Curriculum Vitae

This is my Curriculum Vitae (or resumé if you prefer). I am now semi-retired and am slowly letting my work life drift into the legacy pile. I spend most of my time on my own software archaeology projects, but I'm still working for a couple of days a week, which is the kind of work-life balance that leads to happiness.

I am not looking for more work. Achievement unlocked!

Mark Philip Moxon

www.markmoxon.com

I am a highly proficient Software Engineer and Writer, based in the UK, with over 25 years' experience of producing high-quality websites and applications for large companies, including over 20 years' experience managing large CMS installations. I have demonstrable skills in all aspects of website creation, including enterprise-level content management systems, creation of web content, web development and management of large web projects.

To put it another way, I wrote my first program in 1981 and I built my first website in 1994. That's more than 30 years of web experience. Gosh.

Specialties: HTML, CSS, JavaScript (since 1998); Rhythmyx CMS 5.01-7.3, Drupal, Wordpress (since 2003); Bamboo, Jenkins (since 2010); Perl (since 1998); PHP (since 2003); XML, XSL (since 1999); iOS (since 2009); Android (since 2010); Microsoft SQL Server (since 1999); MySQL (since 2003); Google Analytics, WebTrends (since 2003); Apache (since 2006); Journalism, web and print (since 1991).

Achievements

• As a contractor, I have built a reputation as a very fast and high-quality worker, across a number of well-known clients. I am an expert in making tired CMS installations work properly, I cover all the skills from content creation through to publishing, and my services are very much in demand.

• In 2008 I walked the entire London Underground network, and turned the experience into my Tubewalker app for Android, iPhone and iPad. The best way to appreciate my talents as a mobile developer is to download the free version of the app, as every single aspect of the app is my own work (see www.tubewalker.com for more).

• At both Which? and the Victoria and Albert Museum, I inherited a Rhythmyx CMS that was very unstable, a mystery to other employees and a bitter disappointment for the client. In both companies I brought the CMS to heel, re-engineering the guts of the system, documenting the process, and making life better for all concerned.

• I was a key driving force behind the success of h2g2, the community website founded by Douglas Adams. The Director of BBC New Media was so impressed with the site that he acquired both it and my team, and the platform we developed (DNA) is now used to power all the BBC's blogs and message boards.

• I have written and produced four personal websites that the British Library considers to be 'of cultural, historical and political importance', resulting in a request for them to be included in the UK Web Archive.

Professional Experience

Little Red Bear Ltd, London
September 2006 – present day
Company Director and Consultant

• Rentokil-Initial (May 2014 onwards): Since 2014, I have supported and developed the Rhythmyx CMS that powers the Rentokil brand, with websites in more than 60 countries. I've been responsible for a large number of projects, from implementing a CDN and cleaning up the CMS, to full-stack development of new CMS site functionality, mobile sites, page speed improvements, and a Bamboo-based continuous integration pipeline for building site assets.

• Legal & General (May 2017 – Sep 2019): Working on a complete redesign of the Legal & General website, I did everything from backend application maintenance and front end SASS/JavaScript, to Rhythmyx development and Handlebars templating.

• Northern & Shell (Jan – Sep 2015): At short notice, I took on the support and development of the OK! Magazine website (www.ok.co.uk), which was run on Drupal. I had to learn the system and get up to speed very quickly, following the departure of the previous agency, and amongst other things I implemented a new image gallery system and fixed a number of issues with their DFP implementation.

• Which? (Jun 2014 – Apr 2021): In my third stint at Which?, I supported the Rhythmyx CMS installation as well as the application stack that the CMS fed into. I also implemented the CMS side of a full redesign of Which? Consumer Rights (www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights) as well as the Reviews & Advice content that made up the bulk of the site. My final project, after 15 years of Rhythmyx support, was to export all the content from Rhythmyx into JSON, for importing into a new CMS... and then switching the Rhythmyx servers off.

• Legal & General (Dec 2011 – Oct 2012): The Legal & General website is powered by the Rhythmyx CMS, and I was responsible for building the CMS aspects of the Investments sections for consumers (www.legalandgeneral.com/investments) and financial advisers (www.landginvestments.com). I also did a full audit of the Legal & General CMS installation.

