Jim Kropa

jim @ kropa.net

900 2ND ST SE UNIT 404
CEDAR RAPIDS IA 52401-2222

319-270-5297

Computer Skills

INTERNET & WORLD WIDE WEB. C#, Visual Basic 7.0, Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 & 2.0, Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 & 2005, XML, XPath, XSL, JavaScript, DHTML, ASP, VBScript, CSS, HTML, PHP.

DATABASE & SPREADSHEET. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 & 2005, Microsoft Access, Claris FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Excel.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING. Quark XPress, Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks.

MULTIMEDIA. Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, DigiDesign Session 8, IQS SAW Plus.

Professional Experience

LEAD DEVELOPER. Geonetric Technologies, Cedar Rapids IA, April 2000-November '01 and January 2003-present. http://www.geonetric.com/

Geonetric started in 1999 as a small Web design shop, founded by two of my former co-workers at Inlet. The company has experienced various periods of growth and reduction over the years, but eventually specialized into software solutions for hospitals and the healthcare industry. This business strategy has yielded excellent results for Geonetric, which is now positioned as a leader in its market segment, and expects to sustain its success into the future.

Since I first joined the company in 2000, I have:

Designed and built customized "Intranet" and "Extranet" Web applications for Geonetric's clients.
Developed databases, business logic, scripts and object-oriented programming code, and Web page interfaces for specified user tasks.
Continually learned and applied the latest Internet programming technologies.

Geonetric's flagship product is named VitalSite, and integrates a sophisticated content management system with components of a "patient portal" for hospital Web sites. In 2000-'01, I was on the team which originally conceived and designed VitalSite (particularly its "Smart Panels" hypertext feature) and built the first version using the beta release of Microsoft's .NET Framework.

As the principal software architect of the second and third major versions of VitalSite, I:

In 2003, working without a technical specification or design documents, redesigned the application's database and wrote all of the code for a major revision of VitalSite. My complete rework of the product improved its performance, fixed a variety of bugs, made it more stable and extensible, and significantly enhanced the content management features to allow versioning of documents, a simple workflow, and improved indexing for text-based searches.
Assembled and maintained a class library to support coding tasks common to VitalSite and other Geonetric products. Consisting of a framework of static methods, the library provides shortcuts for making database calls, formatting text, "paging" lists of records, converting typed arrays, and other common tasks.
Continued to adjust VitalSite in response to client requests, adding more flexibility for users to specify security settings, among other enhancements.
Also continued to adjust the core VitalSite class libraries, which essentially comprise a custom framework extending from .NET, with the goal of simplifying the process for other developers to add their own extended components and custom implementations.
Collaborated with executives, project managers, other developers, and users to design features for another major revision of the product. The latest version is more uniformly extensible, and I think more ideally tailored to take advantage of the web-shaped structure of relationships among hypertext documents.
Translated group discussion of feature requirements into flowcharts, diagrams, working models, and paper prototypes to clarify and refine the functional specification.
Created architecture and code for business objects, and for the first time in VitalSite's history, wrote comprehensive framework documentation for integration with Visual Studio.

WORLD WIDE WEB DESIGNER. Inlet, Cedar Rapids IA, 1995-'97 and summer '98. http://www.inlet.com/

Designed Web sites, graphics, and pages for Inlet's clients.
Assisted in commercial development of Inlet's Web design software.
After leaving Inlet full time, returned periodically to train new employees.
In summer 1998, refurbished Inlet's online project management & customer service system.

FM RADIO DISC JOCKEY. Part time in commercial music formats, 1995-2000 and 2005-present.

Real Rock 94.1 KRNA, rock, Cedar Rapids IA, July 1998-May 2000, October 2005-present. http://www.krna.com/
Rock 108 KFMW, active rock, Waterloo IA, 1997-'98, May-July 2000. http://www.rock108.com/
Soft Rock 104.5 KDAT, adult contemporary, Cedar Rapids IA, June 1997-May 2000. http://www.kdat.com/
The Fox 100.7 KKRQ, classic rock, Iowa City IA, 1995-'97. http://www.thefox.net/
For audio samples of me on the air, please listen to my airchecks.

ACTOR. Various roles in mainstage and touring productions and since 1997.

For more information, please look at my professional acting résumé.

STUDENT YEARBOOK EDITOR. Grinnell College Cyclone, 1995.

Shot and printed photographs, organized staff, planned book layout.
Met every production deadline and stayed within budget.

STUDENT NEWSPAPER EDITOR. Grinnell College Scarlet & Black, 1993.

Assigned stories and photos, drew page layouts, wrote and edited copy.
Managed finances, sold over $8000 in advertising, and made a profit.
Contributed stories and photos to newspaper and other student media through 1995.

Education

B.A. ENGLISH. Grinnell College, Grinnell IA. Class of 1995. http://www.grinnell.edu/

Active in extra-curricular music, theater, and student media.
Spent a semester at the National Theater Institute, Waterford CT.
Held campus jobs in Music, Theater, Public Relations, and Alumni Offices.

Hobbies

ACTING. Active in local community theater since childhood.

OUTOOR RECREATION. Bicycling, in-line skating, disc golf, backpacking, camping.

READING. Science fiction, plays, novels, computer programming textbooks, social commentary.

WRITING. Letters, journalism, a screenplay, criticism and collaboration with playwrights.