Resume Of Philip Greenspun
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`Page 1 of 4
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`Resume
`
`of Philip Greenspun
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`Summary:
`
`• Business experience: started six companies and buried three. As CEO, grew an open-source
`enterprise software company to $20 million annual revenue in two years with $10,000 in
`capital.
`• Software product development experience: 20 years. Have had the same email address since
`1976: philg@mit.edu. Have been developing open source software since 1982. List of
`engineering projects completed is available from http://philip.greenspun.com/personal/resume-
`list
`• Pedagogy experience: Co-developed "Software Engineering for Internet Applications" with Hal
`Abelson at MIT; it has been a successful course at MIT and is being used by computer science
`departments at 10 other universities around the world.
`• Non-profit experience: Started a 501c3 foundation in December 1998. The Foundation operated
`a prize program for high-school age Web developers and a one-year post-baccalaureate
`program in computer science; the annual budget was approximately $1.5 million.
`• Political experience: Testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and the
`Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks of the Senate Judiciary Committee
`• Writing experience: four computer science textbooks, one book about North America and its
`people, numerous journal and magazine articles.
`• Photography experience: started photo.net in 1993, an online community for photographers.
`Work published in dozens of print magazines and books and used for advertising (see separate
`photo resume).
`• Aviation experience: holder of Airline Transport Pilot certificate with multi-engine, single-
`engine seaplane, and helicopter ratings; holder of flight instructor certificate with instrument
`and helicopter ratings; have flown single-engine aircraft to Alaska (twice) and just about
`everywhere else in North America and the Caribbean; have flown three coast-to-coast trips in
`Robinson helicopters; flew the Canadair Regional Jet out of JFK for a subsidiary of a major
`airline
`• Education: three MIT degrees (including a Ph.D., but you can't call me "Dr. Greenspun"
`because my brother is a real doctor).
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`Employment Experience
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`2013-present: Fifth Chance Media LLC
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`I develop software, write, photograph, and create videos for this publishing company whose current
`products are listed at fifthchance.com. Through Fifth Chance Media LLC I also work as a software
`expert witness, especially in cases regarding Internet software patents. I have also served as an
`aviation expert witness, testifying in front of a Federal Court jury, and as a relational database expert
`witness.
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`http://philip.greenspun.com/personal/resume
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`5/4/2016
`
`FORD 1303
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`Resume Of Philip Greenspun
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`Page 2 of 4
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`1997-present: various advisory and corporate boards
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`Serve as an independent member of various advisory and corporate boards, mostly for technology
`companies. Example: Joined corporate board of MIT materials science spin-off in late 2005 during
`$550,000 seed capital phase. Stepped down when company secured $10 million in venture capital in
`mid-2007.
`
`1991-present: Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute
`of Technology.
`
`Teach and expand the MIT computer science curriculum, conduct research, and supervise student
`research.
`
`1993-2000; 2006-2007: photo.net
`
`Started, programmed, financed, and managed this online learning community as a personal hobby.
`Spun it off in 2000 to a team of entrepreneurs who attempted to make it a profitable business. Took it
`back over in mid-2006 to clean up the content, software, and balance sheet (crippled with debt). With
`600,000 registered users and 60 million page views per month, sold the company in April 2007 to
`NameMedia.
`
`1997 through March 2000: ArsDigita Corporation
`
`Started, financed, and managed this company, which developed an open-source toolkit for building
`collaborative Internet applications. Grew the company profitably from 5 part-time people to 80 full-
`timers and revenue of $20 million per year. Between January and March 2000, negotiated and closed
`a $38 million venture capital investment from Greylock and General Atlantic Partners. Handed over
`the reins to a team of professional managers brought in by the venture capitalists.
