Tony Bove

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Highlights

Developer documentation at Google: Assistant-related solutions, Assistant feature internal development, and the Angular framework
Training specialist at Google: Android Development Fundamentals Course and Advanced Android Development Course, including sample apps in Java, in use by millions of students.
Publishing and training manager and knowledge management expert for Deem
Marketing director, customer reference manager, and writer for companies such as Adobe, McAfee, SumTotal, and Sun Microsystems
Author, iPod and iTunes for Dummies (10 editions, Top 50), Adobe Illustrator: The Official Handbook for Designers, Just Say No to Microsoft, The Art of Desktop Publishing, and iPad Application Development For Dummies
Developer and publisher, Tony’s Tips for iPhone Users (iPhone app)
Author and producer, Non-Programmers Guide To Building iOS Apps (DVD, Infinite Skills/O’Reilly)
Producer of videos, wikis, CD-ROM titles, blogs, and podcasts
Communications director, editorial director, publisher, and editor
Author, The Experiment, a novel that received five-star reader reviews
Band co-founder, musician, songwriter (Music page)

Employment History

Expert Support at Google: Senior Technical Writer (1.5 years) (2019-2020)

Drove adoption of the Angular framework with developer documentation.
Drove partner adoption of Assistant-related solutions with integration quick-start guides, and Assistant feature internal development with API documentation and reference guides.

Expert Support at Google: Content Strategist (1 year) (2018)

Drove partner adoption of e-commerce development with quick-start guides on developing web services using sets of APIs from a leading e-commerce company. The guides shortened the learning curve so that the company could get partners up and running faster and realize revenue sooner.

Expert Support at Google: Training Specialist (2016 to 2018)

Drove adoption of Android app development with the Android Development Fundamentals Course and Advanced Android Development Course, including sample apps in Java.

Deem: Senior Writer (2011-2012), Technical Publishing and Training Manager (2013-2016)

Improved the customer experience and helped increase by 5x the adoption of business travel and expense cloud services by writing and developing multilingual help content and videos.
Reduced support calls by 75% and accelerated partner site deployments by creating an administrator portal and writing reference guides, courseware, training tips, API documentation, and tutorials.
Reduced the cost of editorial collaboration and web production by consolidating the work of 9+ predecessors into an efficient 3-person team using best practices for single-source documentation.
Improved the performance of organizational learning by curating the company knowledge base wiki.
Improved account management by automating the release notes and bug-reporting process.
Unified the brand and drove a renewed focus on the customer by improving the quality and consistency of documentation across product lines.
Drove engagement with Car Service offerings by ghost-writing “Syndicated Commerce & the New Mobile Concierge” (Chauffeur Driven Magazine) for Amy Harris of Deem.

Book Author, Video Producer, and App Developer (ongoing)

iPad App Development For Dummies (book) and Non-Programmers Guide To Building iOS Apps (DVD/video)
Multiple editions of iPod and iTunes for Dummies and Adobe Illustrator: The Official Handbook for Designers — achieved Top 50 Computer Books status
Critical acclaim and excellent reviews for the Just Say No To Microsoft book
iPhone app in Objective C (Tony’s Tips for iPhone Users)
Five-star reader reviews for The Experiment, a novel

Freelance Writer, Learning Consultant, and Marketing Director (1999-2011)

Helped position Check Point as a leader in mobile and cloud security with white papers on cyber-threat prevention. Examples: Zero-Day Protection: Block Unknown Threats, Humans are Your Weakest Link
Helped position Armis as a leader in enterprise-class security addressing unmanaged and IoT devices. Example: Agentless Device Security for Retail Environments
Contributed to an increase in BEA revenues by improving BEA sales efforts with a portal for content, ROI calculators, and case studies.
Improved organizational learning for SumTotal Systems customers by writing technical briefs about learning management.
Generated leads for McAfee network security and virtualization products, Adobe secure forms and document delivery offerings, and PivotLink business intelligence solutions by writing technical briefs and data sheets for web sites and trade shows.
Improved Sun Microsystems’ competitive advantage by developing and managing customer success stories and case studies about virtualization, server consolidation, and big data storage.

Marketing Director, BEA (1999-2002)

Helped establish BEA’s leadership in enterprise innovation, services-oriented architecture (SOA), and business process management (BPM) by creating product messaging and multimedia content.

Manager of Corp. Communications, Live Picture/LivePix (1997-1999)

Managed and produced all corporate communications content including CEO keynote presentations, customer success stories, white papers, press releases, videos, and web content.

Project Leader and Producer (1995-1997)

Managed technical writing and online documentation for game development tools (NewFire), and produced web content and video (MediaBand).
Launched the Rockument site and produced and published multimedia CD-ROMs including Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties (Rockument) and Macromedia Director (Random House).
Produced blogs, podcasts, wikis, and sites for the Flying Other Brothers (band).

Editorial Director, Hypermedia Communications and NewMedia Magazine (1991-1995)

Edited and published the Macromedia User Journal and the Inside Report on New Media, and developed editorial strategies and developer conference programs for NewMedia magazine.

