I am a developer based in Paris who can provide solutions for a variety of different purposes. I have a wide variety of experience, covering web, mobile and games development. I graduated from Newcastle University with a First Class with Honours degree in Computer Science in 2017, and I've been self-employed since. I've worked on projects for governments and for ambitious startups, on cutting-edge open-source projects and on emerging web standards.
I conduct personal research, particularly concerning the semantic web. Much of my code is open-source. I have extensive experience organising in co-operatives and in free software. I'm particularly interested in social technics, the semantic web and the commons. I like writing and making games, too. My Blog is a good place to read more about my activities.
Professional history
Startin’Blox offers its clients a suite of tools built on an extension of the Django framework for building applications quickly for the semantic web. To this end I worked primarily on the core DjangoLDP libraries, published with an MIT license. I needed to work with core aspects of the Django framework, and with emerging web standards and protocols like ActivityStreams, Linked Data Protocol and SOLID. My work also involved supporting a range of clients who use the libraries, working with stakeholders of varied technical capabilities communicating in both English and French.
Beta.gouv is an initiative financed by the French government around the concept of a “government start-up”, backed with the finance and scale of one of the world’s biggest economies but with the dynamism and fresh perspective of the start-up world. My work during this term was with a large team in the Plateforme de l’inclusion, where I worked on a website used by people in need of inclusive/accessible work, such as handicapped people and ex-prisoners. This was my first position where the only language used in all communications was French.
Geeky Medics are a community-first education platform for doctors and medical professionals in the UK. As part of a small team and over a period of two years I provided Django Python and JavaScript development as well as consultancy and lead development roles on both the maintenance of the platform and the development of new features for the mobile API and web application. Some of the features (such as the Virtual Patient) were the first of their kind released to market in the world.
Open Food Network, Data Food Consortium and Coop Circuits
Django Python Development of an application built on emergent semantic web technologies as part of an international collaboration between Open Food Network, Data Food Consortium and Coop Circuits. Involving many stakeholders, the application was built for sharing data across hundreds of cooperatives and food producers from across Canada, France and the UK. The design principles and technology choices were made to empower individuals and the commons, towards a more cooperative web designed to work for everyone. My work was built on existing standards from the W3C and DFC, expanding upon and deploying across a network of different servers authenticated by Keycloak, WebID-OIDC and providing a system for sharing data with fine-grained permission controls.
Django Python Development for Nebula Labs Ltd and a range of UK local government councils. Collaborated with Nebula Labs to produce the database, admin site and API for an early version of an award winning web-based application which allows users to connect with their Care Workers, store memories, arrange appointments together, interact and provide feedback. AAA accessibility was crucial, and as the application stored sensitive data about children, privacy and security were essential. Developed aspects of the front-end using Django templates. The userbase is growing and recently this application surpassed the milestone of 10,000 children using it with their carers in 20 different UK councils.
Full Stack Web Development and Operational Systems Design for Circular Revolution, an eco-friendly sewage management service for river boats in London. The client needed a technical lead to design and deploy a fully-automated online system to replace the complex system of spreadsheets that predated it, enabling them to scale their business and provide a responsive and reliable service to their subscribers.
Full Stack Development on a 3D website for the Millenium tour of a well-known French musician. The website needed to be visually impressive, and an initial version of the site included a custom chat which permitted thousands of Trym’s fans to connect and communicate with Trym using WebSockets.
Full Stack Web Development and Mobile App Development for The Alpha Complex Ltd. Designed and orchestrated the full business use-case across three codebases, including a cross-platform mobile application (iOS and Android) allowing users to submit mental health data, a web portal for viewing and creating health reports, using a Django Python backend. As the app is being used for commercial clients including the NHS and during the trial devices would be shared in-house, security and privacy was essential, not just from outside sources but also in protecting anonymity from management in the generated reports.
Nebula Labs are a software development company based in the North East of England with whom I have had the pleasure of collaborating on numerous other projects:
- Django Python Development using Graphene and GraphQL for the management of complex, anonymised data.
- Django Python Development producing an API for a nutrition app leveraging Open Food Facts. Features were focussed on the creation of bespoke user profiles, nutritional intake and guidance.
- Cross-Platform Mobile App Development with Ionic Newcastle International Film Festival and More Cobalt Studios.
Developed an Automated Billing System for Karma Computing Ltd. Worked on a large-scale project to create an automated system for managing customer services & payments using third-party services. The code was written to be generic for use by any company selling a service which requires instant and recurring payments, using PHP, Node.js and Python modules.
In another project I worked with Karma Computing as a MySQL and PostgreSQL Database Engineer to assist them in a large-scale database migration involving large quantities of data from an old system to one which was radically restructed and stored with a different DBMS.
Angular Web Development for Placechangers Ltd. Produced a web-app allowing users to view reports on the data from completed community surveys for live clients including councils in Ouseburn and Morecambe.
Node.js Development for Webpost Ltd. Wrote a simple server to select a random sample of patients and ensure duplicate letters are not sent twice, alongside other tools and features. Deployed live today within several NHS practices in the Doncaster region.
In another project, I worked with Webpost to produce a proof-of-concept desktop Java application allowing users to manage mail sending via a JavaFX interface.
React TypeScript development with Blake House cooperative to produce an animated dialogue-based text adventure around the theme of utopia. In the end we built a generic ‘engine’ for running animated text-adventure games using an adapted version of the language, Ink.
Cooperatives
Alongside my freelance activities and professional projects, during my career I have been active in the establishment and growth of numerous cooperative businesses.
In July 2018 I cofounded Code-Operative, the first tech freelancers co-operative to be founded in the North East of England. Code-Operative's mission was to grant its members a greater degree of autonomy over their economic lives - both by exposing new people to the benefits of freelancing and in exposing freelancers to the benefits of mutualisation within the co-operative model, via a greater degree of security and autonomy in their work and via a support network. Our clients were tech-for-good, typically themselves co-operatives or non-profit organisations. Between 2018 and 2023 I was an active member of the co-operative and helped to establish its articles of association, mission, business model, first clients and the governance model.
CoTech is a network of ethical co-operatives from across the UK providing technology, digital and creative services. Between 2019 and 2023 I was an active member in organising the network’s activities, for example arranging the November Gathering event in Newcastle which was attended by around 60 people. More information can be found on the CoTech website, or on the CoTech forum
Games Commons is a new way to conceive of game design based on principles from the commons economy and on the semantic web. The flagship project, Sim Polis, is a game about making and breaking systems that is being built using Godot (GDScript and .NET), Flask/Python and MongoDB.
For enquiries about new projects, roles and collaborations, please get in touch. My full CV including educational achievements is available on request and on my LinkedIn page.