Photo of Kevin

Kevin Jones

Email:
Blog: blog.kjo.ca
Github: github.com/kevinj
Twitter: twitter.com/kevinj

I am a UI Developer with many years of experience building powerful web applications. My primary passion throughout my career has been front-end development, but my versatile skills have made me an asset across all areas of web programming.

In addition to software development, I also have a strong interest in human language, and I am slowly working towards becoming a hobby Linguist.

Skills

User Interface Development

I am an expert in writing web interfaces using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, but I have recently fallen in love with CoffeeScript, Haml and Less. I am also particularly interested in creating interfaces that utilize new features in modern browsers without sacrificing usability and functionality in the older browsers. I have also written mobile applications for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry 10.

Server-side Development

My primary server-side background is as a Perl developer, but I am also proficient in using other languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, etc., and I am always eager to learn new ones. I currently prefer to write server-side applications in JavaScript or CoffeeScript using node.js. I am very comfortable using several flavours of unix and a variety of relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL.

Personal

I am easygoing and enjoy working with people, both in person and remotely. I have plenty of experience pair-programming and enjoy the obvious benefits of working together on problems, but I am also comfortable working on projects solo. I believe I am approachable and always welcome constructive criticism. I enjoy helping colleagues learn new skills, and likewise, I am also eager to absorb new information and skills from them. Finally, although I may appear quiet in large groups, I am excellent at communicating and working with my peers.

Development Methodologies

I have been a member of teams that have used a wide variety of agile development methodologies. At Sophos, I was introduced to agile in the form of scrum and later Industrial XP. At Socialtext, we were faced with the added challenge of adapting agile development practices (particularly Kanban to a distributed development structure.

Experience

ReCollect Systems Inc. July 2012 - Present

Founder, Developer, VP of Products

  • Along with two friends, I co-created the web site VanTrash.ca in 2009.

  • Used data from the City of Vancouver's Open Data Catalogue to provide a notification service that helps citizens remember when to take the garbage and recycling out.

  • Won the People's Choice award in the Apps 4 Climate Action contest in 2010.

  • We have since renamed the service Recollect.net, formed the company ReCollect Systems and expanded to many municipalities and regions across Canada and the United States.


Socialtext Inc. March 2007 - July 2012

Senior Software Developer

  • Served as the principal UI developer, creating a rich social collaboration platform for enterprise customers.
  • Built the Socialtext Dashboard as an OpenSocial container, allowing third parties to develop powerful UI integrations using open APIs.

  • Worked remotely from my home in Vancouver, BC (as well as from Argentina, Japan, Austria, etc) with a distributed development team of highly talented individuals.
  • Overcame the challenges of building modern user interfaces for companies standardized on older versions of Internet Explorer.

Sophos Inc. October 2004 - March 2007

Software Developer

  • Member of an XP team that developed a gateway Email Security Appliance that filters emails based on spam, viruses and other content policies.
  • Organically developed a framework for creating reports which notify administrators of mail traffic through the appliance. The framework I developed was also used to create reports in another Sophos product, PureMessage.

  • Developed a system which indexes mail logs and then gives administrators the ability to search quickly over the past 30 days in order to discover why a message was rejected, quarantined, dropped, etc.
Education

Simon Fraser University 2010 - Present (Part-time)

Linguistics


British Columbia Institute of Technology 2002 - 2004

Diploma of Technology with Honours Standing
Computer Systems Technology (Data Communications Option)