November 2007- to present Seattle, USA.
Since November 2007 Russell has been working full time as a senior Flash Actionscript 3 (AS3) programmer for KD Learning on their ZooKazoo social networking environment for kids. ZooKazoo is managed in Palo Alto, with programmers in Seattle, and a main office in Burbank, Los Angeles, where the bulk of the animation is created.
Some of Russell's achievements at Zookazoo, in chronological order:
(1) Developed the improvements to the player Avatars allowing them to wear a huge array of clothes and accessories.
(2) Integrated the various games being developed in Hong Kong, India and Seattle into the Zookazoo site, with a common interface and a system to award "Kazoobits" for gameplay.
(3) Made the simple "Bang a Bongo" game as a basis around which to develop the common interface for integrating games. "Bang a Bongo" was also repurposed with alternate graphics as "Scratch n Match."
(4) Introduced "stateful items" to be used in rooms as interactive furniture and wall hangings, allowing for items that may interact with each other across the server, and trigger each other in a "Rube Goldburg" style sequence to create small, turn based, multiplayer games and puzzles.
(5) Enhanced those stateful items to work with synchronized audio, permitting sound driven musical instruments and queuing of songs on a jukebox and DJ booth.
(6) Built generic tools for loading games, room items, and other assets, ensuring improvement and simplification of memory management and caching.
(7) Created a generic system of bit mapping vector graphics to yield a site wide increase in performance and CPU usage of up to 30%.
(8) Written Client Side tools to synchronize and record specific times between players across the server, and overcome problems of synchronisation between the server and various players during the playing of a game.
(9) Built Zookazoo's first real-time multiplayer action game called "Dodo Drop," involving queuing systems for commencing games, and synchronizing game play and animation across the server between the clients.
2006-2007 Boston, USA.
Tom Snyder Productions - "TimeLiner 6", programming UI shell in Flex2 (AS3), © Scholastic 2007
American Well - Client video conferencing component for medical website, Flex2 (AS3) programming, © American Well 2007
Smashing Ideas, Inc - "SuperWhy" Alpha Bricks game, Flash 9 (AS3) programmer, © PBS Kids Television Network 2007
Harvard Div. of Continuing Ed. - Flex2 UI programming consultant for Distance Ed. video website, © Harvard University 2007
Tom Snyder Productions - "TimeLiner 6" prototype, Flex2 (AS3) programming and design, © Scholastic 2007
Tamara Bonn Photography - "Tamara Bonn Photography" website, Flex2 programming and design, © Tamara Bonn 2007
Custom Learning Designs, Inc. - "Wyeth Oncology Learning", Flash 7 (AS2) programmer, © Wyeth Pharmaceuticals 2006
Mocaz, Inc. - "Chevalier", game design and Flash 8 (AS2) programming, © Mocaz, Inc. 2006
Universal Head - "Savanna Walkabout", Flash 8 (AS2) programmer, © Savannas Mgmt., Darwin University (Australia) 2006
Mocaz, Inc. - "Asteroids", Windows C++, AS2, AS3 © Mocaz, Inc. 2005
Occasionally teaches Flash for Future Media Concepts (FMC) in Orlando and Boston.
Also occasionally teaches Flash for Softeach, Inc.
2001-2006 Boston, USA. Harvard University Extension
Graduated June 2006, Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Information Technology (ALM in IT, GPA 3.86, Dean's List) with a concentration in Software Engineering, from Harvard University Extension. Also, graduated March 2004 Degree of Bachelor of Liberal Arts Cum Laude (ALB, GPA 3.62, Dean's List) with a field of Computer Science, from Harvard University Extension, while working part time at the Harvard University Division of Continuing Education Computer Lab and occasionally teaching Director and Flash for Future Media Concepts (FMC) in Orlando and Boston.
1997-2001 Boston, USA.
1999 Russell commenced his Undergraduate degree part time at Harvard University Extension while contracting and performing as a Teaching Fellow for the class Understanding & Developing Multimedia (1998/99), also at Harvard University Extension.
