Brent Toderash

Team Dynamics

A summary of the Personality Zodiac

• StrengthsFinder 2.0: Strategic, Deliberative, Relator, Ideation, Intellection
• Enneagram: Type Five (The Investigator) with a Four-Wing (The Individualist), or 5w4, "The Iconoclast"
• KTS (Keirsey): Architect, "in the temerament of the rationals."
• MBTI: INTP (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving (scoring very high on intuitive)
• Fascination Advantage Archetype: The Maestro

Presentations, Appearances, & Publications

Appearances & Presentations

• CloudFest Hackathon
• CloudFest USA Hackathon
• WordCamp Canada (Supply Chain Security)
• Meetups & WordCamps
  (History of SEO, Open Source licensing, Accessibility, WordPress plugins, and other topics)

Publications

• Yawp.foo, Free & Open Source Software Resources
• Contributor, Modern Earth Blog
• Contributor, AspirePress & FAIR
• Freelance writer for CIO.com
  (Open Source subject material)
• Contributor, Voices of the Virtual World (Foreword by Kevin Kelly)
• Author, Editor, or Contributor to 5 published works in the Emerging Church space
• Subversive Influence
  (Technorati Top-10 blog in its niche)
• Editor, The Penguinista! News (Linux Advocacy)

Media Interviews

• CloudFest USA Hackathon (YouTube) interview with Mark Szymanski
• The Repository, on AspirePress & FAIR Package Manager
• Building a Safer Open Web with FAIR and Patchstack, CloudFest Blog
• Website Planet, on Disrupting WordPress Managed Services
• Code Poet, on Building Applications with WordPress
• Other trade publications include
  CWTA Newsletter, Wireless Broadband Business Magazine, Report on Wireless,
  ITBusiness.ca,
  Wi-FiPlanet.com,
  TelephonyOnline.com, Linux Today
• General news media outlets include
  CBC Radio One,
  CHVN Radio,
  CHEX Television, The Ottawa Citizen, The Winnipeg Free Press, The Selkirk Journal, The Interlake Spectator, The Stonewall Argus, The Steinbach Carillon

Fun Facts

NGL…

• My first Slashdotted article was on July 14, 2000. The server was not up to the task.
• Early programming experience in high school involved writing lines of FORTRAN and COBOL on paper to copy onto cards and fed into a card reader for processing on a time-shared mainframe.
• Wrote a BASIC program for a high school class that used all 32k available memory on the Commodore PET, and had to shorten text output to use fewer bytes.

Career Highlights

Open Source Contributions

• Developed software supply chain security and trust models.
• Co-led "Hackathon" teams in development of innovative software solutions.
• Managed software projects with volunteer developers to improve supply chains.

Web Development

• Personally worked on hundreds of websites in roles including analysis, design, architecture, development (programming & integration), performance tuning, troubleshooting, and project management.
• Used & developed sites with CafeLog b2 since approximately 2002, until it was replaced by its direct successor, WordPress. Have been working with WordPress since 2004, effectively as long as it has existed.
• Business analysis and project management for major project using WordPress Multisite to provide SAAS for coaches to track clients’ progress, manage relationships, and actively engage with both individual and group clientelle. The site provides corporate clients with a fully branded experience, and served over 1,000 users within the first year.
• Business analysis, design, and project manager for prototype of fruit-sharing system for local organization to connect donors and pickers of excess fruit.
• Wrote custom WordPress plugins for numerous sites to support functionality such as:
  • listing of businesses or automobiles for sale;
  questionnaires providing analysis for personality profiles, including scoring and presentation of results;
  • presentation of a first nation’s financial records together with project costs and status;
  • customized ticket sales system allowing end users to apply to purchase a ticket, then register and purchase an e-ticket with a customized QR code for entry scanning;
  • inventory management system for a distributor to monitor inventory levels at its customers’ sites;
  • custom ordering system for end users to order a very customized product, with generation
  of custom PDF work orders for client fulfillment, including internal inventory order requirements; and
  • automated financial reporting of affiliate earnings from online sales, together with a report of investor earnings after expenses
• Developed deep experience on multiple platforms and extensions within the WordPress ecosystem, including both integration of and custom development with plugins and platforms such as WordPress Multisite (both before and after WordPress Mu was merged with WordPress), bbPress, BuddyPress, Woocommerce, Gravity Forms, and WPML. Projects have included heavy integration with online learning systems (LMS) and other specialty requirements, often with deep customizations for functionality and presentation.

Telecommunications

• Pioneered in the development of rural broadband deployments in Manitoba with design & construction of ISP networks in private/municipal partnership project, including business model design, proforma financial statements, contracts, high-level network design, technical equipment selection, and build project management. Earliest project was featured in a case study for Industry Canada on successfully deploying rural broadband in Canada.
• WBN (Manitoba Interlake) network construction (WAN for Internet; Industry Canada participation with municipal partners)
• Market analysis, business planning & network engineering for rural broadband deployments, including management of RFP process. Multiple projects including those undertaken for Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corporation & Northwest Community Futures Development Corporation
• Became provider to other ISPs for networking, routing, and internet gateway, including wireless network expansion projects in Rosenort, Roseau River, Fisher River, St. Pierre, and Swan River areas
• Built & managed broadband wireless internet network covering more than 10,000 KM² in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba, including unlicensed and licensed radio spectrum for provision of both internet and VOIP services

Insurance Industry

• Developed outstanding expertise in auto insurance for trucking fleets.
• Given underwriting authority by major insurer, developed products, set rates, and wrote policy wordings (unusual at the brokerage level).
• Insured several high-value properties and unique situations including customized coverage for fine art and subscription policies to spread risk between multiple insurance companies.