• IET (Dec 2011): I analysed a number of issues with slow publishing at the IET and implemented best practices in the publishing configuration, which speeded things up considerably. I also implemented a search system to feed incremental publishing details into an XML file, to enable the search engine to spider updated content only.

• Which? (Sep 2008 – Sep 2013): Re-joining Which? for a second stint, I was again the key CMS developer in a site-wide redesign, which launched in summer 2010. Following the release, my contract was extended ten times over five years, and I was involved in a number of other high profile CMS projects:

  • When I started contracting at Which?, the instability of the CMS was a huge cause for concern, to the extent that it was a standing item on the company’s board meeting agenda. During my time, I planned and implemented a clean-up project to remove and re-engineer a huge amount of legacy code from the company’s Rhythmyx installation, which resulted in a much quicker and more stable CMS environment that the users found far easier to use. During this period the CMS went from problem child to reliable workhorse, and I now know more about the guts of Rhythmyx than I ever thought possible.
  • I designed and implemented the CMS content types and templates for Which? Car (www.which.co.uk/cars), Which? Switch (www.which.co.uk/switch), Which? Consumer Rights (www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights), and Which? Campaigns (www.which.co.uk/campaigns).
  • I managed the CMS through three major upgrades (6.5 to 6.5.2, 6.7 and 7.1). This required a lot of analysis and code fixes, including the re-coding of custom Java applications and extensions.

• Tubewalker (Jun – Aug 2008): Based on a three-month walk I did along every line of the Tube network, I created an app for Android, iPhone and iPad, so others can enjoy the walk themselves. The app's interface is clean and attractive (a 'great-looking app' and 'really well designed', according to reviewers), the iPad version makes full use of the larger screen size, there are both free and paid-for versions, and all 18 versions of the iOS app passed through Apple's QA system without a hitch. Download it for free to see for yourself.

• Which? (Aug 2007 – May 2008): Joining the project to implement a completely redesigned website (www.which.co.uk) in one of the most complicated Rhythmyx installations in the UK, I drove development of the new site in Velocity, implementing the site framework and developing the bulk of new content types and templates. The redesigned website launched on time in summer 2008 and was very well received.

• Surrey County Council (Apr – Jul 2007): I played a key role in developing the council's new intranet CMS, taking a hefty statement of work and implementing the bulk of it in Rhythmyx, in cahoots with the council's own development team. My contribution was vital in ensuring the project's success.

• BBC (10 weeks, Jan – Mar 2007): I took the BBC Learning Zone Clips Library (www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/) from a set of Photoshop files through to a working, database-driven site in a quarter of the time allocated, and was able to use the time gained to implement a CMS tool for teacher contributions, plus a reporting system that made life considerably easier for the site's editorial team.

• Victoria and Albert Museum (6 weeks, Oct & Dec 2006): I implemented Rhythmyx content types and templates for the V&A Theatre Museum, developed a PHP-powered Wedding Dress site, migrated Rhythmyx to faster servers, and developed an Ajax-powered slideshow for the museum's 150th anniversary.

• Grand Union (Nov 2006): I added a number of Ajax effects to the NHS’s Condom Essential Wear site.

• Royal Mail (3 weeks, Sep 2006): I added a DTD to the Royal Mail site (www.royalmail.com) and fixed all resulting HTML and CSS issues, as the first step towards making the site accessible.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London
December 2003 – August 2006
Web Technical Manager/Web Developer/Web Project Manager

• As Web Technical Manager, I was the museum's expert in all technical aspects of the Web, and was responsible for the V&A's three main museum websites: the V&A itself (www.vam.ac.uk), the Museum of Childhood (www.museumofchildhood.org.uk) and the Theatre Museum (now closed). Across these three sites I oversaw a trebling of visitor traffic in just two years.

• I inherited sites for the V&A and Museum of Childhood that only worked on Internet Explorer, and which failed to validate, let alone meet the accessibility requirements set by the government. I used my skills in XML, XSL and XHTML to revamp the Rhythmyx CMS used to produce the site, eventually producing a compliant and accessible site, with referral figures increasing by 50% over the course of a year.

