About John
October 28th, 2003A little background about me ...
I was working at an engineering firm called Artron Products my last year of high school part time. I went away to college to the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. After a year of more skiing then studying, I decided to come home and went back to work for Artron. To make a long story short, I was asked by the owner to build a solution to make our internal documents (Quotes, Orders, Invoices) streamlined and integrate with a spreadsheet. We happened to have 2 pieces of software in house (Artron did not spend money), Ami Pro and Excel. Guess which software we used :) I wrote the entire system in Ami Pro, and linked it to Excel using DDE. I spent considerable time on the old Compuserve Ami Pro forums, asking questions and finally answering them as an L-Team member. Someone caught wind of this, and pointed 2 people in the SmartSuite group, Karen Clay and Amiee Kane, at Artron. Artron became a Lotus Business Partner soon after. I slowly got hooked into Notes, and started doing some development with it around version 3.3. Other Loti, such as Todd Dombrowski, Charlie Pappas, Marty Lechleider, Foy Shiver, and Peyton McManus helped push Artron into the Notes world. I have so much respect for all of these folks, because remember, I was 21/22 when many of these people were first starting to meet me. And they never let the age issue come up.
Artron created a Calendar Print application (one of the only companies to ever get an ISV license for Word Pro), a marketing slick application with a marketing agency in Chicago, and made a few attempts at connecting Domino with computer game servers (Kaos Control). Plus alot of custom apps for customers. Artron still was an engineering company at heart, and we focused on the annunciation and prevention systems of the day (security and fire alarm systems for large installations, such as jails). I was the development manager, the lead developer, the sales person, took the orders, and did the support. I did it all.
In 1998, I realized that I needed to grow, and Artron wasn't going to grow with me. So I started to look. After meeting John Pontefract at a Chicago meeting of the Penumbra Group and a few discussions with the other folks, I was hired as the 6th Boom Vang Consulting employee. We are all across the country back then, with 3 people in Portland. There I continued my focus on application integration, building solutions for companies that wanted to integrate Lotus Notes with other technologies. At this time, it was equally split amongst Lotus SmartSuite and Microsoft Office. I was at BVC for 18 months, and let me tell you, they are a great group of people. Being part of the group that won the 99 Rising Star Beacon award is something that I will never forget! But I was traveling way too much, and had begun to realize that I was a great consultant, but needed stronger pure development skills. I was completely self-taught, and was starting to realize my own limitations were really holding me back. So after working as a consultant with Synergistics in Cincinnati, where I worked with Rocky Oliver to build a Correspondence Engine for Prevail 4.8, I accepted an offer to work for them full time.
Synergistics was the best and worst of experiences. I got to work side by side with Henry Newberry and Rocky Oliver. Not only did they really push my skills, but I had one of the best work periods of my life. Battletech at Dave & Busters guys? Wings at BW3? But Synergistics had decided that the Lotus world was a dead-end, and they should grow out beyond that. I got to watch the company implode. First the founder left. Then Henry. Then Rocky. I left in December 2000, right as the big layoffs started. Whew.
I do not have any romantic stories about how I got to PSC. Frankly, they were one of three I got off Monster.com back then. I interviewed with them and realized that I could really learn alot from this team. What an understatement. PSC has been an amazing place to work for. Talk about growth on every level. PSC Group, LLC has 4 offices across the Midwestern US, and we have technology groups covering IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Java, and other technologies. The Notes/Domino team is really strong, and working with them has been an amazing experience. The people I work with here have taught me more than I ever thought possible. I still do alot of the application integration, at a higher level ... a 100% web based communications engine for Domino and Websphere is already underway!
I have been lucky to be part of the Lotus Community for a while, and many of you might have seen me speak at Lotusphere Orlando (96,97,99,00,02,03), Lotusphere Europe (99), or at Advisor Devcon (02). The 90's were on SmartSuite technology, with the 00's being about application integration focused on Microsoft Office. I have also written a few articles for Group Computing (ePro now) and a couple for Lotus Advisor. PSC also hosts the Lotus SmartSuite Developer Website. Yes, I admit, I still use Lotus Word Pro ...
