Personal Projects
I am very interested in applying my experience with information systems to develop solutions for groups that are interested in adopting new approaches to information technology.
Accordingly, I have led several projects to develop software and information systems for groups that would otherwise not have these options available.
HostedGroups Management Service
Development: June 2006 — Present (Active)
>> Go to the HostedGroups website
The HostedGroups Management Service allows an organization to manage membership, event-planning, credit-based activities, and other related tasks through an easy-to-use web interface. This service operates with a custom GUI and server-side operations powered by PHP and MySQL.
Work on an early version of HostedGroups began in June 2006 as a project designed to bring the Enloe Key Club into the 21st century with event scheduling and member management tools. The project was rebranded as HostedGroups in August 2008 after continued development with the Enloe High School Key Club.
To date, HostedGroups supports scheduling and management data for over 1,300 registered users and more than 1,400 events, along with attendance records for more than 40,000 hours of service to local communities.
New development continues with the cooperation of the Enloe High School Key Club and the Enloe High School Beta Club.
Open-Source Academic Elections
Development: June 2006 — August 2009 (On Haitus)
The OSAE project is intended to allow schools and organizations the ability to conduct secure, reliable election exercises using a standard web-based interface built upon the ExtJS framework.
Developed with support from the PHP-SAM project (see below), the OSAE project includes security as a top priority to address concerns with previously established election software packages.
The Academic Elections project has undergone intermittent development phases since 2007.
Development will continue during Summer 2010 as time permits.
PHP Simple Authentication Module
Development: June 2006 — August 2009 (On Haitus)
The open source PHP-SAM project promotes development of an easy-to-use module that can be used by PHP developers of all levels of experience to quickly create secure login functions for web applications.
PHP-SAM checks users against a secure database and lets web authors secure pages and content with easy-to-use integrability, while including developer interfaces to simplify security transactions.
An implementation of PHP-SAM is used to protect the Intranet portal of the Iowa State University Office of Student Financial Aid. Another adaptation of PHP-SAM is used to authenticate users for the HostedGroups Management Service.
The Simple Authentication Module project has undergone intermittent development since 2008.
Development will continue during Summer 2010 as time permits.
Raleigh Little Theatre Communications Enhancement
Development: August 2009 — Present (Active)
>> Go to the project page
The Raleigh Little Theatre Communications Enhancement aims to provide equipment, documentation, services, and support to the staff, volunteers, and patrons of Raleigh Little Theatre.
Planning and proposals are being conducted in several phases. The first stage of the overhaul will be an upgrade of computer network components, including core switches and routers, to increase the quality of service at the RLT complex.
The design and approval phases are complete; the deployment phase will commence in June 2010.
Raleigh Little Theatre 75th Anniversary History
Development: September 2009 — Present (Active)
The Raleigh Little Theatre 75th Anniversary History project intends to provide a unified communications medium for volunteers to compile an accurate, complete addendum to the history of the theatre.
This project is being implemented using MediaWiki software that allows volunteers to document histories of seasons, shows, and events at the theatre. Draft concepts have approved, and MediaWiki software has been installed on the RLT web server.
The software configuration and initial content publication is expected to be complete during June 2010.
Virtual Lab Assistant
Development: March 2010 — Present (Active)
Cisco Technical Assistance Center engineering support teams use lab equipment to reproduce and troubleshoot issues seen in customer deployments. Currently, use of lab equipment requires cabling and configuration, which reduces the timeliness of a solution.
Through the use of PHP, MySQL, and Layer 3 switching, the Virtual Lab Assistant seeks to minimize the effort needed to prepare lab equipment for testing. By doing so, I hope to increase the speed of setup and configuration for testing equipment.
The Virutal Lab Assistant is currently in development. A beta release is expected during Summer 2010.