W. Clay Richardson is a software consultant
specializing in distributed solutions, particularly portal
solutions. He has fielded multiple open-source Web and portal
solutions, serving in roles ranging from senior architect to
development lead. He is a co-author of
More Java Pitfalls,
also published by Wiley & Sons. As an adjunct professor of
computer science for Virginia Tech, he teaches graduate-level
coursework in object-oriented development with Java. He holds
degrees from Virginia Tech and the Virginia Military Institute.
Donald Avondolio is a software consultant with
over seventeen years of experience developing and deploying
enterprise applications. He began his career in the aerospace
industry developing programs for flight simulators, and later
became an independent contractor, crafting healthcare middleware
and low-level device drivers for an assortment of mechanical
devices. Most recently, he has built e-commerce applications for
numerous high-profile companies, including The Home Depot, Federal
Computer Week, the U.S. Postal Service, and General Electric. He is
currently a technical architect and developer on several portal
deployments. Don also serves as an adjunct professor at Virginia
Tech, where he teaches progressive object-oriented design and
development methodologies, with an emphasis on patterns.
Joe Vitale has been working with the latest
cutting-edge Java technology intensely. His most recent focus has
been on Java portals and object-relational mapping tools. One of
these projects was writing a content management system that
contained role-based authentication of users and the capability for
users to upload, delete, and manage files, and secure resources.
The whole system was designed to plug right into a portal's
interface and enable the portal to directly communicate with it to
obtain its resources. Object-relational mapping technologies have
also been a focus, using Apache's Object Relational Bridge
(OJB).
Peter Len has over seven years' experience
performing Web-based and Java application development in a
client-server environment. He has designed, coded, and implemented
data and Web site components for each aspect of a three-tier
architecture. Mr. Len has been developing with Java for over five
years and has recently been involved with portal and Web-service
development. He holds a master's degree in both international
affairs and computer information systems.
Kevin T. Smith is a technical director and
principal software architect at McDonald Bradley, Inc., where he
develops security solutions for Web service-based systems. He has
focused his career on building enterprise solutions based on
open-source tools. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in
computer science, software systems engineering, and information
security. He has taught undergraduate courses in computer science,
given technical presentations on Web services and Java programming
at numerous technology conferences, and authored several technical
books, including Essential XUL Programming (Wiley 2001),
More Java Pitfalls (Wiley 2003), and The Semantic Web:
A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge
Management (Wiley 2003).