Lewis
Francis
H.
Lewis Francis, Jr.
1010 Parker St.
Falls Church, Va. 22046 |
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Summary
Self-starting
technical/creative strategist and problem-solver, specializing in user-facing
newmedia technologies with an emphasis on creative risk management.
Keywords: team-player, usability, graceful-degradation, broadband,
knowledge management, best practices, evangelist, mentor.
Skills
Proficient
in: Macromedia Director, Flash, Dreamweaver,
Fireworks, SoundEdit 16 II, Deck II, Screentime Cinemac, Equilibrium
Debabelizer, Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, Discreet Cleaner, Bare Bones
BBEdit, Bias Peak Audio, Microsoft Word, IEAK, Netscape CCK, Adaptec
Toast, Aladdin Stuffit InstallerMaker, Hypercard , Opcode StudioVision,
Galaxy, OMS, HTML, CSS, PICS, Javascript/JScript, Unix, Mac OS, OS X,
Win OS, Palm OS, QuickTime, QTVR, Real, Windows Media, Shockwave, Flash
Player, Beatnik, iPix.
Familiar with: Macromedia/Allaire HomeSite, Freehand, Fontographer,
Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat, Illustrator, GoLive, FileMaker
FileMaker Pro, InstallShield, ResEdit, Apache, Perl, Python, JSP, Java,
MSQL, XML, XHTML.
Experience
Freelance
Interactive Consultant
Lewis
Francis, Falls Church , Va.
October 2001-Present
My time
at a world-class interactive agency provided me with extensive experience
in both developing and directing award-winning newmedia projects for
CD-ROM, dynamic web, kiosk, and streaming media formats for a variety
of Fortune 500 clients, experience I am now able to offer on my own.
Recent and ongoing clients/projects include:
- Threespot
Media, for whom I provided
trouble-shooting, optimization, and cross-platform best-practices consulting
on a CD-ROM project for the Peace Corps. Following the successful first
run of 50k copies, the Peace Corps has contracted Threespot to produce
a second run of 100k copies.
- gooeyGUI,
a startup for whom I am developing web-enabled persistent rich-media
interface architecture for their proprietary product line.
Director of Media Technologies
AKQA,
Inc. Washington, DC
April 1997-October 2001
Formerly Magnet Interactive Communications, LLC, AKQA
is an interactive agency that provides a complete range of communications,
brand and media strategy, advertising, new media and technology solutions.
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Worked
closely with CEO, CTO, VP of Technology and VP of Programming to determine
technology goals and directions for the entire company.
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Worked
closely with VP of Creative, Director of Media Services and the creative
group at large in translating creative ideas and goals into implementable
strategies.
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Worked
closely with Quality Assurance and disparate groups with differing
agendas to ensure a focus on quality, usability and the appropriate
use and behavior of technology.
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Served
as the primary authority on creative and technical risk management
for matters concerning client-side applications and multimedia, assessing
the parameters of given problems and recommending appropriate solutions
and best practices.
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Consulted
or acted as technical director on projects for the following clients:
Accenture, Sprint PCS, WorldCom, Boston Scientific, Dupont StainMaster,
Ryan Partnerships, Harley-Davidson, Kelloggs, Conservation International,
Nissan/Infiniti, Mayo Clinic, Discovery Online, Univision, Chiat-Day,
Energizer, Bank of America, Radisson Hotels, Oral-B Kids, Crayola.
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Kept
the company and clients abreast of new web and multimedia technologies
through authoring or managing demos, writing white papers, mentoring
team members, leading seminars and participation in sales pitches.
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Created
and led the Magnet Interactive Styleguide group, an interdisciplinary
and interoffice effort at formulating and evangelizing web and CD-ROM
development standards.
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Created
knowledge base effort by authoring various technical reference documents
aggregating my research and the experience of the technical and design
staff from across the company.
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Evaluated
new client-side multimedia technologies; when deemed ready for prime
time, evangelized their appropriate use to clients and team members
and assisted in planning and debugging implementation issues across
platforms.
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Evaluated
multimedia development applications including authoring platforms,
graphics editing and format conversion, digital audio/video capture,
editing, format conversion and encoding, and HTML/Javascript coding
tools. Analyzed impact to production flow for quality improvements
and cost savings. Made recommendations and managed rollout of such
tools to various departments.
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Managed
source code repository of all Macromedia Director and Flash-based
projects, ensuring the easy repurposing of code elements and realizing
savings of 50 to 75% in development costs for new but similar projects.
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Championed
and led the development of a technology demo, sales tool and product
concept consisting of a customizable desktop application and back-end
system that utilized Internet connectivity to accomplish a variety
of useful tasks. Such tasks ranged from custom content delivery, messaging
and the gathering of technographic, survey and feedback data to behavior
tracking and lead qualification.
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Created
and led the development of the Software Intelligence Gatherer, the
working name for a custom distributed data capture and reporting system
for web site audience technographics analysis and CRM solutions.
