If you are reading this, I thank you for taking interest and time from your busy schedule to do so. I've put the pertinent things up front and more indepth things after if you choose to read on.
Areas of Expertise
I am a results-oriented and innovative designer/developer with over 18 years experience in conceiving, designing, developing and implementing emerging information technologies for mid- and large-scale e-Government and e-Business applications as well as designing and developing solutions for the "little guy" -- that is, small companies and individuals, bringing top-echelon expertise and experience to bear that they otherwise could not afford.
I am an expert in structured markup (SGML/XML), and have been involved (through the government and IBM) with the W3C as early adopters and implementers of such standards as XHTML, CSS, WAI/WCAG, the Semantic Web, as well as the plethora of XML-based technologies: XML Schema, XPath, XLink, XSLT and XSL:FO.
I have development experience with J2EE applications (Web Services and SOA architecture), Microsoft .NET (C#, VB/VB.NET, J# and ASP.NET), Perl (though it has been forever and a day when static process-driven CGI apps were the norm) and more.
Design/Implementation/Business Philosophy
I am a stickler for standards. Why, you ask? Because in the long run, designing and implementing standards-compliant solutions lowers your TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and hence increases your ROI (Return on Investment) of Web development dollars. In short, you get more bang for the buck. Saving money is a concept that anyone can appreciate.
So while my bid is often not the lowest, you can be assured of a fair bid for the job. You placed a certain value on your work, just as I placed a certain value on my ability to do your work.
With the bid you get a huge value-add: All my clients get free advice/insights -- that "thinking outside the box" thing based on two decades of experience. You get options, therefore, that others won't -- or can't -- give. My insights are given gratis. Why? Because long-time experience has shown me that building bridges is usually more important than building a fatter bank account.
A Bit of Background
Education
A funny thing happened on the way to the Pulitzer Prize for Literature/Journalism ... I found there was more money in production.
I stumbled into this world of print publication just at the time when when information technology morphed from ink-on-paper into electronic media. So with a Journalism degree and minor in Computer Sciences, I stumbled into an environment where the embryonic world of electronic publishing and the Web was being envisioned and developed.
Over the years this combination of writing and technical expertise has stood me in good stead. I like to think of it as a unique blend of skills that most others cannot offer.
Getting Into This Stuff
I have been doing Web and SGML/XML application development and design for what seems like forever. Going on 19 years now, or to be precise: since early 1989 and Web-specific work since 1991. That often raises some eyebrows.
"Why, that's before the Web was implemented," some say with hubris. Superficially, that's true. However some, like myself, were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and got to work on this technology in its infancy.
So it was with me, landing at the US Government Printing Office at a time when information technology was exploding from mere ink on paper into electronic media -- including this "new thing" called the Internet and eventually Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web. So I went from being a journeyman printer/proofreader who knew something about computers (the big mainframes back in those days) to being invovled in methodologies of leveraging huge repositories of information to electronic media.
There were no tools in those days, we wrote our own. So I learned programming along the way, we had no choice really, we did what was necessary to get the job done. Hence, I call myself a "Defensive Programmer" -- I try to code responsibly and stay off the shoulders.
Needless to say, I've seen (mostly proprietary) technology implementations come and go -- but one thing has remained constant over the years: integrity of content (Congress and the Supereme Court get stuffy when you implement inadvertent changes to law) and its separation from the presentation layer. The government's involvement -- since they were contributors -- helped lead the W3C to adopting CSS, and eventually XML/XHTML and the concept of the Semantic Web, as well as implementing accessbility for the disadvantaged.
Because of my being in the right place at the right time, I was involved with the W3C's vision and technologies: often long before they went public. By becoming an early adopter and proponent, I have more experience with this "stuff" than most.
I have used this stuff in real world, mission-critical applications, I have taught this stuff, I have written courseware for this stuff, I have presented this stuff at international technical conferences. I have even served as technical lead in developing global certification tests for this stuff.
So why in blazes -- if I have all this expertise and experience -- am I here of all places? The answer is simple, really: I love this stuff and places like ScriptLance provide avenues for developing business contacts (so, yes Virginia, there is a business motivation behind it all).
The Web 2.0 Myth
In good conscience, I decided to add this section to my profile to better advise those coming to ScriptLance -- people like you -- in search of getting meaningful work done in a business-meaningful way.
To paraphrase Henry Ford, "Web 2.0 is bunk."
Every aspect of the so-called Web 2.0 has existed for some time ... the phrase is a buzz-word and is associated with no official standard. I highly encourage those in search of services here to read the Wikipedia entry at [login to view URL] before buying into the glitz and glamour of a meaningless phrase.
If you want state-of-the art Web presence and real-world solutions let's talk in a technology-meaningful way about implementing specific technologies with clear-cut meanings to solve your needs.
In a nutshell, "Web 2.0" is hype. In reality, "Web 1.0" already encompasses what "2.0" purports, it's how you package the components that has meaning.
In Conclusion
You actually made it this far? I thank you for taking the time, then, to get to know me and my motivations, and I look forward to working with you.
Brian Milbank
Chief Information Technology Officer
XTechnology Associates, Inc.
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"Excellence is a sublime word: you cannot achieve more, you should never wish achieve less." -- paraphrase of Robert E. Lee quotation.
