Jo Carter

Current

Developer at Packrat Tools (Personal Project)
PHP Developer at Pod1

Past

Developer at Mind Candy
Customer Support Volunteer at LiveJournal.com

Education

Microsoft Certification
University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham

Université de Nantes
Ashby Grammar School

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Recommended

15 people have recommended Jo

Connections

185 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Jo Carter’s Summary

Agile developer with experience in object-oriented design and test-driven development for database-driven and e-commerce websites in PHP5 (inc. Symfony), JSP/Java and XML/XSLT.

Jo Carter’s Specialties:

PHP5, Symfony (Propel and Doctrine), JSP/Java, XML/XSLT.
Content management systems and e-commerce solutions.
Multi-lingual/Multi-locale websites.
SQL (MySQL, SQL Server).
Subversion, Apache, Tomcat, mod_rewrite.
Windows (XP and NT), Mac OS X and some Unix.

Jo Carter’s Experience

Developer

Packrat Tools (Personal Project)

(Internet industry)

December 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)

Developed a collection of tools using PHP5 for Packrat (a virtual social collection-based game on Facebook). These include a MOO Sticker generator (using the MOO API); a market tracker, which uses a cron job that scrapes information from the site (with permission); and an information tool, which displays recipes and market information for the cards. They have been received well by the Packrat community, and the developers of the game.
PHP Developer

Pod1

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

June 2007 — Present (2 years 8 months)

Pod1 is an independent creative digital agency; and one of the UK's top digital agencies. Our aim? "To work hard and smart for our clients to make their online business better".

Responsible for maintaining and developing a selection of e-commerce and content managed websites for a variety of clients primarily in the fashion and holiday industries; including proposing new solutions for existing clients, and writing functional and technical specifications for projects. Development in PHP5 (with MySQL), using both a custom framework solution and an open source framework, Symfony (with database abstraction using both Propel and Doctrine).

Client websites that I have worked on include: Epifony* and Gutenberg* (in-house CMS solutions), Pod1, Value Retail* (10 multi-lingual websites), Sani Resort* (multi-lingual), Yahoo Advertising (5 multi-lingual websites), Conran (3 websites), Fred Olsen Cruise Lines*, Barcelò Hotels, Kabiri, Global Mechanism*, Kurt Geiger, Aspinal of London, Uniqlo, Links of London (multi-lingual/multi-locale), Red Carnation* (12 websites), Reiss, MurmurART*, Matches Fashion, Picture the Loan*, Fremantle Media*, Innovia Films, Kenwood, and Infonic.
(* indicates main developer on project)

I am an integral part of both the agency and the development team and have assumed the role of key "go-to" person (and the most requested) for anything related to our in-house CMS solutions. I am also asked to mentor both new starters and existing team members.
Developer

Mind Candy

(Computer Games industry)

March 2006 — June 2007 (1 year 4 months)

Mind Candy is an interactive entertainment company that specialises in puzzles and Alternate Reality Games. Our first project was a groundbreaking puzzle-based ARG called Perplex City - a global treasure hunt played simultaneously by tens of thousands of people around the world.

Responsible for maintaining and developing many websites used for Perplex City, an online alternate reality game (ARG); and a website used for the BBC Big Weekend ARG.

Developed several versions of perplexcity.com, a large online community site; using first XSLT/XML and JSP (RESTful Perl interface), and then JSP and custom Java tags with Hibernate. Additionally designed and developed a User Administration website for internal use by Customer Support; and a wayback archive in JSP for the sites from Perplex City Season 1.

Designed and developed a Store Locator in PHP and MySQL, which used the Google Maps API, and interfaced with a system which calculated the nearest stores to the entered location. Designed and developed a Puzzle Manager system which used JSP, custom Java tags, Hibernate and MySQL to store, manage, display and manipulate data entered for puzzles.

Additionally developed a Content Management System (CMS) in JSP with MySQL; including custom JSP tags and Freemarker templates to display the data entered into the CMS.
Customer Support Volunteer

LiveJournal.com

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

January 2003 — June 2004 (1 year 6 months)

Volunteer on the Customer Technical Support Team for a database driven blogging website, LiveJournal, serving over 2 million users. I gained many levels of trusted privileges and answered over 3000 requests to the users' satisfaction. I was a mentor for other volunteers, and was involved in their training, and in producing training documents

Also, involved in translation of LiveJournal.com technical support documents into French

Jo Carter’s Education

Microsoft Certification

MSCA 2005 — 2006

Activities and Societies:

MCP, MSCA
University of Nottingham

Msc , Information Technology , 2004 — 2005

MSc in Information Technology at the University of Nottingham: (Distinction: average 75.4%)
Dissertation: Hyperstructure Image Organiser (based on ZigZag) (73%) (available to download at my Website)

10/2004 - 09/2005 Representative on the Student-Staff Consultative Committee (MSc in IT)
01/2004 - 06/2005 IT Officer on the Societies Executive Committee (University of Nottingham

Activities and Societies:

Student-Staff Representative, IT Officer
University of Nottingham

BA (Hons) , Law with French , 2000 — 2004

09/2000 - 06/2004 BA (Hons) Law with French at the University of Nottingham: Second class
(3rd year at l'Université de Nantes, France)

01/2004 - 06/2005 IT Officer on the Societies Executive Committee (University of Nottingham)

Activities and Societies:

IT Officer
Université de Nantes

Droit francais 2002 — 2003

As part of my Law with French degree at Nottingham
Ashby Grammar School

1996 — 2000

Additional Information

Jo Carter’s Websites:

Jo Carter’s Interests:

Photography, reading, puzzles, computer games and online ARGs, swimming , arts and crafts, watercolour painting, cross-stitch, tapestry, FIMO modelling, music