States I have been too
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Countries I have been too
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or check our Venice travel guide
I was working at an engineering firm called Artron Products my last year of high school part time. I went away to college to the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. After a year of more skiing then studying, I decided to come home and went back to work for Artron. To make a long story short, I was asked by the owner to build a solution to make our internal documents (Quotes, Orders, Invoices) streamlined and integrate with a spreadsheet. We happened to have 2 pieces of software in house (Artron did not spend money), Ami Pro and Excel. Guess which software we used :) I wrote the entire system in Ami Pro, and linked it to Excel using DDE. I spent considerable time on the old Compuserve Ami Pro forums, asking questions and finally answering them as an L-Team member. Someone caught wind of this, and pointed 2 people in the SmartSuite group, Karen Clay and Amiee Kane, at Artron. Artron became a Lotus Business Partner soon after. I slowly got hooked into Notes, and started doing some development with it around version 3.3. Other Loti, such as Todd Dombrowski, Charlie Pappas, Marty Lechleider, Foy Shiver, and Peyton McManus helped push Artron into the Notes world. I have so much respect for all of these folks, because remember, I was 21/22 when many of these people were first starting to meet me. And they never let the age issue come up.
Artron created a Calendar Print application (one of the only companies to ever get an ISV license for Word Pro), a marketing slick application with a marketing agency in Chicago, and made a few attempts at connecting Domino with computer game servers (Kaos Control). Plus alot of custom apps for customers. Artron still was an engineering company at heart, and we focused on the annunciation and prevention systems of the day (security and fire alarm systems for large installations, such as jails). I was the development manager, the lead developer, the sales person, took the orders, and did the support. I did it all.
In 1998, I realized that I needed to grow, and Artron wasn't going to grow with me. So I started to look. After meeting John Pontefract at a Chicago meeting of the Penumbra Group and a few discussions with the other folks, I was hired as the 6th Boom Vang Consulting employee. We are all across the country back then, with 3 people in Portland. There I continued my focus on application integration, building solutions for companies that wanted to integrate Lotus Notes with other technologies. At this time, it was equally split amongst Lotus SmartSuite and Microsoft Office. I was at BVC for 18 months, and let me tell you, they are a great group of people. Being part of the group that won the 99 Rising Star Beacon award is something that I will never forget! But I was traveling way too much, and had begun to realize that I was a great consultant, but needed stronger pure development skills. I was completely self-taught, and was starting to realize my own limitations were really holding me back. So after working as a consultant with Synergistics in Cincinnati, where I worked with Rocky Oliver to build a Correspondence Engine for Prevail 4.8, I accepted an offer to work for them full time.
Synergistics was the best and worst of experiences. I got to work side by side with Henry Newberry and Rocky Oliver. Not only did they really push my skills, but I had one of the best work periods of my life. Battletech at Dave & Busters guys? Wings at BW3? But Synergistics had decided that the Lotus world was a dead-end, and they should grow out beyond that. I got to watch the company implode. First the founder left. Then Henry. Then Rocky. I left in December 2000, right as the big layoffs started. Whew.
I do not have any romantic stories about how I got to PSC. Frankly, they were one of three I got off Monster.com back then. I interviewed with them and realized that I could really learn alot from this team. What an understatement. PSC has been an amazing place to work for. Talk about growth on every level. PSC Group, LLC has 4 offices across the Midwestern US, and we have technology groups covering IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Java, and other technologies. The Notes/Domino team is really strong, and working with them has been an amazing experience. The people I work with here have taught me more than I ever thought possible. I still do alot of the application integration, at a higher level ... a 100% web based communications engine for Domino and Websphere is already underway!
I have been lucky to be part of the Lotus Community for a while, and many of you might have seen me speak at Lotusphere Orlando (96,97,99,00,02,03), Lotusphere Europe (99), or at Advisor Devcon (02). The 90's were on SmartSuite technology, with the 00's being about application integration focused on Microsoft Office. I have also written a few articles for Group Computing (ePro now) and a couple for Lotus Advisor. PSC also hosts the Lotus SmartSuite Developer Website. Yes, I admit, I still use Lotus Word Pro ...
States I have been too
create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide
Countries I have been too
create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide
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