Professional Profile

Executive Summary: A 35-year evolution from technical journalism to strategic content leadership, characterized by a singular ability to translate low-level engineering complexity (embedded systems, assembly language, processor architecture) into clear, user-centric, and business-aligned documentation across diverse, agile, and modern cloud-based platforms. My core competence is bridging the gap between deep technical implementation and effective audience communication.

Phase 1: Foundational Technical Depth and Low-Level Systems (1985–1992)

Focus: Journalism, Embedded Software, and Hardware Interplay

This period established a non-negotiable foundation in low-level technology and detailed technical analysis.

• Technical Journalism (Electronic Design, 1985-1988): Began as a West Coast Technical Editor, analyzing and communicating complex industry trends in computer hardware, software, and networking to a professional engineering audience. This built my ability to synthesize broad technical information quickly.

• Embedded Systems Expertise (Siemens & Wind River, 1988-1992): Transitioned to core technical writing, gaining hands-on mastery of embedded applications and operating systems (VRTX). Created extensive, low-level tutorials with C and assembly language examples for developers to debug and optimize source-level debuggers for different microprocessor families.

  
  

Phase 2: Mastering Architectural Transitions and SDKs (1992–1996)

Focus: High-Stakes Change Management and Developer Enablement

I played a critical role in major hardware and software platform shifts, directly enabling developer adoption.

• Architectural Change Management (Apple, 1992-1994): Led documentation during the major CPU transition from Motorola 68000 to IBM PowerPC. My work included creating tutorials on the PowerPC instruction set and updating assembler manuals to facilitate the efficient porting of platform APIs and application SDKs—a process directly comparable to modern x86 to Apple M-series transitions.

• SDK Documentation (Dell EMC, 1994-1996): Expanded documentation scope into Software Development Kits (SDKs) for information capture applications. I demonstrated proficiency in deep technical capture by interviewing engineers and reading C++ source code to create comprehensive developer guides.

  
  

Phase 3: Content Strategy, Web Services, and User Experience (1996–2009)

Focus: Services, Validation, and Modernizing Content Formats

This phase marked a shift toward networking infrastructure, quality assurance, and user-centric content planning.

• Networking & Validation (Novell, 1996-2001): Focused on documenting networking services (Web proxy, user authentication). I adopted a hands-on validation approach by planning and implementing Ethernet TCP/IP configurations for test environments to ensure document accuracy.

• Reducing Support Costs & Evangelism (Sun Microsystems, 2003-2009): Strategically focused on reducing technical support calls through high-quality product documentation for the Sun Java System Portal Server. I incorporated formal user/task analysis and began creating modern content strategies, pioneering the use of blog articles and screencasts to evangelize features like OpenSocial.

  
  

Phase 4: Cloud, Agile, and Strategic Content Systems (2009–2018)

Focus: DITA, Single-Sourcing, REST API, and UX Collaboration

This period integrated my technical depth with modern tools, agile methodologies, and cloud-native architecture.

• Agile Transformation & Single-Sourcing (Azul, 2009-2010): Documented Java application deployment in private clouds (VMware vSphere, Linux KVM). I led the transition from traditional manuals to topic-oriented articles to support agile releases, established a single-source content strategy (PDF, HTML), and integrated authoring tools with revision control (Perforce) and wiki software.

• IT Service & Content Validation (Ivanti, 2011): Developed content strategies for IT service administration, including rigorous content validation by installing and configuring software builds on VMware vSphere for task analysis.

• Cloud Ads & Localization (Yahoo, 2012-2015): Created content strategy for monthly updates localized into nine languages for a high-volume, real-time, cloud-based ad serving platform (Yahoo Gemini), requiring close collaboration with UX designers on user and task analysis.

• API & Design Systems (GE Digital, 2015-2018): Specialized in RESTful API programming concepts, generating detailed code samples for full-stack developers building on the Predix cloud platform. Collaborated deeply with UX on the Predix Design System, focusing on user interface design and human factors for web usability.

  
  

Current: Freelance - Strategic Versatility (2018–Present)

As an independent consultant, I function as a versatile, strategic partner, delivering content across the entire product lifecycle in agile environments. I leverage deep platform knowledge in technologies and tools (DITA, XML, SGML, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Liferay, Confluence, MediaWiki, Drupal, Astoria) to plan and deliver documentation (white papers, KB articles, online help, blogs) specifically tailored to the goals, needs, and interests of diverse, rapidly evolving software and platform audiences.