kbell's picture

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Posts on Drupal.org
Starred projects

Location United States
Current Role(s): 
Founder and CEO, Gotham City Drupal
Gotham City Drupal, LLC
IRC: 
kbell
Slack: 
GothamCityDrupal

Professional Info

Companies Worked For
Gotham City Drupal, Dr. Jerry Perrich, Count Me In, Retailer Networks, Gift and Home Channel, Bulldog Solutions, ERCOT, KPMG Consulting, Apple Computer, Chariot Communications, Interrobang! Productions, Dark Horse Comics, Visa, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, American College of Rheumatology, University of Washington, Target, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M), Pfizer, Norwest Bank, Gardenburger, University of Washington Graduate School of Nursing
Industries Worked In: 
web development, graphic design, digital strategy, cause marketing, social networking, e-commerce, online community development, healthcare, BtoB, BtoC, marketing, advertising, IT, financial services, nonprofit, NGOs, media and entertainment, UGC

Personal Info

Other languages: 
English

On Drupal.org for 15 years 10 months

Bio: 

Summary:
- 14+ years Drupal experience, in full-stack development, including everything from UI/Design to system administration / long-term support and everything Drupal in-between. I develop on Mac OS X, but have extensive PC and Linux (Ubuntu) experience as well. I am a themer, site builder and custom module developer
- 15+ years of Digital Strategy, User Experience, Information Architecture, Design, Usability, Coding and Production Experience using best practices and coding standards (and innovation where necessary); specialties include Communities, Agency and Healthcare industries
- 20+ years of development experience, using *html, xml, css, Flash, Actionscript, Javascript, LAMP, WSDL, MySQL, SQL, Oracle, AJAX, Design Patterns, IDEs and other standard enterprise development and coding protocols
Most recent sites:
http://www.findknowdo.com
http://www.as-coa.org
http://www.businessforafairminimumwage.com
http://www.paladinahealth.com
http://www.ideablade.com
http://www.tbh.org
http://www.empirepaintball.com
http://www.jtsplatmaster.com
http://www.bollyshake.com
http://www.healthcaregoesmobile.com (Intel Health)
http://www.bulldogsolutions.com

Vertical Market / Industry Expertise:
- 15+ years Internet Community/(micro)Blogging/Social Networking
- 15+ years IT, Web, Interactive, Advertising Agency and Marketing Communications
- 12+ years Entertainment, Music, Sound Design/Voiceover and Video
- 10+ years Printing and Publishing
- 8+ years Education, LMS and Corporate Training
- 8+ years Health Care
- 6+ years Financial Services

SKILLS
- Digital Strategy, Information Architecture, User Experience, Usability and User Testing, Analytics and Metrics, Graphic Design, Systems Analysis and Architecture, Business Analysis (BA) and Business Information (BI)
Web Application Development, Testing
- Project Management/Training and Education
- Technical/Educational/Business writer
- Video/Audio Editing and Sound Design and Production skills
- Strong Leadership/Communication skills
- Strong logic skills/algorithmic thinker
- I LOVE Open Source projects and environments, and have a passion for Web/DevOps

TOOLS, HARDWARE and SOFTWARE
Graphics: Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator
RIA: Flash/Actionscript 3
IDEs/frameworks: eclipse, Visual Studio, Prototype
Animation: Maya, 3D Studio Max, Blender
Video: Final Cut Pro, Boris fX, Motion, After Effects
CMS/LMS – Drupal, Moodle, Joomla, WordPress
DevOps: CSS, Javascript (Design Patterns, prototype), Ruby/Rails, LAMP, APIs (JSON), PHP, XML, DHTML, oXygen, xmlspy, SciTE, DOpus, MS Network Analyzer, Notepad, S/FTP
WebOps/Hosting: Pantheon specialist / beta tester
SEO/SEM: Google Analytics, AdSense, AdWords, Webalyzer, WebTrends, Omniture, Google Site Optimizer, Google Webmaster Tools, Drupal SEO specialist
Source Control: Git, GitHub, Bitbucket, CVS, PVCS, SourceSafe, SVN
OS: PC, Mac, Linux/Unix
Database: SQL, MySQL, Mariah, Access, Oracle (CMSDK)
Web 2.0: XHTML, XML, AJAX, WSDL, DOM, APIs, semantic web
Web3: emerging blockchain technologies and software
Print: Quark Xpress, InDesign, InPosition
Sound: Ableton Live, ProTools, Reason, Logic
Project Management, Testing and Documentation: Project Libre, Litmus, Browserstack, SimpleTest, Microsoft Office, Office 360, Visio, Project, AxureRP (rapid prototype tool), Basecamp, Jira, redmine, Bugzilla
Social Networking: Snapchat, Twitter, Slack, Instagram, LinkedIn, Blogs (various), Meta, YouTube, etc

