Brian C. Duggan

he, him, his

brian@dugga.net • @bcduggan • +1 309 310 7026
3626 Elkader Rd, Baltimore, MD 21218-2000

PGP: 5EEB C6DA B95F F861 0CBF 4011 56A1 C2EE A520 ECEB

System administrator and software developer focused on infrastructure reproducibility and site reliability. I love building robust projects to provide responsible support to communities in need while protecting their privacy.

Work experience

Jan 2017 - Jul 2018

Software Engineer for Best Practical Solutions (Cambridge, Massachusetts - Remote)

Developed features and bug fixes for Request Tracker (RT), an open source, enterprise-grade, web-based ticketing system written in Perl.
Administered Best Practical's RT instances, virtual machines, web servers, databases, email, DNS, OpenLDAP, and backup infastructures.
Maintained Best Practical's RT AWS image.
Supported customers writing site extensions to RT over email, phone, and desktop-sharing.
Remotely upgraded and migrated customer RT installations.
Wrote company blog post on RT capablities and use cases.

2014 - 2016

Special Projects and Technology Coordinator for The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Washington, DC)

Developer, sysadmin

Gathered requirements from users in EP.
Developed extensions to Request Tracker (RT) to enable EP's voter support and election monitoring efforts.
Solicited, reviewed, and merged code from volunteers organized by Benetech's Code Alliance to develop crucial pieces of EP's platform.
Built reproducible infrastructure in Ansible.
Transformed data for statistical reporting by Lawyers' Committee's data scientist.
Administered WordPress and CiviCRM installations for general operations.
Collaborated with Pro Publica to provide deidentified voter support data to its Electionland project during the 2016 election season.

Project manager

Worked with host Gossamer Threads to tune MySQL, Apache, and RT to meet performance requirements. Deployed application on election days in 2014 and 2016.
Orchestrated general operations website and CRM platform migration from vendor selection to deployment.

2011 - 2014

Technologist for The New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute (Washington, DC)

Modified Guardian Project's OLSR Mesh Tether Android application (formerly Barnacle) to work with Commotion mesh wifi networks.
Provided technical consultation to develop privacy and security policy positions and publications.
Co-authored Open Technology Institute's (OTI) 2012 DMCA comments concerning cell phone unlocking.
Authored and co-authored articles on privacy and security for Slate's Future Tense and OTI's blog.

2009 - 2011

Technical Projects Developer and AmeriCorps Member for Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (Urbana, Illinois)

Sysadmin

Managed all UCIMC office tech support services including mailing lists, desktop support, websites, printing, and networking.

Volunteer coordinator

Coordinated all UCIMC tech volunteers.
Developed and taught electronics classes for local youth.

2007 - 2009

Software Engineer for Argus Systems (Savoy, Illinois)

Modified system applications for a proprietary MLS layer built on top of Solaris 10.
Developed automated tests in Bash and C.
Developed various applications for build, test, and version control environments in Python.

2005 - 2007

Build Engineer for Motorola (Champaign, Illinois)

Integrated code changes, built, and released embedded cell phone software.
Developed tools for automating builds and releases.
Identified and resolved build problems due to incompatible or missing code.

Projects

qrexec-gpg-agent: An alternative to QubesOS' native Split GPG. Provides access to gpg-agent Unix sockets on other VMs through Qubes' qrexec inter-VM communication mechanism. Includes SaltStack configurations to provision Qubes VMs with qrexec-gpg-agent capabilities.
Ansible RT: Ansible role to install RT and extensions.
Ansible Perlbrew: Ansible role to manage Perls through Perlbrew.
Our Vote Live: RT::Extension::OurVoteLive, the Perl RT extension that enables Election Protection's voter support mission.
Hardcopy Backup: Python application to encode data as QR codes embedded in a printable PDF file. The PDF includes restoration commands that use as few non-standard packages as possible.

Publications

2017: Election Protection Runs on RT - Best Practical blog
2016: Election Protection 2016 Post-Election Report - Election Protection website
2013: Government Plan to Build "Back Doors" for Online Surveillance Could Create Dangerous Vulnerabilities - Slate
2013: The Real Barrier to Freely Unlocking Cellphones: Mobile Carriers - Slate

Case studies

2017: Electionland: The Inside Story - ProPublica
2015: Online Issue Tracking Hosting: Election Protection Case Study - GT.net blog

Community engagement

2013: Teacher for Knowledge Commons DC
2011: Co-organizer of Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire
2009 - 2011: Co-founder and Coordinator of Makerspace Urbana

Education

1999 - 2005: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois)