Adam Mutimer

What is your interest in I.T? When did your interest start?

My interested in IT started when I was a young child, IT has endless possibilities only limited by the imagination and ability of the individual, It provides seamless access to information from around the world and provides the ability to connect with other like-minded individuals not limited by distance or borders.

Was there a particular even or person that sparked your interest? Outline your IT experience (if any)

My Farther started my interest in I.T, when I was a young child he was a computer programmer though out my childhood he taught me a great deal about computers ranging from repairing them, building them though to programming.

I remember all though my primary school days all I wanted to be when I grew up was a Computer Programmer like my dad, turning my own ideas and the ideas of others in to reality, I really put effort in to learning programming languages when I started high school the first real language I learnt was C, followed by LPC I don’t count HTML or JavaScript with icons following the users mouse at this stage as programming.

In my spare time in high school I enjoyed Playing LPMuds with people all over the world which some I still call friends, I also started writing my own LPMud during my high school days.

Why did you choose to come to RMIT?

I did not choose RMIT for my online course, it was chosen for me by Open Universities, based on my start time preferences. If I had a choice; I would have been happy with any of the leading Australian Universities

What do you expect to learn during your studies?

I expect to validate my existing skill set by completing this course. I do hope to pick up some new skill's or ability’s as well.

My Ideal Job: Backend Developer

A Backend Developer is simple terms is a lot like a builder they build a house from the foundation to the structure (framework), they would then hand off to the Frontend Developer or in the case of a builder an Interior Designer who’s focus is on the customer facing aspects of the development or in other words what people are going to see.

I find the role of a Backend Developer appealing as its more orientated to the work I find most appealing and interesting, however I am also comfortable with Frontend Development as the two roles do require quite a bit of crossover, the roles can also be combined into a single role which is called Full Stack Developer but again even though I have a lot of the skills required to be a Full Stack Developer, I prefer the complexities of Backend Development work as to be perfectly honest we make the real magic happen.

The main skills required for this role and selected job linked above; are a follows a developer that has a minimum of 5 years as Backend Developer along with 5 years’ experience languages such as PHP, Twig, JavaScript and SQL, HTML & CSS.

Knowledge and understanding of Linux based server environments including maintaining, deploying, and configuring services such as NGINX (Webserver) and Docker (Container Virtualization). Knowledge and Understanding AWS (Amazon Web Services) & Lambda (AWS Serverless Compute service) and other serverless techniques

The Position also notes group project and version control system experience is fundamental to the role, exposure to various CMS (Content Management System) Framework such a WordPress, Drupal is also desirable. Experience using Jira (Issue & Project Tracking Software) and Confluence (Team Collaboration Platform) is also desirable.

My current skill set is close to satisfying the requirements of the position advertised. I have plenty of experience with PHP, SQL JavaScript, HTML & CSS, I am well versed in Linux based server environments and managing and maintaining various services such as NGINX, Docker.

I have experience in both frontend and backend development for webservices and have worked in plenty of teams both face to face and simply over the internet without any face to face contact, Used both Git & CVS versioning control systems.

I have general CMS (Content Management System) Framework experience from a development standpoint with WordPress and Drupal and can easily navigate myself around developing plugins for these packages.

Before applying for this Job, to ensure I have the best possibility to obtain it. I will need to learn some of the missing skills or at least show a fundamental understanding of them and show a willingness to train these skills further if they were to employ me.

My missing skills or gaps in my abilities are TWIG, Jira, Confluence, AWS Lambada.

Solutions:

• TWIG (PHP Template Engine) - Learn in a sandbox/development environment in my own time.
• Jira – Create a free account and create a sample project, hobby idea or use it for a small project.
• Confluence – Create a free account and use it for a new project as an evaluation
• AWS Lambada – Read AWS Documentation, YouTube Tutorial if required, Create a sample project, using the AWS Free Tier.

   

What do the results of these tests mean for you?

I Personally do no put much stock in these online tests, as I do not believe they are completely accurate and nothing is stopping you cherry picking your answers to manipulate the outcome, however they can be fun to do with friends or fellow employee’s.

In these tests I answered as truthfully without sugar coating it. So, I could get an accurate result am I do recognize some of the traits pointed out, in the three selected tests.

Personality:

The results from the personality test were interesting to me as, I quite enjoy overseeing projects and building up the confidence of me team or work colleagues to get the best outcome. Charisma and confidence; when I am talking about a project or work presentation, I am fine, but if it's just meeting new people, I am lousy and awkward.

I am well driven and determined to achieve any goals that have been set for me, but I would not say I have a ruthless level of rationality.

I agree with the remainder of the explanations of my personality type listed.

Creativity:
I kind of agree with this test as I do not see myself as overly creative in a visual sense as in drawing or design, however I am quite good at coming up with creative ways to overcome complex technical and/or design issues.

