Arnold Wytenburg

Arnold Wytenburg

Web & App Developer

About Me

I provide website and app development services to startup ventures, small and medium-sized businesses, and creative agencies and professionals.

I started my career as a professional programmer/analyst in the early 1980s and quickly moved into project management and technology planning. By the end of the decade, I was working as a consultant helping large global corporations develop and implement tech-driven business strategies.

In 2005, I began working hands-on with code again — this time with web technologies — first as a hobby, then as a sideline. In 2015, I shifted my late-career priorities to focus exclusively on designing and building awesome websites and web applications.

My Current Project

Zero2WP

A build system for automating the WordPress development workflow.

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New

Zero2WP is a robust build system for WordPress theme, plugin, and site developers.

Zero2WP uses Nodejs, Gulp, BrowserSync, and PhP's integrated web server to track changes and instantly auto-reload your browsers as you work. Unlike most other build scripts, Zero2WP lets you work on multiple projects simultaneously from a single workbench.

For each project, you can:

  • Install the latest version of WordPress
  • Clone the latest version of Underscores w/Sass
  • Optionally integrate Bootstrap3 w/Less
  • CSS: compile Sass/Less, lint errors, autoprefix, write sourcemaps, minify, and correct line-endings
  • JS: lint errors, order, concatenate, uglify & correct line-endings
  • Compress PNG, JPEG, GIF & SVG images
  • Instantly update browsers on changes in project files
  • ... more in the works (i18n/l10n, custom templates, RTL, A11y, etc)

Fork me on GitHub

More Recent Projects

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Flippers Pizzeria (Website)

Flippers Pizzeria is a central Florida pizza chain with nearly 20 locations centered around Orlando.

Working through the CCSCreative agency, I created a responsive WordPress-based website for Flippers based on a custom design produced by CSS's creative team. This site was built from scratch using _underscores and Bootstrap.

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Skiddlebop (App)

SkiddleBop is a personal side project to create a high-functioning configurable ‘business starter template’ that takes care of managing users, subscriptions, and recurring payments out–of–the–box.

Designed with subscription-based ventures in mind, the project will handle demos, trials, subscriptions, payments, plans, coupons, discounts, user authorization and authentication, transactional emailing, and more.

As sole practitioner on this project, my role covers the entire development life-cycle from concept development through operational deployment. The project was launched in early April 2017 and should be ready by mid to late summer 2018.

My Studio Assistant

My Studio Assistant (App)

My Studio Assistant is a subscriber-based SaaS venture that serves fine artists. It provides artists with an easy-to-use, afforable, and highly effective way to design, publish, and maintain a pro-quality website.

The app was created by myself and a colleague. As a software engineer, he focused on the back-end while I worked on the front-end. I took over development, maintainence, and support for the entire app mid-2015.

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Hollandaise Diner (Website)

Hollandaise Diner is a small, 24-seat diner on Danforth East just east of Woodbine. Owned by brunch-eaters Josh and Marisa, the diner is their way of bringing quality, home cooked breakfast to the local neighbourhood.

I created a responsive website for them using a customized WordPress template designed for the restaurant industry.

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Bill Gilliam (Website)

Bill is a Toronto based composer, pianist, and performer who creates and improvises new music compositions by blending contemporary harmony and jazz idioms with his unique style of piano and prepared piano playing.

I created a responsive website for Bill using a customized WordPress template designed specifically for the professional music industry.

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Work History

Founder & Co-Developer - My Studio Assistant (2012 - Present)

MyStudioAssistant is a subscriber-based SaaS venture providing specialized content management and web publishing services to professional visual artists, sculptors, and crafts artisans. I am the venture's founder and principal developer.

Web Developer - Self-employed (2007 - Present)

I provide website and app development, implementation, and support services to startup ventures, small and medium-sized businesses, and creative professionals. Most of my recent projects are based on an existing CMS or web publishing platform, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or CakePhP, with added themes, extensions, and customizations as needed.

Senior Instructor - Profience Professional Skills Development Inc. (2002 - Present)

I teach the entire spectrum of Business Analysis courses and workshops in an IIBA-authorized BA curriculum to audiences from many of Canada’s largest corporations, financial institutions, and government organizations.

Business Consultant - Numerous Fortune 1000 Clients (1996 - 2015)

Consulting engagements included strategic planning, research, business design, facilitation and management advisory services, most often with an emphasis on recognizing and exploiting leading trends in online media, communications, commerce, and entertainment.

Clients included RBC, Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, General Motors NA, Johnson & Johnson, Compaq, Emery Worldwide, Nortel, Cisco, Oracle Corporation, Armstrong World Industries, TD Bank, Lever, Loblaw Brands, National Grocers, and others.

Lecturer & Teaching Assistant - University of Toronto (2005 - 2013)

Lecturer and teaching assistant for The Business of Software (CSC454/2527), a project-based course in software entrepreneurship.

IT Consultant - CGI, Oracle, CTG & Texas Instruments (1985 - 1996)

As a senior consultant, I filled a variety of roles on numerous client engagements including initiating and leading systems development, information architecture, business process reengineering, and change management projects.

In my role as a business director, I was also resposnible for business development, team leadership, methodology development, marketing, and sales coordination.

Manager, Technology Planning & Implementation - Canadian Center for Justice Statistics (1983 - 1985)

As a technology planning and implementation specialist, I designed and directed IT and change management projects in numerous jurisdictions across Canada. This role required providing technical expertise together with acting as a “technology evangelist” to foster and facilitate the adoption of significant IT-related changes within a traditionally conservative, information-protectionist environment.

Developer, Analyst & Project Manager - Statistics Canada (1981 - 1983)

I was responsible for various analysis, design, and programming tasks in support of several massive-scale data processing and statistical analysis applications, most notably Canada's National Accounts System.

Programming languages and scripting tools included PL/1, COBOL, Fortran, BASIC, IBM 360 Assembler, JCL, Clists, and more. Most of our data was stored on tapes, although I was part of an early project using an IMS database.