James Butler's Résumé
Call 818.686.2568 or send me email
Website Examples and Commentary
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During my career, I have developed many web sites and applications of varying purpose. For this document, I am starting with examples drawn from my work with The Criminal Defense Group (CDG) over the past 11 years. I believe they give the best opportunity to illustrate the programming features and skill sets that I have been developing. Following those are examples from other recent projects.
CDG: CriminalDefense.com
At right is a screenshot of an archived version of CriminalDefense.com (CD.com). This is the site I was hired to develop. Its purpose has changed many times. This is the original version at its most-complex point, in early 2003.
CD.com was designed as a portal for legal professionals. It offered extensive research tools, email, member discussions, news and case-retention opportunities to members.
The public was encouraged to visit and pose questions, get information and locate and retain the legal services offered by our members. Website features of note include:
Notification by email and phone paging to members when an inquiry is made
Substantial integration with online State, Federal and independent legal resources
Legal KnowledgeBase consisting of member contributions
Member-specific research streams and site navigation options
An online weekly magazine, newsletters and a member mailing (discussion) list
Automated generation of member profile web pages and member management
This site was tremendously popular with the legal community and was quoted and linked to by many thousands of other websites. It became a benchmark site for several metrics analysis companies in the areas of site traffic and "link popularity" in the legal online industry. It was considered to be an "authoritative" site by all of the major search engines, which greatly enhanced its visibility in the search results.
Members reported a high degree of satisfaction with the site's performance and the features available to them. Many members retained clients as a result of their contributions to the site. We maintained the member email system for two years following the site's deactivation because many members had defined their online identity through its brand.
The Criminal Defense Group Website
This website is the primary source of new business for the firm.
CDG: Attorney Calendar System
I developed a perpetual calendaring system for the firm that includes several nice features:
Secure web-based access
Search and sort by attorney and location
Customized display for each attorney
Automated email reminders
Secure Internet-enabled cell phone access
This system is used by every attorney and by each of the support staff every day to manage and distribute schedules. Any attorney can manage their schedule from anywhere in the world using a portable computing device, including hand-held devices like a BlackBerry, an iPhone or a Palm Pilot. Cell phone access allows them to stay informed of immediate activities and updates regardless of their location. Certain events page an alert to the appropriate cell phone.
This calendar is synchronized with Google Calendars using their API.
Several attorneys have also requested and I have programmed customized scheduling systems that respond to their specialized functions.
The database that holds calendaring data is automatically backed up and archived each night.
CDG: Case Management
Similar to the Calendaring System, I designed and built a system for the attorneys to manage their cases. In addition to individual attorney access, supervising attorneys and in-office personnel are able to make assignment, status and payment modifications.
This online system is fully integrated with databases located in the office. The data in each database is securely isolated from user and group access protocols in the other databases, yet they interact smoothly and securely with each other in real-time. The screenshot above shows a supervising attorney view of the system, with the ability to modify almost all of the basic case information.
Individual attorneys use the system to update comments and case status. In-office personnel and supervising attorneys make case assignments and maintain basic case information and payment status. Changes made by any personnel are updated globally when any party saves the record. As an individual attorney indicates that a case has closed, they are taken to a series of screens where they complete the required "closed case" documentation, compose and print a "closing letter" to be sent to the client, and submit a request for payment to in-office personnel.
Each change to the online system triggers an appropriate email to in-office management as a redundant security measure. All databases are automatically backed up and archived nightly.
Since this system was implemented, it has proved to be a popular, easy-to-use, and vital part of the company's case management and notification network.
CDG: JB's Brain
"JB's Brain" is my secure memo / reminder / project management / account management / promotions management / statistical analysis system.
It is an online system that I use every day to update "change logs", schedule reminders which are sent to me by email, manage CDG's paid advertising campaigns, track trouble tickets, maintain account information, and to track CDG domain and domain maintenance information, among other activities. It is also a hub where my managers and I can access timely, relevant information and analyses about the various aspects of the online commercial enterprise and from which we receive important time-sensitive notifications.
One of the main tools I use in my Brain to improve CDG's return on their promotional investments is my Keyword Tracking tool. This tool uses data from our online marketing accounts which is automatically imported as they become available from the services. I developed this system before Google Analytics became available. It allows me to view day-old trends and statistics, and performs various analysis and relevance operations. It makes the generation and evaluation of search engine campaigns painless.
Since this system is integrated with our in-office promotions attribution model and management systems, it utilizes near real-time updates to those promotions in its analyses. At any moment, I can print out which search terms are the most profitable, view the highest-performing set of ads for any of the campaigns or by search phrase reference, view and compare the global and subset performance records of various campaigns and get details about what may be influencing the performance differences, and many other functions. Each query results in a generic-format spreadsheet file that my managers can use with any spreadsheet program.
