Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier, Open Technologies Evangelist , Software Architect, Community Builder
Phone: +61 (0) 419 142 254
Email: c a m e r o n . s h o r t e r @ g m a i l . c o m
Blog: http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com
Key areas of expertise include:
Information architecture, communicating technical concepts in business terms.
Marketing, strategy, proposal writing, technical writing, persuasive writing, public speaking and presenting.
Management and business processes based on agile principles and CMMI standards.
Business analysis, developing business processes and pipelines.
Web based design and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).
Open Source Software development, community building and coordination.
Spatial Data Infrastructures, OGC standards and Open Source Geospatial Software.
Software Engineering for large, real time systems.
September 2017 - Present, Technology Demystifier, Learnosity
Learnosity build assessment widgets which are embedded in online education platforms.
Roles at Learnosity include:
Information Experience Architect: Design Learnosity's communication strategy.
Technical Writer: Write key documentation pieces, build writing guides, review documentation created by others.
Community Manager: Design and then support Learnosity's community engagement program.
January 2007 - August 2017, Software, Data and Geospatial Solutions Manager, LISAsoft
LISAsoft is a systems integration and software development company, with core experience in geospatial systems, OGC spatial standards development and implementation, web and mobile systems, Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), databases and data architectures, open source software, infrastructure and hardware.
Roles at LISAsoft focused on the software, geospatial, web, mobile and data side of the business including:
Business Development: Identify and bid for new business, lead proposal writing teams, present to customers, account management.
Project/Program Management: Set strategic direction, manage projects.
Systems Architecture: Designing systems making use of geospatial, the web, mobile, information and data design.
Business Analysis: Developing business process and marketing pipelines.
January 2002 - December 2006, Senior Engineer, Thales (previously ADI)
Filled a number of senior engineering roles, including:
Software engineering of helicopter software systems.
System engineering of ANZAC Ship communication system upgrades.
Process engineering, auditing and updating processes associated with project management, quality control, software development, requirements traceability, and staff training, all in line with CMMI best practices.
June 2000 - January 2002: Software Development Manager, Social Change Online
Managed a R&D team of 10 in a small rapidly expanding company. The team developed pilot and commercial inter-operable web-mapping systems based on OGC Standards.
Primary tasks in this role were:
Manager/Team Lead
System design and specification
Proposal Writing and Job Costing
Implementing processes
Also contributed with:
Coding (Java, JSP, XML, Perl, Javascript, HTML)
System Administration (Unix, Linux)
September 1991 - June 2000: Software Engineer/Technical Lead, CSC Australia - Defense division
Involved in the development of large scale, real time, Combat System software, becoming proficient with the full Software Development Life Cycle. Roles started with: coding (ada), debugging, unit testing, and later moved into design and team leading. Along the way I improved processes by developing numerous scripts (csh, sh, awk, perl, C, etc), and contributed toward the software development process (process development and documentation).
1991 Completed Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the University of New South Wales
Work related interests
For better or worse, I'm a geek to the core. In my spare time I contribute to open source software projects.
2005 - present: Active member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
The international OSGeo Foundation supports development and promotion of highest-quality open source geospatial software. Contributions to OSGeo include:
Selected as a founding charter member,
Served on the OSGeo Board,
Chaired the marketing committee, including setting up OSGeo Advocates,
Actively contributed to incubation and conference committees,
and co-authored strategic documents, processes, a Code of Conduct, and more.
2008 - present: Coordinate development of OSGeo-Live
One of the founders and coordinators of OSGeo-Live. Contributed to packaging, testing, documenting, community building, and advocacy.
OSGeo-Live provides a DVD/USB and Virtual Machine containing a comprehensive stack of GeoSpatial Open Source Software which can be trialled without installing any software. It is handed out at geospatial conferences, as well as being used as the basis for university workshops and tutorials. The Project Overview and Quickstart documentation has been translated into over 10 languages.
2009: Chaired the international conference for Free and Open Source Software for GeoSpatial - FOSS4G
Instrumental in bringing the FOSS4G conference to Australia.
Ran conference during the Global Financial Crisis and retained a modest profit at a time when similar conferences were forced to run at a loss,
Consolidated a comprehensive marketing pipeline drawing upon hundreds of community leaders and translators,
Initiated and co-author the FOSS4G Handbook.
2000 - 2008: Founder, Open Source Developer - Community Mapbuilder
Founded Mapbuilder, was responsible for the core design, wrote much of the code, helped build the user and developer community, then facilitated the merge of functionality into Mapbuilder's successor, OpenLayers.
Mapbuilder was a powerful, OGC standards compliant geographic mapping client which allowed community groups to build, integrate and publish maps using a web browser. It had a vibrant developer community of 10 developers and active user base. Mapbuilder was selected as a founding project for OSGeo, and it's WFS-T demo was bundled with Geoserver (an Open Source WMS/WFS-T server). Mapbuilder used AJAX, Javascript, XML, XSL, CSS.
2006 - 2009: Open Source Developer - OpenLayers.
Involved with the development of Vector Rendering, GML Rendering and integration of MapBuilder with OpenLayers and was a member of the OpenLayers Project Steering Committee.
2003 - 2004: Open Source Developer - Generguide
Founded and then led a Generic Software Developers' Guide. It contained content and tools to build a project's process documents. It used XML, XSL, Javascript and Simple Docbook.
2001 - 2003: Open Source Developer - GeoTools
One of the first developers of GeoTools and an original member of the Project Steering Committee. Contributed to the design, code and initiated the original Software Developers Guide.
Geotools is an open source, standards compliant, java based, geographic mapping library.
1999 - 2001: Open Source Developer - Active
Active was a social change website which provided a shared calendar, groups listing, and community edited news and discussion. It was used by cities around the world, and was adopted by the successful Independent Media Center.
I was one of the founders for this project, wrote much of the original calendar code (in perl) and set up the CVS and configuration scripts.
1999 - 2001: Linux System Administrator - Catalyst
Helped with the system administration of cat, a community ISP and server.
1999 - 2000: Open Source Developer - Mapserver
Started writing a data input module based on Mapserver. Made use of C, lex, yacc, gdb. This project didn't make it past alpha development.
1996 - 2000: Helped build the Critical Mass bicycle lobbying movement
Critical mass is an organised coincidence, where hundreds of cyclists happen to ride in the same direction, at the same time, through peak hour traffic, and in the process promote cycling by doing.
Helped coordinate rides and publicity events,
Helped build a vibrant, multi-talented and effective community,
Developed an extensive advocacy fact pack and gave hundreds of media interviews about the benefits of cycling.
Outdoors: Rock climbing, bush walking, canyoning, wind surfing, swimming and cycling.
Family Man: Father of 2 boys, scout leader, soccer coach, and husband.