John Beezer's Web Presence

R É S U M É

John Leighton Beezer

Skills

Program management, advanced web development, creative direction

President, Shared Media Licensing, Inc.

February, 2002 – May, 2007
Shared Media Licensing developed Weedshare, the Internet's first super- distribution service for music. As founder and president, responsibilities included: defining market and product requirements, recruiting key employees, securing intellectual property, user interface development, development management, budgeting, planning, and operations. SML was a finalist for the 2004 World Technology Network award.

Internet Director, Cantwell2000

April, 2000 - November, 2000
As Internet Director for Sen. Cantwell's 2000 campaign, I managed the campaign web site, moderated the e-mail forum, managed online fundraising, and wrote Internet-related policy statements. In June 2000, Slate Magazine called Cantwell2000 "the best campaign on the web."

Program Manager, Emerging Technologies Group, Microsoft

March, 1998 - April, 2000
I joined Microsoft's Consumer Electronics prototyping team as user interface developer and was soon promoted to Program Manager on Microsoft's Reader software. My role was to develop new UI conventions for use in devices based on pen input and optimized for readability, such as TabletPC. While at Microsoft, I received 20 patents for UI innovations.

Creative Director, Beezer-Katz Advertising / Brazil Design Group

August, 1991 - March, 1998
Beezer-Katz evolved from a traditional advertising agency into an
interactive marketing firm called Brazil Design. Clients included Turner Entertainment, Microsoft, RealNetworks, and American City Business Journals.

Copywriter, Brown & Hadley Advertising

June, 1990 - August, 1991
In 1990, following 5 years as an advertising copywriter specializing in software, I joined legendary Northwest agency, Brown & Hadley. I wrote print, outdoor, and radio for Seattle's Metro Transit, Precor Athletic Equipment, Fratelli's Ice Cream, and Washington State Tourism.

Awards and Recognition

World Technology Network, Finalist, Shared Media Licensing, 2004
Project Cool, Cool Sighting, AJAX site: http://worldwideworlds.com, 1999
Communication Arts, Interactive Design Award, Contax Cameras, 1998
Art Director's Club of New York, Distinctive Merit, Zumiez' site, 1998
HighFive.com, Site of the Week, National Geographic, King Cobra, 1997
National Addy Award, Gold, print ad for Care Unit, 1993
NW Halo Award, Silver, print campaign, American Cancer Society, 1992

Public Speaking

Panelist, Digital Hollywood, Santa Monica, 2005, "Next Generation P2P"
Presenter, Innovation in Music and Entertainment Awards, Berlin, 2004
Panelist, SXSW, Austin, 2004, "Music for the Masses"
RealMedia, San Mateo, 1997, "Commercial Applications of Streaming Media"
Presenter, Ciber@rt96, Valencia, 1996, "Virtual Worlds, Virtual Currencies"
Interview, "Hype! The Seattle Music Explosion", 1996, Republic Pictures

Teaching

Instructor, Advanced HTML, Bellevue Community College, 1999-2004
Instructor, Advanced HTML, School of Visual Concepts, Seattle, 1995-1998

Technologies

HTML, Javascript, CSS, MySQL, PHP, AJAX, ActionScript

Education

University of Santa Clara, BS Psychology, Honors, 1978-82

Interests

Music, Hiking, Travel, History

Contact

Phone: 206-265-1618
Email:

Download résumé in Word doc format.

Print campaign, Northwest Link On-Site DSL, 1997

In 1997, Northwest Link identified an opportunity to bring commercial DSL service to market before the major telephone companies could.

I worked with them to launch the service in January of 1998, months ahead of anyone else. My role was to define the product offering, introduce DSL to the public, write the ads, and promote adoption of the new service.

Competing against the telcos was an ambitious move for a regional ISP. But one year later, when the company was acquired by Millenium Communications, Northwest Link was the 6th largest DSL provider in the country.

View the On-Site DSL ad campaign.

Copy John Beezer

Art Direction Michael Thomas

More info: From C|NET: Pacific Northwest gets DSL.

