection and setup. Hired into HP as part of the acquisition of Opsware.
    Tools: FrameMaker 7, WebWorks, ClearCase, subversion, Bugzilla, Quality Center, Collabnet, BIRT Report Designer, WebEx.

  • Technical Writer

    SAS

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    November 2005 — January 2007 (1 year 3 months)

    (Contract through Apex Systems)
    SAS Technical Support: Internal and external documentation, including assisting engineers preparing for patent applications.
    Tools: SAS, SIRIUS, SOS.
    SAS R&D: Internal and external documentation, primarily internal white papers for SAS R&D.
    Tools: SAS, WebLogic, Xythos, SQL.

  • Systems Administrator

    SAS

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    March 2005 — September 2005 (7 months)

    (Contract through Apex Systems)
    SAS Solutions: Provided Linux, Windows, Solaris, and HP-UX server system administration, technical support, and internal training for an ASP (application service provider) team. Developed internal procedural documentation for the system administration team, assisted in project management.
    Tools: Linux, Solaris, Veritas NetBackup, puTTY, vi, Hummingbird Exceed, Atlassian JIRA, Visio, Big Brother (system/network monitor), PERC.

  • Technical Solutions Manager

    IBM

    (Public Company; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

    August 2003 — December 2004 (1 year 5 months)

    (Contract through Analysts International)
    Researched and developed documentation for IBM Director, IBM Remote Deployment Manager, and IBM ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit systems management applications on Linux and Windows 2000. Sole author IBM ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit. Managed doc teams on a project basis.
    Tools: FrameMaker 7, Frame2000, ID Workbench, CMVC, Lotus Notes, Visual SlickEdit.

  • Author

    Self Employed (Self-employed)

    (Self-Employed; Writing and Editing industry)

    1995 — 2004 (9 years)

    Author or Co-author:
    Mac OS X Panther in 10 Steps or Less, Wiley. 2004.
    Mac OS X Bible, Jaguar Edition, Wiley. 2003.
    Windows 2000 and UNIX Integration Guide, Osborne/McGraw-Hill. 2000.
    Special Edition: Using Linux, Fifth Edition, Que. 1999.
    Special Edition: Using Linux, Fourth Edition, Que. 1998.
    Windows NT Backup and Recovery, Osborne/McGraw-Hill. 1998.
    Windows NT and UNIX Integration Guide, Osborne/McGraw-Hill. 1997.
    Netscape Navigator 3 Starter Kit (PC), Que. 1996.
    Netscape Navigator 3 Starter Kit (Mac), Que. 1996.
    Netscape Navigator 3 Starter Kit, Que. 1996.
    Special Edition: Using Netscape 3, Que. 1996.
    Special Edition: Using Netscape 2, Que. 1995.
    Client/Server Programming with RPC and DCE, Que. 1995.

    Technical Editor:
    Ball, W., Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, Que. March 1998.
    Gunter, D., and J. Tackett, Special Edition: Using Linux, Third Edition, Que. 1997.

  • System Administrator

    webslingerz Inc.

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    September 1999 — December 2001 (2 years 4 months)

    Provided Macintosh, Linux, Windows and Solaris system administration and technical support. DNS, mail, web, application server, router (IOS) and firewall administration. Managed team of writers authoring the online help for the smartASK online survey tool. Responsible for usability testing, cross-browser compatibility (created testing setup), bug tracking, other development and QA testing issues for smartASK web survey tool. Co-authored client proposals, met with clients as pre-sales technical evaluation.
    Tools: Linux, Macintosh OS, Apache, bind, Oracle, Cisco IOS.

  • Documentation Developer

    SAS

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    February 1998 — September 1999 (1 year 8 months)

    (Contract through AdvaCon.)
    Created internal online documentation for core SAS source code libraries. Developed both printed documentation and online help for database connectivity products, primarily SAS/ACCESS Interface to [SAP] R/3. Provided testing and troubleshooting of online help for the SAS System. Also created internal developer documentation for C and C++ libraries for the SAS platform.
    Tools: SAS 7, SAS 8, HP-UX, vi, C, C++.

  • Senior Systems Test Engineer

    GTE Government Systems

    (Public Company; GTE; Defense & Space industry)

    July 1997 — January 1998 (7 months)

    (Contract through TechAid.)
    Developed systems test procedures for the ISYSCON integrated communications network management system. Assisted publishing test procedures and status reports.
    Tools: Solaris, Remedy ARS, Interleaf.

  • Course Developer

    Tivoli

    (Public Company; IBM; Computer Software industry)

    September 1996 — July 1997 (11 months)

    Developed training courses for the Tivoli Management Environment (TME/10) systems management environment. Authored the Installation and Configuration of TME/10 five-day training course for UNIX and Windows system administrators. Assisted in developing Tivoli's education program curriculum.
    Tools: TME/10, Framemaker, Solaris, vi.

