David B. Orchard, B.A.Sc.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
orchard at pacificspirit dot com
http://www.pacificspirit.com
http://twitter.com/DaveO
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=670578792
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dorchard

Career Interests

I am interested in helping lead and participate in the development of social networking features and standards.  I have primarily done standards work in the past 8 years but I’m keen to return to architecture and development roles.  The technologies around social graph portability, data portability, single sign-on, metadata description and discovery, and publish and subscribe are just some of the areas that I find fascinating.  

Career Progression

I have held a variety of challenging technical and leadership positions in web standards and the web application development field.  I was employed at BEA Systems from 2001 until 2008, where I served as Web and Web Services standards lead. I am or have served on a large number of committees with leadership roles: 3 times elected to the W3C Technical Architecture Group chaired by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, editor W3C WS-Policy, editor W3C Web Services Description Language 2.0, editor SOAP 1.2, editor XML Schema 1.1 Guide to Versioning using new XSD 1.1 features, W3C WS-Addressing, OASIS WS-ReliableMessaging, W3C Advisory Committee. I also represented BEA on a variety of specifications with Microsoft and IBM: WS-Eventing, WS-MetadataExchange. I have also been focusing on key horizontal architecture areas. This has resulted in many detailed TAG, book co-authoring, xml.com and blog articles on building versionable languages and systems, combined with contributions to ensure that standards (such as XML Schema 1.1, WSDL 2.0, WS-Policy, Atom) allow users to build versionable systems.  I am a part-time contributor of web marketing to Alligato Mobile, a startup focusing on low-cost cellular long-distance.  Previously, I worked at Jamcracker, where I served as lead architect and standards architect and had responsibility for creation and evangelism of xml technologies, such as creating ITML Provisioning. I have created a W3C XML standard, Xinclude, and I previously served as co-editor of W3C XInclude and XLink. I was the first hire for IBM's Pacific Development Centre, now a Global Services lab, and I was an integral part of bringing the organization to over 300 employees. I was an evangelist and developer of key architectures and technologies after recognizing their significance to application development, such as discovering the Web in 1994, Java in 1995, and XML in 1997. I have spoken at a variety of conferences and written for many publications.

Employment History

Senior Technical Director
BEA Systems Inc, Aug 2001 to May 2008

Working as the senior standards engineer in the CTO office, I was the Web standards lead for BEA Systems. I had responsibility for defining Web and Web services standards with partners and in the W3C. I worked on almost every SOAP based standard for messaging, workflow, and SOAP itself. I was first elected to the W3C Technical Advisory Group in November 2001, subsequently re-elected twice and I was the W3C Advisory Committee (AC) rep. I was actively involved in defining BEA’s web services vision.

XML Architect
Jamcracker, May 2000 to Aug 2001

I led the use of web services and XML within and without Jamcracker, the first ASP aggregator. I had responsibility for defining and evangelizing standards. In particular, created standards for Provisioning, Billing, and Single Sign-on in the ASP industry. These standards are SOAP and XML Schema derived. I was the Jamcracker standards rep for various ASP consortia and the Jamcracker W3C Advisory Committee (AC) rep. A key deliverable has been the championing of the notion of distributed sessions in SAML, and also championing and editing the SAML domain model. I was actively involved in defining Jamcracker's web services vision, culminating in being selected to present at the W3C's Web Services Workshop. For a few months, I served as Lead Architect for the next generation of the Jamcracker platform.

Lead Technical Architect
IBM Pacific Development Centre, May 1996 to present

I was the lead e-business architect at IBM's Pacific Development Centre in Vancouver. The PDC is a Network application research and development centre for the areas of e-business, government, banking, higher education, travel and telecommunications. I have held a variety of positions at the lab:

  • Lead architect for IBM's Travel Frame asset, using Java, XML, XSLT, HTTP, SOAP, etc. to provide travel specific and infrastructure framework and tools for travel ISVs and services organizations. A key development is "Generation X", a toolkit that: generates bindings between Java,XML and SQL type systems; provides a SOAP router and dispatcher; and defines a service API allowing for SOAP messages to be handled by Java or XSLT programs.
  • Lead architect for IBM's student services solution, using Java, Java Beans, XML, XSL, Servlets, EJB, and JDBC to provide access to student services. Student Server is live at the University of Minnesota, and is currently serving millions of database transactions every day. It uses WebSphere, AIX, and NT to web enable PeopleSoft student administration ERP system.
  • Help define the lab's technical direction and provide auditing, consulting and education to many of the lab's projects.
  • Technical architect for IBM's distance education solution, which provides management of users, courses, curriculum, activities, testing as well as delivery of content via the internet.