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Drupal Association
Freelancer's Union (NYC local)
Information Architecture Institute (IAI) Member #6621 national
Usability Professionals Association (UPA) national, local
Interaction Design Association (IxDA) national, local

CONTINUING EDUCATION
Completed 20 CPEs with KPMG in ‘01 in theoretical mastery of emerging concepts such as xslt/xml, UML, WAP and wireless internet & mobile commerce solutions, best-practices, agile, iterative development methods and MS integrated enterprise solutions.
Macromedia Advanced Application Development (Flash/Actionscript) courses
Acquired 500 CEUs since becoming a Texas Certified Educator in 2003
I am an aggressive lifelong learner, and am constantly acquiring new skills and information of both personal interest and relevance to my career. I am a member of many technology-focused User Groups and attend meetups often.

EDUCATION
Bachelor's Degree, Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, TX – Graduated 2003
SBEC Standard Texas Educator’s Certificates: Trades and Industrial Certification with endorsements in Media Technology, Advertising, Graphic Arts and Diversified Career Prep.
(CATE) Technology Education certificate (January, 2005)
Media Technology, Advertising Design, Graphic Arts, DCP (June 2004)
Technology Applications certificate (December, 2004)
SBEC Standard Teacher's Certificate, Austin, TX - 5/2003 - 5/2010
CATE Alternative Certification Program, Austin, TX * 6/2002 - 6/2003 Region XIII Certification
Career and Technology Education (CATE) Trades and Industrial endorsements
Gifted and Talented Certificate (2006, Austin ISD)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Founder and Lead Developer, Gotham City Drupal, New York, NY 11/15/2010 - present http://gothamcitydrupal.com
Collaborative, Community-focused Drupal development consultancy, specializing in Healthcare, NFP/NGOs, Community sites and custom development. Gotham City Drupal is a Pantheon Agency Partner.

Director of Digital Strategy – Count Me In. New York, NY 3/1/2010 – 1/15/2011 (http://countmein.org)
Responsible for advising C-level executives on all the organization's digital strategies; responsible for ongoing development of the company online presence(s) - webmaster, design manager and lead developer: http://makemineamillion.org

Director of Digital Strategy – Melity Consulting. New York, NY 6/22/2009 – 3/1/2010
Advise C-level clients and subordinate teams to create enterprise digital strategies for customers and internal clients
Manage design and development teams to execute these strategies to completion using myriad resources, including offshore, onsite and offsite resources
Analyze and document strategies, projects, best practices, recommendations, deliverables, statistics, metrics/analytics, usability studies and projects using industry-standard tools and excellent communication skills
Specialties include such technologies as Drupal, Twitter, Facebook and other Web 2.0- and Community-enabling systems, SEO, CMS, Development environments, Best Practices, Coding Standards and Usability implementation

User Experience Manager - Bulldog Solutions, LLC. Austin, TX 5/5/2008 – 6/19/2009
Create and implement best practices and standard operating procedures for the Enterprise around User Experience, Information Architecture and Usability
Redesign current enterprise applications and design new enterprise, client-facing and client-owned applications, design Enterprise Bus, consult on visual designs and usability for all applications
Code (HTML, DHTML, CSS, javascript, PHP, xslt, Ajax) and Configuration of Content Management Systems (CMS) (Drupal, Sharepoint, asp.NET proprietary enterprise applications), optimize code, database queries and performance
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Analytics / Metrics analysis and reporting
Implement Usability Testing, development frameworks and other best-practices around discovery and development
Advise Senior Management regarding ongoing advances in best practices and emerging technologies, and provide strong scaffolding and support for IT development efforts
Foster teamwork and cooperative interaction extending from Client-facing initiatives forward, throughout the UX, creative, development, QA and pre-and post-development usability testing phases of work
Team, resource and Project Management for all “Professional Services”-level client engagements
Design and implement QA and Testing initiatives

