EUP systems require run-time interpretation of metadata. The programmer - whether an end-user or a domain expert (who is entering the knowledge used by the end user) - must enter metadata that describes the run-time operation of the system. The system must interpret the metadata at run-time in order to have the flexibility required to make it usable. EUP systems have three levels of access and programmability:
My last business, StepSoft, was developing a system to build large complex applications. StepWise, the product name, could build large networks of hypertext linked screens. There were “wizards” that allowed end-users to build the screens and define the branching among them. A user could build a screen in a couple of minutes and connect it up to other screens easily. Large applications could be built in this way very quickly. There were wizards to enter business rules that could be connected to various data entry points in the screens and to a back-end database. Systems like this have been called “performance support” systems.
For background on the PROMIS System see a paper written by me in the ACM Press Book, A History of Personal Workstations. The paper is titled “A History of the PROMIS Technology: An Effective Human Interface”.
Jan is the Director of Reuse and the team leader of the Reuse Group at IDX which has three main objectives: Significantly enhance extensibility / maintainability of our software, continue our move toward true integration of our applications and accelerate the development of our applications through code reuse, component design, knowledge management and other techniques. Jan’s background includes most recently being Senior Vice President for Engineering, President and Founder of StepSoft, Inc. a Burlington software company that was 90% completed in developing an application development tool kit for the Windows Client / Server market. He found a pioneer customer who invested over $1M, managed outside relationships with pioneer customer and other potential investors, interested parties and customers. He participated in prototype object oriented design and coding in C++. Grew start-up to staff of 10. Hired President, six programmers, UI designer and a tester. Wrote product plan and managed product development process and staff. Used an Object Oriented system development methodology based upon an iterative/incremental development cycle with short, fixed delivery schedules.
Prior to forming StepSoft, Jan was the Director of Information Services and a member of the Executive Staff at the University of Vermont Health Center (UHC). At the UHC he managed Operations, Application Support, the HELP desk and Production. His accomplishments included installing the IDX Patient Accounting and Scheduling applications and the ROSS General Ledger application. He reorganized the Information Services Division by flattening the division’s organizational structure. He hired four new programmers so that the Division could develop applications and reports and work in a knowledgeable way with the UHC’s application vendors.
Jan was Principal and owner of JRS Computer Consultants in Burlington. He provided product design and implementation in the medical and financial service software industries. He provided computer use planning, computer personnel selection and assessment, design, specification and selection of systems, project management, problem specification and vendor communication. He managed over 25 engagements over a four-year period.
Jan was also Principal Systems Engineer and a Founder of Second Foundation, Inc. a "spin-off" from PROMIS Laboratory (see below). While at Second Foundation, Jan designed and implemented an object oriented, database management system tailored to manage electronic medical records. He also designed and implemented a 4GL with a "C like syntax" to operate in the UNIX environment to replace PPL (see below) and he converted 400,000 lines of PPL code to the new language. Second Foundation was sold to Vencor, Inc., a chain of proprietary critical care and nursing homes, in 1993. The system Second Foundation developed (called ProTouch) is installed in all of the 40 Vencor hospitals and is used for all patient medical record recording needs.
He was Director of Systems Development for PROMIS Laboratory and a Research Associate in the Department of Medicine as well as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Engineering, Mathematics and Business Administration College of UVM. He planned, coordinated and implemented the evolution of the PROMIS system through four generations of hardware and software. The PROMIS system was a highly interactive, touch screen system that allowed users to manipulate an electronic medical record within the context of a large body of medical knowledge. PROMIS had over 60,000 frames of knowledge within it. The system was architected so that the same core system used to manage patient data could be used by domain experts to maintain and add new medical knowledge. Jan designed and implemented a high-level, structured programming language, PPL, in which all PROMIS applications were developed as well as designing and implementing the electronic medical record database application.
Jan has a BS in Mathematics and Physics and MS in Mathematics from the University of Illinois. He developed a very early computer-based teaching machine called Socrates while a graduate student.