About Jason Kogan

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Education

I'm a University of Guelph graduate. I have a bachelor's honours degree in Computing and Information Science and I was in the co-operative education program where I worked for Mitra Imaging Inc. I received my high school diploma at Langstaff Secondary School in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Please review my resume for full details of my education and more.

Black Hole Design

In the summer of 1998, I started a web design company called Black Hole Design Inc with two friends. During its lifespan, Black Hole Design grew significantly as we had developed a number of websites ranging from small business sites to large corporate portals. Our sites incorporated many technologies including Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, PHP, ASP, Perl and Text Based, MS Access and SQL Server databases. Black Hole Design has since stopped pursuing new business, but much of what we built is still in use today.

Rogers Publishing

I went to work for Canada's leading parenting magazine, Today's Parent, and also helped build and consult on parts of Chatelaine, Flare and LouLou magazines, all of which are owned by Rogers Publishing. There, I was the voice of technology among a sea of writers, editors and artists. I led the direction of the website, built many tools (some of which are still being used today) and sat on the working groups for technology initiatives including Newsletter Solutions & Content Management Solutions for all of Rogers Publishing.

St. Joseph Media

Soon I found myself leading the Production team as the Site Operations Manager for sites including Canadian Family, Fashion18, Fashion Magazine, Gardening Life, Mariage Quebec, Wedding Bells and Wish, which are all under the ownership of St. Joseph Media. I had worked for the publishing industry for over four years and have successfully upgraded the technology and infrastructure for all the sites I've worked on.

Torstar Digital

The role of Manager of Technology at toronto.com was my next stop. There, I led the Production team through the construction of many site additions; overhauled the site's search algorithm; built a process to merge and update all the listings on the site; and headed a complete redesign of the site, following a usability study. In addition to these accomplishments, I acted as the primary contact for maintaining the relationship with internal departments and vendors, including the Content Management team, the Sales/Support team, the Ad Tracking team, the Senior Management team, the Newsletter/Contesting provider, the Movie Feed provider and the Traffic Information provider.

SCENE LP

I then worked with scene.ca (Cineplex Entertainment's movie redemption program) as the Technology Manager. There, I managed and executed the launch of monthly online promotions and offers, the launch and optimization of website tracking tools (like Hitbox and Omniture), led a site-wide content refresh and co-ordinated the launch and QA of the SCENE Music Store. I also played a key role in representing SCENE on projects such as DataMart gap analysis and build, data integrity, operations efficiencies and usability studies.

Forumwarz

In my spare time I help product manage a highly successful online RPG with more than 150,000 registered users. Forumwarz is the brainchild of a former Black Hole Design partner and I have helped contribute to its success by offering my expertise in usability, best web practices and gaming methodologies. I regularly engage in the active community and led the design of one of the main end-games within Forumwarz, which keeps users engaged after they have played through the storyline.

Hobbies

When I'm not working, I am taking care of my collection of tropical fish, meeting friends to play board games (I'm an avid collector) and playing Softball and Ultimate Frisbee (I've captained for over three years).

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me! Please feel free to have a look around. Should you encounter any problems on this site or simply have a question or comment, please contact me here.

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