Refresh the Triangle

Friday, March 05, 2010

Refresh 026 — Delivering a Responsive UI

Location TBD — Thur, Mar 25, 2010, 6:30-8:00PM

As user interfaces get more complex and browsers become home to more and more application logic, front-end performance becomes a pressing concern. Add mobile to the mix, with its slow connections and brutal cache limitations, and front-end developers have a host of challenges on their hands these days. It’s no longer enough to be able to wrangle HTML and CSS into submission—front-end developers have to understand caching, cache-busting, HTTP response codes, combination and minification of files, lazy loading, and more. At this month’s meeting, we’ll talk about the know-how that today’s front-end developers need to bring to the table to develop rich, performant, scalable web experiences.

Speaker:
Rebecca Murphey is an independent front-end architecture consultant, helping companies understand, manage, and improve the client side of their applications. She is an active member of the jQuery community, a contributor to the upcoming jQuery Cookbook from O’Reilly, and a regular contributor to JSMag, the magazine for JavaScript professionals. She lives in Durham with her partner, two dogs, and two cats.

Location:
TBD

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

NCDevCon - North Carolina’s Premiere Web Conference

Following the success of the CFinNC conference last October, the Triangle Area ColdFusion User Group (TACFUG) is proud to announce NCDevCon 2010.

Did we mention that the cost for this conference is the same as last year? That’s right. It’s free!

This conference is planned for May 22-23, 2010 and will be held at the College of Textiles on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

Planned Topics
* ColdFusion
* Flex/Air
* Hands on sessions (bring your laptop!)
* Web Design
* Javascript/CSS/Ajax

NCDevCon also offers a series of hands on training at no charge to attendees. Bump up your skills, earn more money, learn from the best at NCDevCon.

For more information please visit:  http://ncdevcon.com

2009 Attendee Testimonials

“The size of the conference made networking much easier then larger conferences...”

“Good job of mixing presentation and hands on. I think it covered an excellent range of material, and was rather motivational in the enthusiasm for ColdFusion… a reminder it isn’t dead yet!”

Monday, March 01, 2010

Drupal Developer at hesketh.com

Do you find beauty in the right tool for the right job? Were you so excited when you launched your first Drupal project — leveraging the power of the platform and its community — that friends thought you drank special kool-aid at a meetup? Passionate for empowering non-profits to build strong communities? Then, we are equally enthusiastic about you!

Key Duties and Responsibilities
1. Contribute to compelling user experiences. Collaborate with designers to leverage the power of Drupal to meet client organizational goals, including custom theming.
2. Create standards-compliant markup. Implement designs using HTML and CSS progressive enhancement markup strategies.
3. Participate in feature ideation and selection. Participate in cross-functional brainstorming sessions to determine Web site features and functionality based on business objectives and user research findings. Provide insights into feasibility, solution analysis, project scope and execution.
4. Love your tools. Evaluate and know when to use third-party tools and modules to achieve business goals and when a new module needs to be written.
5. Innovation. Assess new standards, technologies and trends as they relate to our target markets of caused-based organizations and higher education. Demonstrate an eagerness to learn, the patience to share and the ability to apply new skills and trends within a diverse, user-centered design team.
6. Facilitate collaboration. Participate in a highly collaborative relationship and help bridge would-be gaps between design and development.

Qualifications

Education
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.

Experience
* 2+ years developing and maintaining Drupal sites OR a combination of PHP and Drupal experience.
* Several Drupal projects under your belt (more than theming) or one really complicated project that was all yours.
* Survived a Drupal upgrade, or two.
* Consulting firm (agency) experience preferred.
* Non-profit or EDU experience desired.

Skills

Must-haves
* Proficient with Drupal architecture, module installation and configuration.
* Expertise in creating and revising Drupal themes.
* Ninja skills for identifying the right module for the right outcome and when custom modules are required.
* Core Web development skills: HTML, CSS, jQuery (or other JavaScript library flavor), and MySQL.
* Comfort with light systems administration (LAMP configuration helpful).
* Active participation in the Drupal community.
* Ability to estimate hours needed to complete Drupal projects.
* Enthusiasm for open source, authenticity, and transparency.
* Experience with at least one other CMS or micro-CMS.
* Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.
* Passion for doing well by doing good.

