HELLO WORLD

So welcome to my part of the world wide web..

My name is Richard Cook and I'm a British Expat living in The Netherlands.

I am a creative media professional specialising in the online development & organisation of viral systems including On & Offline development including Web Design / Development, Illustration & Art Direction, Branding, E-Commerce and much much more..

If your really bored you can follow me on Twitter Here

Background..

Overall I have over 10 years experience in production specialising in creative design and the deployment of new media applications. Within those 10 plus years 7 have been at Lead Developer / Designer or Project / Studio Management level.

As a Project / Studio Manager I bring to the table a sound knowledge of today's development methods and tools. My hands-on experience in development and production have enabled me to create many successful teams and a dynamic & versatile portfolio..

Changing Times..

There are many things that interest me not only as a Project Manager but as a developer / end-user. To date the most impressive area I have found is Augmented Reality... (Takes a while to load but worth the wait)..

The video above in one way or another is the future, at some point direction will need to be focused on these new technologies... Exciting times!

Keeping My Hand In..

It's important for me to keep my skill set up to date. I have enjoyed development since the days of using my Commodore 64 in the eighties and my Amiga in the nineties through to today's Mac's / PC's.

With the emergence of new technologies such as Macromedia Director over ten years ago I have adapted my self to learn the skills needed to develop rich media using each tools native language like Lingo for Shockwave & Actionscript for Flash.

Around this core of OOP I developed the other skills necessary to publish media content such as XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySql, XML, SOAP, Json & Javascript including AJAX. These are the skills I need and use daily, without this knowledge it would be impossible and in some way unfair to demand the highest quality from my team members. In short it means I understand my team and vise -versa, critical in any planning and management position!

Currently Playing With Unity 3D, see here

What Else have I done..

Well, it's been a long 34 years..

My first ever job being that of an Office Junior for a clothing company (Hated It).

I've trained as a Jet Engine Mechanic working on the JT-3D Jet engine.

I've worked on high-speed data networks using Microwave / RF communication.

I've worked on high-speed fibre optic networks and satellite communications.

I've recruited programmers and developed in Ada for time critical systems (Nerdtastic).

Behind all this I worked as a DJ traveling all over the Uk from Margate in Kent to London, Brighton, Plymouth & Finally Newquay in Cornwall where I met my partner Samantha.

After leaving the communications job in 1997 I decided that University was for me, after a year at Plymouth College of Art & Design I was accepted into The University of Plymouth where i read BSc MediaLab Arts before once again heading out into the real world!

What Else Do I Do..

Apart from planning, planning and more planning I sometimes get time to relax and enjoy other interests.

Whenever possible I find time to rock-climb, this is an absolute addiction and something I always try to keep in with (Irony of living in Holland). Other interests include digital photography and traveling anywhere I wont meet tourists! Over the past few years I have traveled to Canada, US, Mexico, Belize, Gambia, Tunisia (Saharah) & Southern Europe all in pursuit of the perfect picture (So far out of the thousands of pictures I've taken I only like 4).

Other than that, I enjoy spending time with Samantha and our baby daughter, life is good!

Key Projects Include

• Walt Disney - Monsters Inc (PIXAR), Atlantis The Lost Empire, Goofy's Big Adventure (Web Media & DVD / CD-Rom / Shockwave Game)
• Buena Vista - Enigma The Movie (Shockwave Game & Portal)
• Marvel Comics / Sony - Spiderman the Movie (Screen Saver & Print)
• Momentum Pictures / FHM - The 51st State (Flash Game / Screen Saver)
• Killysport / Nevica - (Branded Site & Online Multi-lingual Catalogue)
• Camper & Nicholson's' Yachting - (Corporate Site)
• Many many more...

Specialties

Development..

• Web Development
• Illustration & Digital Art Direction
• DVD / CD-Rom / Kiosk / Press Kit Media
• Portals / Intra / Extra Net
• Corporate Identity / Brand Awareness & Loyalty
• Viral Branding & Pre-Press
• E-Commerce
• Casual Game Development (Real time Multi player / Asynchronous / Synchronous / Single player) (Browser Based & Standalone)
• Shockwave 3D / Flash OOP
• Unity 3D (Exploring)
• Online Money Gaming
• Wordpress Theaming & Integration
• CMS integration (Joomla, Sharepoint, Noodle, PHP Nuke) New Development
• Twitter & Social Network Deployment
• Open Social
• Academic / Private Sector E-Learning
• Micro Payment
• Photography
• Media Streaming Video (FLV, F4V, Quicktime etc), Audio Processing & Shout Radio
• Iphone & Symbian Development
• SMS & MMS Data flows
• Audio / Video Production (On / Offline Editing)
• Online Advertising & Revenue Generation (PPC / DART Etc)

Languages & Apps..

• Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects
• ActionScript 2/3 (XML / JSON / SOAP / RoR / Python Twisted - Integration & communication)
• Lingo & Director Shockwave 3D
• Cakewalk Sonar
• Propellerheads Reason
• 3D Studio Max
• CSS / HTML / XHTML / JSON / SOAP / PHP / JavaScript / MySql
• Microsoft Office Word, Xcel, Powerpoint

Project / Studio Management..

• Risk evaluation & shock / Impact analysis
• Long / Short term / Time Critical planning
• Project life cycle - Initiation to completion & Phasing
• Slippage Recovery
• Progress & evaluation including UAT and rollout
• ETL
• Scope / Cost / Schedule
• Documentation & statistical analysis
• Asset organisation / Security and team based data storage
• Global team organisation & 24hr time management
• Project exposure SEO
• Client liaison & customer support
• Team traing / development & recruitment
• Purchasing
• Future trends

Methods..

• Prince2 / Product Based Planning
• Scrum
• Event Chain

Systems Architecture..

• Security (Sql-Injection, DDos, HTTPS etc)
• Load balancing & Salability
• Power management
• Redundancy
• LAMP / Windows
• Installation, monitoring & support (1st, 2nd & 3rd)

Engineering..

• Fibre Optic & Copper Strand Telecoms
• UHF / VHF / HF / Microwave Communications