My name is Steve Heffernan...obviously

I'm a web producer living in Los Angeles, California. I'm a partner at a web application development shop in Madison, Wisconsin.

Some of our current projects include:

• A Video Encoding API for websites that need to accept and encode video from their users
• A web app that helps roommates split bills
• A Christian t-shirt website with user-submitted designs
• A content management system (CMS) for a Christian Credit Union
• A GPS data storage app for the agricultural industry
• The official site of the World's Greatest Athlete

Web Producer is the best term I can come up with for what I do, because I enjoy every aspect of website creation.

I've been HTML-ing since 1995. In 1999 I started making websites in Flash. In 2000 I became a web design intern, while studying web marketing at a Christian university in California. Around 2002 I took up PHP and MySQL database development.

In 2003 I became a full-time staff member at the university's website, a 19,000 page resource for prospective students. While there I continued to do web design and PHP development; installed Omniture web analytics and became a certified Omniture professional in SiteCatalyst and Implementation; was trained by the famous Bruce Clay in Search Engine Optimization and ran an SEO campaign for the entire site.

In early 2008 I joined my friend Brandon in Sevenwire, began learning Ruby on Rails, and have been able to apply all my learnings to a wide range of awesome clients.

On the side

I have various projects that I'm working on outside of the normal day-to-day.

For years now I've been working on a web app to help roommates divide bills. I was almost done building it in PHP, but then I turned it into a project for me to learn Ruby on Rails with.

Recently I've been helping a friend sell cell phone holsters online.

The other day a friend and I threw up a quick website to test the waters of the individual soccer training market.

The same friend and I just opened a pro snorkel online store to sell high-end snorkels that he can get for a decent price. Is there such a thing as pro snorkeling? We may have made that up, but it was a good keyword phrase.

I sometimes give website advice to a friend who owns a physics software company.

Writings

If I have one weakness in website production it's content development, so lately I've been challenging myself to write more.

First I had an article published about CSS and Rails on Digital Web Magazine. Now I have a goal to post (almost) every day on at least one of the many blogs I contribute to.

• The Steve Heffernan Blog — My own personal ramblings, and a backup to make sure I hit my post-per-day goal.
• The Sevenwire Web App Development Blog — Project updates, Ruby on Rails, and other learnings about web app development.
• The Roommate App Development Blog — Updates and learnings from developing my roommate web app side project.

Spare time?

When I do have spare time, I like to go on missions trips in foreign countries and play the drums. I used to be in a rock band, and if you want to you can still listen to our music.