Consultant Vicki Brown

logo.gif Region Seattle Area
Services Technical Writing, Content Writing, Wiki Application Development, Training

How Can I Help?

I particularly enjoy organizing a wiki site to improve workflow, productivity, and access to information.

I can help you with:
  • design, architecture, and layout
  • improvements in navigation and search
  • organization, indexing, and curation of documentation
  • guidelines and best practices recommendations
  • workflow automation and improvements
  • on-line tutorials and how-to documentation
  • training and user support
  • application development, e.g. custom knowledge base or project management tools
  • using your wiki more effectively and productively

Platform & Installation

I apologize for any inconvenience it causes, but I do not use Windows. If your wiki is installed on a Windows server, I will be able to make recommendations and provide assistance via the front end, but I can only provide server-side consulting for *nix-based systems (e.g. Linux, Mac OS X, BSD).

In addition, while I am happy to consult with your system administrator, I do not offer installation services myself. I strongly recommend that you have an on-site sysadmin who understands how to manage user accounts, Apache config files, backups, disk space, Perl module installation, etc. If you don't have a sysadmin, I can point you to other consultants who may be willing to help you with installing Foswiki on your system.

  photo

linkedin vlbrown

mail vbrown@philtres.com
bubble Y!IM, iMessages, GTalk, Skype...(by request)
skype phone +1-650-515-3676 (leave a message)

My Background

I'm a Unix programmer and technical writer with a passion for enhancing productivity thorough improving documentation and communication. I particularly enjoy working with wikis.

I have been using and supporting Foswiki since 2009. I have also been using TWiki both personally (since June 2003) and professionally in two previous full time jobs
  • 2004 - 2005 -- setting up and maintaining the Engineering department web site for IronPort Systems (now part of Cisco)
  • 2006 - 2012 -- providing internal user support (training, answering questions, resolving trouble tickets, building applications) for the TWiki users at Yahoo!

My personal Foswiki installation can be seen at cfcl.com.

Location

  • San Francisco Bay Area -- in person (SF left Peninsula right Silicon Valley)
    I'm happy to meet with you at your location.

  • Global -- via the Internet (Email, IM, Skype, or screen sharing)
    I can work with you wherever you are located.

Wiki Docs

-- Vicki Brown - 2012-01-13

Recommendations

Feedback and testimonials from satisfied customers.

Vicki is THE go-to person ... for all things TWiki. But her most important contribution is sometimes missed...she's an excellent information architect. She always asks "What are you trying to accomplish? Who is this for?" This inquiry leads to data tailored to the purpose and audience.


I don't know of any software engineer who comes close to her skill level in understanding and applying TWiki machinery to unlock its vast feature potential. Vicki was also a pleasure to work with in a customer consultant role -- she usually answered my queries within 24 hours, and often provided code, scripts, and other examples and artifacts that I could simply drop-in use in my applications. I'd estimate that she helped hundreds of people get very sophisticated web applications working through her emails, blog posts, and personal consultations.


Vicki has always been accessible and eager to help. In addition, I have been extremely impressed with her ability to clearly and concisely explain how Twiki works, and the most efficient means of addressing the immediate problem at hand. Given that TWiki is our de-facto mode of documentation ..., it is difficult for me to understand how we could afford to continue effectively without Vicki.


Vicki is incredibly knowledgeable on all things TWiki, but on top of that, goes out of her way to be extremely consistently helpful. This is both via the twiki [email] list as well as ad-hoc IM-based questions. On top of that, she has plenty of working TWiki examples to steal from. You rock, Vicki!


Vicki's encyclopedic knowledge of TWiki and her clear and concise examples were instrumental in helping our team create the Twiki application we needed.


When it comes to TWiki, people are often fast to point out the negatives, instead of pointing out the positives. One of the great "positives" is Vicki's commitment to improving, helping, and enlightening others. She deserves kudos for an often thankless job.


Vicki helped me create a TWiki application. She guided me through my initial attempts and then stepped in and did the more complicated programming work that would have taken me hours to figure out. I really appreciate her help and also her wonderful sense of humor.


I really appreciate your TWiki-excellence. Teaching is a skill not everyone has.


In addition to making great things happen, Vicki always takes the time to help folks on twiki-users@ with random questions on how to do certain TWiki-related items. Thank you so much for spending the time and energy helping us all!


Whenever I, or any co-worker has a TWiki question or issue, Vicki is certainly highly regarded as The Twiki Subject Matter Expert to deliver solutions.


You solve problems in a way that meets peoples' needs, and work with them to provide tools that enable them to do their work well.


More...


WikiConsultantForm edit

TopicClassification WikiConsultantTopic
State active
Name Vicki Brown
ConsultantType Freelancer
ConsultantServices Technical Writing, Content Writing, Wiki Application Development, Training
Country USA
City Seattle Area
ContactDetails email preferred, vbrown AT philtres.com

http://www.philtres.com/vlb
ExtraInfo Personal and professional since 2003 (TWiki) and 2009 (Foswiki). Installation, configuration, content management, user support, training, application development.
ConsultantURI http://wiki.cfcl.com
LogoURI logo.gif
Topic revision: r12 - 21 Oct 2021, VickiBrown
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