Tim Bishop

1413 Bonita Ave
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 528-0784

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Professional History

Director of Program Management
GetActive Software
2004-current

Manage the development and release of new software functionality at GetActive Software, an ASP for non-profit and advocacy organizations. GetActive hosts the websites and/or advocacy, fundraising, and community web pages for 300 organizations ranging from Oxfam America and the Humane Society, to the Environmental Defense Fund. I am responsible for:

• Coordinating the product development work of the product management, engineering, and quality assurance teams.
• Creating and manage the software development schedule.
• Developing product introduction plans, and coordinating the business and technical teams for product launches.
• Initiating, creating and managing product development processes for this rapidly growing company.

Consultant, Internet marketing,
business, software development and project management
2003-2004

Did a wide variety of internet marking, business development, project management, software development and writing consulting projects, including:

• Researched and wrote a market and competitive intelligence report for a major textbook publisher, Wadsworth. Examined hundreds of college textbook web sites, and wrote a report qualitatively and quantitatively analysing competitive publishers' online offerings, and recommended a course of action to Wadsworth.
• Wrote documentation for the open source political organizing and GOTV software tool, AdvoKit.
• Wrote and donated to UC Berkeley a set of PHP scripts that generate RSS feeds for the University of California's News Center and Events Calendar.
• Joined the CivicActions team for the two months leading up to the 2004 election, and did project management, server and software setup and administration, documentation, and support for a series of websites (Rock the Vote, Vote All Your Values, Voter Call) and users of AdvoKit (the Baobabs Project) doing get out the vote activities leading up the 2004 election.
• Retained by The Omidyar Network to work with a startup they wanted to fund, and helped the principal generate a proposal and project plan.

Vice President of Product Development
Onscreen Systems, Inc.
2000-2003

Led design and development of Onscreen’s innovative product, TVtopia, a downloadable Windows entertainment application with automatically updated TV listings, directory of fan and official web sites, user-to-user interactive games, chat, and instant messaging:

• Researched market, analyzed competition, and wrote early feature definition, specifications, and project plan for TVtopia.
• Hired and trained team of writers, editors, game designers and community leaders who created compelling content and a community of regular TVtopia users.
• Ran successful alpha and beta programs, and incorporated user feedback into revised product design.

Grew Onscreen from a 3-person software contracting company to a 20-person product development company:

• Recruited, hired and managed a marketing team, a VP of Sales and Marketing from Amazon.com, and a VP of Content and Community.
• Obtained facilities, established information systems, created processes, and developed personnel infrastructure for company as it grew.
• Researched, qualified, selected, negotiated contracts, and managed outside vendors for graphic design, usability, content, legal, and software quality assurance, successfully developing TVtopia while minimizing head count.

Director Of Web Products
MyTurn.com
1999 – 2000

Created a companion web portal, www.MyTurn.com, for the users of MyTurn's low-cost computer, the Global PC:

• Specified, developed, tested and deployed first version of portal in 6 months.
• Researched market, analyzed competition, and wrote marketing requirements document (MRD), specifications for feature set, and project plan.
• Evaluated and chose technology platform (Linux, Apache, JSP and Oracle) based on shortest time-to-market and maximum flexibility.
• Selected content vendors (CNN for news, Inktomi for search) based on ease of integration and quality of offerings.
• Selected and managed outside software development company to create first version of portal.
• Successfully integrated content and code from multiple vendors by establishing in advance very clear definitions of deliverables and testing required before delivery.

Built web products development team for MyTurn:

• Hired and built 12-person team of software engineers, quality assurance engineers, writers, editors, community leaders, and usability and graphic designer to develop successive versions of the portal.

Director, Operating Systems Business Unit
Geoworks
1998-1999

After 3 years at Geoworks, was promoted to run the newly created 35-person business unit responsible for the development, marketing and sales of Geoworks’ new flagship operating system, GEOS-SC:

• Built and managed an extremely productive team of software developers, quality assurance engineers, marketing staff and salespeople.
• Developed and released 2 upgrades to GEOS-SC, adding features such as Java support, an ITRON-compatible real-time microkernel, a port to the ARM family of microprocessors, and a PIM application suite for mobile phones.
• Increased sales by $4 million in the first year by finding new customers for GEOS-SC among Japanese mobile phone manufacturers.

Program Manager and Product Manager, Operating Systems
Geoworks
1995-1997

Managed Geoworks’ development of GEOS-SC, a brand-new portable graphical operating system for mobile phones and embedded devices. Development took place in 4 sites, included both Unix and Windows based C++ development environments, and required debugging on 3 platforms.

• Completed 2 year software project on time and on budget.
• Transformed R&D project into successful product.
• Managed schedule, specification changes, communication, issue discovery and resolution, and development of project management processes.
• Effectively managed relationship with Toshiba, funding partner and manufacturer of the first hardware platform, and enabled them to ship 3 smart phone devices with GEOS-SC.

Software Project Manager
EO, Inc
1993-1994

Promoted to Project Manager for EO’s next generation smart phone product, responsible for coordinating work of 100+ developers:

• Managed hardware/software integration, hardware allocation, and project phasing,
• Created and maintained master software project schedule.
• Ran change control process.
• Communicated project status, including weekly reports to executive team.

First led team that localized EO’s PenPoint 3.0 operating system into Japanese and wrote software to enable PenPoint to run on NEC’s hardware.

• Project managed cross-functional team of hardware and software developers, and translators, and coordinated work with sales and marketing team and NEC.

Documentation Localization Manager
GO Corporation 1992-1993

Managed the writing, translation, and production of over 2,000 pages of end-user and SDK manuals and online help for the PenPoint operating system into Japanese.

• Managed outside localization and production vendors and partners, as well as an in-house team of writers, translators and DTP specialists.

Documentation Project Manager
Zetatype Desktop Publishers, Inc
1989-1991

Estimated, scheduled, and organized projects for this small business specializing in hi-tech product documentation.

• Designed and implemented computerized system for managing and tracking document flow and approvals between clients, writers, editors, graphic artists, proofreaders, DTP specialists and printing presses.

Operations Manager
Neil & Associates
1987-1989

Managed the production of deposition and trial transcript summaries for this legal services business.

• Negotiated deadlines, content standards, and formats with clients.
• Hired, trained, assigned and scheduled paralegals and copyeditors.
• Designed database to track document and work flow, generate invoices, and track accounts receivable.

 

Technical skills

Expert:

Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Homesite, Movable Type, pMachine, HTML, and CSS.

Familiar:

Linux, Solaris, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Perl, Wiki, Dreamweaver, TopStyle, Perforce, Powerpoint, Lotus Notes, and Groove.

 

Education

Oberlin College,

History and Economics, 1983

Languages

Near-fluent French, some Spanish, tourist Hausa.