Humanist Software Developer
San Francisco
scott@realness.onlineI build software that serves people first — users who deserve clarity and control, maintainers who deserve code they can reason about, and communities that deserve tools that don't exploit them. Everything I make starts from the same question: who is this for and how does it respect them?
Every project I take on is anchored in the same conviction: technology should serve human dignity, not undermine it. I build systems that are auditable by design, respectful of their users' attention and data, and simple enough to reason about years later.
I've mentored teams, led by example, and created environments where people bring their full selves to the work. The on-screen result — clean, fast, obvious — is the visible tip of a system built with care at every layer.
Lead engineer on a platform that helps organizations hear and understand human stories at scale. Designed a queue system processing stories through 50+ ML models — humans first, analysis second. Built with Vue, Google Cloud, Firebase, and Replicate, the architecture respects both the storyteller's privacy and the researcher's need for honest signal.
Realness is social media redesigned as a tool rather than a popularity contest — serverless, auditable, and built to put users in control. No server-side processes, no data harvesting, no vendor lock-in. The entire app runs from the web and homescreen as fast as native code. Data stays on device; only what's essential for the service touches the server.
I designed a custom NoSQL backend around the microdata format, making client-first development natural and giving users the choice to leave their data on device. The entire system is self-hostable — anyone can clone the repo and run their own instance without gatekeepers.
From the UI framework to the Storage-as-database architecture, every decision was made with the end user's autonomy and privacy in mind. The result is a PWA that is responsive, offline-capable, and respects the people who use it.
Diagnosed and fixed performance problems on a WebRTC-based mobile streaming platform (Happs.tv) — quadrupling throughput by addressing latency and playback issues that affected real people watching real content. Helped an insurance broker navigate their Vue 2→3 migration with an emphasis on developer experience and team adoption.
Built the VueSchool hiring app from idea to release in under three months, opening a new business vertical. Interviewed and recommended qualified candidates worldwide, seeking people who cared about craft and team culture as much as technical skill.
Savvy connected teachers and learners through live video. As lead engineer, I architected and built the MVP in three months, then hired the dev team and shipped the beta — a double-sided marketplace built on WebRTC and Stripe that treated both educators and students as valued participants, not products.
Built the administrative console our partners used to access and configure how their embedded content is viewed. Worked on the Tout Javascript SDK and products used to embed Tout video players on partner websites. Analyzed and optimized client-side and server-side performance for a very high volume system.
Copper was a browser-based micropayment system for content creators — a precursor to Patreon built from the conviction that creators deserve to be paid for their work. I architected a finite-state machine backend with Rails and Postgres, integrated Stripe as escrow, and built browser extensions that could identify creators from social embeds and tip them directly. We achieved an 80% hit rate on automated creator discovery.
Led the development team through funding, legal, and brand development with Hattery Labs. Every design decision started from the same question: how do we make it as easy as possible for someone to support the people whose work they value?
Took over an internal AdWords purchasing application built in Adobe Flex. Ported the code base to Rails and completed the project 9 months ahead of schedule.
Implemented new functionality for the homepage and the site’s most popular feature, “Never Ending Movie Quiz”. Optimized site for search engines. Evangelized and helped the adoption of more consistent javascript framework.
Architected and implemented a publishing rights application. Built a search service based on Lucent, which is able to query over 2 million tracks with result times consistently ten times faster than the existing search system. Created a continuous build system with the help of Maven and Continuum. Leveraged Prototype, Scriptaculous and some of my own event based insanity to focus the middle tier on marshaling data to the client.
Developed cross-browser backward and forward compatible User Agent framework based on Tapestry. Designed a client event model that supported multiple event bindings, dynamic component initialization based on custom HTML attributes. Created a development environment that abstracted developers from the specifics of how the user interface functioned.
Worked with offshore developers on best practices for struts, tiles, and general application development. Implemented a development build system that supports deployment to multiple applications servers and operating systems. The build was customizable at appropriate resolutions and ran 500% faster than the previous build system.
Spearheaded the refactor of the user interface to conform to web standards, decreasing page size sixty percent, while increasing cross-platform browser support, both forward and backward compatibility, application skinning, global print capabilities, as well as WAP and palm support. Implemented a templating mechanism to increase code reuse and simplified development workflow.
Managed a team of 5 developers from design through release. Architected and drove the implementation of the presentation layer for an enterprise application management portal. Evangelized, implemented, and maintained a modular approach for the user interface elements, which increased code reuse and reduced time to market
Facilitated the migration of a knowledge management portal application from ColdFusion to J2EE. Mentored 6 developers through this transition. Proposed the application architecture and development migration path from ColdFusion to java, which entailed porting an unwieldy, two-tiered web application, to a scalable, multi-tiered, fault-tolerant enterprise application. Designed a flexible, and scalable security system, which was applied at different levels of granularity throughout the application.
Provided technical support to client engineers, prospective customers, and business partners. Performed onsite installations and integration of application. Introduced departmental reorganizations, and development processes such as use cases, functional specification, design meetings, code reviews, that greatly increased application stability, and the capacity to quickly add features to the application.
Ported the beta of the product from a rigid, duplicative, asp.net application architecture to a multi-tiered, MVC based, Java application. Evaluated and implemented drivers for use with Microsoft’s SQL Server that resulted in a three fold increase in application scalability. Developed flexible personalization and robust security services which allowed other developers to focus on the specifics of application development.
Designed and built a secure, configurable browsing environment for children — letting parents determine what content reached their kids while giving young users room to explore safely. The project was an early reminder that software's deepest responsibility is to the people who can't advocate for themselves in the system.
Developed and maintained Visual Basic applications for the different departments within the firm. Designed and implemented an unattended Windows NT desktop installation which included the installation of 23 applications for 1400 users firm wide. Developed regression tests to ensure application stability. Organized the firm’s technical support efforts. These efforts noticeably decreased the turnaround time in addressing users support issues.