MARS - "Upstage", presentation software, lingo programmer, © MARS 2001
Arnold - Volkswagen site, support Flash ActionScripting, © Volkswagen 2000
Point of View - "Condor phone", shockwave programmer, © Motorola 2000
360Kid - "Sticker Story" online game for "Dragon Tails" site, shockwave programmer, © PBS Kids Television Network 2000
360Kid - "Treasure Hunt" online game for "Dragon Tails" site, shockwave programmer, © PBS Kids Television Network 2000
360Kid - "Apply!" CD-ROM, programmer, © The Princeton Review 2000
Planet Interactive - "Where is Matt?" CD-ROM, lead programmer, © NERI 2000
"Where is Matt?" was a 2000 MIMIC Award Finalist in the category of "General Education."
Harvard Extension - Developing Multimedia Website, Dreamweaver, © Harvard University 1999
360Kid - "Government & Citizen Resources" CD-ROM, programmer, © Prentice Hall 1999
Houghton Mifflin Interactive - "Galaxy Writer", Prototyper, © Houghton Mifflin 1998
Electramedia - "SHL Word Search" game, programmer, © Mocaz 1998
Six Red Marbles - "Spelling Spree" CD-ROM, lead architect and lingo programmer, © Houghton Mifflin 1998
Lead Architect and Programmer on "Spelling Spree!", a commercial Mac and Windows CD-ROM distributed
by Houghton Mifflin Interactive. It was a 1998 MIMIC Award Finalist in the category of "K-12 Educational
Multimedia Title," and was used extensively by schools in Texas.
1996-7 Sydney, Australia.
Extro Design - Intel Sales Presenter, principal programmer, © Intel 1997
Mocaz - "Crusades" Prototype, producer & programmer, © Mocaz 1997
Universal Head - "HeadCase" disk, © Universal Head 1997
Brilliant Interactive Ideas - "Plates are People too" games, © Brilliant Interactive Ideas 1997
Brilliant Interactive Ideas - "Little Engine" games, © Brilliant Interactive Ideas 1997
Brilliant Interactive Ideas - "Dinosaurs" games, © Brilliant Interactive Ideas 1997
Brilliant Interactive Ideas - "Monsters" games, © Brilliant Interactive Ideas 1997
Interactive Digital Options - "The Mega Mall" Home Shopping/Internet Hybrid CD-ROM, © Interactive Digital Options 1996
Interactive Digital Options - "PowerShop" Interactive Magazine, © Interactive Digital Options 1995
Unlimited Energy - "Crocadoo", prototyping & lingo programming, © Unlimited Energy 1995
Shomega - "Mythical Mazes" Prototype, prototyping & programming, © Shomega 1995
Voom Advertising - "Bobby No Good", design & programming, © Mocaz 1995
Mocaz - "Hex Puzzle", design & lingo programmer, © Mocaz 1995
ACRIL - Enware Taps Database, lingo programmer, © ACIRL 1995
1994-5 Toronto, Canada.
Eloi Productions - "Jewels of the Oracle", interface & lead programmer, © Discis 1995
Interface & Lead Programmer on the hit computer game "Jewels of the Oracle," a CD-ROM game distributed
by DISCUS in March of 1995. This game has won international recognition with 1) "Best of show" at MacWorld Expo
San Francisco, 2) '95, Product of the year CD-ROM Professional Magazine. "Jewels of the Oracle" was programmed
entirely in Director 4.1 for Mac and PC on a hybrid CD-ROM. In 1996 a Japanese translation version was released for
the Sega Saturn platform by Sunsoft Japan.
Electramedia - "Jewels of the Oracle", prototyper & lingo programmer, © Electramedia 1994
Electramedia - Cott Group Database, programmer, © The Cott Group 1994
Electramedia - Global Strategy Sales Presenter, a programmer, © Global Strategy 1994
1990-3 Sydney, Australia.
