18 Caledonian Road Edinburgh EH11 2DF
mobile tel: 07855 457749 email: billmarsh@bigfoot.com
March 2002 - current time. Employed by BigMouthMedia Ltd, 99 Giles Street,
Leith, Edinburgh.
Responsible for the project management, design, and coding of a number of web
design projects as well as undertaking traffic analysis, website technical assessment
and reporting, and search engine optimisation and research.
Concurrently with my work for BigMouthMedia I have been engaging in freelance web design for authors and musicians.
For 21 years I held various positions with James Thin Ltd, Booksellers of Edinburgh, who sadly went into administration in January 2002. Those positions were as follows - most recent first
Responsible for all aspects of the website direction, design and maintenance, with over 500 pages of content.
Writing the bulk of the content along with my assistant.
Communicating with featured authors and their publishers. For instance, Dorothy Dunnett, with whom I had a long and highly productive relationship, Ian Rankin, Quintin Jardine, and many others, to promote their books and communicate with their readers.
Writing email newsletters for customers on subjects such as new Scottish books, and Children's books. The Dorothy Dunnett newsletter went out to over a thousand people.
Answering the many emails from customers and acting as the main point of online contact for the company.
Working with our consultant programmer on the Perl and Oracle database routines which drove the database part of the site and designing the ordering interface.
Liaising with associate sites
Checking search engine ratings.
Overseeing the order processing procedures and staff.
(Following the resignation of the previous IT Director it had been intended that I also take over promotion and advertising of the site but this never actually occurred due to technical developments and the firms unexpected demise. While the budget was very limited I had been looking forward to that challenge and may have been able to reach a fully profitable situation given a free hand.)
Responsible for all aspects of Internet and comms provision for the company, including setup and maintenance of the Mail Server, DSL provision and dial-up provision, email account administration for the company, technical support and instruction.
Other tasks included Postmaster for the email system, acting as backup Network Administrator for the NT network, database construction, and any other technical tasks that required attention.
Similar to the above but with slightly greater emphasis on the NT network administration side, when the system was being set up and bedded in. This involved deciding on domain architecture in collaboration with the SQL designers, configuring new workstations and user accounts, setting security levels and shared directories, backup, etc.
Responsible for day to day running of the company’s bespoke Unix-based distributed stock control/ordering/accounts system throughout the head-office store, maintaining the databases, sending and confirming book order to publishers, and liaising with the programmers/consultants on maintenance, programming changes, and developments. Also involved software and hardware maintenance of till PCs and EPOS systems.
During this period I initiated the company's first email accounts, set up their first web pages, worked with the ISP's designers on the first web ordering system, and administered the taking and fulfillment of orders from email and website. I also initiated the company use of DTP and produced most of the adverts that were sent to newspapers and magazines.
With around 14 members of staff covering the departments of University Arts, Scientific, Computing, Business, and Foreign Languages. Primarily responsible for liaising with university and college departments for the provision of textbooks, stock control and development of the Computer Books Dept which I had converted from a small section to a department over a £¼ million turnover, overview and control of the Scientific and Foreign Languages Departments.
Prior to joining James Thin Ltd in 1980, I had spent 5 years as a self-employed sound engineer, mixing live and recorded sound and working with rock, jazz, and folk musicians, theatre and ballet companies. Additional duties included hiring of equipment, organising transport and hotels, liaising with venue managers etc. for tours, and rigging lighting systems and general electrical work.
Spent two years at Edinburgh University studying Chemistry as the main course. Dropped out of own volition due to disillusionment and a desire to further a career in the music industry.
Educated at Boroughmuir High School achieving 2 CSYS, 5 Highers and 8 O Grades.
Chess - Represented Scotland at Junior International level before “retiring” at 19. Returned to the game in 1992. Have extensive experience of administering the game at local, regional and national levels. Currently President of the Edinburgh and Lothians Chess Association, and Membership Secretary of the Edinburgh Chess Club. Elected Council Member of the Scottish Chess Association.
Hillwalking - have walked throughout Scotland and in a wide variety of European Alpine areas. Combining this passion with….
Landscape Photography - Since 1985 I have been taking colour slide and black & white print photographs. Examples of my work can be seen at http://home.freeuk.net/billmarshall/bphoto.htm
Reading - Wide ranging interests, mostly non-fiction with the exception of the superbly written and researched historical novels of Dorothy Dunnett. Am also on the Council of the Dorothy Dunnett Reader’s Association.
Music - listening to all types of music. I play guitar and mandolin.
Writing - Currently developing and exploring this subject, having been encouraged by a number of professional authors who are familiar with my work.
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