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Print Campaign, Gateway Athletic Club, 1994

Beezer-Katz Advertising began a long-running print campaign for Gateway Athletic Club in 1994.

Gateway offered a state-of-the-art fitness center located in an office tower in Downtown Seattle. They wanted to be thought of as a refuge from work, so they used local business publications to reach people looking to escape the cubicle.

View ads for Gateway Athletic Club.

Copy John Beezer

Art Direction Marla Katz

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Print Ad, CareUnit of Washington, 1993

This was a simple, one-off, business-to-business print ad created in a single afternoon. But it's also one of the most successful ads Beezer-Katz Advertising ever did.

It was recognized by the Northwest and National ADDY Awards and was included in a college advertising text book as an example of the state of the art in print advertising.

Copy John Beezer

Art Direction Marla Katz

Awards

National ADDY Award, Print, 1994
Northwest ADDY Award, Print, 1994
Cited in Kleppner's Advertising Procedure, Prentice-Hall, 1995

Print & Outdoor Campaign, ShuttleExpress, 1989-91

Seattle's leading airport service, ShuttleExpress, had two goals: 1) to continue growing their business, and 2) to gain public support for a challenge they planned to launch against unfavorable transportation regulations.

This campaign presented ShuttleExpress as the friend who actually would drive you to the airport.

It ran for over 2 years, and accomplished both goals.

View the Shuttle Express ads.

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Print Campaign, Puget Sound Business Journal, 1994

Starting in 1994, Beezer-Katz Advertising produced a series of print campaigns for the Puget Sound Business Journal. In 1995, our ads swept the International Newspaper Marketing Association awards, winning first and second place in the complete campaign category.

In 1996, we worked for the PSBJ's parent company, American Cities Business Journals, to syndicate our work for the Puget Sound Business Journal to 20 other cities.

We even sold a campaign to the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.

View the PSBJ ads.

Copy John Beezer

Art Direction Marla Katz

Awards International Newspaper Marketing Association
First place, complete campaign, 1995 International Newspaper Marketing Association
Second place, complete campaign, 1995

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American Cancer Society Jail & Bail Fundraiser, Print Campaign, 1993

If you're not familiar with the concept of a Jail & Bail fundraiser, count your blessings. It's essentially a form of kidnapping for charity. I'm not even sure it's legal.

Anyway, we tried to make this one sound as fun a possible.

View the American Cancer Society ads

Agency Wheeler & Beezer

Award Silver HALO Award, Complete Campaign, 1994

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RealAudio 1.0, Interactive Marketing Campaign, 1995

In the spring of 1995, Brazil Design got a call from Progressive Networks — their software launch was rapidly approaching and they needed a marketing firm that understood the Internet. They claimed their software could send audio over the Internet in real time. They called it RealAudio. We were intrigued.

Three weeks of round-the-clock, sleepless insanity followed and when the dust settled, RealAudio had pulled off the most successful software launch in history. Somewhere in this haze, Brazil Design developed the now-ubiquitous "talk bubble" logo and produced the company's web site, trade show booth, box design, collateral materials and an interactive vision demo.

Agency Brazil Design Group

Direct Media Systems
Web-Based Grocery Delivery, 1997

Direct Media Systems was a company founded on the concept that online grocery services could be developed into a powerful advertising medium, combining broadcast quality audio and video with the targeting capabilities of direct marketing.

This site is a prototype that was in service for 6 weeks in 1997 while Direct Media Systems conducted delivery trials. This was a very early use of Javascript to build a web application.

I was responsible for designing and building the site.

More info: View the DMS delivery site.

Contax Cameras, Product Showcase, 1997

Second Story Interactive wanted Contax Cameras' site to mimic the controls on a camera lens. I developed innovative Javascript techniques to synchronize multiple independent navigation interfaces. Project Cool called it: "The most elegant and best navigable product showcase we've seen."