• I oversaw the addition of Web 2.0 technologies to the V&A website, including curatorial blogs, the highly regarded V&A podcast, and RSS feeds of events and news.

• As Web Developer, I took control of the museum's Rhythmyx CMS, which was crashing regularly, and used my CMS skills to go through the entire system with a fine toothcomb, producing a stable and productive CMS environment. After eight months as Web Developer I was promoted to Web Technical Manager.

• As one of three V&A Web Project Managers, I worked with the museum's curators and educators to create a number of high quality websites for exhibitions and events. After seven months as Web Project Manager I was promoted to Web Developer.

Self-employed
October 2002 – December 2003
Freelance Writer

• I wrote scripts for two audio tours of London, which were recorded by Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley for release through Handheld History, a company that provides tours over mobile phones.

• I spent the rest of the year travelling in West Africa, and walking alone and unaided from Land's End to John o'Groats. On returning I developed two websites – www.landsendjohnogroats.info and www.moxon.net – both of which have been very well received.

BBC, London
June 1999 – September 2002
Editor of h2g2 and DNA

• One month after its launch, I became Editor of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (h2g2), the website founded by author Douglas Adams. I was solely responsible for developing the editorial direction of the site, and I built up a seven-person content and community team from scratch.

• By the start of 2001 the Director of BBC New Media was so impressed with h2g2 that his department acquired the site and my team, incorporating them into BBCi. Under my editorship h2g2 became the BBC's busiest community website, and it continues to thrive today at www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2.

• Following this success, I helped to create a new project called DNA, which took the technical and editorial expertise behind h2g2 and made it available to the rest of the BBC; this proved so popular that DNA is now used to power all the BBC's message boards. As the Editor of DNA I managed the ongoing development of the project, gluing the editorial and technical sides together to create a public-facing publishing environment that both the BBC and licence-fee payers love. I also created the DNA Hub at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/ to hold the team's documentation on the project.

Xara Ltd, Hemel Hempstead
October 1998 – June 1999
Webmaster

• Working on the Xara website (www.xara.com) enabled me to learn a whole range of core new-media skills, complementing the knowledge I gained from nine years in traditional print media. I used these skills to help create and maintain an e-commerce website using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, Perl and SQL, and I learned how to generate and edit content effectively for an online environment.

Self-employed
October 1995 – October 1998
Freelance Writer

• As a freelancer I was commissioned to write over 150 IT articles, which were published both in the UK and abroad. I also spent a year freelancing as Editor of RISC User, which meant I did everything from commissioning to printing this monthly magazine.

IDG Media Ltd, Macclesfield
February 1993 – October 1995
Editor/Technical Editor, Acorn User

• Acorn User was the world's leading Acorn magazine, and this is where I learned what it means to be a good magazine editor. I took pride in ensuring that Acorn User contained articles that were the best in the sector, completely free of typos, enhanced by an attractive and clear layout, written by the most respected journalists in the market, and supported by a publication that always came out on time and within budget. Acorn User remained the market leader during my two-year tenure as editor.

Beebug Ltd, St. Albans
September 1991 – February 1993
Technical Editor, RISC User

• RISC User was the small subscription magazine on which I cut my journalistic teeth. Here I learned to write my first grown-up articles, and how to edit other people's writing without using a hacksaw.

Ministry of Defence, RAE Farnborough
Summer 1989 and Summer 1990
Programmer

• I could tell you what I did, but then I'd have to kill you.

Expertise

• HTML, CSS, SASS, JavaScript (since 1998)

• Rhythmyx CMS 5.01-7.3 (since 2003)

• Drupal, Wordpress (since 2010)

• Perl (since 1998)

• PHP (since 2003)

• XML, XSL (since 1999)

• iOS development (since 2009)

• Android development (since 2010)

• Jenkins, Bamboo CI (since 2010)

• Microsoft SQL Server (since 1999)

• MySQL (since 2003)

• Google Analytics, WebTrends (since 2003)

• Apache (since 2006)

• Journalism, web and print (since 1991)

Education

Qualifications