Resume of Keith Dawson


Resumé of Keith Dawson		http://keithdawson.com
118-A Hollis Street Groton, Massachusetts 01450-1355			978-449-0444

Summary

Freelance technology writer, editor, and journalist. Internet/Web technology expert and hands-on Web designer, builder, and project manager with broad software development experience. Net journalist; editor and publisher of an award-winning newsletter on the technologies affecting the life of the Net. Named Internet Journalist of the Year in 1999. Technically clued marketing professional with strong product focus and deep background in the ways of the Net. Extreme team-building and communication skills. Consistent involvement in leading-edge technologies, tools, and methods.

1994-present

Sep. 2006- Aug. 2010	Slashdot Mountain View, CA	Editor
I was one of the handful of people who select and edit stories for the premiere tech news site, Slashdot.org. Slashdot is a division of Geeknet (formerly SourceForge Inc.), NASDAQ ticker GKNT.

Jan. 2002- Dec. 2002	Media Unspun Newton, MA	Weekly contributor
I participated along with the other writers and editors from the late Media Grok (see below) in this post-bubble experiment to see if a feisty, opinionated, and independent daily email newsletter could pay its way based on reader subscriptions and advertising. Answer: not in the economy of 2002; Media Unspun published its last number on December 13 of that year.

1999- 2001	*The Industry Standard’s* Media Grok** San Francisco, CA	Weekly contributor
I wrote one to three features per week for this widely read (peak circulation was 100,000) and influential email newsletter critiquing how the media were covering the information economy.

1994- 2001	TBTF Westford, MA	Editor and Publisher
Tasty Bits from the Technology Front started as an educational and current awareness service. I began distributing news and commentary to colleagues at Atria to illustrate the culture and customs of the Net. In 1995 TBTF opened to outside subscribers. Readers were fanatically loyal. At its end an estimated 50,000 people in 101 countries read TBTF regularly; hundreds still visit the archived Web site daily. TBTF is cited an an early and seminal influence on blogging in two histories of the subject, Rebecca Bood’s We’ve Got Blog and Scott Rosenberger’s Say Everything. The creator of Slashdot, Rob Malda, has said that TBTF was the inspiration for his tech news site.

1999- present	Miscellaneous	Columnist and contributor
I have written a number of pieces for the print edition of The Industry Standard, for the Boston Globe’s DigitalMASS Web site, for Silicon Alley Daily, for ITWorld, etc. Here are links to all of this work.

Web
Development
and
Hosting

1994-present

1998	Reed Elsevier Technology Group Cambridge, MA	Editor, retg.com
Content editor and developer for an inhouse site used by Reed Elsevier employees worldwide. The site was ASP-based and hosted on NT 4.0 systems running IIS 3.0 and, later, Site Server 3. Investigated and instituted visitor traffic analysis. Reworked member registration to use Site Server 3.0. Grew the site by 100% in content, improved graphical and navigation consistency, tightened site security, added interactive forums, and regularized update procedures. Documented all of the above.

1997- 1998	Sitara Networks, Inc. Waltham, MA	Director, Internet Strategy Webmaster
Implemented two complete Web sites, a teaser while the company was in stealth development mode and a product-launch site. Selected and managed an external hosting ISP. Coordinated messaging and content, wrote copy. Managed outside agencies for design and for back-end processing.

1994- 1996	Atria / Pure Atria Natick and Lexington, MA	Manager, Technical Marketing
Drove Atria’s Web strategy. Championed intranet for company-wide communications and applications. Put Atria on the Web: designed, built, and launched www.atria.com on February 1, 1995. (According to UIUC’s What’s New site, Marc Andreesen’s index of the Web and the original blog, atria.com was among the first 20,000 sites on the Web.)

1996- present	the Technology Front Westford and Groton, MA	Principal
This DBA focuses on Web design, development, and hosting for small businesses, nonprofits, and single proprietorships. In the Internet boom years I consulted at the nexus of Internet technology, marketing, and business strategy. I offered strategic consulting, business development, technical evaluation, architectural consulting, project management, and focused research and writing. Clients included members of the Fortune 500, venture capital firms, nonprofits, and Net-centered startups. I was on the boards of advisors of two such companies and the board of directors of a third.

1995- present	Personal sites	Owner
I have developed and continue to grow a number of Web sites related to my professional and personal interests. I host these sites on my own servers. They include the Technology Front (1997-present); dawson.nu (1997-present); Tasty Bits from the Technology Front (1995-2001); and A Recovering Physicist (2003-present); and keithdawson.com (2009-present).

Other
Experience

Earlier experience includes sofware development, management, technical marketing, and technical writing.

B.S. summa cum laude, Physics-English double major, Carnegie Mellon University. Coursework in general and project management, O-O design, software engineering, programming, graphics, etc.

Featured speaker at the First Geek Pride Festival, Boston, MA (2000). Invited judge of the GII Awards (1997-1999) and NII Awards (1996). Elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Tau Beta Pi. Accepted at Harvard for graduate work in physics. High-school valedictorian; recipient of the Harvard Book and awards in mathematics, French, and English. National Merit Scholar.

Most recently updated 2010-11-16