Nice-to-haves
* Ability and/or desire to write modules for Drupal.
* Ability to use version control systems like Subversion or Git.
* Experience with one or more non-profit technology (ex., CiviCRM, Donor Perfect, Blackbaud, Convio).
* Enthusiasm for Agile practices: user-centered design collaboration and scrum meetings.
* Foosball skills.

P.S. Yes, we are planning to move our own site from Radiant CMS to Drupal. Want to help?

Send resumes and salary history to…
hesketh.com/inc.
ATTN: Personnel
1101 Haynes Street
Suite 109
Raleigh, NC 27604

fax: 919.834.2553
email: careers@hesketh.com

hesketh.com/inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, veteran status, or disability.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Refresh 025 — The Luxury of Contemplation: Why we owe ourselves time to reflect on our work

Durham, NC — Thur, Feb 25, 2010, 6:30-8:00PM

This is not a talk about sunset meetings or debriefs. It’s a talk about spending sweet, aimless, one-on-one time with your medium. I’ll speak about why I think it’s important to reflect on your work, the tools and systems I use to facilitate “productive” contemplation, and what I’ve found to be most challenging and rewarding in my efforts.

Speaker:

Beck Tench is a simplifier, illustrator, story teller and 
technologist. Formally trained as a graphics designer at the 
University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass
 Communication, she has spent her career elbow deep in web work of all 
sorts – from the knowledge work of information architecture and design 
to the hands dirty work of writing code and testing user experiences.
 Currently, she serves as Director for Innovation and Digital
 Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC where she
 studies and experiments with how visitors and staff use technology to
 plan, enhance and share their everyday lives.


Location:
Viget Labs
202 Rigsbee Avenue
Second Floor
Durham, NC 27701

Monday, December 21, 2009

Refresh 024 — HTML 5 Now!

Durham, NC — Thur, Jan 28, 2010, 6:30-8:00PM

HTML 5 provides us with all sorts of new abilities as web designers. We have new tags and attributes, richer form fields, client-side storage, and more. We’ll talk about how you can start using these features today and how to use them in a cross-browser friendly manner.

Speaker:
As the development director of Viget Labs‘ Durham office, Clinton Nixon institutes Agile development methodologies to deliver RoR-based custom solutions to clients. Clinton has more than a decade of experience in the industry and is an enthusiast for test-driven development, esoteric computer languages, and kittens.

Location:
Relevance
200 North Mangum Street
Suite 204
Durham, NC 27701

Monday, December 14, 2009

jQuery & JavaScript Camp

Join us for the second NC jQuery and JavaScript camp, an informal day centered around jQuery, the popular JavaScript library, and the JavaScript language itself. We’ll do things in the barcamp style, making a list of topics/presentations at the beginning of the day and seeing where things go from there. If you have something to share, whether it’s simple or fancy, we want to hear about it — talks can range anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour.

Featured speakers will include Scott Gonzalez, lead developer for the jQuery UI project, and Peter Higgins, lead developer for the Dojo JavaScript Toolkit. Proceeds will benefit open-source JavaScript projects, including jQuery and Dojo.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Refresh 023 — Delivering a Responsive UI

Durham, NC — Thur, Dec 3, 2009, 6:30-8:00PM

Update (Posted 12/1/2009):

Unfortunately, Rebecca is down for the count with back problems, so we’re going to simply meet up for drinks this month. Join us at City Beverage during the usual Refresh time slot of 6:30-8:00pm. Hope to see you there:

Thanks to iContact for the willingness to host again, and get better quick Rebecca! We’ll look forward to your presentation at a later date:

As user interfaces get more complex and browsers become home to more and more application logic, front-end performance becomes a pressing concern. Add mobile to the mix, with its slow connections and brutal cache limitations, and front-end developers have a host of challenges on their hands these days. It’s no longer enough to be able to wrangle HTML and CSS into submission—front-end developers have to understand caching, cache-busting, HTTP response codes, combination and minification of files, lazy loading, and more. At this month’s meeting, we’ll talk about the know-how that today’s front-end developers need to bring to the table to develop rich, performant, scalable web experiences.

