| nightingaleshiraz / work |
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What I'm interested in today...
Part-time writing, editing and related assignments. I'm hoping to start work on a Master's degree very soon, so my default preference is to work from home. However, if you have intelligence, integrity and class, I'll show up wherever we need to be. |
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Food and Agriculture Organization |
Part of a creative team working with the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division (ESW) and the Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA); towards a three-minute animated video / "short" supporting the 2010-11 edition of FAO's flagship publication, the State of Food and Agriculture. The work so far has included interviews and fact-finding among FAO's technical divisions (for typical "success stories"), concept and content development, and support to storyboarding. |
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Food and Agriculture Organization |
Content gathering, development and organization for a publication showcasing the Forum’s best online discussions, and illustrating their value towards knowledge sharing for improved food security and nutrition. The work includes analysis of detailed technical content on themes ranging from Women in Agriculture to Food Security Governance, interviews with facilitators and participants, and the building of an overall narrative to spotlight tangible "wins" in collaborative information exchange. |
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Food and Agriculture Organization |
Responsible for CountrySTAT’s external, "corporate" communication and messaging for print, audio and video at international, regional and national levels: through management of the CountrySTAT Communication unit at FAO headquarters; through coordinated supervision of national communication / media consultants in the project’s 17 countries; and through the development / implementation of the project’s Communication Strategy and Country Communication Plans. Key achievements included: a standard workflow for collecting media outputs (print, audio, video) for storage and reuse in CountrySTAT Media Kits and for the CountrySTAT Channel on YouTube; and a customized media tracking and archiving system for measuring the impact of communication / media activities in the international, regional and national press. Also responsible for internal and donor-related project reporting and communications: annual and quarterly progress reports; grant and project proposals; planning and strategy documents; briefings, press releases, presentations and speeches. Key achievements included: a structured monitoring and reporting system to collect and coordinate information on project activities from team members and country-based stakeholders, for quick and easy presentation via project "dashboards" and summaries. Knowledge-management and information-sharing (within the project team; across FAO and other UN agencies, and with relevant development organizations and initiatives) for improved teamwork and learning / sharing of best practices; stronger collaboration with partners and stakeholders; and greater project visibility, awareness and advocacy. Communication, facilitation, reporting and support to cross-divisional and corporate activities beyond CountrySTAT: ES Strategic Communication Team; World Food Day; Fifth International Conference on Agricultural Statistics (ICAS-V); and ES Senior Management Workshops. |
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Lorenzo de’Medici Institute
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Design, development and teaching of accredited university level courses in creative writing and communication theory. Travel Writing focuses on creative writing and literary appreciation in the context of documenting and communicating the study abroad experience, enabling students to develop and refine their writing and editing skills. Intercultural Communications provides a base in communication theory, analyzing cultural differences and their role in effective communication (or lack thereof) for an ever more globalized world. |
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Bell Canada / Sympatico
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Bell Sympatico is the Internet arm of Canada’s largest and best-known communications company, with over 2.4 million English- and French-speaking customers on dial-up, high-speed and combined subscriptions -- all of whom are users of the company’s bi-lingual customer support web site, Service.Sympatico. Responsible for content inventories, sitemaps and user flows for existing pages towards a phased approach for content re-categorization, restructuring and revision. Developed and revised content to follow identified Information Architecture and copy guidelines, and helped coordinate content approval cycles and translation processes. Worked on quality assurance of site-wide content (including proofing, functional- and flow-validation). |
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Government of Canada |
As part of a technical implementation across DFAIT, the Canadian Embassy in Rome piloted a custom-built contact management system for managing diplomatic / political contacts, and special events. Responsible for all training and documentation for the new system. Key activities included: - analysis and understanding (at technical and business-user levels) of the new system. - translation/ simplification of existing business processes via user-interviews, meetings and audits. - development of course outlines, presentations and exercise materials. - delivery / execution of one-on-one and group-training courses and workshops for Embassy staff across all skill levels. - design, development and finalization of targeted user- and administration-manuals (online and in-print) |
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Food and Agriculture Organization |