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Created
and managed initiative to aggregate, analyze, and share within development
groups standard web server logging data collected from our many clients
hosted sites in commercial hosting facility on a quarterly basis.
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Acted
as Technical director for the award winning Kellogg's Pop-Tarts' Pop-Trivia
site which showcased an interactive multi-user simulation of a pop
culture trivia game show featuring Macromedia's Flash, Shockwave,
and the Multiuser Server products interfacing with a Java servlet
and an Informix database back-end.
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Worked
closely with IT and Programming to help properly install, configure,
maintain and debug web based applications such as web, proxy, and
multiuser servers, database and Java servlet engines.
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Worked
closely with IT to configure, manage and maintain the audio and video
edit and capture facilities.
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Managed
company's continued participation in beta testing new products from
Macromedia, Apple, Microsoft, Terran Interactive, Electrifier, Netscape,
Mozilla, Beatnik, Adobe, Real and others.
Senior Technical Director
Magnet
Interactive Technologies, LLC
Jan. 1996-April 1997 Washington, DC
A division of Magnet Interactive, MIT provided APAT, Research and
IT services to other Magnet divisions.
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Managed
APAT (Advanced Products and Technologies) group with three direct
reports. This group was tasked with researching, evaluating and developing
new web technologies with a primary focus on extending authoring tools,
Java, and a proprietary video compression codec based upon wavelet
transformation.
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Acted
as technology consultant for web development teams from Magnet Interactive
Communications on projects for Kellogg's, Mercedes Benz, DeBeers,
Häagen-Dazs, American Greetings, Harvard Business School, Snickers,
Sony, Matchbox, Digital Equipment Corp.
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Acted
as Technical Lead in the development of the award winning National
Geographic Online web site. Interfaced with client, team members from
production and design, external consultants and contractors to determine
requirements and opportunities. Managed programming team of seven
to develop a rich, CD-ROM like online environment and provide custom
content management tools.
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Began
developing company standards and guidelines for web and CD-ROM development
and taught internal classes on web and multimedia development practices.
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Managed
company's continued participation in beta testing new products from
Macromedia, Apple, Microsoft, Netscape, Adobe, Real, and others.
Technical Facilitator: Edutainment
Magnet
Interactive Studios, LLC
March 1995-January 1996 Washington, DC
A division
of Magnet Interactive, MIS developed award winning CD-ROM and other
interactive products.
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Acted
as liaison between client, senior management, producers, designers
and the programming staff to insure that technically sound CD-ROM
products were completed on time and within budget.
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Continuously
evaluated multimedia technologies and authoring tools and determined
technology direction for the Edutainment division as well as the company
as a whole.
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Managed
all technical staffing requirements for Edutainment group projects
including hiring and selecting contractors.
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Kept
abreast of industry developments and disseminated relevant information
to Edutainment staff.
-
Managed
company's participation in beta testing new products from Macromedia,
Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and others.
- Clients:
Time/Life, IBM, World Book, Virgin Interactive, Microsoft, and Dow Jones
& Co
CD-ROM Programmer
Magnet
Interactive Studios, LLC
March 1994-March 1995 Washington, DC
Magnet Interactive Studios developed award winning CD-ROM and other
interactive products.
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Lead
Programmer for the multi-award winning multimedia CD-ROM title Beyond
the Wall, Stories Behind the Vietnam Wall.
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Engineered
cross-platform multimedia CD-ROM development solutions to be used
company wide, including database access, environmental adaptation
and video encoding standards.
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Worked
with producers, writers, quality assurance and designers to create
specifications, test plans and schedules.
-
Led
or worked on projects for clients including MCI, Macromedia, Wells
Fargo, Discovery Channel, and Compuserve.
Sales
Veneman
Music Company, Inc.
Oct. 1985-March 1994 Springfield, Va.
Veneman Music provided professional music, sound, and recording equipment
to national and local acts and studios. Recently acquired by Guitar
Center, Inc
-
Consistently
led in monthly sales figures.
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Responsible
for pro recording, digital audio editor, software, musical instrument
and sound reinforcement sales & support.
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Positions
held: Keyboard Manager, Pro Sound/Recording Manager, and Software/Digital
Audio Specialist/Buyer.
Education
Virginia
Western Community College, Roanoke, Va.
1979-1981
Completed credit
courses in Radio and TV Production Technology.
Interned at Threshold Recording, Roanoke Va.
Interests
Electronic
music
composition and recording. I am a published recording artist with two
LP/CD releases on the Berlin label Dossier Records and numerous releases
on both German and US artist compilations. Photography,
digital film / video and other digital and interactive arts. Handheld
and wireless computing. Collecting and
refurbishing "antique" computers.
Enjoying the great outdoors, mountain on
and off-trail hiking, biking and camping, fossil collecting, and nature
watching. An overarching interest in the
sciences, especially astronomy and archaeology. Volunteering
at my children's schools.
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