2009-2012, 2014-2020

Role: Systems developer (as a staff member of the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford)

Brief: Develop and maintain the main Website for the Museum (but not the social media channels) and integrate the collections management system (KE EMu).

Solution: I oversaw the redevelopment of the WordPress site in 2010, mostly into one multisite instance, including previously disparate elements such as the collections search, and then its gradual refinement through to 2012. I overhauled the server provision, standardising on Debian Linux, in University data centres.

Security was enhanced at various levels, through content caches, script hardening, Apache mod Security with a fine-tuned ruleset, and integration with the University’s single sign-on system, first with Stanford Webauth and then with Shibboleth (to better support federation), registering and configuring a Service Provider (Apache module) and then configuring a WordPress plugin to invoke Shibboleth for authentication.

Subsequent work on the site focused on the design and instantiation of content, such as special exhibition sites (see example below). From 2017 onwards, it mainly concerned the digital preservation of legacy online exhibits during the migration to a centrally managed service, to which I also contributed substantially.

URLs
https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/ (main site until 2018), home page now redirecting to:
https://hsm.ox.ac.uk/ (main site from 2019 onwards).
https://blogs.mhs.ox.ac.uk/
Slides: integration of the collections database using the KE EMu PHP5 API.

–

MHS Special Exhibition: Back from the Dead – Demystifying Antibiotics

2016

Brief: To provide a website to accompany the Special Exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science (since renamed, History of Science Museum). Content needed to be easy to maintain by staff in various teams.

Solution: Using the existing WP multisite infrastructure I was able to create a number of special exhibition sites relatively easily, using responsive off-the-shelf themes. The basic structure was up and running very quickly and could be refined on an ongoing basis. Care was taken to ensure that educational aspects, especially, were made accessible.

URL: https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/backfromthedead/

Following a successful tender process, I was contracted to overhaul the website of the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), a UN NGO having general consultative status to ECOSOC with HQ in the UK.

The brief: To amalgamate relevant content from three existing sites, each developed separately during different periods and in a generally unwieldy state, into a single site that was current, covered the organisation’s activities well, and which would be easy to maintain. The new site would provide comprehensive coverage of the activities, styled with a look and feel similar to that of the United Nations.

Roles: After initial general consultancy to assess the current status, I undertook all the technical aspects of the project, from systems architecture and development, through to user training.

Solution: Working closely with the Secretariat Administrator, I implemented a new site to replace all legacy sites. I used WordPress (Multisite with subdomains), creating a custom theme derived from an existing one from the IARF US Chapter site. I also delivered experimental support for mobile devices using a theme switcher (before responsive designs became the norm).

I also oversaw the migration to a new VPS hosting platform with considerable cost savings. Detailed documentation was provided for administration, development and content authoring.

URL: https://iarf.net/ (via archive.org)