As the core food and agriculture database for the UN network and for government / international-policy-makers worldwide, the FAOSTAT system and its underlying technology were overhauled for better user interfaces, stronger technical architecture, and improved metadata/data-quality management. In addition to standard programming, specific work on FAOSTAT included: - functional analysis, Information Architecture and user-centered design for multi-lingual Web interfaces. - planning, content development and finalization of internal training resources and manuals for the new system. |
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ION Trading Systems
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ION Trading is the maker and service provider for the MarketView suite of financial software products; used by 17 of the world’s top 20 investment banks to conduct fixed income trading (on bonds, futures, swaps and repos) in both domestic and international markets. The company supplies end-to-end solutions right from market connectivity through to GUI applications for consolidated trading across multiple markets, as well as many trading software tools that enable banks and traders to maintain quoting obligations, measure performance, optimize hedging, manage spreads, etc. Roles and responsibilities at ION included: - custom communications and multi-level technical support, issue-tracking and problem-resolution for clients in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK. - in-depth system replication, testing and client platform analysis. - new client implementations, customized technical instruction, deployment and on-boarding. - client- and issue-specific content development, support documentation, training, knowledge-transfer and internal communications. |
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Global Property Network
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From both a Web and "bricks-and-mortar" perspective, GPN acts as an international portal for the buying and selling of property all over Europe, and specifically in the Tuscany and Umbria areas of Italy. Key responsibilities included: - management of all online communications systems, from both content and IT perspectives. - development of corporate technical documentation and custom user manuals and references. - overall IT systems management (Web site development and administration via PHP/MySQL and HTML; LAN/WAN network administration and user support for Windows NT/XP and Mac), knowledge sharing and internal best-practices development. |
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Razorfish
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Razorfish is a NYC-based IT consulting firm that was founded in 1995 to provide change management, web and general technology solutions to Fortune 1000 companies such as Armani, Cartier, Cisco, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline and Western Union. The company was (and continues to be) defined by excellence in design, user experience and usability; as well as phased project management and technology services that are tailored to match strategic business and user requirements. Work at Razorfish included: - "Straight" Tech: analyzing client problems and defining phased and structured solutions based on time / materials, user needs and IT / project-management best-practices; implementation and programming for selected solutions across multiple platforms, user-environments and technologies. - Bizdev & Strategy: client pitches, RFPs, and presentations; as well as IT strategy services (competitive analyses, proposals and special papers). - Management & Comms: coordinating and managing technology project teams (identifying and allocating tasks, timelines, and dependencies).; managing client communications and reporting throughout the project process; internal knowledge management and training activities. Key projects (and the work I did on them) are listed below... |
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Avaya BusinessPartner Portal - October 2002
Developed and implemented Avaya’s Global Business Partner Portal using Interwoven’s TeamSite Content Server and templating applications. Developed and managed a combination of system scripts, dynamic publishing via XML and web-based content entry to generate a 2000-page site in 6 weeks. Project involved setup and rollout to Avaya’s iPlanet servers and integration with existing single sign-on systems. |
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GE Silicones - July 2002
Conducted technology audit / internal IT evaluation, to ensure that a basic, three-level site redesign would be suited to the existing and forecasted technology environment at GE Silicones – specifically in terms of search capabilities, SAP implementation, and real-time customer support software. Thanks to the team’s performance on this engagement, the client signed on with Razorfish for additional project work in 2003 – including complete site redesign and implementation of the GE Silicones web site. |
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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals - March 2002
Designed, developed and implemented custom-built content management solution for dynamic-content web site using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Active Server Page technology. Solution included web-based content entry, workflow, permissioning, and timed publication of content. Site received 2002 Standard Of Excellence WebAward. |
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Southern Poverty Law Center - March 2001
Designed and managed team development / co-ordination and implementation of custom-built content management solution for dynamic-content web site. Project used Java and Java Server Pages to provide web-based interface for entry, management and permission-based workflow of site content stored in MySQL database. Site received the 2002 Webby Award for Activism. |
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Sharp Electronics - November 2000
Acted as lead technologist for full implementation of content management system on Vignette StoryServer for a dynamically-driven corporate web site. Project used TCL and SQL scripting and SQL Server database manipulation. Implemented all third-party/interactive functionality (i.e. search, dealer-locator, etc.), as well as best practices in content management development processes. |
