Objective
I desire to help companies and organizations understand how they might best improve their internal and external communication processes to maximize relationships with customers and partners.

I have an unusually strong desire to bring people closer together by helping them see that we share more common ground than we do differences and I'm encouraged by the quick evolution of the mobile social web and its potential for human empowerment and positive change.

I live in Santa Cruz, CA, and am available to consult with startups building web or mobile social applications and services, non-profits looking to leverage mobile-social media for their cause, and existing product or service companies seeking to understand social media and embrace social relationship management.

Background
I am a human factors generalist by training with more than 12 years of experience in usability and interface design. My work with IBM, Scient and a growing list of startup web-services and social technology companies has allowed me to be involved at every point along the software development process.

I hold a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Human Factors Option with Human-Computer Interaction Concentration) from Virginia Tech, a MS in Human Factors Psychology and a BS in Psychology from the University of Idaho.

I am Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Networked Insights, Inc.

I am one of four Co-Inventors on United States Patent 7,080,139, "Method and apparatus for selectively sharing and passively tracking communication device experiences".

Interests
I have a growing number of convergent interests that include mobile / web situation awareness, unified profiles, augmented social networks, mirror worlds, artificial intelligence, attention economies, pervasive gaming, human information processing, compressed language, living timelines, time management, relationship management, decision management, simulations, predictive displays, data ownership and data portability.

My evolving vision centers on the creation of a simple web and mobile interface & service providing an integrated information and communication environment, expressly designed to help people more easily capture, visualize, share, understand, manage and ultimately affect what's going on around them.

Primary Research

I'm a great listener, observer and interviewer.

I am a systems-minded person and I seek to understand the entire context around a user, team, organization and process.

Brainstorming & Facilitation

I'm a strong facilitator for ideation, brainstorming, pattern and connection finding sessions.

I have a renewed interest and growing adeptness in using graphic facilitation to tell complex stories succinctly.

Prototyping & Design

I typically sketch rough concepts and flows on paper then move into OmniGraffle or Visio for rough clickable concepts and Illustrator for visual design.

*Reconstructing Portfolio pages...

Media Creation

I became a video and photo enthusiast back in 1991 (when QuickTime was released in beta), then dove headlong into developing multimedia and interactive video for youth.

I greatly enjoy playing and composing music, and am relatively skilled on guitar, piano, percussion, singing and voice over narration. I would be happy to put these talents to work for the right project.