Rob Brackett,
- maker of fine softwares,
- long-distance hiker,
- bicycle tourer,
- espresso drinker.
Currently residing in the SF Bay area.
work at robbrackett dot com
Get in touch.
The details? I’m Rob and I work to craft rich, interactive software that works well for real people—especially when it comes to the web and mobile. I spend the workday consulting with large and small organizations to help them create software with better user interfaces and technical documentation. (E-mail me if you are interested in working together.)
I’ve also been known to produce code and ideas for outfits like the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a non-profit advocating scient-and-data-based decision-making and public data access in government, Editorially, a small company that built collaborative writing and editing tools; Code for America, a non-profit helping city governments better build and use public-facing technology; Apple, a company that makes computer-y things; Appcelerator, makers of the Titanium framework; and Involution Studios, a little design firm in Boston.
But that’s the professional story. When roaming free of a computer, I’m known to monitor San Francisco’s morning fog levels on Twin Peaks, backpack long trails, and undertake many-months-long bike rides through Asia and the arctic.
Want to know more? Check my résumé or other profiles across the web:
[Projects]
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UNIVAF
TS Node Py Terraform
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I built and maintained this API that provided vaccine appointment and booking information to state, county, and community websites as well as vaccine equity analyses. This work also led to my participation in a panel organized by the United States DHHS to develop a national data standard for vaccine appointment data. -
EDGI Web Monitoring
Py Ruby JS Kube
I maintain a series of connected open-source tools that EDGI uses to monitor changes to language and science data on federal government websites. It’s been the source behind news in major publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. -
Wayback (Library)
Py
A Python package to search for and load archived web pages from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. (The Internet Archive maintains an official Python package, but it focuses on tools for collections rather than archived web pages, which are best accessed in an entirely different way.) EDGI currently uses this load and analyze about 20 GB of data each day. -
YAML Doctor (CLI & Library)
Js Node
YAML’s flexible syntax often leads to hard to identify errors — applications that ultimately parse most YAML files frequently fail silently or offer up confusingly worded error messages that point to an incorrect location in the source. YAML Doctor works like a typical linter, but aims to identify syntax errors (rather than style issues) and trace them to the correct source location with clear messaging. -
GDocs to Markdown
Web Js IPFS
While working with Protocol Labs to help jump-start technical documentation for IPFS, I built this quick tool to convert meeting notes taken in Google Docs to Markdown files suitable for archival in Git/GitHub. (See the source on GitHub.) -
EditorConfig-TextMate
ObjC C
EditorConfig is a standard text file format that plugins for various text editors can use to customize the editor’s formatting on a per-project/file basis. I built and maintain the plugin for TextMate. -
Newless (Library)
Js
Newless is a small JavaScript library that modifies or creates constructor functions so that they need not be called with thenew
keyword, allowing you to write safer code and use constructors in more functional contexts. It also works with new ES6 classes. -
Editorially
Web Js Node Ruby
Editorially was a web-based writing app designed to improve the editing and feedback experience for writers. It sported a nicely formatted Markdown editor, version control, diffs, discussion threads, and more. Unfortunately, the company went out of business in 2014. -
NodeTiles
Js Node
NodeTiles was a JavaScript-based system for rendering custom-designed map tiles for slippy maps (e.g. Google Maps). Since it uses a canvas-like API for drawing, it can be adapted for use in browsers and not just server side. -
Open311 Service Tracker
Web Py
As a 2012 fellow at Code for America, I built the city of Chicago’s first official web site for looking up the history and status of a 311 service request. -
iAd Producer
ObjC C Js
Apple iAd Producer was a desktop app for designing and building ads for Apple's iAd Network on iOS. Gigaom had a nice early review and we were excited to see people use it to prototype iOS apps before Xcode had similar tools like storyboards. -
Qwot.es
Web Py
Qwot.es started as a weekend project with my good friend Mr. Dave Bedingfield. We had a serious itch to build something fun and simple. In this case, a web site that lets you post bad-ass quotes and then tweet them to Twitter. -
Simple Selection
Js
A JavaScript library that provides a simple, cross-browser way to find out about and change the content a user has selected on a page. It also provides a selection event that occurs whenever a user makes or changes a selection. -
McAfee SecurityCenter (Beta)
JsWin
I led a team at Involution Studios, consulting with McAfee to help design and engineer the UI for SecurityCenter 10. We created a JS library similar to SproutCore or Cappucino (you work with controls, not the DOM) that significantly expanded their engineering team’s capabilities. -
SharedWebConfig
Py
Tool for automatically configuring the built-in Apache web server in OS X on several machines. Originally developed for use at a design studio where everyone needed to have the same development environment set up. -
WebSketch Editor
Web
In wrote a full-fledged, drag ’n’ drop web-page designer in HTML and JavaScript for WebSketch. Mashable has a good overview of the product. -
Firefox Profiles
OS X
Very simple script for maintaining multiple versions of Firefox on Mac OS X.