Awards Communication Arts Interactive Design, 1998
Project Cool, Cool Sighting, 1997
IPPA Ace Awards, 1997

National Geographic, King Cobra Module, 1997

Second Story had another ambitious goal for National Geographic's King Cobra module: to fit an 8-foot King Cobra inside a web page. My job was to figure out how to make that happen.

Explore the King Cobra module. ("If you dare ...")

Awards High Five Award, 1997
Project Cool, "Cool Sightings", 1997
USA Today, "Hot Sites", 1997
Yahoo!, "Daily Pick", 1997

Cantwell2000, Web Site, 2000

As Internet Director for Maria Cantwell's US Senate campaign in 2000, I was responsible for web site design and content, moderating the campaign's e-mail forum, managing online fundraising, and writing Internet-related policy statements.

In June of 2000, Slate Magazine called Cantwell2000 "the best campaign on the web."

The site emphasized external links to independent information sources and provided an e-mail forum where voters could communicate with the candidate publicly. These features proved particularly useful in combating negative television advertising in the final weeks of the campaign. Senator Cantwell won the election by less than one tenth of a percent of the vote.

The links below point to some articles I wrote for the site's main page, which was updated 3-5 times a week.

Writing samples: Gorton Campaign Takes Back Half-baked Commercial
Independent Resources for Independent Voters
On the Tragedy in Yemen
The Road to the US Senate

Capons Chicken Delivery, Web Site, 1994

The Capons Chicken delivery site is among the first commercial sites on the web, built in April of 1994.

It's so early, it was originally intended to be a Gopher site. It's so early, we still didn't know how to anti-alias the graphics.

However, we did figure out how to send orders via fax to the nearest delivery site, making Capons one of the first web sites to conduct retail transactions.

Agency: Brazil Design Group

More info: Demo version of the Capons site.

Archipelago, Networked Hypercard Stack, 1993

In 1993, I developed a custom version of Hypercard that let me create software applications that connect to the Internet. The second application I built was a multi-player virtual world called Archipelago. (The first was an e-mail reader.)

Archipelago used HyperCard as a front-end and connected over the Internet to MIT's MediaMoo server, which I adapted to use as a host. The software allowed visitors to chat with each other in realtime and explore a small group of islands, complete with roads, buildings, horses and boats.

HyperCard had a huge impact among those who worked with it. Many of the early developers of the Web were looking for ways to combine the hypertext features of HyperCard with the universal connectivity of the Internet.

Awards HyperCard Hall of Fame, 1993
(with a light bulb for excellence!)

Microsoft Reader, Versions 1 & 2, 1999-2000

When I joined Microsoft's Consumer Appliances prototyping team, my work focused on page-based user interfaces. This led to a position as Program Manager on Microsoft Reader eBook software, where I was responsible for interface design, eCommerce, branding, and content formatting.

I managed two complete development cycles: version 1.0 was for handhelds, and version 2.0 was optimized for laptops. While on the Reader team, I filed a dozen patents for UI innovations.

More info: Wikipedia article on Microsoft Reader.

Weed, 2003

Weed was Shared Media Licensing's first software release. The purpose of the software was to enable file purchases and tracking of shared files on the Internet. It also included transaction-related features and a music discovery service.

It was a web-executable hybrid, using Windows' shwdoc.dll to host an HTML/Javascript UI inside a standard .exe file.

I wrote the specification, managed the development team, wrote the user interface code, and managed testing.

Awards: World Technology Network, Finalist, 2004

Valley of the Nile
AJAX Virtual World, 1998

Valley of the Nile is a web-based virtual world. Visitors can choose an avatar, explore over 200 connected scenes, and interact with other avatars in real time. All within a standard web browser.

I built this site as an experiment between 1997 and 1999. It uses frame-based AJAX calls to enable continuous interaction between the browser and the server. It is fully cross-platform and works on every major browser since Netscape 4.

Valley of the Nile is one of the earliest AJAX sites ever built and still one of the most sophisticated.

Award: Cool Sighting, Project Cool, 8/23/99
(Note that links on pages archived by the wayback machine may not operate correctly.)

ePad, Tablet PC Protoype, 1998

In 1998, I joined Microsoft's Consumer Electronics prototyping team as a DHTML developer. My first project was building the ePad prototype, which was an early version of TabletPC.

