Introduction

For more details, please view my resume.

I have embarked on a journey to leverage my 25+ years of application and data integration to begin a new venture, infuzIT, LLC, a company dedicated to leveraging the broad set of data integration tools available with SQL and NoSQL products to enable effective data security throughout an enterprise. That is the mission of infuzIT: Business-centric Data Security.

I am also a lecturer at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. I teach computer science courses including Java Web Development and Data Security, Database Technologies and Data Modeling as well as Introductory Java. I have always had a passion for teaching, beginning as a music education major in college many years ago. After spending 25 years as a technical leader I am thrilled to have this opportunity to share my knowledge, insights and experience with students.

Certified Blockchain Developer - Ethereum CISSP logo

As examples of my personal drive to remain at the forefront of technology I recently earned an Ethereum blockchain certification and am actively pursuing the use of cognitive-based learning approaches to improve cyber threat detection. I also spend time building Android-based mobile applications and working with a variety of semantic technology tools. My focus on obtaining a deep understanding of tools lead to my being hired by Brainbench to author their Spring 2.5 exam. I have also taught Spring and Hibernate courses as an instructor for Learning Tree International. I spend a fair amount of "free" time exploring new approaches to design, development, security and testing. Being able to speak from a position of experience allows me to truly benefit each client, rather than simply repeating information gleaned solely from third parties.

Brainbench Content Subject Matter ExpertGIAC/GSEC logo

From 2000 through 2014 I was the Chief Technology Officer at Blue Slate Solutions in Albany, NY. My role was to lead technology innovation that broadened and strengthened our team's expertise around system integration, BPM and data analytics. Blue Slate Solutions focused on working with customers on Data and BPM-focused efforts, leveraging and extending their current technology assets to address business constraints such as timeliness, accuracy, efficiency and productivity. My role included providing leadership to our technology delivery team as well as participation as a team member on client engagements. Real-world expertise is a key aspect of my ability to lead such a dynamic team of experts.


Seal of the US Patent and Trademark Office

A major innovation effort that began in Jaunary 2014 was to extend Blue Slate's use of semantic technology into a formal offering, Data Unleashed™. We invested significant analysis and engineering effort into creating an offering and platform focused on providing data integration agility, addressing data warehousing and data analytic limitations that we had seen at many of our clients. The originality of our data integration work was highlighted by the fact that we secured a patent for the overall system in 2018. The patent is available on the USPTO site as patent number 9,984,136.


I have a Master of Science degree in Engineering and Business from Union Graduate College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. I began my college days as a Music Education major at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ.

Open Source Projects

I maintain several open source projects. Some were based on my own work and others grew out of client project experiences and serve to both solve issues encountered during project delivery and as a way to try out libraries and techniques. Three of the projects have their source code hosted on GitHub. They are:


A fourth project, FormatCheck, is hosted on SourceForge.

Introduction to Android Programming Presentation at the TVMDN Meeting in February, 2012

I presented at the inagural Tech Valley Mobile Developers Network (TVMDN) meeting on Wednesday, February 1, 2012. My topic was, "Getting Started with Android Development," which provided an introduction to Android programming. During this session I introduced the Android API, focusing on the creation of an interactive application. The XML configuration files and Java code that make up a typical Android program were described and explored. The session touched on UI layout options, widget interactions, lifecycle events, internationalization and application packaging.

My goal was to demonstrate in realtime the creation of a basic application as part of the 45 minute presentation. Linked here are the presentation slides (PDF) and the demonstration source coode (ZIP).

Succeeding with BPM: The Zen of Automation

I delivered a webinar on May 11, 2011 exploring workflow and business rules automation (the slides are available as well). I discussed the value created from "real" process automation and provided real life insight into how to succeed with your own business process automation projects. I described the various challenges businesses run into, along with Blue Slate's technique of evaluating which automation technique to apply to different business needs.

Topics discussed include:

  • The benefits of service oriented architecture
  • When to automate business rules, workflow or both
  • Understanding the importance of work flow structure and organization
  • When to leverage industry specific point solutions that leverage pre-built workflows and rules
  • The unique value of a rule engine which you might be overlooking today

Android Programming Presentation at CDJDN Meeting

I presented at the Capital District Java Developer Network (CDJDN) meeting on Thursday, April 21, 2011. My topic was Android programming, which expanded on the Albany BarCamp talk I gave back in February. During this session I introduced the Android API, focusing on the creation of an interactive application. The XML configuration files and Java code that make up a typical Android program were described and explored. The session detailed UI layout options, widget interactions, lifecycle events, persistence, internationalization and application packaging. I also reviewed the process which is followed to make your application available on the Android Market.

My Android programming presentation (PDF format, 6meg) was based on a game that I wrote for the Android platform and have released as open source and made available as a free download in the Android Market. Feel free to download the source from github if you are looking for some help getting started with Android programming.

The Road to Transformation at the Health IT Insight Summit

Liz Gaudet and I presented at the 2011 Health IT Insight Summit in Boston, MA. Our topic was "The Road to Transformation". We discussed the business and technology journey that is required in order to effectively and successfully apply enterprise technology to a business' vision and strategy. The slides are available on Blue Slate's slideshare page.

We were honored that our presentation was awarded the "Attendee's Choice" award at the summit indicating that participants found our session informative and valuable.

Semantic Web Presentation at the CDJDN

Java Steaming Coffee Cup Logo

I presented at the September, 2010 CDJDN meeting. My topic was "The Semantic Web and Java". I provided some background on semantic web concepts and then described and demonstrated the Jena and Pellet libraries. A PDF of the presentation is available on my Semantic Web page in the Presentations section.

The CDJDN meets monthly and provides a great opportunity to meet other developers and learn about best practices and field experience with Java (and related) technologies. Please check the CDJDN website, located at http://groups.google.com/group/cdjdn, for information on upcoming meetings. Hope to see you at a future gathering!

Recent Presentation at JavaOne 2010

Speaker at JavaOne 2010

Paul Evans and I spoke at the 2010 JavaOne conference in San Francisco. We hadn't spoken at the conference in several years and were excited to have the opportunity to share some of our experiences with the attendees. As always enjoyed hearing what others are doing with all of the cool and evolving Java-based technologies. We were also interested to hear about the future plans for Java now that Oracle has taken the reins.

Our topic was Building an Order Checkout JAX-WS web service with JBoss Drools BRE Integration. The slides are available on Blue Slate's slideshare page.

We described and demonstrated a design and implementation of a fictional checkout web service for processing book orders. The web service was designed and built using the JAX-WS stack and will integrate with the JBoss Drools business rule engine (BRE) using JSR-94. The Drools BRE will contain the actual business rules of processing the checkout of a book order.

Our goal was to create a great session for people looking for examples of rule engine integration within Java-based applications. After the conference we will make the demonstration source code available for people that would like to dig into the implementation. We had great attendance and follow-up conversations.

Presentations

I have delivered various presentations over the years. Venues have included JavaOne, PCIAA, SANS, and the CDJDN. Many of the slides from these presentations are available on Blue Slate Solutions' slideshare page. The topics have covered an array of subjects such as: Open Source And Commercial Software; Secure Software Development; Leveraging Ant; Utilizing Cobertura; Application Tuning; and more. I enjoy having an opportunity to share experiences and ideas with a broader community of analysts, designers, architects and developers.

Publications


Networking

Linked-In: Monead