Lauren Wood

I've been active in XML and its precursor, SGML, since 1992, and first encountered the World Wide Web in 1993. During that time I've done many different jobs for several companies, the most recent being at Sun Microsystems, Inc, as a Senior Technical Program Manager in the Business Alliances Group of the CTO Office. I am available for contract and consulting work in project or product management for both local and globally distributed teams. One of my clients is the Lantana Consulting Group, for whom I manage a variety of projects around the design and implementation of Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) compliant systems. I am also Course Director for the XML Summer School, where XML experts gather for a week at Oxford University each year to teach delegates about XML and related standards.

Project Management: I have many years of experience in project management. I've led schema design committees and managed developers on software, hardware, and cloud computing products, including one project for Sun that involved hardware, software, the cloud, and developers living from California to France. I've successfully managed technical committees consisting of whomever the various companies wanted to send, where the representatives could be replaced by other people at any time. I chaired the world's largest XML Conference (hosted by IDEAlliance) from 2001 to 2005, managing the strategy, determining the content, and handling a large amount of detail work. Many of these projects involved working with distributed teams spread across many countries and timezones. Additionally, I am a Certified Scrum Master.
Website Development: I've implemented and maintain several WordPress-based websites for myself and clients, including my personal site and my crafting site. This site runs on Drupal. I have also implemented trial websites in Django.
Identity Management: All of the projects I worked on at Sun had strong identity components, using SAML from OASIS and related standards such as ID-WSF from the Liberty Alliance. I chaired the Business Marketing Expert Group for the Liberty Alliance for much of this time. I also have experience at designing data use and privacy guidelines for identity-related services.
Product Management: Product management is the intersection between development, marketing, and sales. I have experience in talking to customers (including resellers) to find out what they're using the products for and what issues they face, and then working with the development team to find solutions. I've written product brochures and given talks, both technical and sales, to technical audiences and strategic customers. I've also been on support visits to strategic customers and assisted in pre-sales visits. I've combined product and project management on agile teams, turning the vision of executives into reality.
Marketing: Technical marketing is increasingly needed as products become more complicated and therefore harder for non-experts to grasp. I can explain technical issues in a way that is both correct and understandable. As an example, I evangelized the Document Object Model (I chaired the W3C Working Group) with the result that it is now the accepted standard in the area that is widely implemented. I've given talks (including keynotes) at several international conferences, written press releases, and given media interviews.
Standards: I'm probably best known for my work in standards. I have been chair, editor, and member of technical committees for several years, chiefly in OASIS and World Wide Web Consortium, where I was an elected member to the W3C Advisory Board, amongst other committees. I have seen committees that are successful and several that aren't, and understand what talents committee members need to have to be persuasive within the committee.
Event Management: I chaired the largest annual XML conference from 2001 to 2005, and watched the conference grow. During my tenure as chair it was the conference of choice for many XML practitioners, often the only one they went to each year. I help organize Vancouver's Blogging and Social Media Conference and am the President of the related Conference Society. I am Course Director of the XML Summer School, working with the Faculty Board to ensure the right speakers are teaching the right classes to meet the needs of the delegates.

My LinkedIn profile contains more details of my professional life, and you can reach me at lauren@textuality.com. My full resume is available on request, as are references.