The Projects of Josh

Monday, October 30, 2006

rooftiles.jpg

The roof of a hotel in Monaco.

I have worked on a pile of interesting projects over the years. Not all fit neatly onto a resume, so I’ve assembled some of my favorites (and recent projects) here for you to check out, if you’d like.

Please contact me at chasing@spaceship.com if you would like a copy of my resume. Thanks!

Web Projects

      Sugarcandy Mobile Chat — I co-founded this project with Josh Klein and have acted as lead developer and visual designer. In addition to being an SMS-based chat app, Sugarcandy is also a platform for rapid SMS-based app development. See Sleuth! below.

      University of Texas College of Liberal Arts CMS — I single-handedly developed website management software for the UT College of Liberal Arts (servicing about 15,000 students). The software could be zipped up and quickly deployed and customized on any server running PHP by non-technical employees. Currently, the software runs most of the COLA departmental websites (over 20). For example: COLA Home, Plan II Honors (my undergrad program), Department of Economics, Department of Government.

      iLoveFreeWifi — I first set this sit up in 2002 so I could find places to use my new Mac iBook in Austin. Over the years I’ve added cities across the country and a few other features and the site has grown steadily. Users still add new hotspots and comments daily.

      Outside.in — I am an assistant developer on Steven Berlin Johnson’s Outside.In geo-located blog-aggregator.

School Projects

      eParole — I worked with four other students on a conceptual project called eParole. Our idea: Help improve the effectiveness of the United States parole system by introducing networked technologies to the way parolees are monitored and assisted in reentering society. We presented this project at the Microsoft Design Summit in the summer of 2006.

      Common Editor — Common Editor is a more recently-conceived project of mine that attempts to bridge the gap between basic blog-style comments and full-edit wikis to create a system by which an open group can offer editorial advice and critique to a writer in the process of drafting new material.

      Gametron 7000 — This is a silly in-development game project for mobile phones. The idea: You design a game level on the site, save it, and then anyone with the GT7K software (written in J2ME) can play the game. I want to make the game design process for mobile phones more open and fun for people — making the game is as much a game as playing it!

Music and Art Projects

      Frescher-Southern Electronic Music — I founded and managed F-S in Austin, Texas. We put on live electronic music events — laptops, live synth performances, visual art, etc — for a couple of years in clubs and galleries around town. I often performed, as well. (I also designed and coded the website.)

      DXM — I have performed my own laptop-based electronic music as DXM for about ten years, mostly in the central Texas area. I sometimes perform, as well, as The Clearing Stages. I used out-of-the-box software for much of this, but I also sometimes write my own software instruments when I need to. Recently I took part in the Intel-sponsored Laptop Battle at Lincoln Center in NYC. (And lost…) I also presented a talk called “The Powerbook Rockstar” at the 2004 O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference.

Big Games

      Quoto — I developed with three other students a big game called Quoto for Frank Lantz’ Game Design class. The short rules: You get sentences — quotes — and go out onto the streets of New York and photograph them rebus-style. So if you have the word “dog,” you can photograph a real dog or the letters “d” “o” “g”. Easy. We debuted this game at the Come Out and Play big games festival. Quoto also had a booth at the Nokia Games Summit in Monaco in September 2006.

      Sleuth! — Another game for Come Out and Play. A criminal is on the loose in Manhattan! Teams of Detective Agencies must use their clue-solving and geo-locating skills to find him or her! The Sleuth! software was built using the Sugarcandy mobile platform (see above) and Yahoo!’s maps API.

      SnagU — I was an assistant developer on SnagU, a game developed by students at ITP and funded and promoted by MTVU.

Have I forgotten anything?