Paul Houle is an expert in building commercial large-scale systems focused on linked data sources and has created significant projects such as :basekb and Infovore. He offers consulting in data processing, system design, and intelligent systems while also volunteering as a mediator in community disputes. His extensive background includes working with various technologies and organizations, showcasing expertise in semantic web technologies, software development, and project management.

1. Paul Houle
472 Central Chapel Rd Brooktondale NY 14817 USA
(607) 539 6254
http://gen5.info/q/
http://www.honeylocust.com/
SUMMARY
I'm an expert on building commerical large scale systems based on Linked Data sources such
as Freebase and DBpedia. I'm the creator of :BaseKB, which was the first correct conversion
of Freebase to RDF and of Infovore, the open source
I do consulting on the following areas:
Data processing with Hadoop and the design and construction of systems using Amazon
Web Services
Architecture and construction of systems that consume and produce Linked Data
Construction and evaluation of intelligent systems that make subjective decisions (text
search, text classification, machine learning, etc.)
I'm not at all interested in doing maintenance work on other people's code, but I am
interested in helping you align your process, structure, and tools to speed up your
development cycle, improve your products, and prevent developer burnout. I am not free to
relocate at this time, but I collaborate all of the time with workers around the world and I
can travel to your location, understand your needs and transfer skills to your workforce.
In June 2012 I chaired a discussion on the Google Knowledge Graph at the Semantic
Technology Conference at San Francisco, in addition to giving a presentation about my work
on Ookaboo and :BaseKB.
SPECIALTIES
Semantic Web, RDF, SPARQL, SPIN, Ontological Engineering, RIF, OWL, OWL 2, OWL 2 QL,
OWL 2 RL, User Interface Engineering, Knowledge Management, Data Modelling, Taxonomy
Construction, Workflow Automation, C#, .NET, Java, PHP, SQL,
SKILLS
Semantic Web
Java
SQL
SPARQL
RDF
Data Modeling
OWL
JavaScript
Artificial Intelligence
MySQL
AJAX
Web Services
MVC
Software Project Management
E-commerce
Distributed Systems
Web Applications
Project Management
SEO
Software Development
Analysis
Databases
PHP
Software Engineering
System Architecture
Perl
Web Intelligence
Scrum
Linux
ASP.NET
C#
Microsoft SQL Server
Machine Learning
Web Development
User Interface Design
Big Data
Information Retrieval
.NET

2. Python
EXPERIENCE
Semantic Technologies
Ontology2
02 / 2009 - Present
Founder
Developed a system to sell access to data files online using Amazon Payments
Captured 3 Terabytes of Wikipedia usage information in Amazon Web Services
Implemented fast typeahead search with the specialized Cleo database
Developed a system that matches semantic concepts to products on offer at Amazon.com
Made an open-source release of Infovore, an RDF processing framework based on
Map/Reduce
Used automated systems to construct taxonomies and make photo collections for topics
such as animals, cars, places in New York City
Created :BaseKB, the first correct conversion of Freebase to RDF
Constructed taxonomies using type and category data from Freebase and Dbpedia
Developed rulebox to identify and remove obscene topics
Used subjective importance to organize autosuggestion and map-based user interfaces
Reconciled government data from ITIS and the EPA with Dbpedia
Used Amazon Web Services for production deployment of approximately 20 web sites
Community Dispute Resolution Center
08 / 2007 - Present
Mediator
As a volunteer, help community members resolve disputes. I've mediated business disputes
and workplace disputes, but about 70% of the cases we get at CDRC are parenting plan
cases, often referred from the divorce court; the good news is that my personal experience
and research shows that parenting plan mediations are highly effective.
IP.com
07 / 2012 - 06 / 2013
Senior Engineering Scientist
Contributed to a deep learning system that improves performance for information retrieval
Worked on evaluation of a state-of-the-art IR system with an eye towards developing
uniquely competitive capabilities
Debugged concurrency problems in distributed and multithreaded systems
Developed documentation for a RestEasy based API using source and object code analysis
As scrummaster, developed burndown charts and other metrics tailored to the actual work
of my team
Xen
04 / 2011 - 04 / 2012
Relevance Architect
Worked as contractor to:
evaluated text analysis systems
incorporated Freebase data into a social media platform
developed a broad categorization of 24 million topics
productized a measure of subjective similarity between topics
provided advice on NLP and semantic system architecture and project planning
used EC2 in AWS for research and batch processing
Mapping Analytics
Software Developer
10 / 2007 - 04 / 2011