Speaker:
Rebecca Murphey is an independent front-end architecture consultant, helping companies understand, manage, and improve the client side of their applications. She is an active member of the jQuery community, a contributor to the upcoming jQuery Cookbook from O’Reilly, and a regular contributor to JSMag, the magazine for JavaScript professionals. She lives in Durham with her partner, two dogs, and two cats.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Refresh 022 — Designing Outside the Browser

Raleigh, NC — Thur, Oct 22, 2009, 6:30-8:00PM

As designers, we’re constantly looking around for sources of inspiration and influence. Spending all day working on the web, it can be tempting to limit one’s gaze to other websites. While many of the challenges we face on the web are unique, in this talk, we’ll look beyond the browser window; at the techniques designers in other disciplines have used to solve their unique design problems and how we can apply those lessons to our own work on the web.

Speaker:
Richard Powell is a freelance web designer working in Chapel Hill. Working solo and as a Terralien crew member, Rich has had the opportunity to design and build sites for saddle pad vendors and underwater photographers, acupuncturists and investment firms, software consultants and massage therapists. He enjoys the challenges of finding just the right arrangement of pixels and tags to fit each client. When the glow of the LCD becomes too much, he loves taking a quick break to play “Hullaballoo” with his wife and 2 year old daughter.

Location:
Capstrat, Inc.
1201 Edwards Mill Road
First Floor
Raleigh, NC 27607

Director of Interactive Operations at Capstrat

Do you love all things interactive? Do you have an interest in managing and growing an awesome team of interactive minds?

Capstrat seeks a dynamic interactive leader to join our team. Our Director of Interactive Operations will be responsible for managing the delivery and operation of Capstrat’s Interactive projects and campaigns.

This position will report to the Executive Vice President of Interactive and be involved in delivery management, 3rd party management, operations and people management. You will play a team leadership role, leading a group of talented developers to deliver projects for multiple clients. You will also be held accountable for key metrics like profit margins, client satisfaction and of course quality of work.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage the day to day development teams’ schedule, resources, personnel and quality of work.
  
• Direct the delivery and financial profitability of the interactive team balancing scope, time, cost and quality.
  
• Develop proposals and costs and timelines for new business development.
  
• Candidate must be able to present ideas and proposals to potential new clients.
  
• Drive compliance and innovation of organizational processes and tools within the team, including quality standards.
  
• The director will have direct reports. He/she is responsible for managing them and providing feedback and quarterly reports.
  
• Partner with Executive Producer and the Creative teams Traffic Director to ensure resources are assigned correctly and timelines are being met.
  
• Identify and realize business opportunities with new or existing clients.
  
• Share and leverage best practices across the delivery leadership community.
  

EXPERIENCE GUIDELINES:

• Bachelor’s degree, advanced degree desired.
  
• 7-10 years relevant work experience, including leadership experience in leading large/medium sized client engagements in an ad agency or interactive shop.
  
• Experience in managing multiple full project lifecycles from inception to final delivery - creative, marketing and technology focused.
  
• Strong experience managing Web development teams.
  
• Must be able to manage multiple projects at the same time and be able to handle course and scope changes with ease.
  
• Experience in some or all of the following technologies: Django, .Net, HTML, Flash.
  
• Deep understanding of the digital and advertising space
  
• Strong analytical skills and business judgment
  
• Strong leadership skills, with prior experience of managing teams
  
• Extensive program management and client interaction skills
  
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
  
• Deep understanding of multiple roles and how they work together in an agency (flash, design, copy and front-end developers, media, strategy, research)
  

To apply for this position, please email your resume with cover letter to careers@capstrat.com. 

Senior Interactive Art Director opening at Capstrat

Capstrat is a multi-disciplinary, media-neutral and mega-hyphenated creative communications agency seeking a problem-solving, concept-focused, passion-fueled and equally multifaceted Interactive Art Director.

We’re a multi-disciplinary, media-neutral and mega-hyphenated creative communications agency seeking a problem-solving, concept-focused, passion-fueled and equally multifaceted Interactive art director.