Web Developer and UX Specialist - Ajilon Consulting – (client ERCOT, Taylor, TX) 5/10/2006 – 5/5/2008
Nodal Market Redesign Project
Creating enterprise- and market-wide web applications and sites using industry standard best practices and the following tools: XHTML, Javascript, CSS, Cold Fusion, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and the Serena Collage CMS, UI customization for Ruby/Rails and Java custom apps and for MS Sharepoint (WSS 2003 and MOSS 2007); 1 of 2 developers for Market Information Systems (MIS) Portal for Nodal Market Redesign project using TIBCO Portal Builder, xml, xslt and other dev tech as appropriate – a multi-million-dollar market participant-accessible secure internet application
Responsible for ongoing development of and user support for the Nodal Market Redesign public-access internet presence (http://nodal.ercot.com)
Produced and delivered weekly Texas Nodal News, an email-deployed subscription-based newsletter (all issues available at http://nodal.ercot.com/about/news/newsletters)
Gathering and creating Business/Technical/Functional/Testing Requirements documents, wireframes, prototypes and frameworks using Visio, Project and Office
Creating and implementing User Interface, Usability and Metrics Standards
Application and Systems Architecture, Application Testing, Usability Design and Testing, User Interface Design, Troubleshooting (Mercury Quality Center, issue tracking with Jira, redmine, Bugzilla)
Design of: logos, site graphics, corporate metrics standards, business and technical requirements documents standards, charts, graphs, pages, wireframes, document templates, prototypes
Designed, conducted and analyzed usability & user experience tests for Operations and Systems Planning (OSPD) redesign project; acted as co-developer lead and writing conceptual and detailed design and systems architecture documents for same
Iterative (Agile, Scrum, XP) development and software support for Corporate Applications department

Freelance Web Strategy Consultant, Developer, Usability Specialist and Graphic Designer 12/1990 - Present
Name and business focus reorganization in 2009, DBA: Gotham City Drupal
Chariot Communications and Biohazard New Media, New York; San Francisco; Austin; Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN; Portland, OR
Digital Strategy, Usability, Design, Development, Custom Audio and Sound Design, coding, project management, production and electronic prepress, primarily for IT, education, consulting, advertising and marketing clients
Web Application Design and Development of rich web applications using standards-based UX and OOP and W3C best practices via various technologies, methodologies and platforms (Javascript, dhtml, css, xml, xslt, Ajax, wsdl, databases, Flash, Actionscript, audio, video, etc.) Cross-browser, multi-platform awake and aware
Consulting and Training Services, including Instructional and Curriculum Design, Corporate Training Services, Custom Educational materials design and production and audio annotation (voiceover) work
Extensive work with all major high-end visual communications, illustration, color separation/ prepress, page layout and web development tools
Clients include: Apple Computer, Total Creative (later KPMG Consulting), American College of Rheumatology, Esurance, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Target, publicis technology, Blooming Tree Press, Llewelyn Publications, Martin/Williams Advertising, William M. Mercer, Inc., Ecolab, Arnold Design, Gardner Design, Kamstra Communications, U.S. Communications (Apple Computer and Levi’s accounts), Gardenburger, MCAD, adidas, Nike, Johnson-Wolverton, Weiden & Kennedy, Nike, IKON Office Solutions, Rowland Sullivan and 3M among many others.
High-end color retouching and electronic prepress; film/proof output using Mac, Scitex and high-end imagesetters; color-correction, quality control; film compositing; contract color proof production and customer education/technical service

CATE Technology Facilitator - Gonzalo Garza Independent High School, Austin, TX 6/2004 - 5/2006
Instructor of Technology, Computer and Journalism 10-12 grade classes, at award-winning, nationally-recognized innovative publicly-funded secondary school
Developed and taught course curriculum for subjects including: Animation, Webmastering, Nonlinear Video Editing, Audio Production, Graphic Design, Production and Electronic Prepress, Photography (digital and analog) Journalism (Newspaper/Yearbook – writing, editing, xml, blogging, css, Javascript, html, content management), Computer Maintenance Technology (A+ Certification, hardware/software/networking, etc.)
Established inaugural chapter of SkillsUSA, an international skills/leadership organization which earned twelve Gold and six Silver District medals, and two Silver Medals at State competition over a two year span.
Implemented Media Tech class which aired a daily video news program resulting in Austin ISD declaring Garza a Media Technology Learning Community in first year
Instructional Design and Curriculum Writer for the Austin ISD for Media Technology District-wide, and for all my classes at Garza; instructional technology specialist, Gifted and Talented-certified educator
Campus Webmaster (http://www.austinschools.org/garza)

