In roughly 25 years since I graduated from University of Wisconsin, my career has included a lot of challenges and accomplishments. At every stage, I’ve poured on 100% of my passion and drive to deliver the best possible results. Here are some highlights in chronological order:
CompuServe. My first software industry job. I was a Programmer/Analyst on the small team developing the CompuServe Information Service (CIS), one of the first consumer online services ever developed. I was the principal developer of the CIS authoring system. When I started there in 1981, the important products were newspapers and stock quotes. We published the New York Times and about ten other daily newspapers. We also had a partnership with the company that became eTrade. While I was there, Sandy Trevor developed CB Simulator in one weekend. CB was the first online chat application. It instantly became the most popular application on CIS and changed everything.
Living Videotext. I left CompuServe in 1983 and moved to Boston MA to join a startup developing an online system for headhunters and job seekers. During that stay in Boston, I met my wife Alice Lankester on a blind date. Around the same time the company folded, I got a call from my brother Dave Winer and we decided that I would come to Silicon Valley and join Living Videotext (LVT), the company he founded. At LVT, I ported Think Tank from DOS to the Macintosh. When it shipped in June 1984, Think Tank was one of the earliest ever non-Apple applications for the Macintosh platform.
Symantec. I became Vice President of Engineering at LVT and we shipped a series of Macintosh and PC products culminating with MORE in 1986. After four years of seven day work weeks, we sold the company to Symantec in 1987. I stayed with Symantec for about a year, as VP Engineering in one Symantec division. At the end of 1988 I left Symantec to take a break and then start my consulting company, Big Chief Partners.
US West Communications. My first major consulting assignment was developing the online advertising sales system for US West. At the time, US West was one of the seven Baby Bell companies formed after the original break up of AT&T. This was my first experience developing a scalable online system from the ground up. I also had to merge the database schemas from three independent telephone companies. Right after finishing work for US West, I began developing Stat Ref for Teton Data Systems in Jackson WY. By comparison, developing Stat Ref was a walk in the park and I managed to find time for lots of skiing and hiking in the Tetons. I also met and started collaborating with one of my best friends, Chris Meisl.
PowWow. While managing my growing consulting business, I worked nights and weekends on “PowWow”, growing out of my interest in graphics applications and my work on the presentation component of MORE at LVT. I wanted to make something more adaptable and automatic. PowWow uses shapes and connectors to make drawings that automatically adapt to screen/window changes and embedded content changes.
Apple Computer. In 1998 I was awarded a patent for PowWow. Shortly after that, I licensed PowWow to Apple Computer and I used PowWow to develop an OpenDoc container and layout engine that was incorporated into the Mac OS. Unfortunately it didn’t gain traction commercially or with developers so it lives on in obscurity. Also for Apple, I managed the team that developed Software Dispatch, an online shopping system. My team used a novel approach to develop Software Dispatch simultaneously on the Macintosh and Windows platforms.
Advanstar Communications. In November 1999, my team started work for Advanstar Communications. At that time, Advanstar was an offline publisher looking to build 20 online communities targeting their vertical markets. Advanstar was entering into a partnership with PurchasePro and also engaging Icon Media Labs as a service provider. Since Advanstar had little online experience, they hired my team to manage this three-way partnership through its complete lifecycle. We negotiated contracts, conducted due-diligence, defined deliverables and managed development teams. We also worked with Advanstar’s legal team when disputes arose and resolved them in Advanstar’s favor.
Working for Venture Capitalists. During our engagement with Advanstar, we developed a trusted relationship with Jim Alic, Advanstar’s Chief Operating Officer. Jim was responsible for growing Advanstar through acquisitions. Jim frequently engaged my team to conduct due diligence on target companies. In earlier stage efforts, our job was to help pick the best candidate from 2 or 3 competing companies. In later stage efforts, we conducted deep evaluations of technology, products and teams to reduce risk. As we developed more experience doing these projects for Advanstar, we also did similar evaluations for many venture capitalists and investment banks in Silicon Valley, New York and London.
Philips Semiconductors. In September 2001, after spending roughly six months learning about RFID, we were hired by Philips to develop the WebLink eCommerce system based on Near Field Communications. The WebLink system enables users to make purchases by simply waving an RFID-enabled credit card near the point of sale. WebLink was a precursor to commercial systems such as MasterCard PayPass. We built WebLink end-to-end including security software running on the RFID tags, the reader interfaces and a scalable server transaction system. The system was a key component in driving Philips partnerships with Sony, Samsung, Nokia and Visa International.
RFID Industry Consulting. While developing WebLink, I continued to expand my RFID knowledge and provided strategic advice to several RFID startups and established companies looking to capitalize on RFID emergence. I also published a series of RFID whitepapers focusing on middleware software systems for connecting RFID to the enterprise. I presented solo and panel presentations at numerous RFID conferences and expositions.
Determina. In April 2004, I started working for Determina, vendors of Vulnerability Protection Suite (VPS), an enterprise application that protects servers and desktops from vulnerabilities in their installed software. VPS includes a Web-based management console that can control all the servers in an enterprise. At Determina, I am responsible for designing and implementing the Web-based user experience for VPS. Recently I've taken on the added responsibility of developing Determina Personal Edition (PE) which extends Determina protection to consumer desktops.