We’re look for game-changing talent that thrives in redefining expectations. Is that you?

Does your portfolio show a strong grasp of concepts, user-centered design and your understanding of the importance of design in strategic business thinking?

Does your background include six or more years of experience and a Bachelor’s in Graphic Design, Interactive Design, or equivalent? Do you get CSS-based web layout, HTML, DHTML and XHTML, and can optimize graphics for web? Do you know online design from usability to information architecture to typography? In short, can you tell a story online?

If your aesthetic sense is strong and you know what makes a truly great interactive experience. If your inspiration is contagious and you’re comfortable presenting to clients, hiring illustrators and photographers and mentoring the less experienced. If you’re up on emerging trends, shunning the expected and sweating the details, then we need to meet.

We know we’re asking a lot. But we offer a lot in return. We have strong relationships with a roster of visionary clients, which means nonstop opportunities to do great work.

Further, Capstrat is a company that truly puts its employees first and believes in a healthy work-life balance. We have some great benefits too, which you’ll learn more about. Check out our stuff, send us yours and let’s see if there’s a fit.

Capstrat creative sampler: www.capstrat.com/examples/hotlist/

To apply for this position, please email your resume with cover letter to careers@capstrat.com. Be sure to provide a link to your portfolio or attach a PDF containing work samples.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

UI Engineer opportunity at Bronto Software

Do you have a love of design principles, next generation web user interfaces and coding?  Do Javascript, CSS and HTML comprise your native language? Then check out the UI Engineer opportunity at Bronto Software.

Bronto Software, a dynamic SaaS organization, is seeking a well-rounded User Interface (UI) Engineer to assist in the development of our web application.

The User Interface Engineer’s primary responsibility is to drive the interactive design process from initial concept through implementation.  The UI Engineer will work closely with the product team and other engineers to develop models/mock-ups, wireframes, workflow, and the final user interfaces.  The engineer set the course for the application appearance and usability for all existing and new features within Bronto.

Bronto is expanding our client list which includes: Trek Bikes, Gander Mtn, and Duke University.  The UI Engineer will have a direct impact on this growth and the marketability of our application.

If you have the technical experience and the self-motivation required, we would love to hear from you!  For immediate, confidential consideration, please apply online at bronto careers site

Requirements include:

• BS degree in Computer Science, Humand Factors, HCI or related area
• Extensive experience with web UI technologies, including HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, and JSON
• Experience with OOP and SQL (PHP, Ruby, or Perl a plus)
• Experience with MVC frameworks
• Comfortable developing in a Unix/Linux environment
• Must provide a portfolio or examples of work with resume
• Local candidates only, relocation is currently not available
• Eligibility to work in the US without sponsorship
• A sense of humor helps too!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Web Developer for Hire

We’re pleased to announce that Caktus Consulting Group is looking for a developer to join our team on a contract basis!

What do we do? We build custom web applications for local and remote clients using a variety of open-source technologies.  We are a small team founded in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area (currently residing in Carrboro Creative Coworking) who believe in face-to-face contact and employ agile development techniques that emphasize teamwork and collaboration.

We’re looking for a strong software developer who enjoys working on a team and is excited to learn and experiment with new technologies.  We do have a preference for local candidates, but will consider all submissions.  Initial work will focus on maintaining small Django-powered websites.  This will involve HTML/CSS (including converting Photoshop designs), Django Templates, and writing Unit Tests.  Later work will involve creating and integrating Django apps into larger projects, deployment, and database work.

You will be working in Linux (Debian-flavor) production environments with Apache and WSGI.  Python/Django experience is not required, but will be used on a daily basis.  Relational database experience is a must.  HTML/CSS and JavaScript experience are also a must, and jQuery is a plus.

If you’re interested in this position, please send us your resume, some example code, links to any open-source projects you’ve contributed to, and expected compensation.  We’re exited to bring on a new team member!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Job Opening: Nonprofit Web Developer

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is seeking a Web Application Developer to work as part of the IT Team to develop web applications that help universities share information and measure their progress toward meeting sustainability goals.

Position Description

Acting as a key member of the IT team, the Web Application Developer will be responsible for building web solutions using a combination of MySQL, PHP, Python, Django and Drupal.

