Ronald Bourret

Consulting, writing, and research in XML and databases

Ronald Bourret

EXPERIENCE

• Independent consultant, Felton, CA
  2000-present

  Perform both formal (on-site) and informal (e-mail) consulting about XML and databases for corporations, non-profit organizations, and students. Work includes architectural reviews, feature design, customer-specific introductions to XML, and general sanity checks.

  Teach courses on XML and databases, XML namespaces, and XML basics at conferences, corporations, and user's groups, as well as the UC Berkeley School of Information. Review papers for commercial and academic conferences. Write articles about XML for online magazines. Co-wrote XML for DB2 Information Integration, an IBM Redbook.

  Maintain Web site with papers about using XML with databases, the XML namespaces FAQ, and links to XML / database and XML data binding resources. The site also tracks available XML database software (150+ products) and XML data binding software (40+ products).

  Design and write XML-DBMS, an Open Source product for transferring data between XML documents and relational databases. Features include a language for mapping XML schemas to database schemas; using the data in XML documents to insert or update data in the database; deleting data in the database according to a particular mapping; and constructing XML documents from data in the database. XML-DBMS is used in a variety of settings, from universities to Fortune 500 corporations. It is written in Java and is shipped with Borland JBuilder.

• Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
  Research Assistant, 1997-1999

  Researched strategies for integrating XML with relational databases. Wrote Open Source software for transferring data between XML documents and relational databases. Wrote XML and Databases, often considered to be the standard introduction to the topic and required reading at many universities. Co-edited Data Definition Markup Language (DDML), an early XML schema language.

• Microsoft Corporation, S&T OnSite, Redmond, WA
  Senior Technical Writer (Contract), OLE DB and ODBC, 1992-1997

  Cowrote ODBC Programmer's Reference and SDK Guide (versions 1.0 - 3.0) and OLE DB Programmer's Reference and Software Development Kit (versions 1.0 - 1.1). Both manuals contain conceptual and reference material, programming techniques, and code examples.

  Performed much of the low-level design work on both products, such as determining error conditions, specifying detailed function behavior, and specifying data type conversions. Found and helped resolve hundreds of design issues. Helped write specifications for new features, including the state transition model and parameter binding in ODBC, and properties, error objects, and how to access BLOBs and OLE objects in OLE DB.

  Acting Manager (Contract), ODBC User Education, 1993-1994

  Hired and managed a technical writer, an editor, and an indexer. Worked with MS Press and MSDN to publish the ODBC Programmer's Reference. Wrote schedules and coordinated work with other teams.

• Capri Software, Bellevue, WA
  Software Engineer, 1992

  Helped design and write scheduling software in Basic on MS-DOS. Designed test suite and tested software and installation procedures. Wrote and edited end user guides and reference manuals. Supported customers over the telephone.

• Graphicus, Kirkland, WA
  Software Engineer, 1986-1991

  Helped design and write charting, vector-based drawing, and statistics software in Pascal, Fortran, C, and a proprietary statistics language on HP-UX and SunOS. Maintained graphics device drivers. Designed test suites and tested software and installation procedures. Performed usability testing of software prototypes. Wrote and edited reference manuals and newsletter articles. Supported customers on site and over the telephone.

• NCA, Sunnyvale, CA
  Software Engineer, 1981-1985

  Wrote manufacturing and accounting software in Basic on VAX/VMS and PDP-11. Designed and wrote a simple query processor and a database editor. Cowrote device-independent graphics system.

COMPUTER SKILLS

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, with Minors in Biology and Chemistry
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 1980

Course work in Technical Writing
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1992

LANGUAGES

English (fluent), German (conversational), French (limited), Spanish (limited)

HOBBIES

Rock climbing, caving, kayaking, bird watching, reading, travel