Learning Style:
This test pointed out that I am a visual learning which I most definitely am. I rather see examples or be shown, than someone talk on and on for an hour or so, our class wide seminars I find extremely boring and lacking substance to keep my attention.

I also like to learn by pulling things apart be it equipment or source code to understand how its work and its design as I find that a great learning tool for electronics and programming

Once shown I can normally rinse and repeat with no issue.

How do you think these results may influence your behavior in a team?

I do not believe these test results will influence my behavior in a team.

How should you take this into account when forming a team?

The results of online tests should always be taken with a grain of salt and should not be used as gospel when selecting a team or the roles within the team. All that matters is that the team can work together to reach the desired outcome in the allotted time frame.

My project idea is very simple a web platform in which users can exchange goods, services, and their skills to other users of the platform. These transactions will be tracked using time as a commodity.

Making it as simple as give an hour, receive an hour: by giving one hour to help another user that user in return will receive an hour in time credit to which can then be used to receive a service from another user without the exchange of actually currency.

For example: I place a post offering to service computers and set that cost at 1 hour for my time; users can then have me repair a computer for 1 hour of time credit. To which I can then pay 1 hour of time credit to another member for walking my dog or mowing my lawn.

In small regional community’s there are lots retirees, elderly, unemployed and people who do not have a lot of money to spend; these people have one thing in common they generally have skills and/or time which can be traded. Why? Because time is a commodity; time is money and we can leverage that for an exchange of goods and services in those communities to help facility co-operation between the members of the communities to work together so they can all benefit.

In addition to just having people offer services or advertise a need; community projects and charities could also list a need for volunteers.

The platform will be strictly members only requiring users to register using an email address, name, date of birth, and location. DOB and Location are most important as we do not want minors using the website with our their parents’ permission and the location will be used to allocated them to the correct community boards so they are not seeing posts from all over the country which will most likely not be relevant to them.

Platform will have basic user profiles showing people the users profile picture, name, location and when they registered to the platform and any current advertised needs the user has posted.

Users will be able to message one another directly, messages will be simple text and emoticons; images will not be allowed due to storage concerns. Users will also be able to block other members from messaging them if they choose.

Each location / town will be allocated a notice board; users will be able to add additional notice boards for other locations should they choose to do so, each notice board will be broken up into two sections; Offers and Needs, Offers are users offering their skills or services to users in exchange for time credits, Needs are user wanting assistance and paying for that assistance in time credit to the accepting user.

Offers and needs will be similar to a Facebook post allowing images and text to be posted, but will require a title, cost or payment amount in time credit, other users will be able to like or dislike these posts and will also have the option to report a post if it violates the platforms rules.

Users will have a My account section on the platform in which they will be able to change their profile and account information, users will also be able to view their account balance in time credits and a transaction history showing this a summary of the income and debts of their time currency for the last month or selected date range and details of those transaction such as the amount, when and the user.

Users will have the ability to transfer time freely amongst friends and family however they will not be able to make a transfer unless their balance is above 1 hour in time credit and will remain 1 hour in time credit after the transfer; this should prevent people trying to game the system by creating new accounts using other email address and transferring their free initial 1 hour of time credit.

This project is designed to be run on almost any Linux based webserver or hosting plan that supports both PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) which is a server side scripting language commonly used all over the internet the webserver or hosting plan will also need to support PostgreSQL with is a database server in which we can store information and access information via PHP or SQL queries.

NGINX is the preferred Web Server software, due to its ability to handle larger amounts of traffic over Apache and also has support for http/2 allowing visitors to load the website fast as it sends files in parallel rather than one at a time like with http/1.

We will also be using a mix of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript, jQuery and Bootstrap.

jQuery is library written in JavaScript giving as a range of functions at our disposal, without the need to write them ourselves and will be used in this case to give the web platform a more application style feel to it.

Bootstrap is a two-part library and framework, part one JavaScript and jQuery based, part two CSS based. Bootstrap will give us a framework in which we can use special html classes to layout out website design and have it automatically readjust able to the users device be it PC or mobile without the need to write two versions of the website one for pc and one for mobile devices, saving us a lot of development time

A Computer and a text editor such as Notepad++ will be required.

Summary: Computer, Text Editor, Linux, NGINX, PostgreSQL, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap

Developers will be required with the following Language proficiencies HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, PHP and SQL (PostgreSQL Variant); not every developer needs all the requirements as long as together we they are all covered; these are rudimentary skills and should be easily found at low cost.

Hosting plan meeting the software requirements of Apache2 or Preferably NGINX with a current version of PHP installed and PostgreSQL Databases

With the completed web platform online local communicates will be able to connect without the complexity of the larger platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that are not geared towards this kind of service exchange.

Once the communities are using the service, they will have a simple and effective means on which they can exchange goods, services, and their skills to other users of the platform or advertise a need to which they need assistance using time as commodity so that the community as a whole can benefit.