CATE Graphic Arts Teacher - Manor High School, Manor, TX 8/2003 - 5/2004
Instructed 9 -12 grade CATE TIE Graphic Arts Computer Arts lab classes, including Graphic Arts I, Graphic Arts II, Technical Introduction to Desktop Design and Diversified Career Prep. Campus Webmaster (http://www.manorisd.net/~mhs). Established state-award-winning SkillsUSA chapter.

Developer/ Interactive Designer/Developer- HB Media Group, Austin, TX 8/2002 - 8/2003
Visual Designer and Developer responsible for a wide variety of graphics- and design-related tasks, including: design and asset production for web, print, .pdf, presentations and CD-ROM
Technically engaged in programming and scripting (Actionscript HTML, CSS, xml, xsl, xhtml, UML and Javascript), animation (Flash, Director) and requirements-gathering
Project Manager and designer, as well as narrator and Flash programmer for an education-specific software product that covers the entire curriculum / TEKS for Technology requirements for the State of Texas, and is completely 508-compliant in accessibility standards. The product was the first of its kind adopted by the TEA

Consultant, Visual Designer, User Interface Specialist - KPMG Consulting, CA, NY, TX 8/2000 - 5/2001
Designer and User Interface Design Specialist for the Internet Business Solutions Group, of the KPMG Financial Services practice. Maintained minimum 97% chargeability for duration of employment.
Responsible for a wide variety of graphics-, media- and design-related projects for delivery via all platforms (web, print, .pdf, meetings/presentations, kiosks, DVD, etc.)
Programming and scripting (html, xml, xsl, xhtml, UML and Javascript) and animation (Flash, Director) and requirements-gathering (design briefs, client interaction)
Worked successfully on several projects using XP and UML project management/development techniques and hold these systems in high regard as development models
Performed select Web Producer tasks such as Style Guide creation
Clients include: eBondTrade, IKON Office Solutions, AIG, 3M, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Target, Apple Computer, adidas, Nike, DJ Knight, LSQ, Morgan Stanley, Visa, Deutsche Bank, Clariden, KPMG LLP, JP Morgan, and more.

Marketing Design Manager - Dark Horse Publications, Milwaukee, OR 04/1993 – 04/1994
Assistant to VP of Sales and Marketing and Marketing Director in planning and execution of advertising and promotional materials
Created and maintained weekly, monthly and yearly production schedules of all marketing design projects; distributing work orders, assigning projects, designating completion dates, compiling reports
Supervised, scheduling and coordination of marketing designer's daily workflow and productivity
Prepared written evaluations and reviewed marketing designers' performance
Reviewed approved work; performed overflow design duties; established design guidelines
Conducted hardware/software training workshops; assisted with troubleshooting hardware and software-related issues
Conducted R&D and feasibility reports on multimedia expansion

VOLUNTEER WORK / ASSOCIATIONS
Video/Audio Editor, Volunteer, Digital Video Crew - SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conference
2000 - 2006
Video and audio editing and design as needed; work with broad variety of original video/audio media and material to produce standardized-format, short-subject videos for web deployment and podcasting on a very tight timeline - less than 12-hour turnaround is required from shoot to final cut.

(Drupal Volunteer work listed below)

OTHER:
Professional songwriter, singer and musician, 1984-present
Founding member: The Shivers (bass, vocals, songs, guitar):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shivers
http://myspace.com/theshiversusa
Founding member (bass, vocals, songs): Zeitgeist (The Reivers), Go Dog Go!
Member: The Wild Seeds (bass, vocals), Spilltoy (bass), Gryphon Graham (bass)
I still play, write, sing and perform in New York City.

EXCELLENT REFERENCES AND PORTFOLIO AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

✓ Can opt projects into security advisory coverage

Drupal Contributions: 

In the Drupal Community, I participate on IRC (most often on the general channel and the UI, Kata, NYC, themer and Consultant channels as well), answer (and ask) questions in Groups, and was a co-maintainer of the GoogleWave module. I also am an active member of my local DrupalNYC Group, attend and help with DrupalCampNYC, and attend meetups, playdays and local social gatherings at House of Brews. I am a Drupal Association member.

