Lauren Wood, PhD

Work Experience

2009 - Present: Textuality Services, Inc.

Principal

Independent consultant and project manager, focusing on identity management and XML. Projects include Course Director for the XML Summer School. Certified Scrum Master. Implement and maintain multiple websites based on WordPress.

2005 - 2009: Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Senior Technical Program Manager, Business Alliances Group, CTO Office

• Project manager for a distributed team spread across four countries and nine timezones, working on a cloud-computing project incorporating hardware, open-source software, standards-based identity management, and operating system components. Created the project roadmap, met with stakeholders, and led technical discussions on architecture and implementation.
• Designed and implemented the website for Sun's employee OpenID Identity Provider, as well as being data custodian for the project, responsible for usage and data retention policies. Worked with IT and product teams on back-end systems integration, using Sun's Java-based products.
• Chair, Liberty Alliance Business and Marketing Expert Group. Worked on standards in identity management and web services.
• Ran the Sun-internal Liberty Alliance interest group to disseminate knowledge of standards, products, and implementation strategies

2002 - 2005: Textuality Services, Inc., Vancouver, Canada

Independent Consultant

• Consulting on
  • product management
  • internet standards, particularly those related to XML
  • publishing
  • technical marketing
  • procurement
• Elected Member, W3C Advisory Board (the only unaffiliated member)
• Speaker and Chair at the CSW XML Summer School

2001 - 2005:

Chair, XML Conference Series

• Responsible for the overall direction and content of the conference
• Lead the Planning Committee in choosing and scheduling the talks
• Manage a volunteer group of over 100 reviewers in different areas of expertise
• Write, edit, and approve marketing materials such as press releases and web site content
• Give welcoming and closing addresses and chair all keynote sessions
• Designed a neutral paper submission and review process, including proceedings

The conference grew in stature and importance while I was chairing it, giving people information they needed about the breadth of XML use within IT infrastructure. It survived the technology downturn to become the largest independent conference in its field.

1998 - 2002: SoftQuad Software Inc. Vancouver, Canada

Director of Product Technology

• SoftQuad's Advisory Committee representative to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Managed strategic technical relationships with industry leaders, such as Microsoft, IBM and Sun at the W3C
• SoftQuad's chief representative to OASIS and XML.org
• Analyzed industry technology trends, potential competitive threats and partnering opportunities
• High-level technical liaison and support to strategic customers and alliance partners
• Co-designer of SoftQuad's XML products
• Frequent presenter at international technology conferences

1997 - 2000:

Chair of the W3C Document Object Model Working Group

• Managed the engineering process of a major Web technology with direct participation by industry leaders, including Microsoft, IBM, Sun and Oracle
• Spearheaded the resulting specification through W3C to make it an international Web standard
• Evangelized the resulting standard at conferences and trade shows with the result that every major software company in the field implemented the standard

1995 - 1998: SoftQuad Inc. Vancouver, Canada

Technical Product Manager

• Designed and managed the programming effort of SoftQuad's HoTMetaL PRO
• Led the localization of HoTMetaL PRO into French and German
• Designed and managed the implementation of accessibility features in HoTMetaL PRO
• Represented SoftQuad on technical committees of the World Wide Web Consortium, including the original HTML Working Group
• Presented papers and tutorials at several SGML/XML conferences

1992 - 1995: STEP GmbH Rimpar, Germany

Consultant and Project Manager

• Coordinated the conversion of the Aircraft Maintenance Manual to the ATA DTD at Bombardier Regional Aircraft Division, Toronto, Canada
• Constructed a prototype SGML implementation for the Gmelin Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• Modeled documents and wrote DTDs and FOSIs for publishers including the Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim, Germany
• Designed and delivered training courses on SGML, editors and FOSIs
• Implemented Motif interfaces in C for the DocMan document management system developed for the Deutsche Lufthansa AG
• Delivered several papers at international SGML conferences

1988 - 1990: Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin, Germany

Post-Doctoral Fellow

• Carried out all the theoretical calculations for an experimental nuclear physics group
• Took part in the experiments
• Wrote and maintained computer programs in FORTRAN for physics calculations
• Presented papers at international conferences and workshops

1982 - 1987: University of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia

Tutor

• Tutor in theoretical and laboratory work for first to third year students in physics and astronomy