Stephen Andrew Lee

Professional Profile

A consultant, developer, writer and event organiser in open development with a particular interest in the enabling power of the union of open source, accessibility, web and mobile technologies. My personal mission is to bring users, developers and others together through open development to create innovative and meaningful technology solutions using appropriate technologies and standards. Experience of domains including accessibility, FE/HE education, financial products, development process tools and mobile communication systems. A keen team player who thrives in a user/developer facing role solving real-world problems using creative, interpersonal and analytical skills.

Key Experience

• Co-founder and partner of OpenDirective bringing open development benefits to users and developers of projects including accessibility and assistive technology. Thus enabling innovative solutions for end users, their supporters, service providers and development companies. Developed and applied "Open Rating" to evaluate projects.
• Community member with Apache Wookie, Mozilla, GNOME, IAccessibile2 and other communities. Contracted for Mozilla and represented them at accessibility events including CSUN and RAatE.
• Consortium member of large FP7 EU project, Cloud4All, that is developing cloud-based infrastructure for automatic personalisation of devices for accessibility (GPII).
• Board member of Project:Possibility a non-profit with a mission to enthuse students to create innovative open source accessibility projects though weekend competitions (USA and Europe).
• Organiser of events including the ATSummit, TransferSummit Gadget Playtime (showcasing open hardware projects), OpenSource Junction (OSSWatch), Apache Barcamp Oxford and A11yHack days.
• Instigated and consulted on open innovation community pilot Realise. Co-developed Open Source Assistive Technology Software (OATS) portal www.oatsoft.org. Created PowerTalk the program which narrates PowerPoint presentations in order solve a specific request for help.
• Community development enhancing open development in research projects for OSS Watch.
• Authoring technical articles including those published by OSS Watch, in Ability Magazine and personal blogs. Presentations at various accessibility and OS events.
• Developing solutions in a wide range of technologies by working with individuals and teams to determine their requirements and then designing and developing solutions using agile methods and rapid prototyping. Bringing many projects to a successful conclusion including: Improving FE college administration processes and MIS with an intranet, ID card system, Inland Revenue on-line filing, UK features for Microsoft Money, live stocks feed for MSN (seconded to Microsoft in Redmond), Windows and X ports of development tools, mission critical mobile data systems.
• Providing first class customer support, liaising with customers, development team and product support team to solve individual problems and eliminate reoccurring issues.

• Construction of electronics projects including computer and audio.
• Member of Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe AAATE.
• Ran an 'introduction to computing' course with Age Concern as a response to age related exclusion from the web and raise awareness of open source and open accessibility solutions.
• Resolving requests for information and computer problems from people with disabilities as an IT Can Help (ITCH Network) volunteer.
• Enjoys swimming, running, cycling, walking and 'Monroe bagging'