Robert Hope

Robert has over 15 years of experience designing, documenting, and developing web- and windows-based applications from the UI level down to the database level. These applications have been high-volume and high-performance, including LoopNet.Com, a website that serves more than 2 million page hits per day to a user base of more than 1 million active users. His roles have included Technical Consultant, Senior Web Developer, Systems Architect, and Information Technology Executive. He has a demonstrated and proven ability to solve problems through motivated and determined effort and a knack for creative solutions. In addition, his ability to adapt quickly, an ability to learn and apply new knowledge immediately, and an ability to mentor and train other developers and team members make him a valuable resource and leader for any company or organization.

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Past Speaking Engagements

  • Silicon Valley Code Camp, Los Altos, CA, October 2006
  • San Luis Obispo .NET User Group, San Luis Obispo, CA, November 2006
  • San Luis Obispo .NET User Group, San Luis Obispo, CA, December 2006
  • San Luis Obispo .NET User Group, San Luis Obispo, CA, January 2007
  • Santa Barbara .NET Developer Group, Santa Barbara, CA, January 2007
  • Southern California Rock 'n Roll Code Camp, Los Angeles, CA, January 2007
  • Deer In The Headlights Code Camp, Waltham, MA, March 2007
  • San Luis Obispo .NET User Group, San Luis Obispo, CA, August 2007
  • Central Coast Code Camp, San Luis Obispo, CA, September 2007
  • Silicon Valley Code Camp, Los Altos, CA, October 2007
  • Southern California Rock 'n Roll Code Camp, Los Angeles, CA, January 2008

Skill Set

  • ASP.NET, VB.NET, C#
  • ASP
  • XML/XSL/XSLT
  • JavaScript/AJAX
  • Visual Basic 6.0/COM+/DCOM
  • HTML/CSS
  • .NET WebServices and Remoting
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Visual Studio/Visual Studio.NET
  • Visual Source Safe
  • MSMQ
  • Configuration Management and Build Automation
  • Team Mentoring and Training
  • New Product Designs, Methodologies, and Strategies
  • On-Time Delivery of Software Releases
  • Scalable development in a web farm environment
  • Documentation (MS Word, Visio)

Professional Accomplishments

Planning and Design

  • Delivered on-time and to specification nine major software releases in two years on a .NET/C#/SQL Server 2000 platform, including legacy ASP/VB COM+ components, spread across a server web/database farm of more than 25 machines
  • Planned and coordinated migration efforts to .NET from traditional ASP/COM+ legacy platform
  • Planned and designed all new product offerings while Systems Architect
  • Developed the design methodology and documentation process that drives the success of development teams
  • Led design meetings and brainstorming sessions
  • Participated in Change Management meetings to manage and address issues and changes
  • Ensured proper object-oriented programming methodologies and techniques and implementation of a 3-tier architecture
  • Assisted in the development of configuration management and automated build and deployment techniques

Performance Enhancements

  • Implemented Replication in a Microsoft SQL Server environment to provide a “search” server in addition to a regular main database, allowing the separation of “write” operations from “read” operations and reducing contention dramatically.
  • Implemented appropriate index tuning and Indexed Views to attain maximum search query performance
  • Implemented performance tracking, including a scheduled job to automate SQL Profiler to track the most low-performing queries over a given timeframe for later research
  • Implemented a data caching system based on .NET Web Services and SQL that allowed for caching data that did not greatly change over time, resulting in an 80% reduction of queries on the main database server
  • Developed an in-memory reverse search to match user requirements against information in the database when that particular lookup became too expensive for normal database application to perform in a timely fashion, with an interaction based on .NET Remoting technologies
  • Dramatically decreased webpage download times by implementing a database storage mechanism that replaced .NET’s internal state management ViewState methodology
  • Continued to maintain or improve performance with each software release

Practical Solutions

  • Designed, developed, and implemented a completely flexible, template-based email delivery system that allows for emails to be sent via asynchronous process or web service call, with full targeting and tracking capabilities, delivering an average of 500,000 system emails a month
  • Designed and implemented an Application and Asynchronous Service Monitoring system, which allows scheduled tasks and windows services to register themselves and report on their progress automatically while in process, and notify certain predetermined users via email when their processes have stalled, failed, or are completed
  • Implemented a SOAP-based Web Services suite with full tracking for use by UI components as well as external users
  • Implemented debugging techniques that allowed for debugging of all server-side and client-side executed code with minimal performance impacts, further tracking performance and enabling the ability to find and resolve errors quickly and efficiently
  • Implemented a page request tracking system for all user visits to the site that eventually replaced WebTrends as the primary user experience reporting tool
  • Developed an automated process to generate Google indexable pages to present the site’s publicly viewable data in a friendly format for Google indexing
  • Designed and developed a survey system that allows non-developers within the company to create “survey” pages that track questions and answers from users on the system so that marketing teams can acquire specific feedback without impacting developer efficiency
  • Developed a customizable template-based website design system using XML/XSL, where clients can customize and build their own websites online

Scalable Systems

  • Implemented web application session tracking against an internal database, allowing sharing of session information across all web applications in the domain, including both ASP and ASP.NET based pages
  • Implemented an MSMQ-based asynchronous processing system, allowing offloading of non-critical work to be done on alternate servers after the fact and freeing up web servers to perform their normal duties
  • Developed a configuration management tool to allow for multiple machine configurations across different parts of the system based on that particular server’s needs
  • Implemented a “database farm” utilizing multiple replicated servers to allow scaling of search functions
  • Maintained an ability to immediately add new web servers, new batch servers for MSMQ processing, and new database search servers on-demand with virtually no effort once the proper software was installed on the box

New Search Systems

  • Designed, developed, and integrated a keyword-based search into main search system when Microsoft’s Text-based searching in SQL Server failed to meet performance and flexibility standards
  • Implemented a radius-based search system that allowed for users to find properties within a certain geographic area
  • Developed a map-based search interface using Microsoft Virtual Earth, .NET Web Services, and AJAX Remote Scripting Calls to interact with Virtual Earth tools without page refreshes for an enhanced user experience

New UI Systems

  • Developed remote-scripting calls that interacted with .NET Web Services to make lookup calls for UI controls without refreshing the page
  • Developed an object methodology based on the use of C# interfaces that allowed a redesign of three major functional areas of the site (Add/Edit, Profile, and Search) in less than one-third of the original development time
  • Implemented a base page and control layer between thesystem and the native .NET controls to allow for system wide functional and behavioral changes with minimal work
  • Developed a new navigation tracking system that allows the system to put any user back on the page they came from in the exact way they left it, without passing large amounts of data as the user goes from page to page to page