Welcome to my work-related pages.
What I Do
I'm a web content manager with a broad background in working with large professional
sites, thanks to six years at ZDNet, one of the world's most popular web sites.
I offer clients an unusual depth of experience in corporate-level content management,
site usability, project management and development.
I'm employed part-time as the manager of the Human
Resources web site at MIT. I'm responsible for site architecture, design,
content management, development and maintenance, as well identifying and achieving
other technology-related goals in Human Resources.
Every once in a while, I take on external web consulting projects for small
or midsize businesses.
My Background
I started at the Ziff Davis publication PC Week (now called eWeek) in 1995, as part of the editorial layout team. I quickly apprenticed myself to the web team, taught myself HTML, and within a year accepted a position as an associate editor for the fast-growing PC Week Online. This was back when large-scale online content publishing was brand-new, and PC Week Online and its parent ZDNet were early leaders in the field.
As additional IT-oriented sites were added to our group's stable, I continued to deepen my content management and technology skills. Having a dual role as a technology resource with strong editorial capabilities is unusual in higher-level web positions but I loved it -- and I've continued to sit on that fence ever since.
When PC Week Online and other Ziff Davis Media sites parted ways with ZDNet,
we shifted focus and kept right on rolling along. We launched a comprehensive
IT site in late summer 2001 called Tech Update. The site almost seamlessly combined
content from ZDNet with content from CNET (which acquired ZDNet in fall 2000),
delivering to the user a rich and robust site featuring the best both companies
had to offer. I led the technical aspects of planning, developing and launching
the site for both coasts and both companies. Overall we enjoyed more than 1 million
page views per month on the business sites for which I was responsible.
The dot com bomb and CNET's inability to fully absorb ZDNet caught up with us in the fall, though, and I was part of a layoff that cut our Cambridge office in half. After a period of four months of being unemployed, during which I enjoyed long walks with the dogs but did not enjoy being in that particular job market, I took a contract position at a Houghton-Mifflin spinoff as the manager of a small team doing XML development.
Three weeks later I was offered a permanent spot at MIT, and my job hunt was over. I spent the first 10 months as part of Human Resources' Organization & Employee Development team, launching their web site and related e-learning efforts, and then shifted to managing the HR site full-time.
I'm enjoying the academic pace of life, the many neat aspects of working on a campus, and the chance to manage a thriving, critical resource for the MIT community.
If you like, view my résumé or my
writing sample.
