David Rolsky

As part of a growing startup, I worked on numerous projects at Socialtext. I created our first automated deployment system, as well as our first automated tests. I also performed on-site field engineering for a major customer, integrating our appliance into their custom SSL certificate authentication system.

One of the larger projects I worked on was to move some of our data storage from the filesystem to a Postgres database, providing data integrity, increased query-ability, and much improved speed of data retrieval. Along the way, I also implemented a simple but flexible ACL system, and added real authorization checks, plugging numerous security holes.

One of my first consulting jobs was with Marigold Technologies, working on their salesperson-focused CRM, ContactBook. I was initially hired to do code review of the existing system. After this was completed, I helped them re-architect the code for greater scalability, and added a number of features. Along the way, I mentored another programmer on the new system architecture.

The most challenging of these was to add per-client custom fields for contacts. The end result was a highly customizable system for end users which still maintained strong data integrity constraints and allowing for quick searches over large sets of contacts.

I've also worked for Kineticode setting up the Bricolage CMS for several Kineticode customers.

More recently, I worked on a simple mini-CMS for Native Americans in Philanthropy. This CMS allows them to control the dynamic portions of their web site, such as job listings and news. It is also integrated with a membership management CRM I wrote, allowing new members to sign up and pay online.

Please see my list of clients for further details.

I was responsible for the design and development of an online system into which non-profit organizations were able to enter data about themselves. This data was browse-able by potential donors, who could donate directly to the non-profits via a shopping cart.

Clients were provided co-branded access to the system, and had an administrative interface from which they could view statistics, filter non-profits shown on their version of the site, and select featured projects for their site.

In addition, I also created a development environment which allowed both the designers (using Macs) and developers (using either Windows or GNU/Linux) to share a CVS repository and to run their own copy of the site.

The site was mostly created using Mason, with a little PHP (not my work), and MySQL as the database. My data modeling tool Alzabo was used in the development of the schema for the application, as well as for communicating with the database.

I was involved in the design and implementation of a Unix version of O'Reilly's WebBoard, which had begun life as a VB web application for Windows. This was not a port in a strict sense, as the "ported" version was in Perl. In addition, many new features were added to this version which were never present in the Windows version.

The ported application used Apache and mod_perl as its platform, along with a database back end capable of using any one of four databases, MySQL, Postgres, Sybase, or Oracle.

There were a number of challenges while working on this application, including creating an installer that would seamlessly use an existing Apache/mod_perl installation or install these components from scratch. The installer also had to handle installing the software on the file system and creating the schema for the chosen DBMS. I also worked on the DBMS communication layer in order to minimize duplicated code, taking the original Sybase code and reworking it to support all four platforms. This product also supported multiple authentication models, a very full featured and customizable interface, and a powerful web interface for administration.

As part of a three person team, I participated in rewriting a highly dynamic web site from scratch. This included redesigning the database and rewriting the code to run under mod_perl. The final result was much faster, more maintainable and more extensible. It also allowed for greater depth of reporting, as the new design was capable of storing more information on site traffic and how the site was being used.

As a developer at Digital River, I was involved in a number of different projects, including the development of a simple webapp call tracking system for Customer Service, programs for exchanging data between Digital River and its clients, and a webapp providing a real-time interface for clients and partners.

From June of 1999 onwards, I was responsible for the maintenance and refinement of all shared Perl code used by my team. In addition, I was the primary interface with other development teams, responsible for the architecture of all new projects, code reviews, and mentoring other programmers.