>> Politics and Technology Resume for Dan Ancona Daniel F. Ancona, IV 3830 19th St. Apt. E San Francisco, CA 94114 415.373.8972 cell 415.864.2409 home da {at} vizbang {dot} com >> Synopsis Software engineer and technologist with excellent communication skills, diverse research, development, political and entrepreneurial experience and passion for democracy seeks new challenges combining these interests. >> Political & Community Organization Experience Project Director: California VoterConnect (2006 - present) Co-founder: Speak Out California (2003 - present) Santa Barbara, California http://speakoutca.org/ Media Chair: Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee (December 2002 - March 2005) Field Director, SB Democratic Service Club (April 2003 - March 2005) Volunteer Organizer, Santa Barbara for Dean (March 2003 to January 2004) Boardmember, Santa Barbara Community Activist Network (December 2003 to March 2005) http://sbcan.org/ Numerous field campaign volunteer positions >> Writing Guest Contributor at the Drum Major Institute Weblog http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/authors/85.html Occasional author at Speak Out California, with a focus on foundations of progressivism and progressive economics http://speakoutca.org/weblog/ Creator of and writer for "Heeyah!", the first weblog for any Democratic Party County Central Committee http://sbdems.blogspot.com/ >> Sumary of Technical Skills . broad software applications development and expertise . research focus of visualization design and implementation . platform experience across unix, windows & scripting environments . graphics and visualization programming in OpenGL, Direct3D, etc. . some web app experience in ruby on rails, django and drupal . GIS mapping and programming via ESRI ArcObjects . programming in vb/vb.net, c/c++, c#, java and perl . XML syntax development . database front end development for mySQL, Oracle, others . some layout and graphic design, in print and online . experience in technical sales, UI design and product management >> Experience California VoterConnect: Project Director (July 2006 to present) San Francisco, California . wrote successful funding proposal . designed and executed vendor evaluation proces . ran support, training and outreach activities . wrote c# voter matching & data validation tools . wrote django-based politics social networking demo . responsible for ongoing strategic direction . project near financial breakeven after 1.5 years Planet 9 Studios: Software Engineer (May 2004 to July 2006) San Francisco, California . refined windows SDK based c++/vrml UAV control client app . added features to and maintained various c++ apps . created demos, including a spatial hypertext 3D RSS reader . managed customer interactions and expectations . created 3D front end for historical art site . wrote ruby on rails based geofeeder web application Alexandria Digital Library: Research Staff (May 2001 to December 2004) University of California, Santa Barbara http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/ . wrote c driver to enable library protocol in java middleware . wrote OpenGL based concept space graph visualization application . wrote Visual Basic/ESRI ArcObjects client for p2p digital library . tracked and updated projects against multiple moving codebases . created working mockup of lecture presentation environment in VB . mocked up possible visualization-based library interfaces . adapted c++ terrain visualization program to digital library Playspace, Inc: Technical Producer (January 2004 to present) Santa Barbara, California http://www.playspace.com/ . helped with all aspects of early-stage game technology company . designed and implemented c++/OpenGL technical demo . presented demo and company story to potential investors . helped create and edit plans, presentations and whitepapers Vizbang Software: Founder (July 2000 to January 2001) Berkeley, California (formerly) - http://vizbang.com/ . wrote XML/Direct3D based visualization engine . outlined initial stage communications strategy . formulated initial product designs . developed pitch and business plan, and sought funding . numerous other early stage startup tasks Critical Path, Inc.: Programmer (January 1999 to July 2000) San Francisco, California - http://www.cp.net/ . developed web applications in object oriented perl environemnt . worked with internal customers to capture features of product . generated UML based object architecture . implemented and rolled out reporting database UI in five months . lost shirt when company became #2 in total post-boom shareholder lawsuits (after Enron) Intervista Software: Systems Engineer (July 1997 to December 1998) San Francisco, California . supported pre- and post-sales efforts for family of 3D products . created demonstrations and communicated with customers . evangelized company's products in visualization community . designed XML based Visual Basic application . handled email tech support and beta program management . wrote whitepaper and entry for design contest Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities: Research Staff (Fall 1994 to June 1996 part time, then to July 1997 full time) University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia http://www.iath.virginia.edu/ . designed 3D interfaces for diverse humanities-related projects . created abstract, urban and hypertext experimental visualizations . set up project architectures and goals . purchased equipment, created initial web site, managed budget National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Research Internship (Summer 1994) Golden, Colorado - http://www.nrel.org/ . evaluated current lighting system of federal buildings . used expert system to propose energy efficient alternatives . $300k project approved for funding based on study results . used open source ray-tracing program to visualize lighting systems . published results on the just-created world wide web David Taylor Naval Research Center: Research Internship (summers of 1990, 1991 and 1992, and part time through 1991) Carderock, Marlyand . helped wind-tunnel test and CAD model Olympic bobsleds . assisted in neural network fatigue rate prediction study >> Publications "Accessing the Alexandria Digital Library from Geographic Information Systems," with J.Frew, G.Janee, and D.Valentine. Proceedings of the Fourth ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2004), Tucson, AZ, June 7-11, 2004. "Visual Explorations for the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype," with S. Fabrikant, M. Freeston and T. Smith. Expanded and submitted as a chapter in the Springer-Verlag _Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series_. Fall 2002. "Use Scenarios in the Development of the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype," Gazan, R., Leazer, G. H., Borgman, C. L., Gilliland-Swetland, A. J., Smart, L., Ancona, D., et al. (2003). Paper presented at the American Society for Information Science & Technology Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA. "Visual Explorations for the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype," with T. Smith. Presented at the Visual Interfaces to Digital Libraries workshop at the 2002 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. Summer 2002. "Using Perl and the LOD Node in VRML Environments," chapter in _VRML: Special Edition_, published by Que. Feb 1996. >> Education University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia B.S. Electrical Engineering, concentration in Applied Electrophysics. August 1993 to May 1996 Thesis: "Invisible City: Mapping the World Wide Web in Three Dimensions." Final year GPA 3.6 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia Preliminary work in Engineering, Science and Mechanics August 1991 to June 1993 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Alexandria, Virginia Class of 1991 >> Interests electronic music (DJing and production), reading, teaching skiing and sailing, cooking