Peter Donovan, freelance media developer

Peter Donovan

My portfolio
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Writer, editor, reporter, and content developer in HTML, Macromedia Flash, and video, I am passionate about dramatic and effective presentation of ideas. Any design for education or information must enhance usability, simplicity, and practicality.

Sample projects and experience

2007: Flash/ActionScript developer and designer for Ecoplexity website, an NSF-funded resource for teaching ecological concepts.

2006: Flash/ActionScript developer for Agile Mind and Red Hill Studios, animating mathematical concepts.

2004-2006: Writer, director, and principal editor for documentary video Foresty that Works, funded and produced by Wallowa Resources and distributed in 2006.

2001-present: Webmaster and Flash developer for ManagingWholes.com, an educational website that shares what people on several continents are learning from managing wholes, rather than issues, problems, or parts.

1999-2001: Led the formation of Wallowa County Business Facilitation, a community entrepreneurial development project with training by the Sirolli Institute. Grantwriter and evaluator for USDA project that provided in depth training for 62 community leaders in the Sirolli Institute's successful community-based entrepreneurial development approach.

1997-2001: Reporter, publisher, webmaster, and editor of Patterns of Choice: A journal of people, land, and money. This subscriber-supported quarterly reported on agriculture, ranching, forestry, and community and economic development, with particular emphasis on examples of holistic decision making in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and California. Sample articles on this website.

1992-present: Freelance copyeditor for Smithsonian Institution Press, University of Chicago Press, University of Arizona Press, and Berkshire Publishing. Extensive, in-depth editing of complex book manuscripts in archaeology, anthropology, history, and humanities, using SGML and XML markup, following Chicago Manual, APA, and house styles.

Work samples

writing
Most recent essays	Growing community power briefly describes some problems of economic development in a rural community and some promising solutions.	Desertification. A short article on a long and misunderstood word.	Biodiversity: where's the beef? An 1800-word essay on biodiversity, cattle grazing, and decisions.

Flash

ActionScript algae using recursive and trigonometric functions. Hit Refresh to see it grow again. 2005.

An ActionScript wireframe worm using trigonometric functions. 2005.

The water cycle is a 5-minute Flash teaching presentation (about 800K) done for ManagingWholes.com in 2005. It involves expert programming in ActionScript 2.0, including classes and color change functions.

The water cycle, a Flash educational presentation (40 screens, about 800K). The five language options involve dynamic use of XML data. Based on PowerPoint presentations by Allan Savory and Wilma Keppel. 2006.

See also simulations done in NetLogo, a multi-agent modeling environment