Fluent in French: I was born in France and, to this day, am still a French citizen. I have spent all my early school life in the French educational system, from which I got out with a "baccalaureat" in social science and economics.
Fluent in English: While in college, I took upon myself a challenge that many considered ridiculous: to graduate from the UNC-Chapel Hill school of Journalism, one of the toughest journalism programs in the country. Through hard work and the support of very generous teachers, I was able to improve my English skills. I have since written for several publications in the United States.
Proficient in Spanish: The few Spanish classes I had taken in high school and college didn't seem to have much effect until I started travelling. Since then, I have realized that, while I can only speak in broken spanish fragments, I can read and listen to it easily.
Computing
Platform independent: I am well versed across multiple computing platforms including (but not limited to) Macintosh OS9 and OSX, Windows 3.x/95/98/ME/NT/CE/2000/XP/Vista, Linux, BSD, and Solaris. I've also done some work on the Palm OS and PocketPC platforms.
Application ready: I have also accomplished an expert degree of experience in many popular packages including the whole Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio. I also have basic skills in Macromedia Director, Macromedia Flash, and Adobe Photoshop. My almost 20 years of experience with computers have taught me that most desktop software packages can be learned in roughly a week.
Casual programmer: While I have not practiced as a programmer in a few years, I used to program in Basic and Pascal, C, C++, and Visual Basic. In the course of my reporting, I also had to train myself in JavaScript, VBScript, ASP, VRML, XHTML, XML, Perl, PHP, and basic Java development. I've increased my skills in a number of those areas over the year and am now considered an expert in a number of those languages.
Development Methodologies: I am intimately familiar with a number of development methodologies including XP, SDLC, and RUP and UCD.
Project Management: To date, I have project-managed the development of hundreds of sites, ranging from small static web sites to full online publishing platform, full internationalized e-commerce sites, and e-banking applications.
Internet Specific Skills
Product Development: Over almost 2 decades of Internet development, I've been involved in creating and launching almost 100 different web products.
Writing: I have written on a wide variety of Internet related subjects for both print and online publications. For more information on this, check out my published bibliography.
Forecasting: As part of my job as Executive Director of Development for iWORLD, I was responsible for forecasting what was hot and what was not on the Internet. Among the major trends I seized on early were the widespread acceptance of Java (February 94) and Microsoft's quick gain of browsershares (June 95). As a result of that track record, I have been quoted as an industry expert in such publications as The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, Business Week, Fortune Magazine, and The Village Voice. I've also appeared on television on CNNfn, the BBC, and LCI (French news channel).
Speaking: I have spoken at many events including Internet World, Web Market East, Web Developer, Web Interactive, and Comdex. In 1996 alone, I was a featured speaker at no less than 23 different events. Since then I've tried to relax my speaking schedule, focusing more of my energies on publishing thoughts on this site.
Community Involvement: In 1994 and 1995, I co-wrote the alt.internet.media-coverage FAQ with J.D. Falk. In 1992-1993, I ran the now-defunct Net-Info mailing list, which was the first internet mailing list solely focused on providing general Internet information related to beginners on the Internet. During the mid to late 90s, I was also involved in the development of several internet standards through involvements in the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Net Content Coalition. My involvement in the development of standards continues, especially in regards to efforts around RSS.