`
`February 1988 through August 1990: Isosonics Corporation
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`Founded company to develop a product that stored digital data with consumer video recorders. Co-
`designed custom digital signal processor. Developed simulation environment, complete simulator for
`digital audio recorder (1.4 Mbits/second), microcode compiler on the Symbolics Lisp Machine. Used
`Lisp tools to develop error correction microcode and refine DSP architecture. Co-designed three
`phase locked loops. With partners, developed system for auditing television broadcasts nationwide by
`monitoring commercials and compiling reports for advertisers. We designed a single board that tunes
`a chosen channel, recognizes tagged advertisements and makes a record for each ad of time of
`broadcast, number of fields, video quality and color burst presence. Served as president of Isosonics
`from its inception until its dissolution.
`
`April 1986 through November 1989: ConSolve Incorporated
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`Co-founded this construction automation company. With partner, developed initial product, obtained
`financing (from PaineWebber Ventures), hired software development, marketing and support staff,
`established R&D partnership with Tektronix, obtained government contracts and sold software. Was
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`http://philip.greenspun.com/personal/resume
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`5/4/2016
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`FORD 1303
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`Resume Of Philip Greenspun
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`Page 3 of 4
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`active participant in all important planning, legal, and management activities. Wrote every line of
`code in the first system shipped to a customer (Caterpillar).
`
`November 1984 through August 1985: ICAD, Inc.
`
`Co-founded company with three partners. With Patrick O'Keefe, developed Lisp software to automate
`mechanical engineering. The ICAD System was initially primarily intended for large steel structures,
`e.g., air-cooled heat exchangers, offshore oil rigs, coal-fired power plants, but has been extended to
`many general ME problems.
`
`Company went public in January 1995 as Concentra with a market valuation of $50 million and was
`subsequently acquired by Oracle Corporation.
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`June 1983 through November 1984: Symbolics, Inc.
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`Developed VLSI tools, including automatic layout functions and worked on the system architecture
`for the Ivory microprocessor (the base of all Symbolics products sold in the late 1980s). Wrote parts
`of the Symbolics operating system.
`
`June 1982 through June 1983: Hewlett-Packard Labs
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`Wrote packet-switched network simulation software on Symbolics Lisp Machine. Helped architect,
`simulate and design prototype of HP's Precision Architecture RISC computer. The prototype took two
`man-years to complete and ran at VAX 11/780 speed in June 1983. This architecture became the basis
`of HP's computer product line for 15 years and then became the basis for the 64-bit generation of Intel
`processors.
`
`1978 to 1982
`
`Paid tuition and living expenses through MIT with employment and contract work for Wang
`Laboratories, Verbex Corporation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other
`organizations.
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`Education (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
`
`Ph.D. 1999 in electrical engineering and computer science. Thesis title: Architecture and
`Implementation of Online Communities.
`
`S.M. 1993 in electrical engineering and computer science. Thesis title: Site Controller: A system for
`computer-aided civil engineering and construction.
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`S.B. 1982 in mathematics. Completed coursework for electrical engineering S.B. with emphasis on
`digital systems and signal processing. Took undergraduate and graduate computer science courses,
`with an emphasis on algorithms. Took graduate courses in microeconomics and neurophysiology.
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`http://philip.greenspun.com/personal/resume
`
`5/4/2016
`
`FORD 1303
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`

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`Resume Of Philip Greenspun
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`Page 4 of 4
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`Selected Technical Publications
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`Software Engineering for Internet Applications (online and MIT Press 2006), Philip and Alex's Guide
`to Web Publishing (Morgan Kaufmann; 1999), Database Backed Web Sites (Ziff Davis Press; 1997),
`Travels with Samantha, a book about North America; SITE CONTROLLER: A system for computer-
`aided civil engineering and construction.; numerous journal articles; dozens of magazine articles.
`United States patents 5,172,363 (digital audio recorder circuit), 5,150,310 (location system), and
`5,964,298 (computer-aided earthmoving system).
`
`Most of my relevant publications are linked from philip.greenspun.com or fifthchance.com.
`
`Personal
`
`Birthdate: September 28, 1963. Some familiarity with French, Italian, and German.
`
`philg@mit.edu
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`http://philip.greenspun.com/personal/resume
`
`5/4/2016
`
`FORD 1303