Company
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Project Computing was formed in 1982 by Bob Davie, John Evershed, Kent Fitch,
Ken Peadon, Andris Rasa and Tony Rossiter when all 6 were working
at the Australian National University.
Our first software product was the NIM
TP (Transaction Processing) monitor, which proved to be very popular and successful.
Over a dozen software products were produced in the 1980's and early 1990's,
most of which are still sold and supported world-wide by CCA
Software and Treehouse Software International.
During the 1980's our software and consulting services specialised in
MVS systems programming, SNA/VTAM programming, database software (specialising in support
and third party products for Software AG's ADABAS
database) and application design and implementation.
Towards the end of the 1980's we rekindled our interest in UNIX and TCP/IP, developing
services to connect SNA and TCP/IP systems. This work led to development of early
web servers and services (1993) and public key infrastructure (1994) for
CSIRO, one of the pioneers of the internet and the web
in Australia.
Since 1993, Project Computing's consulting and software development has been focussed
on TCP/IP and web-based tools and systems.
Our most recent tool is the pageVault
web site archiver.
In the mid 1990's, we sold our MVS-based software to CCA
Software to allow us to avoid marketing and better concentrate our efforts
on development and consulting.
Of the 6 original founders, Bob Davie has retired to grow grapes just south of Canberra
and Andris Rasa and Tony Rossiter have pursued solo IT consulting careers. John Evershed,
Kent Fitch and Ken Peadon continue the tradition of Project Computing.
- Applications developer, systems and network programmer, database specialist
- Can juggle whilst riding a unicycle
- Recent major projects:
- The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online
(Ruby/Rails, MySQL)
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Intranet web content management system
(c#, XML, TeraText)
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Internet web content management system
(ASP backed by Java)
-
Web based statistics
(Java, SAS, ActiveX)
- Applications developer, systems and network programmer, database specialist
- Recent major projects:
- National Libary of Australia - Trove search system - Architect/Programmer
(Java, MySQL, Lucene, Jetty)
- National Libary of Australia - the Newspapers Digitisation Program - Lead System Architect/Programmer
(Java, MySQL, Lucene, Jetty)
- AustLit - the Australian Literature
Gateway - technical manager, architect and implementor
(Java, Oracle, XML/XSLT, RDF, Topic Maps, DHTML, Apache, Tomcat)
- The AIF Project- UNSW@ADFA - programmer, architect
and implementor
(Java, MySQL, XML/XSLT, Tomcat)
- Canberra Autonomous Car Simulation - programmer, author
(Javascript)
- CSIRO - main web site -
architect/development of content management system
(Javascript, XML/XSLT, DHTML, IIS, ASP)
- CSIRO's Project Support System (PSS) - architect, lead developer
on Australia's first large scale enterprise Java development
(1996-1998) Java, Oracle
- Recent presentations/papers:
Searching for Meaning Rather Than Keywords and Returning Answers Rather Than Links, Code4Lib Journal, Issue 57, August 2023
Simulation of a shared fleet of
autonomous cars in Canberra, 6th Australian Intelligent Transport Summit, August 2018, Sydney
Transforming transport for low emissions and cheap, universal mobility,
with Warwick Cathro at the Canberra Renewables Innovation Hub, 4 May 2017
A case for increasing
audience and relevance, 1 July 2016,
presentation to True Biographies of Nations? Exploring the Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography,
National Library of Australia.
[PDF version]
An associated article, "ADB V. Wikipedia", appears on page 13 of
Issue 16 of the Newsletter
of the National Centre of Biography, "Biography Footnotes", August 2016
Autonomous cars -
Summary of current state-of-the-art and intro to a web simulation of a shared
fleet of autonomous vehicles in Canberra, 3 February 2015,
Presentation to Transport Policy, Strategic Planning,
Environment & Planning Directorate, A.C.T. Government
Scaling up: the technology behind
the NLA's newspaper digitisation and the Trove Search service,
6 December 2011, a presentation to the Canberra branch of the Australian Computer Society
Not a
total experimental failure - an experience report on the Trove architecture:
Update handling, load balancing and fault tolerance in Trove. NLA Staff Presentation,
November 2011
The Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC)
Seminar, 21 October 2010, From container to context:
how cataloguers can drive a fundamental and necessary change in resource description
NLA Innovative
Ideas Forum, 2010, 16 April -
Resistance is futile: how libraries must serve society by embracing
cloud culture, the end of the information age, and
inevitable technological and social trends.
The case
for a Digital Lending Right - a peer reviewed paper accepted by the Australian Library and Information Association for presentation at Information Online 2009, Sydney, 20-22 January 2009.
Accompanying presentation on Slideshare.
Rethinking
the catalogue - a joint paper and presentation
with Alison Dellit to the
National Library of Australia's Innovative Ideas Forum, 19 April 2007.
NLA Archiving the Web Information Day, 12 Nov 2004 pageVault presentation
as Open Office presentation
or as MS Powerpoint presentations.
This presentation refers to the following paper...
- Web site archiving - an approach to recording every materially different response produced by a website
- Ausweb 2003
- XML Schema driven user interfaces - Ausweb 2002
- Taking RDF and Topic Maps seriously - Ausweb 2002
- Introducing XML/XSL
to a large established Web Site - XML Asia Pacific 1999
- Wide Area Network Monitoring using Java
and the Web - Ausweb 1996
- User Authentication
and Software Distribution on the Web - Ausweb 1996
- Recent courses developed:
- Introduction to XML, XSLT and RDF - for Software AG, Australia and Hong Kong
- Advanced Java - for Software AG, Hong Kong
- Applications developer, systems and network programmer, database specialist
- Programming - Adabas/Natural
- ADABAS and Progress database specialist
Developing software for the mainframe and SNA in the early 80's was a different
proposition from developing for UNIX or Windows and TCP/IP now. Without the support of
our early customers who provided access to equipment we'd never have been able to
develop the software we did. We'd particularly like to thank the follow people
and organisations for their demanding requirements, ideas and encouragement:
At each of these organisations and at many others around the globe we've had
the privilege of working with and being inspired by hundreds of inventive and
resourceful people. Thankyou, everyone.
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