Barry Jaspan

Contact Barry Jaspan or visit my web site.

I am a professional computer programmer and serial entrepreneur that has founded four successful start-up software companies in the Boston area. I have extensive experience with web design and e-commerce, network and cryptographic security, product development, and engineering management.

Development: I specialize in complex sites that require extensive use of existing Drupal core and contributed functionality, custom coding/module development, importing/migration of existing data, and standards-compliant (X)HTML/CSS and JavaScript theme implementation. I deliver high quality, professionally constructed code with thorough design documentation.

Training: I provide on-site or online Drupal developer and administrator training. Instead of hiring outside contractors to build your mission-critical web site, I will train your existing in-house web developers and administrators everything they need to know to build and run it themselves.

My major Drupal core contribution is the Schema API, the new database abstraction system for Drupal 6, and the Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 database update functionality. I have contributed numerous bug fixes and improvements to many areas of Drupal core. I also maintain the Persistent Login module that provides a highly secure "Remember Me" login checkbox and a variety of other modules.

Recent clients include:

• The Virginian Pilot newspaper and HamptonRoads.com. These regional news and lifestyle sites are switching from a custom system to Drupal. I taught a one-week Drupal Developer Training for their in-house developers, covering in-depth: CCK, Views, Taxonomy, Actions, Workflow, scheduling and calendaring, the Editions architecture, module development, the hook system, database layout, themeing techniques, and more. Their new site is scheduled to launch in September 2007.
• New York Observer. This prominent New York City newspaper switched away from a proprietary CMS and relaunched its web site using Drupal. The site features a gorgeous theme which pays careful attention to typography and whitespace. My primary tasks included the extremely detailed and demanding visual theme and migrating the Observer’s archive of 26,000 articles from three separate legacy systems into a single consistent Drupal database. A detailed write-up of the site architecture is available.
• WheresSpot. My tasks included: a complex HTML/CSS theme based on a Photoshop design from their graphic artists; Classified Ads with a multi-stage workflow and e-commerce integration; paid user accounts with monthly or annual subscriptions including collecting payment information during user registration and automatic rebilling each month/year; migrated legacy data into Drupal.
• The MSNews site of the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. I converted their existing site from Slash to Drupal. The site itself is fairly basic (mostly just stories and comments), but I implemented a Drupal theme to match their existing site, implemented a thorough Slash to Drupal data migration tool that preserves users, stories, blogs, topics, and comments, and also implemented the first secure "Remember Me" (Persistent Login) feature for Drupal.
• The Dachshund Rescue Web Site. I re-implemented this site in Drupal to replace a large collection of hand-edited HTML pages.

For a complete resume, references, or other information, please contact me or visit my web site.