Whim

JobSearch Update E-Mail Blast

Back to our story.
The economy must be expanding a bit, because a developer left CAST for a new programming job, opening up a slot they needed to fill, which is where I come in.

ASIDE:
Hmmm. Confirmation of a trend. Case of the same story reported in yesterday's newspaper (!):
Boston Globe, Jan. 19, 2004. "FOR TECH FIRMS, RECOVERY BUT NO '90S REPLAY"
'..."Here's a surprise: A programmer who worked for us just took a job at another company," said Paul Egerman, chairman and chief executive at eScription Corp., a Needham firm that makes speech recognition software for doctors. "That hasn't happened in years." ...'

Below, brief descriptions of:
- COMPANY
- POSITION
- PROJECT
- HOW THEY FOUND ME
- TECHIE BIT

And that's all the news that fits.

Thanks for your time in checking out this JobSearch Update of mine.
You can also see it online in my weblog at:
http://www.reilly2001.info/whim/archives/jobsearch/jobsearch_update_email_blast_2004-01-20.html

Best wishes for the (still somewhat) New Year.
William
william@reilly2001.info
http://reilly2001.info
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COMPANY
http://www.cast.org
CAST "...is a not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, especially those with disabilities."
- Education, online learning, assessment (web accessibility, text-to-speech,
screen readers, and more).
- Funding from various gov't., education, and industry sources.
- Wakefield, Massachusetts. Founded 1984.

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POSITION
3 months project as an XML developer (XSLT, Schema, Apache Cocoon, Cocoon-Forms) along with some Java. (See "Techie Bit" below for details.)
- They do like to have/keep long-term contractors.
- There's potential for employee hire later.

--------------
PROJECT
- The goal is to improve the accessibility of online assessments (tests, quizzes) for learning-impaired, blind, and otherwise print-disabled students.
- To begin, the result will be implemented in Rhode Island schools this year.
- Interesting stuff.

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HOW THEY FOUND ME
The hiring manager typed into Google:
"resume Massachusetts Cocoon"
and I came up twice within the first 6 hits. Good thing about having a weblog. (And about working on a still somewhat arcane (and distinctively named) technology.)

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TECHIE BIT
I don't know a lot yet (start tomorrow), but Cocoon's approach to forms handling will be central to this interface. That's been called "Woody" and now "Cocoon-Forms."
http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=Woody
It differs from W3C XForms :^(, but quips and quotes from those in the know on listservs seems to indicate you can't go too far wrong tackling Cocoon's version for now, and see what happens in the world of XForms down the road...

From the world of online education, the Digital Talking Book and the QTI (Question-Test-Interoperability) DTDs are key to all this,
- ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Digital Talking Book
http://www.loc.gov/nls/niso/
- IMS QTI Question & Test Interoperability
http://www.imsproject.org/question/index.html
as well as the use of XML Schema for other "local" data aspects (as I thus far understand it).

Also, Cocoon's Actions and/or Flowscript will be central to controlling the application's screens and user interaction.
http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=Flow

Finally, enough Java to properly handle 1) some custom Cocoon 'generator's, possibly, and 2) capturing and re-presenting the student's data (responses, profile, etc.), plus 3) tracking and measuring the clickstream, with some of these things going to a MySQL database.
My best guess for the moment. I'll put up news (as permitted) on my weblog, http://reilly2001.info/whim/.

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Thanks again for reading, and, send me an e-mail to say Hello if you like.
(Or, even better, enter a Comment here in the weblog!)
Best,
William
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Posted by William in category: JobSearch at January 20, 2004 12:40 PM