I graduated in 1985 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a B.S. degree in Computer Science and a B.S. degree in Philosophy. I've spent most of the twenty-three years since then working as a Computer Programmer and Software Architect. I was very interested in Artificial Intelligence, and worked in that area as well as some government proposals at my first job for Grumman Aircraft Systems from 1985 through 1988. I then moved to Boston to take a job with Index Technology (later Intersolv) where I was a Project Leader on the Index VT, a platform independent windowing system and WYSIWYG graphics programming environment. In 1991, I joined a startup called Open Data Corporation, then in 1995 I began a stint as a contract Systems Architect working on the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet.
In 2001 I joined another startup called Life FX, that made digital human beings for Internet email (FaceMail) and CRM applications. We also developed technology that Ray Kurzweil demonstrated as his Ramona female alter ego at the 2001 TED Conference. I subsequently returned to consulting, and then founded a business selling specialty products to particular niche markets on the web. These included a particular type of glass urn called a Resting Orb.
In 2006 I joined WebEx as Chief Software Architect for the WebOffice online collaboration suite, a C# and XSLT .NET-based “Software as a Service” product with 325,000 users. In 2007 WebEx was acquired by Cisco Systems, and I began to work as an Architect on the new Connect project, designing and writing AJAX, JavaScript and Java code on a platform for developing collaborative Web 2.0 applications.