Position responsibilities

* Developing AASHE web applications in PHP and Python
* Working with non-technical stakeholders to develop specifications
* Testing and documenting project code
* Coordinating with the IT Team on related efforts

Requirements

At minimum a BA degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Sciences or similar curriculum with software development emphasis or equivalent work experience.

* 3+ years experience in server-side web development (PHP/MySQL or Python)
* 2+ years experience in client-side web development (HTML, CSS, JS)
* Experience developing large-scale, database-driven Web applications
* Familiarity with web standards and cross-browser issues
* Experience using version control systems
* Familiarity with Django or Drupal
* Familiarity with jQuery
* Familiarity with Salesforce
* Ability to work well with diverse colleagues and stakeholders
* Commitment to sustainable practices
* Commitment to diversity in the workplace

Salary

$40,000 - $50,000 per year

Location

The web application developer should be prepared to work remotely from a home office or from our central office in Lexington, Kentucky. The web application developer will be working primarily with AASHE staff in the Research Triangle(Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh), NC and Providence, RI. As a result, being located in either region would be ideal but not necessary.

Application Instructions

Send a resume, cover letter, and AASHE employment application using our online application form. You will have to create an AASHE website account in order to use the online system.

About AASHE

AASHE is an association of colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada working to create a sustainable future. Our mission is to empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. We do this by providing resources, professional development, and a network of support to enable institutions of higher education to model and advance sustainability in everything they do, from governance and operations to education and research.

AASHE is committed to providing equal employment opportunity and to achieving an inclusive, diverse workplace that values every individual. Members of under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Job Opening: Web Developer / IT Specialist

Company:

Merge Records, founded in 1989, is an independent music label based in downtown Durham. We release approximately 30 albums (in LP, CD, and digital formats) each year, representing artists from the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Mergerecords.com is a media-rich e-commerce site that receives over 150,000 unique visits a month.

Description:

The Web Developer is solely responsible for the ongoing programming maintenance and updating of mergerecords.com. In this capacity, he/she supports company-wide marketing campaigns and goals, coordinating with the marketing, press, digital promotions, and art departments. The Web Developer is also responsible for working with third-party developers as needed.

Responsibilities include:
• maintaining and updating a media-heavy custom e-commerce content management system
• maintaining email marketing campaign strategies, tools, and basic analytics
• closely working with all departments to ensure best technical practices and decisions
• coordinating and programming promotional e-commerce projects
• ensuring copy and photo editing for news and newsletters
• ensuring timely updates and producing content for mergerecords.com
• analyzing and reporting on site metrics and revenue streams
• site testing and troubleshooting
• maintaining and enforcing a site-wide style guide

Skills & Abilities:
• At lease 2 years experience with PHP and SQL databases
• At lease 2 years experience in developing standards-compliant HTML, CSS, Javascript, and AJAX techniques
• Experience working with content management systems
• Working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop / Fireworks

Preferred Skills:
• Ideally, this person can also provide basic IT support for our small office, which includes 15 computers (Macs and PCs), as well as two windows server. As such, he/she will act as the first contact for all IT issues, and coordinate with external IT personnel when necessary.
• Experience administering client PCs and Macs in a networked environment, Windows Small Business Server administration; and use of imaging backup software.

Contact:

Please submit letter of interest and PDF of resumé to jobs@mergerecords.com. No phone calls please.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Refresh 021 — The Future of Data

Durham, NC — Thur, Sep 24, 2009, 6:30-8:00PM

The future of data is more uncertain than ever – traditional, server-based relational databases are being assaulted from all sides, by document-oriented databases and other forces, and by HTML5 and client-side storage. Come and learn about these attacks on the status quo, and maybe we can all bring peace to the database landscape, together.

Speaker:
At Viget Labs, Ben builds Rails applications for Web 2.0 startups (for the past four years, exclusively in Ruby and Rails). He’s spoken at a number of conferences on Ruby, Rails, and programming in general, and is the author of Practical REST on Rails 2 Projects (from Apress).

Location:
Bronto Software, Inc.
Washington Building
324 Blackwell Street
Suite 410
Durham, NC 27701