Applied Learning - "Can I", programmer, © Applied Learning © 1993
ACIRL - Coal Sampling Tutorial, designer & lingo programmer, © ACIRL 1993
Toshiba Australia - Toshiba DVI Video Presenter, programmer, © Toshiba Australia 1993
Wavelength - NSW Lotteries Kiosk, lingo programmer, © NSW Lotteries © 1993
Aeriel Interactive - Aeriel Interactive CDI, designer, © Aeriel Interactive 1993
Aeriel Interactive - Scots Prospectus on disk, designer & principal programmer, © Scots 1993
Aeriel Interactive - Collagen Sales Presenter, programmer, © Aeriel Interactive 1993
Aeriel Interactive - MCQ Testing on disk, designer & programmer, © Aeriel Interactive 1992
Applied Learning - Workplace Literacy Course, programmer, © Applied Learning 1992
Dr Sendal - Sendals Books, programmer, © Dr Sendal 1992
Invited to work on the advanced Authorware training manual being developed by Adelaide TAFE as the national course (Australia) in that platform.
1991 Sydney, Australia.
Full time author of computer based training for Learnware, owned by Authorware, Inc.
Learnware/Authorware - Commonwealth Bank 4QL, design & principal programmer, © Commonwealth Bank 1991
Designer and principal programmer of the Commonwelath Bank's Four Quadrant Leadership (4QL) project, an international,
groundbreaking, highly acclaimed computer based training product involving live action video from laser disk.
Learnware/Authorware - Woodside Offshore Induction, principal programmer, © Woodside 1991
Learnware/Authorware - CSIRO Foyer system kiosk, designer & principal programmer, © CSIRO 1991
1988-90 Sydney, Australia.
Bit Magic - New Zealand Telecom Kiosk, programmer, © Bit Magic 1990
Barneyscan - "ColorAccess", interface designer & support C programmer, © Barneyscan Corporation, 1990
"Color Access" was a finalist in the Seybold Awards 1991
Barneyscan - "QuickScan", interface designer, © Barneyscan Corporation 1990
Human Media - "Galactic Frontiers", designer & producer, © Soft Stream, 1991 - 93, © Human Media, 1994
Designed & Produced the strategic computer game "Galactic Frontiers" for Macintosh computers. Galactic Frontiers was
developed between 1988 to 1991 as a hobby. It was programmed in Pascal by Arthur Street and marketed in the U.S.
through Soft Stream International. Later, Galactic Frontiers became an established Mac shareware title, and was included on
the "Best of Inside Mac Games 1993 to 1996." Effectively now an antique, it still runs under Mac O/S 9.2 and may be
downloaded from: http://www.humanmedia.com.au/products.html
CONFERENCE PUBLICATION:
"A magnetic field mechanism for the origin of planetary motion"
Lowke J J and Lowke R J, 28th Inter Conf. Phenomena in Ionized Gases, Prague, July 2007, pages 1873-1876, paper 5P07-03.
Russell was responsible for the graphic visualization of data for this paper, making it possible to interpret that data,
and enabling a demonstration of the possibility of magnetic fields as being a force to produce regular features of
solar systems.
EDUCATION:
2006 Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Information Technology (ALM in IT, GPA 3.86, Dean's List) with a concentration in Software Engineering, from Harvard University Extension.
2004 Degree of Bachelor of Liberal Arts Cum Laude (ALB, GPA 3.62, Dean's List) with a field of Computer Science, from Harvard University Extension.
1998 & 1999 Teaching Fellow for Understanding & Developing Multimedia at Harvard University Extension.
1989 High School Certificate from Sydney Church of England Co-Educational Grammar School Redlands.
OTHER INTERESTS:
Russell works as an amateur videographer, documenting live bands and producing and directing experimental movies. He also has an avid interest in history and music, and has been playing drums for many years.
REFERENCES:
Andrew Lippert - Chief Technology Officer, Zookazoo. 206 579 9815
David Gonzalez - Applications Engineer, Zookazoo. 707 869 8469
Eric Hilfer - Director of Software Engineering, Tom Snyder Productions. 617 600 2284
Marc Hughes - Manager of Software Engineering, Tom Snyder Productions. 617 600 2287
Erik Hjortshoj - Director of Web Development, American Well Systems. 617 204 3521
William B. Robinson - Architect & Research Advisor, Div. of Continuing Ed. Harvard University. 617 496 9736
Dorothy Russo - Director, eLearning, Custom Learning Designs. 617 489 1702
Scott Traylor - President, 360KID. 617 964 1111
Karla Elgin - Branch Manager, Future Media Concepts (FMC) Orlando. 407 354 4866
[email addresses provided on request]
