Curriculum Vitae of Marjolein Katsma

Who when where

Employment history

1999 - present: Open Source projects

Soon after setting up my second website, I became involved in Open Source Software, where especially recently the emphasis has mostly been on compliance with web standards from a CMS perspective. (See also Professional activities outside day-time jobs.)

Roles:

• Wikka Wiki - member of the Wikka Development Team:
  • Currently working on the design of an Anti-Spam plugin API with minimal impact on the core, as well as a number of Anti-Spam modules, for an upcoming Anti-Spam release.
  • Responsible for many fixes to tighten security
  • In my role as Standards Compliance Officer: guarding and improving our compliance with XHTML and CSS standards, as well as accessibility (WAI) and usability.
• Xaraya:
  • Comprehensive source code analysis and advice how to make sure all generated code is valid XHTML (including basic accessibility features)

May 2000 - December 2001 Allaire Corp. & Macromedia, Newton, MA

Position: Senior Product Manager, Visual Tools

• Directly responsible for the delivery of the product (HomeSite, ColdFusion Studio, JRun Studio).
• Coordinating with Product Marketing, Engineering, Documentation and Quality Assurance teams.
• Responsible for identifying customer requirements, shape features, maintain feature lists, timelines and schedules.
• Contributing to the product directly with enhancements including VTML sets, documentation, etc.

1990-2000 Delta Lloyd Nuts Ohra, Amsterdam

Most recent position: Consultant OO and GUI Design, Internet technology

• As Systems Administrator:
  • Administration and coordination of user’s bug reports and feature requests, and updates for the system (individual life insurance administration)
  • Analysis, design and implementation of several departmental-level administrative applications (Clarion 2.0 and WordPerfect 5.1)
• As Analyst:
  • Coordination of development of an insurance quotation system for Nationaal Spaarfonds (programming by CMG); also distribution and end-user support
  • Member project group to realize a BBS for insurance inspectors; role: technical feasibility study, software selection, technical implementation
  • Member project group Internet Development Workshop (pilot internet application) in cooperation with Cambridge Technology Group (Cambridge, MA); role: user interface, presentation for management
• As Consultant:
  • 12-Week residency at IBM ITSO (San Jose, CA) for Redbook Smalltalk Server Development (Strategy for developing a mainframe application using a PC-based OO development environment; programming in Smalltalk (PC and mainframe) and COBOL (mainframe))
  • Definition of User Interface Guidelines “Gizmo Guide”, implemented as an intranet website with guidelines for design and implementation of graphical user interfaces (XHTML+CSS)
  • Consultancy regarding User Interface guidelines and Internet technology for various IT departments

1985-1990 Zwitserleven, Amsterdam

• IT department - work for Individual Life Insurance branch:
  • Functional and technical design of applications (both new and maintenance), mostly relating to insurance theory
  • Design and programming of on-line and batch programs (COBOL 74)
  • Coaching of junior programmers
  • Planning and coordination of several small-scale projects
• Member of several inter-departmental project groups, such as Policy Database (redesign database model; design conversion programs)

1982-1985 Dienst Informatieverwerking Rijkswaterstaat, Rijswijk

• Several research projects; methods and systems for user-friendly data entry, quality criteria data entry software; member working group “User-friendly Information Systems”
• Creation of a thesaurus supporting redesign of a database and administration system for detailed building specifications
• Member project group decentralised Administrative Information System (Philips P4500): functional and technical design of online and batch software, programming (COBOL 74), testing and end-user support
• Beta tester of Philips word processing system

1977-1982 Chemco, Inc., Soestduinen

• Management of the research library
• Manager Information Services Quality Control:
  • Responsible for design and implementation of a system for statistical quality assurance;
  • Statistical research in support of trouble-shooting;
  • Feasibility study and proposal for automation of statistical quality assurance;
  • Development of software for the Quality testing department (programmable HP calculators).

Professional activities outside day-time jobs

• Involvement in and contributions to several open-source projects, such as:
  • Wikka Wiki (Wiki engine - PHP + MySQL): member of the “Wikka Development Team”; standards compliance, architecture, coding, support (2004-present)
  • Xaraya (Content Management framework - PHP + MySQL): XHTML compliance (2003)
  • ht://Dig (WWW Search Engine Software - C/C++, HTML): some features and contributions to documentation and website (1999)
• Development of several personal and public-service websites:
  • "Marjolein’s Travel Blog" - reporting on my travels from internet cafes (XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL): http://blog.iamback.com/ (2004-present)
  • "Ban Spam" - spam reporting addresses (XHTML, CSS, PHP): http://banspam.javawoman.com/ (2004-present)
  • "HomeSite Help" website (HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript): http://hshelp.com/ (1999)
  • "Java Woman" - Java information directory (HTML, CSS): http://javawoman.com/ (1996)
  • Various other small sites: http://www.xs4all.nl/~iamback/
• Member Team Allaire (~1998-1999)
• Consultancy for Allaire Corp.: HTML and VTML Tag Definitions, VTML reference documentation, specification of new program features, advice. (1998-2000)
• Member (Allaire representative) of the Web Accessibility Initiative, Authoring Tools Guidelines Working Group (WAI-AUWG) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). (March 2000 - December 2001)
• Active participant in several fora and mail lists regarding HTML and website design in general, accessibility (W3C WAI-IG mail list) and web site usability (ACM CHI-WEB mail list)
• Member ACM, SIGCHI

Other relevant IT experience

1971-1977 Academy of Arts, Arnhem (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Arnhem) & Institute of Sonology, University Utrecht

• Coaching fellow students during course programming for designers
• Creation of a User Guide for using the (ACCU) Timesharing system in combination with ALGOL 60
• Development of software both for my own designs and those of several fellow students
• Creation of electronic music, both in the analog studios and the digital studio (programming a PDP15 in assembly (Macro-15) and FORTRAN IV)

Personal interests

• Traveling, focusing on both culture and nature (currently mainly Africa and Asia, though I have been in many other parts of the world)
• Photography (mostly travel photography)
• World music
• Growing plants (balcony garden), bird watching
• Reading (thrillers, SF)
• Collecting dictionaries