I graduated college the month the first commercial web browser was released (Netscape Navigator v1.0).
In my hometown (Charleston, SC),
I worked on one of the first Home Banking applications (Home Account Network), to realize the
vision of Charlie Agee Atkinsto "automatically suggests to the individual a portfolio of asset and liability accounts that may be credited and/or debited to provide the required funds for consumption and to form investments and borrowing to best realize her financial objectives over a defined time horizon."
I moved to Silicon Valley in May 1997 to work at Sun Microsystems' JavaSoft division on the Java Electronic Commerce Framework to realize the
vision of Theodore Goldstein, called The Gateway Security Model. "All business relationships have defined limited trust... The electronic commerce community needs a set of software locks and infrastructure to keep honest people honest, and to discourage dishonest people."
As a consultant with one of the oldest digital agencies (Organic Inc, founded 1993), I worked on the first big box stores' web implementations, including Home Depot.com. I led the development of the first blockbuster.com, which solved one big problem– nobody who wants to buy the
Terminator movie knows how to spell
Schwarzenegger. We integrated one of the first autocorrecting search engines with a custom dictionary.
Then, I helped the Dept. of Defense modernize their purchasing by allowing them to purchase online. The challenges were significantly different than the other online commerce in the 00s, in that the buyer was usuallysearching for the cheapest collection of an entire list of items. We invented a
System and Method for online shopping optimization to solve the problem.
During my master’s program at CMU’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, I worked with a team of five to explore a prompt from Google Shopping. How Might We empower the salesperson in the omni-channel sales environment, when the shopper has immediate access to all product information. We discovered an emerging trend in in-store shopping, big box stores salespeople were shopping online with the buyer while in-store. We invented Opus, a novel omni-channel experience and the Opus Countertop, an interface to facilitate this new type of interaction.