  • Information Developer - System Administration

    BSG

    (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

    April 1996 — August 1996 (5 months)

    (BSG acquired Imonics in the summer of 1996.)
    Wrote installation and operation manuals using FrameMaker for system, network, and database administrators of client/server transaction processing systems on Solaris networks. Helped design an SGML-based documentation database system.
    Tools: FrameMaker, ForeHelp, DCE, CDE (Common Desktop Environment), Docbook.

  • Documentation Developer

    Imonics

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    November 1995 — April 1996 (6 months)

    (Contract through TechAid - hired fulltime at expiration of contract.)
    Authored several task-oriented online help guides and printed-format procedural guides for end-users of custom client/server medical billing systems on Solaris and DCE. Defined corporate online help development procedures and trained other writers in online help authoring. Assisted the Editing and Standards Department in defining corporate documentation standards. Conducted usability testing of user interface designs. Wrote an online tutorial for HTML frames development for the Documentation Group.
    Tools: FrameMaker, ForeHelp, DCE, CDE (Common Desktop Environment), Docbook.

  • Technical Editor

    RTware

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    February 1993 — November 1995 (2 years 10 months)

    Designed, wrote, edited, published, and maintained complete documentation set (multiple volumes, approximately 900 pages) and online help for the ControlCalc programmable logic controller (PLC) emulator development environment. Developed and implemented QA testing program for the development environment.
    Tools: MS Word, OS/9 and OS/9000 operating systems, vi, G-Windows (X-Windows clone).

  • Instructor

    Wake Technical Community College

    (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

    September 1994 — November 1994 (3 months)

    Created and taught a ten-week course in the classroom on artificial linguistics, (Continuing Education Department, Foreign Languages section). Tools: MS Word, PageMaker.

  • Report Writer

    Entropy Environmentalists

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    November 1991 — December 1992 (1 year 2 months)

    Wrote and edited air emissions quality test protocols and reports.
    Tools: MS Word, Windows.

Steve Burnett’s Education

  • North Carolina State University

    M.S. , Technical Communication , 1989 — 1991

  • North Carolina State University

    B.A. , History , 1984 — 1989

    Archaeological fieldwork summer of 1987 in the Middle East at the El-Lejjun Roman Legionary fortress, Kingdom of Jordan.

    Activities and Societies:
    judo (team), archery

  • North Carolina State University

    B.A. , Economics , 1984 — 1989

Additional Information

Steve Burnett’s Websites:

Steve Burnett’s Interests:

information architecture, Internet technologies, social networking applications, field recording, improvisational music, audio processing, typography

Steve Burnett’s Groups:

USENIX, SAGE, ISSA, Leonardo/ISAST, HASTAC, SLSA, SOTA, TriJUG, TriLUG, IGDA

  •    International Game Developers Association
  •    Triangle Linux Users Group
  •    Information Systems Security Association (ISSA)
  •    Technical Writing Professionals
  •    USENIX Association
  •    SAGE: The USENIX SIG for Sysadmins
  •    North Carolina State University Alumni Group
  •    Scrum Practitioners
  •    Refresh - Promoting design, technology,and usability.
  •    Triangle Tweetup
  •    Social Carolina
  •    Social Media Today
  •    User Experience
  •    Tweeple
  •    Linking Raleigh, NC
  •    HP Connections
  •    Opsware Professionals
  •    North Carolina Systems Administrators
  •    TriJUG
  •    Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC)
  •    Innovation in RTP Speaker Series
  •    RTPconnected
  •    TechShop Durham

Steve Burnett’s Honors:

(not awards, but not a good fit elsewhere on this profile template)

Emergency Medical Technician, North Carolina certified (1992-2000)

Multi-Vendor Distributed Network Management Training (IBM/Tivoli, APC) March 1997 (5-day course)

SAS 9.1 Foundation Hands-On Training for Multiple Machines (SAS 9.1.3 Foundation and BI Server Platform Installation and Configuration, May 2006 (4-day course)

Seminars:
Presenting Data and Information with Edward Tufte, 30 January 2004

Pushing Boundaries in Information Visualization, RENCI, 13 September 2008

(TriUPA seminar) Effective (UI) Prototyping with Todd Zaki Warfel, 15 September 2008

(TriUPA seminar) Reboot Your Work (GTD/43 Folders) seminar with Matthew Cornell, 13 January 2009

Computer Management Group regional conference, Raleigh NC, 24 April 2009

Triangle Game Conference, 29-30 April 2009, Raleigh

(TriUPA seminar) Sketching for Interaction Design with David Malouf, 24 June 2009

Steve Burnett’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

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

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