Software Engineer, Web Architect
MacDonald Dettwiler & Assoc. September 1992 to April 1996

As a consultant with an internationally recognized application development and system integration firm focusing on satellite ground stations for data processing, I participated in a wide variety of projects:

  • I architected and designed a new Metadata publishing architecture and World-Wide Web site for the LandData BC division of the BC government The design supports a data model and database change, as well as Java navigation and searching. This involved customer negotiations, Java, Oracle database access using PL/SQL, Perl, CGI and Oracle Text Server on Solaris Unix.
  • I architected, designed, implemented, and tested a Metadata publishing architecture for ordering land-related mapsheets via the World-Wide Web for the LandData BC division of the BC government at http://www.landdata.gov.bc.ca. The pre-existing LandData Phase II Metadata Model was published to the Web according to the HTML 2.0 standard with tables. This involved customer negotiation, Sybase database access using SQL, Perl, CGI, desktop GIS and WAIS on Unix SunOS and Solaris.
  • I led the team, did high-level design, coded in C++ using Rumbaugh's object-oriented methodology and many design patterns for MDA's IRIX Unix satellite ground-station software project, PPGS. The Japanese Space Agency, NASDA, required a ground-station to process imagery from Landsat, MOS, and SPOT Satellites. PPGS was also the basis for the US Geological Survey's new ground-station, the National Landsat Archive Production System
  • As Software Engineer, I designed, coded, tested and debugged software modules using C++ on the SunOS UNIX platform for the data processing facility (CDPF) for the RADARSAT radar satellite. I was part of the RSARP team working on the high-level software architecture and migrated to become the integrator of the top-level software on the integration team. I also worked extensively on the ground station's distributed communication framework using RPCs.

Professional History

Standards
World-Wide Web consortium (W3C) - April 1999 to present

I was elected to the W3C TAG, co-chaired by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in 2001, and re-elected twice.  The TAG is responsible for documenting the architecture of the web and helping foster the web’s growth . I was the BEA primary representative to the W3C, which has included the TAG, WS-Policy, WS-Addressing, Web Services Architecture, Web Services Description, and XML Protocol committees. I was formerly a member of the XML Linking and XML Core Working Groups. I was a co-editor of the XLink Standard and creator of the XInclude proposal.

Private Partnerships – Aug 2001 to present

I am an author of the WS-Eventing, WS-MetadataExchange, and WS-Transfer specifications. I have been an author of the Web Services Choreography Interface specification.

OASIS SAML

I was an editor of the SAML core assertions and domain model.

Web/Internet consulting
Eloquent Systems, IQ Software, Westech Information Systems
, April 1996 to present

I have provided consulting services to a variety of companies on development for their Intranet and Internet products, Web/Java development, application architectures, various technical areas, etc. I typically provide a one or two day consulting engagement to help companies come up to speed on breakthrough technologies, the potential applications in their company, and possible service or product architectures. Some examples:

  • In 1996, I made a variety of recommendations to Westech for an Intranet Web development environment; the BC Hydro Intranet/Web procedures, guidelines and style guides; the Intranet applications Westech developed; and helped develop the first Westech Intranet applications.
  • In 1997, I did a Java, XML and Web education session followed by an architecture roadmap for the incorporation of XML into IQ Software's product line.
  • In 1999, I did an extensive review of the use of Java, XML, and Web technologies for Eloquent Systems.

Series Editor
Cambridge University
Press and SIGS Book series: Breakthroughs in Application Development, April 1999 to present

I am the series editor for the Breakthroughs in Application Development (BAD) series. I review all book submissions, approving and generating changes to outlines and books, and approving all books for publication. I intend to establish the series as the premier series of books on advanced networked application development technologies. Areas of coverage include but are not limited to network application architecture, Internet computing, Java, XML and distributed objects.

Public Speaker
XML DevCon, XMLOne, SIGS Java, OOP and XMLOne Conferences in Austin, Chicago, San Jose, Munich, London and NY; Internet World Spring/Summer; COMDEX PacRim; Canadian Information Processing Society; Software Productivity Centre; MISTIC; April 1996 to present

I have presented keynote and tutorial presentations on a wide variety of topics, including the Why's of the XML family of Standards, Web Services, Type system conversion, Java State of the Art, Java and Distributed Objects, Distributed Objects, the latest in the Web, EJBs, Server Objects in Java, XML, and high-tech company success factors. Presentation history is available at http://www.pacificspirit.com/History.html.

Writer
Byte, Object Magazine, Component Strategies, McGraw-Hill, JavaWorld; March 97 to present

I have written articles on a variety of topics, such as XML, EJBs, the new Java Sound synthesizer, Java Beans roadmap, Java success factors, Java transaction services, Java performance improvements, component and distributed object comparisons. I have been a contributing author to a Java Beans book. Writing history is available at http://www.pacificspirit.com/History.html.

Internet Technology Educator
Software Productivity Centre, MacDonald Dettwiler, UBC, Langara Community College; Feb 1996 to present

I have taught many different Internet technology courses. Current courses offered are: XML, Latest in the Web, Java, Java and Distributed Objects, Java and Database connectivity, Learning Java, Using Distributed Objects, Intelligent Agents, ActiveX, and Microsoft FrontPage. Sessions range from 3 to 9 hours, in either seminar or hands-on format. More information is available at http://www.pacificspirit.com/History.html

Education

B.A.Sc. in Electrical (Computer) Engineering, April 1990 at the University of British Columbia

  • Specialized in Robotics, Control Systems and Artificial Intelligence
  • Graduated 7th in my final year

Scholarships, Commendations, and Offices Held

  • 1988-89 Sigma Phi Delta (Engineering Fraternity) 'Theta Chapter President
  • 1985-88 Various Political positions: Engineering First Year Rep, EE club 2nd Year Rep, EE Club Asst. Treasurer
  • 1985 Various scholarships: L.V. Rogers MacDonald, BC Provincial, UBC Student award

Hobbies & Activities

  • Team ultimate (Frisbee), snowboarding, weight-lifting, volleyball, hiking
  • Vancouver International & U.B.C. Triathlon (1987,88,89,91)
  • Reading (fiction and non-fiction)
  • Philosophy, especially communications theory
  • Stock market investing