Ken McCrery - Virginia Tech

Owned by Jonathan Markow
Last updated: Aug 27, 2007Version comment
3 min read

Bio

Ken McCrery entered the IT profession over 10 years ago to pursue his interest in the Internet and explore the power of digital communications.  Throughout his career, he has looked for ways to improve the management and delivery of content.  He began his career focusing on high-volume commercial web sites, and in recent years, has focused on personalized web portals and collaborative applications.  Ken has always been a supporter and user of open-source software.  His involvement with JA-SIG started in 2002 when he was named the project leader for Virginia Tech's My VT portal, which was based on uPortal.  The success of uPortal at Virginia Tech led him to recommend and implement Virginia Tech's adoption of JA-SIG's Central Authentication Service (CAS) for web single sign-on.  Most recently, Ken was promoted to Director of Virginia Tech's Integration & Portal Services group.  This group was established to work on a new research administration portal for the university.  The project is a partnership between Virginia Tech and SunGard Higher Education and will be based on the Luminis platform.  

Career Highlights

  • Chosen to lead new Integration & Portal Services group for Virginia Tech's Enterprise Systems Department.   (July 2007)
  • Served on Virginia Tech's Content Management System (CMS) project committee
  • Participated in every aspect of the project from requirements definition through procurement. (August 2006 - August 2007)
  • Championed the adoption of JA-SIG's Central Authentication System (CAS) at Virginia Tech. 
  • Managed the development and implementation of entire project.  (August 2005)
  • Released My VT 3.  Based on uPortal 2.4.x., My VT pushed the boundaries of what could be done with the uPortal framework. (August 2004)
  • Oversaw the initial development and implementation of uPortal at Virginia Tech (December 2002)

Professional Experience

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity; Blacksburg,VA(July 2007 - present)

  • Director, Integration & Portal Services; Enterprise Systems

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity; Blacksburg,VA(July 2002 - July 2007)

  • Project Leader, Collaborative Technologies Unit; Secure Enterprise Technologies Initiative

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity; Blacksburg,VA(May 2001 - July 2002)

  • Operating Systems Analyst; Information Resource Management

Anderson & Associates; Blacksburg,VA(January 2001 - May 2001)

  • Manager of Web Development

WRAL TV; Raleigh,NC (December 1998 - December 2000)

  • Web Developer

University of North Carolina at Wilmington;Wilmington,NC (March 1998 - December 1998)

  • Technical Advisor to the Chancellor

Cape Fear ComputerCenter; Wilmington,NC(August 1997 - December 1998)

  • Web Developer

 Education

Virginia Tech GraduateSchool; Blacksburg,VA(May 2004 - August 2004)

  • Attended Masters of Information Technology Program

University of North Carolina at Wilmington;Wilmington,NC (August 1996 - December 1998)

  • BS Computer Science

University of Kentucky; Lexington,KY (August 1987 - December 1988)

Platform Statement

Successful open source depends upon the combination of useful applications and a dedicated community to
support them.  JA-SIG has been a shining example of this union.  As we seek to build technological,
creative, and community momentum, we must look for ways to expand into other area, while also
promoting our current projects, and improving our core product, uPortal.   
 
As a member of JA-SIG's Board of Directors, my primary goal would be to strengthen and grow our
community by engaging our commercial partners.  I feel that they are a critical part of the open-source
equation because they are capable of providing support to smaller institutions that lack the resources to
develop and maintain their own large-scale solutions.  My first task would be to focus on the future of
uPortal so that we can begin to develop a viable product for both open-source and commercial distribution
in order to ensure a solid plan for moving forward.    
 
My second priority would be to add new projects to JA-SIG while marketing existing ones.  As a non-profit
organization, JA-SIG needs to step out from under the shadow of uPortal in order to sustain long-term
success and compete in the portal marketplace.  We have two other high quality products, CAS and
HyperContent, which need be promoted more extensively.  There are also numerous channel projects
within uPortal that could be extracted and designated as stand-alone projects.  
 
I believe in the Community Source model because collaboration, particularly around common needs and
goals, produces unbeatable results.  In addition, research shows that a heterogeneous group outperforms a
homogeneous group by 2:1.   A community source model makes sense: when we combine diverse ideas,
experiences, and specific needs, we can create products that serve a range of institutions and perform a
variety of functions.   Â