The ePad was based on the insight that reading is among the most important uses for a portable computing device and that new user interface conventions were needed to better support reading on small screens.

As the project progressed, it merged with Microsoft Reader in the Emerging Technologies group, which I joined in 1999.

Weed 3.0, Web Application, 2005

Weed version 3.0 was released in April of 2005. It replaced Weed 2.0, which was a standalone software application used for purchasing shareable media files.

Version 3.0 functioned as a web service integrated into Windows Media licensing dialogs. This innovative design allowed users to buy music files without leaving the context of the media player playing the files. The technology to do this required a sequence of AJAX calls and creative interactions between a web client embedded in the licensing dialogs and the file system on the user's computer.

While technologically complex, the new design
made it possible to describe Weedshare's super-
distribution model simply by saying: "the store is in the file."

I was involved in all stages of planning and developing the upgrade.

The Label Lab, 2007

The Label Lab is a social networking site targeting the streetwear segment of the fashion industry.

Members can create detailed profiles, post events, and search the site for news stories, industry events, and for other members. The account management tools include a WYSIWYG text editor which lets members easily compose HTML-formatted content for profiles and event listings.

I was responsible for writing the specification, designing the database, and building the site.

Technologies include: PHP, MySQL, Javascript, CSS, and AJAX.

More info: Visit the Label Lab site

Eight Principles for the Development of Interactive Telecommunications, 1992

In 1992, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that convinced me interactive media was finally about to get huge.

Having spent eight years at that point working to envision the future of interactive media, I wanted to capitalize on my experience and begin working as an interactive media consultant. I wrote up a list of eight principles to illustrate my thinking on the subject.

While these guidelines were written specifically for the transitional period when interactive technology emerged in the early 90s, they still provide good advice for today.

More info: View a PDF of the "Eight principles"

Virtual Currencies & Virtual Worlds
Conference Presentation, 1996

In 1994, my interest in virtual worlds led me to seek out Randy Farmer, a developer who built Habitat, the world's first multi-user virtual world.

I met Randy online at MIT's Media MOO and he shared his interest in virtual economies, which led me to several fascinating insights. Essentially, we speculated that virtual economies could perform like real economies to generate real wealth. I wrote a research proposal and began circulating it on the Internet. I was invited to present it at the Ciber@rt 96 conference in Valencia, Spain.

Eventually, the paper was referenced in Richard Bartle's classic text, Designing Virtual Worlds, and reached a wider audience. Dr. Edward Castronova, who is a leading expert on synthetic economies, has cited it as one of the earliest discussions on the subject of virtual currency exchanges.

View a PDF of Virtual Currencies & Virtual Worlds.

Alternative Media Strategies, Vision Statement, 1987

In the 80's, I believed the interactive revolution would happen first in advertising. So I learned to write copy and started doing software ads — my first client was Apple Computer.

In 1986, I joined a start-up that placed commercials on video rentals. Although the business didn't last long, we attracted a lot of media attention and I was exposed to a wide variety of exciting new ideas in interactive media.

Based on this experience, I added a section to my copywriting portfolio focused on new opportunities in interactive media.

The ideas hold up pretty well today, though the 1987-era technologies are quite dated.

View the Alternative Media Strategies document.

The COMPARS Agency, Business Plan, 1984

In the early 80's, I started thinking about new ways to mass-market digital assets. I began to focus my attention on networked services and decided that corporate travel was a smart place to start.

I wrote a plan to use airline automated reservation systems (ARS) to help business travelers book their own flights. This would provide significant cost savings and greater responsiveness to business travelers' needs. I reached an agreement with TWA to adapt their ARS, known as ComPARS 2, for use by non-travel professionals.

Unfortunately, I was unable to raise funds for this business. However, working on it helped me understand the basic principles of interactive commerce long before the Internet became a commercial network.

Read the executive summary

Or, download the PDF version

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