Looking for old fryolator? Or really old fryolator?

John McGrath

john(at)wordie.org
(207) 332-8709 (m)

I enjoy working with smart, pleasant people to build interesting, useful software. I have ten years of experience building web applications and have architected high-volume systems in a variety of open-source languages.

Technologies

Ruby, Rails, MySQL, Apache, SVN, PHP, Un*x/Linux, MVC, OOP, Java/J2EE, Struts, Hibernate, Ant, CVS, XML, Tcl, Oracle, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Prototype

Experience

The New York Times

April 2008 - present
New York, NY

I'm a software engineer with Interactive News Technology, a group of developers working in the newsroom to build tools and applications in conjunction with reporters and editors, frequently on deadline.

Curbed.com

November 2007 - April 2008
New York, NY

Developer for startup blog network, building content management systems in Rails.

Wordie
TagsAhoy
Squirl

Founder and developer
January 2006 - present
Maine and New Jersey

Conceived and built Wordie (http://wordie.org), a collaborative social dictionary and the preeminent (and only!) social network for logophiles. Wordie runs on Rails, Apache, Mongrel, and MySQL, and is deployed using SVN and Capistrano. The site has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, USA Today, and others.

Co-founded and built Squirl (http://squirl.info), a social cataloging site for collectors . Runs on Rails (2.0.2, originally built on 0.14) and MySQL.

Conceived and built TagsAhoy (http://www.tagsahoy.com), an experimental API-based tag search engine, in PHP.

For all three of these sites I did all front and back end coding, database design, and html/javascript/css implementation. I was the sole developer on Wordie and TagsAhoy; Squirl was done in collaboration with a graphic designer.

LibraryThing

Developer
December 2006 - August 2007
Portland, ME

Developer for a social cataloging site for bibliophiles. LibraryThing.com serves tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of thousands of page views every day. I did most of the sysadmin and DBA duties (Linux servers, MySQL replication) in addition to new development (in PHP).

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Developer
December 2002 - January 2006
Woods Hole, MA

I designed the backend architecture of, and did a significant amount of the coding for, www.whoi.edu. Leading a team of developers I created a bespoke content management system to meet the unique needs of this 1,100 person research institution. Our CMS initially powered a few internal sites; it now underlies the entire WHOI web presence, internal and external.

Tools used include Java/J2EE, Struts, Hibernate, Oracle, Ant, CVS and Tomcat.

Thermo Electron Corporation

Developer
2001 - 2002
New York, NY

Developer for an enterprise-wide content management system and web site used by over 40 Thermo Electron business units worldwide. Work done primarily in Tcl and JSP, using Vignette V/5 and Oracle.

Vignette Corporation

Principal Consultant
2000 - 2001
New York, NY

Architect and developer for the professional services division of an enterprise CMS software vendor, leading teams of 2 to 8 developers from initial requirements gathering through post-launch and maintenance.

Engagements included the Wall Street Journal, JPMorganChase, Verizon, and BET.

StarMedia Networks

Developer
1999
New York, NY

Developer for a Spanish and Portuguese-language portal site.

Columbia Journalism Review

Developer
1997-98
New York, NY

Designed and built sites for the Columbia Journalism Review, the Pulitzer Prizes, and the duPont Awards.

The News Review

Reporter
1995-96
Santiago, Chile

Reporter for an English-language weekly in Santiago.

Bicycling for Awareness and Responsible Development (BARD)

Founder
1993-94
Los Angeles, CA to Tierra del Fuego

Planned and completed a 14,000 mile bicycling expedition through thirteen countries, raising money for a number of north-south development organizations.

Education

Columbia University
1996-97
New York, NY

MS, Graduate School of Journalism, concentration in New Media

Bowdoin College
1988-92
Brunswick, ME

BA, Latin American History, minor in Environmental Studies