3. made major contributions to a multiuser GIS decision support system developed with
Microsoft Silverlight and ASP.NET
developed an architecture for scalable rich internet applications dependent on
aynchronous communications
managed geospatial and XML databases in Microsoft SQL Server
worked on decision automation system for Salesforce.com driven by a combination of rules
and learning
developed touchscreen interactive survey application based on maps
In addition to the technical contributions I made in this role, I also spent a lot of time
involved with sales meetings and customers support. As I was developing a product aimed at
Sales managers, I spent a lot of time learning how to get into their heads.
Honeylocust Media Systems
08 / 1997 - 02 / 2008
Independent Contractor
Contract software development and development/operation of profitable destination web
sites. Experience ranges from project management to implementation and internet
marketing with a focus on search engine optimization and social media operations.
Projects include a Brazillian voice chat community that included an e-commerce component,
evaluation of a medical information system, development of rich internet applications, and a
large and growing collection of animal photographs that attracts tens of thousands of visitors
every month.
Gorges Web Sites
2007 - 2007
Contractor
I worked on two projects at Gorges: (1) A GWT-based collaborative editor for semantic
networks with both client and server components, and (2) a major upgrade to a line-ofbusiness and B2B e-commerce system written in Cold Fusion with most of the business logic
implemented in stored procedures inside Microsoft SQL Server
Spider Graphics
10 / 2006 - 05 / 2007
Software Developer
Developed and maintained tens of web applications based on PHP, Cold Fusion, Tango and
ASP with back ends based on Mysql, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access and Filemaker
databases.
This role involved intense contact with customers and sometimes end users. In this role I
developed a number of B2C e-commerce applications such as a travel reservation system for
a boat to the Isle of Shoals and a shopping cart and marketing application for 30+ Finger
Lakes wineries, facing the challenges of selling tightly regulated products online.
Cornell University
07 / 2002 - 10 / 2006
Digital Library Programmer/Analyst
Developed and maintained more than 70 web sites, including arXiv.org, the Library
Gateway, and the Global Performing Arts database. Technically the work involved PHP, Perl,
Java and Cold Fusion, Mysql and Postgres. My responsibilities ranged from requirements
gathering to system administration and everything in between.
Particular areas of experience involved foreign language encoding, web frameworks, content
management, full-text search, text-classification and controlling user behavior in large-scale
web communities.

4. Tompkins County Green Party
06 / 2000 - 04 / 2004
Community Organizer
I was a leader in a local political organization that helped turn out roughly 25% of the vote
for Ralph Nader in 2000 and collaborated with a faction of the Democrats to shift the
balance of power on the Ithaca Common council in the early zeroes. I was elected as a party
representative and motivated a number of people to run for public office, supporting their
campaigns as well as the campaigns of statewide candidates such as Stanley Aronowitz. I
appeared on television, chaired meetings, and even negotiated with the management of the
Pyramid Mall to get a FM radio transmitter installed on the roof.
EDUCATION
Cornell University
1992 - 1998
PhD , Physics
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
1989 - 1992
BS , Physics, Math
ASSOCIATIONS
Member: Project Management Institute, Associate: International Joint Conferences on
Artificial Intelligence
LANGUAGES
English ( Native or bilingual proficiency )
German ( Elementary proficiency )
Spanish ( Elementary proficiency )
Japanese ( Elementary proficiency )