Michael Smearer
(510) 207 - 8448
mike@bitspark.com

Skills
Experience

 
Plum Petal Technology (3/2008 - present) Oakland, California
Founder / Architect
Lead the design of our flagship product, Canopy Art System. Written in ASP.Net 3.5, with strategic use of AJAX and partial rendering (control toolkit, update panels, and lower-level client - web service calls). Sophisticated image manipulation, document storage, and integration with third-party sites.

BitSpark Consulting (3/2005 - present) Oakland, California
Founder / Consultant
  • Lead architect on large, multiple application (ASP.Net, ASP.Net mobile, WinForm smart client, Windows services) SaaS project involving the wine industry. This is to be deployed in a custom-built data center with several web farms and a large database cluster. ASP.Net 3.5 SP1, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, integration with WebSphere and NetSuite.
  • Designed and built a web-based book exchange for university bookstores on behalf of another company. Interesting components included using web services to communicate with Linux-based POS terminals.
  • Provided architectural and pragmatic refactoring guidance to a software company that has a large SaaS travel search engine (airfare, car, hotel). Quickly learned large code base and able to come up with discreet high and low-level recommendations. Also tasked with designing a high-performance search engine that could return results asynchonously to a browser client using Ajax.
  • Providing technical and application assessment to one of the largest law firms in the country. This includes performing scale testing for existing applications and services, helping in architecture and design ideas for future projects, and providing some vendor diplomacy. Built a number of small ASP.Net marketing sites. (ongoing)
  • Designed and built a suite of applications related to the medical industry (specifically consumer Personal Health Records). Intense focus on performance, document imaging, and security.
  • Led a San Francisco-based leading mortgage/data quality software company through the construction of the new generation of their product suite. I provided architectural and best practices advice, a great deal of code and components, and implemented lifecycle management practices. Interesting components included the use of code generation (custom tools), custom data binding, and a custom script expression evaluator. (6 months)
  • Assisted a consulting company in building the next generation of a point-of-sale system specifically for jewelery retailers. Interesting components included a custom code generator and a data library that interfaced with a BTrieve (Pervasive) database. (6 months)
  • Worked with Loansoft again in building a new management web application. The application allows an administrator to control the entire deployment cycle for a server farm. An administrator may update select or all content on all or select machines in a web farm, directly from the custom source code control system. Interesting pieces of this application include a way to update database using SQLDMO, and and hand-built Ajax user interface. (4 months)

Alliance Consulting (7/2004 - 3/2005) San Francisco, California
Lead Developer
Worked on a small, highly skilled team that delivers renewal information to 30,000 customers of Blue Shield. The solution consists of a windows service that transforms and loads non-relational data into a normalized Oracle database, an administrative desktop application, a windows service that creates PDF output, a web page for viewing historical output, as well as a number of other components including data auditing, delivery to a 3rd printing service, and sales reports. A highly iterative development strategy was employed with particular emphasis on up-front design (service-oriented), use of custom tools, and code generation.

Loansoft, Inc. (7/2001 - 2/2004) Berkeley, California
Chief Architect
Focused strictly on design, architecture, and performance of a large .Net web application, based on previous versions of a VB6 desktop system. Created a solid, well-performing framework capable of supporting huge variety of content (350+ screens) and easy customization through existing custom development tools. Particular emphasis was placed on making the data and business application layers securely available through web services, allowing the application to be integrated with a wide variety of consumers, including previous versions. Duties also included internal .Net evangelizing, writing technology articles, and developing a solid build and deploy process. With over 10,000 users and 4 of the top ten mortgage lenders as clients, Loansoft was acquired by a competitor, GHR Systems, in September of 2003.

Loansoft, Inc. (10/2000 - 7/2001) Berkeley, California
Chief Technical Officer
Designed, architected, and led development of next-generation products. The flagship product, a browser-based system (VB6, IE Browser Control), consists of dozens of VB Forms, 350+ HTML screens, 40+ libraries, and 100+ database tables. The suite includes custom development tools (screens, workflow, business logic), a custom HTTP based integrated source control system, automatic software updates to users over HTTP, ASP applications running under COM+ services for service transactions (credit reports, Fannie Mae decisions, etc), and a remote record check in / check out / synchronization mechanism. Other duties included: creating builds, server management, public speaking, technical support for sales, training (both in-house and with clients), and documentation (including an MSDN style SDK).

Loansoft, Inc. (7/1998- 10/2000) Berkeley, California
Developer / Senior Developer
Helped design and code a POS desktop application for loan officers. Specific projects included usability, the navigation system, service transactions (credit reports, Fannie Mae decisions, etc), and a calendar, contact, and task management system.

Independent Software Developer (3/1998 - 7/1998) Oakland, California
Independent Software Developer
  • Provided a custom business solution, based on a framework written in MS Access VBA, for local art galleries. The application integrates mailing lists, inventory, image archives, and all bookkeeping duties (AP/AR, P & L statements, etc).
  • Helped develop new version of Solidarity Software, a program written in MS Access VBA that is used to manage lists of members, leaders, activists, legislators, candidates, community allies, and their various activities for a political organization.

Education

 
State University of New York at Buffalo (1992 - 1996) Buffalo, New York
Bachelor of Fine Arts - Painting, Magna Cum Laude
A comprehensive program in the visual arts, including art history, contemporary theory, and visual techniques.

University of Wolverhampton (1995) Wolverhamton, U.K.
Departmental Exchange Program
Chosen to attend study abroad program for intensive artistic development. Traveled throughout western Europe.