Curious about Judith?

Updated 2010-01-24

Profession

I am currently a Manager of Software Development in the California Development Group in the Enterprise Development and Engineering Division of OCLC. I’m working on an exciting project around copyright issues.

From this point in my professional career, I can look back to my first summer job in the Visual Arts Program at the NCSU Student Union and see a certain continuity. There I both designed and did data entry for the design and art collection, most memorably cataloging countless Avon perfume bottles. I consider this a fine start to managing millions of catalog entries in the RLG Union Catalog.

There was, however, a great deal of physics between that summer and my current job. I believe the training I received in observation and analysis has stood me well. As an undergraduate, I was involved with a the TRIPLE collaboration, exploring weak force CP-violations by examining the change in scattering of polarized neutrons. While i was fascinated by some of the nonlinear models used to model the density of energy states for the heavy nuclei targets, i primarily got to experience the joys and hazards of low temperature experimentation, ensuring the low O2 alarm didn’t go off at 2 am when we refilled the liquid helium dewars. In graduate school, I moved from a collection of protons to which statistical models could be applied to just two or four protons. My work in 6He and 11Be was designed to probe a different aspect of the weak force, the edge of its potential well, as it were.

At the Tandem Lab at Penn, I spent a great deal of time working with our SGI network and playing around with USENET and then the new “web.” That fascination eventually overcame my interest in the weak force. I admit to reading articles about other extreme nuclear states with a little wistfulness.

Where did my interests take me? First, to The Franklin Institute, where managed the SGI web servers and helped create several floor exhibits about the internet (including making use of some crawlers so we could cache a curated collection of science pages). Then, across the country to join The Internet Archive, where I had more fun with crawlers, and became very interested in archival issues. Finally, to RLG, where I’ve helped put the Union Catalog on the open web, explored more archiving issues, and have learned even more about cataloging. RLG has recently been combined with OCLC, in order to add the RLG programmatic and member relationship expertise to the OCLC Research division. The RLG programming team has joined the OCLC engineering division, and the wonderful RIC team has also continued with OCLC. I’m beginning some work on copyright issues particularly relevant to orphaned works and imagine adding a geospatial dimension to almost every product.

Interests

Sometimes it seems like my biggest hobby is playing with bits: managing the home network, figuring out a better way to manage my data, installing software on the Apple systems, updating blogs, writing scripts to get something done, playing with images and maps, journaling and documenting and corresponding.

I’m excited about GIS, GPS, and other forms of geodata and cartography. I can see this as a bridge between my current expertise — large data sets, data analysis, metadata — and my interests in sustainable systems and environmental conservation. I’ve taken geography and GIS courses at Foothill College to deepen my understanding, while I also work on a weed mapping project.

I have written poetry and a little prose. I don’t write as much as I used to, though, because I’m now much more interested in visual arts. Currently crochet and other fiber work have most of my attention. Photography has been a long term interest, and i’ve dabbled in mail art and acrylic painting over the past handful of years.

I’m a member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker, attending the nearby Palo Alto Friends Meeting (5 miles). I’ve clerked our Library Committee for some years, and began a three year term on our Oversight Committee in the fall of 2009. (We are taking into consideration a restatement of the name of the committee from the historical “Oversight” to one that identifies our role more clearly and plainly.)

I’m have been a Streamkeeper with the Stevens and Permanente Creek Water Council, caring for the reach between La Avenida to the bay. I’ve not been able to be as active once my commute changed from a bike ride along the creek, but i keep my interst active by following the news. I’m a beginning birdwatcher, and I enjoy taking road trips (in our Prius) to immerse our selves in the California landscape.

Time Line

This makes a great map!

2007-Current: Member of the Palo Alto Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends.
2006-Current: OCLC, Mountain View then San Mateo, CA
2005-Current: Streamkeeper with Stevens and Permanente Creek Water Council
2004-Current: Moved to Mountain View, CA
2003-2007: Member of San Francisco Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends.
2001-2006: RLG, Mountain View, CA
2000: The Internet Archive, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA. We lived on the Presidio, Baker Beach units, for four years.
1998-2000: The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
1991: Married Christine in Cary, North Carolina.
1990-1998: Physics Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. I resided in several different West Philadelphia apartments.
1986-1990: Physics Department, North Carolina State University. Summer employment in the Visual Arts Program then several summers at Los Alamos. My parents moved to Winter Park, Florida in 1988.
1986-1985: William G Enloe High School (Raleigh, NC), for three semesters
1984: Apex High School (Apex, NC), for one semester
1982-1984: Lexington High School & Middle School (Lexington SC)
1978-1982: Rosewood, NC
1973-1978: Chapel Hill, NC
1968-1973: moving about in the south east US

About me (click the circle for the human-friendly view):


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