Design and implementation of the GrowKudos application

Kudos is a web-based service that helps researchers, their institutions and funders to maximize the visibility and impact of published articles. The service provides tools for researchers to explain, enrich and share their published research whilst providing insight into its usage via metrics that cover downloads, referrals and altmetrics.

I have worked with the Kudos management team from product conception through to launch. I wrote the original version of the application which was launched as a limited-access alpha service in late 2013 and then worked with another developer to build the initial public release of the site in April 2014.

Working on contract as the Chief Technical Officer I have:

• worked hands-on to develop the Ruby based application, on the Amazon Cloud service
• been responsible for designing the application architecture and data integration
• provided input on product features and functionality
• put in place agile development practices and a continuous release process to allow the site to rapidly grow and respond to user feedback

Moving into a more advisory role I am now working with the Kudos management team to help them build out their engineering team and technical strategy.