I am Founder and CEO of a Drupal development cooperative based in New York City (but with national members and clients) called Gotham City Drupal. Our goal is to enable a small group of closely-knit, like-minded Drupal professionals to collaborate and cooperate to find and retain relationships with quality clients and their projects, bringing the highest degree of professionalism and standards to the work, while promoting and contributing to Drupal within the development and client communities.

In my work with Gotham City Drupal I consult with C-level executives to provide technical solutions for their business needs, present a recommendations portfolio and then execute on those recommendations. I manage (and sometimes end-to-end execute) these projects myself. Drupal is my Swiss Army Knife of Choice, and I manage small- to medium-sized teams of developers and designers to accomplish these goals, usually in a virtual team environment. These highly-skilled professionals are people with whom I've perfected a rock-solid working relationship over several years and many successful projects, and who are equally dedicated to contributing to the Open Source community.

My process often involves using Drupal in a variety of ways well in advance of the actual site execution. Due to Drupal's wicked fast time-to-market capabilities and overall flexibility, I am often able to use Drupal itself as a wireframing and prototyping system in early days, exploring technical solutions at at a point in the project inconceivable in any other environment. This whole process allows for maximum flexibility and for highly effective and aggressive production schedules with minimum risk of last-minute nasty surprises.

We build a lot of Community and Social Networking sites, and I'm always looking to the future to see what kinds of nifty new integration opportunities are coming; what new technologies are emerging. I am always looking for opportunities to help companies realize their vision by utilizing Drupal to its fullest potential and to break new ground in functionality, elegance and user experience while adhering to Drupal best practices and SOPs.

Recent sites:
https://www.findknowdo.com
https://AS-COA.org
https://www.businessforafairminimumwage.com
https://my.nabcep.com
http://paladinahealth.com
http://tbh.com (The Brooklyn Hospital)
http://ideablade.com
http://responsify.com
http://advertising.billboard.com
http://bollyshake.com
http://jtsplatmaster.com
http://empirepaintball.com
http://support.empirepaintball.com
http://engageny.org
http://presencing.org
http://futurecity.org
http://empirepaintball.com
http://tussle.com
http://loop21.com
http://waclighting.com
http://campaignforliberty.com
http://showslasvegas.com
http://dealslasvegas.com
http://centexfirehelp.org
http://ashleyswigs.com
http://www.makemineamillion.org
http://www.healthcaregoesmobile.com
http://www.bulldogsolutions.com
http://www.giftandhomechannel.com
http://www.ercot.com
http://nodal.ercot.com

I attended DrupalCamp NYC #7 (2009)
I attended DrupalCamp NYC #8 (2010)
I attended DrupalCamp NYC #9 (2010)
I attended DrupalCamp NYC IntroCamp (2011)
I attended DrupalCamp NYC #10 (2011)
I helped organize DrupalCamp NYC #9 (2010)
I helped organize DrupalCamp NYC IntroCamp (2011)
I helped organize DrupalCamp NYC #10 (2011)
I presented at DrupalCamp NYC IntroCamp (2011)
I presented at DrupalCamp NYC #10 (2011)
I helped organize and present "Core Office Hours" Code Sprint at DrupalCon Denver (2011)
I presented at Drupaldelphia (2012)
I helped organize and presented at NYCCamp (2012)

Areas of Expertise: 
architect
Developer
Themer
Site builder
webmaster
sysadmin
User Experience Architect
User Interface Designer
trainer
evangelist
Drupal events: 
DrupalCon Chicago 2011
DrupalCon Denver 2012
DrupalCon Portland 2013
DrupalCon Austin 2014
DrupalCon Los Angeles 2015
DrupalCon Seattle 2019
DrupalCon Minneapolis 2020 (was planning to attend)
DrupalCon North America 2021
DrupalCon Portland 2022

Credited on 1 fixed issue

Projects maintained

Drupal Association Individual Member

kbell helps support and grow the Drupal community with the Drupal Association.

My mentors: 

3 people list kbell as a mentor

I contributed Drupal patches
I contributed to Drupal issue queues
I contributed to Drupal.org
I contributed Drupal documentation
I helped organize DrupalCon
I reviewed Project applications
I help in the Drupal support forums
I provide Drupal-related services
I give support on IRC
I help mentor new contributors