Joe Ferguson

I'm a computer geek; a software engineer who loves learning new things and solving problems. In 1998, I started working with web development and had always loved the back end programming of websites and servers. While it started as a hobby, it became my profession in 2005 and since then, I have worked with a wide variety of code bases. I have also spent significant time in the eCommerce world--building custom solutions, modernizing legacy code bases, and working with custom content management systems. Over my career, I have grown to love the PHP community and can often be found in chat channels relating to the PHP community or tools, and often help mentor those seeking to learn more via phpmentoring.org.

I have been speaking at conferences since 2014 on topics such as HTML form security, Virtual Machines with Vagrant, PHP Best Practices, the Laravel PHP Framework, DevOps for small teams, Continuous Integration and several other development related topics. I also give training on the Laravel PHP Framework and PHP Security through php[architect] and have also written an article for their August 2014 issue and continue to contribute regularly.

I frequently contribute to various open source projects such as Laravel Homestead, SlimPHP Documentation, and other side projects of my own. I am one of the maintainers of the PHP IRC Bot project Phergie where I help manage, release, solve problems for a number of packages to support many different features of the bot. Most recently I have been involved with Open Sourcing Mental Illness, LTD and with The Joindin Foundation, a new leadership group operating the hosted Joind.in platform and overseeing management of the open source project.

I am was also one of the first three PHP Framework Interoperability Group Secretaries (FIG), in charge of managing aspects of the FIG to keep discussions running smoothly and PHP Specification Requests moving along the process.

I'm very interested in programming, DevOps, automation, and all the different technilogies that come out of the industry. I'm heavily involved with our local makerspace here in Memphis. I love just about all kinds of music. I'm a very open minded freethinker. I like to solve problems and plan out solutions. I like doing things that I've been told I can't. I like proving the status quo wrong. I like to learn and try my best to keep learning every day. This usually extends to PHP or a related programming method. I am also a big fan of the Chicago Blackhawks and Memphis 901FC. I love watching European football but I never find the time to keep up with it.

Languages & Tools

PHP, Git, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Ajax, Apache, Python, Travis-CI, TeamCity, Codeception, Ansible, Puppet.

Frameworks

Laravel, Symfony, SlimPHP, Kohana, Zend Framework 3.x, Zend Expressive, jQuery, Some ExpressionEngine, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, AngularJS, React, Vue.js.

Server Administration

Experienced in management and deployment of: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Debian, and Ubuntu as well as administration of Amazon Web Services platforms and APIs.

Operating Systems

Mac OS X,Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, RedHat, Fedora, Slackware, and Many versions of Microsoft Windows.

Virtualization

Vagrant, Ansible, Extensive Shell Script Provisioning, Puppet, Virtualbox, OpenVZ, ProxmoxVE. Extensive experience in building customized Vagrant development virtual machines for local development.