When creating new campaigns, the system recommends
different ad copy, search engine and target domain according to the highest-performing ads in the sector and in support of the hosting search engine's performance curve for similar groups of search terms. It also automatically generates a new attribution code appropriate to the contents of the search phrase and relative to the available codes in the target campaign. It keeps all of our attribution codes and search term "buys" unique, and helps me build on successful ad content.
The CDG paid search attribution model uses a sophisticated coding protocol that I designed and implemented. It allows the firm to verify the source of Internet revenue with up to 90% accuracy, which means I always know exactly which terms and ads are producing revenue.
This far outstrips the closest commercial attribution model competitor's capabilities.
Overall, JB's Brain is a collection of marketing and tracking tools that I find to be tremendously useful in fulfilling the requests made by CDG management, and for managing nearly every aspect of my daily activities.
MyPhotoDiet.com
MyPhotoDiet.com is an ecommerce website built under a partnership with my physician brother, Steve.
Steve is a medical doctor and has developed several diet plans, so we make them available as eBooks, with a credit card payment system for the downloadable products on this website.
This site is one example of my work with ecommerce websites that use secure, flexible user management protocols.
MyPhotoDiet.com users register and pay online for access to the diet planners they choose. Registered users are also provided with an online profile that allows them to view and modify their account information and preferences, to track their dieting progress using charting tools, to access their downloadable product purchases and to access several of the online diet planner applications.
High Mowing School Alumni
This site, which I host and maintain on my own server, is primarily here to illustrate the concept of a "wiki".
A "wiki" is a site content management system that allows authorized individuals to make any changes they like to a web page as they visit that page online, in real-time.
On this website, I use a "wiki" to allow alumni to create and manage their own web pages.
Since the system is always available for modification, it is simple for them to log into the site and update their content or add comments to other alumni pages. Changes are saved by clicking a button, and it is optional for an email notification to be sent to the page's owner at the same time.
FraternityMed.com & SororityMed.com
These two sites comprise a venture my brother and I embarked upon a few months ago. He is a physician who treats many college-aged men and women. These sites are repositories of the various common health-related questions and responses he has gathered over the years.
FraternityMed.com features news feeds, three means of navigating the site depending on the visitor's navigation preferences, dynamic menuing and an interactive "Ask The Doctor" section. We will offer occasional "live" chat sessions where "Dr. Steve" will respond to visitor comments and questions in real-time sponsored events.
SororityMed.com has the added feature of visitor-selectable design themes.
Both sites are funded by advertising. In addition to Google ads, we are affiliated with Amazon.com and other vendors. Once the sites have built some value (significant traffic), we will be able to obtain sponsorship and advertising partners from a variety of sources.
These are very low-maintenance sites that are in a market that supplies substantial opportunities for revenue generation. Our strategy is to do minimal marketing and to allow the sites to grow and become attractive portfolio additions to concerns that wish to reach our target demographic.
Internet Society - Los Angeles Chapter
Moving to a new server ... thank you for your patience
As Chairman of the Board of Directors for the largest chapter in this International Society for the past 10 years, it has been my privilege to assist in the growth of this important volunteer organization.
I designed this site to facilitate the participation of our members, and to provide a secure location for online meetings and events.
We are in the process of implementing a content management system, so the volunteers in charge of different sections can easily update content themselves. The administrative sections of the site provide the ability to manage Chapter memberships, events and the charitable advertising programs that help support our activities.
The pubic sections of the site include an event calendar to which visitors will be able to contribute, public and private online mailing lists where they may discuss issues of the day, public and private chat rooms where meetings and events are held, and an extensive resource section that is organized into neat navigational clusters.
This site features three different types of "site map" so a visitor can choose which is most intuitive to them and feel comfortable with basic navigation of the site. In addition to the "traditional" site map, we deploy a "concept map" which is quite an interesting approach and a "virtual", 3-dimensional site map that requires a special web browser "plug-in" to view. Also quite interesting.
We plan to deploy streaming media services in the future for conducting live online video meetings and events, and to be able to offer video of archived events to our visitors and the media. We are entertaining the idea of instituting a program that encourages members to contribute short educational and opinion videos for access from a future section of the site.
I hope these examples and comments have illustrated something about my work and my goals.
Thank you for taking the time to browse.
My interest is in creating user-friendly sites that contain many opportunities for involvement.
I believe that an engaging communication experience is a better, more profitable experience.
I have the ability, enthusiasm and vision to craft web applications across many protocols and utilize many languages and methods. My applications are "deep" applications that address issues affecting the use of my work on a very sophisticated level. My applications are secure applications that perform exceptionally well in a web server/client relationship.
I am able not only to perform production tasks, but to also imagine, design, supervise and market web projects at a high level. I am neither a graphic designer nor a web content copywriter, but I am able to recognize, integrate and stimulate professionals who are, along with others. I understand much about web user psychology and practices. I am informed of the most recent advances and issues with every part of the technology chain, and I am adept at working within that technology to effect the best results that meet my clients' goals.
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