Publisher, Editor, and Columnist (1980-1991)

Founded magazines about desktop publishing (Desktop Publishing, Publish!) and microcomputer operating systems (User’s Guide, Portable Companion).
Wrote columns for a variety of magazines, including weeklies (The Chicago Tribune, Computer Currents, Macintosh Today, Prodigy), monthlies (MacUser, Dr. Dobbs’ Journal, NewMedia, PC World, PC Computing), and quarterlies (NeXTWorld, Whole Earth Software Catalog).

Skills and Expertise

Android Studio, Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, Xcode, other IDEs
RESTful APIs, JSON, XML, SOAP, Javadoc, Google Dev Site, Angular
Java, Objective-C, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, PHP
Git, Google, Perforce, Jira, Confluence Wiki, MediaWiki, DITA, Madcap Flare, RoboHelp, WordPress
Google AdWords, AdSense, Analytics
Adobe FrameMaker, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Captivate

Awards and Reviews

Society for Technical Communications First Prize Award for a programming reference manual
“One of the most interesting overviews of modern desktop computing history that’s ever been written… possibly a watershed event.” John Dvorak on Just Say No to Microsoft (Nov. 2005)
“Every Microsoft engineer and product planner should read it.” Robert Scoble, blogger and former Microsoft Technical Evangelist, on Just Say No to Microsoft (Jan. 2006)
“Tony Bove has a definite knack for noticing what’s important and succinctly explaining it.” A.P. Lawrence on Just Say No to Microsoft (Dec. 2005)
“I borrowed several books from the library on iPods. This was by far the most informative, up to date and easy to use. It’s a great ‘go to’ book.” One of many five-star reviews on Amazon.com for iPod & iTunes for Dummies
“Near genius at making complex ideas understandable.” Jerry Pournelle, BYTE (Dec. 1986)
“A deeply provocative alternate look at the 1960s.” Michael Gosney on The Experiment (May 2017)
“A fabulously innovative work, both in substance and style.” Ken Sonenclar on The Experiment (Aug. 2017)

Speaker Highlights

Keynote, Cybersalon in Berkeley, CA (Nov. 2005)
Keynote, F2 conference on multimedia games, Tokyo (Jun. 1997)
Moderator, Digital Hollywood, Los Angeles, panel on multimedia CD-ROM (Mar. 1997)
Keynote at Multimedia in the Arts Conference, San Francisco (Apr. 1996)
Moderator, Digital Be-In, San Francisco, panel on counterculture and computing (Jan. 1996)
Seminar leader on multimedia, Macromedia Developer annual conferences, San Francisco (1992-1995)
Moderator and seminar leader on multimedia, Macworld Expos, San Francisco and Boston (1987-1994)
Keynote at NTT conference on Macintosh and connectivity, Tokyo (Sept. 1990)
Seminar leader, Folio Magazine seminars on desktop publishing (8/year, 1986-1989)
Moderator, COMDEX Fall and Spring, panel on desktop publishing (2/year, 1988-1990)
Speaker at Typeworld conference, panel on typography, Phila. PA (Apr. 1986)
Keynote at CP/Net User Group, Pasadena, CA (Jun. 1983)
Speaker at Digital Research ISV Conference, Monterey, CA (May 1982)
Speaker at West Coast Computer Faire, San Francisco (May, 1980)

Published Works (Books, Applications, DVDs, CD-ROMs, and CDs)

Tony’s Tips for iPhone Users (iPhone application)
Non-Programmers Guide To Building iOS Apps (DVD, Infinite Skills/O’Reilly)
iPad Application Development For Dummies (Wiley)
iPhone Application Development All-In-One For Dummies (Wiley)
iPod and iTunes for Dummies (Wiley)
iPod touch for Dummies (Wiley)
iLife ’11 for Dummies (Wiley)
Just Say No to Microsoft (No Starch Press)
Estimated Charges (Flying Other Brothers), iTunes album
San Francisco Sounds (Flying Other Brothers), CD
iLife All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies (Wiley)
iPod Companion (M&L Publishing)
Rockument and Flying Other Brothers podcasts and music history (Rockument)
Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties, documentary CD-ROM
Macromedia Lingo Studio (Random House), book/CD-ROM
Official Macromedia Director Studio (Random House/Hypermedia), book/CD-ROM
Using Macromedia Director (The Voyager Co.), CD-ROM Expanded Book
Using MacroMind Director (Que)
Que’s Macintosh Multimedia Handbook (Que)
Inside Report on New Media (editor)
New Media magazine (editorial director/columnist)
Adobe Illustrator: The Official Handbook for Designers (Bantam/Random House)
Desktop Publishing with PageMaker (John Wiley & Sons)
The Well-Connected Macintosh (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)
Bove and Rhodes Inside Report (publisher/editor)
Publish! magazine (founder/columnist)
The Art of Desktop Publishing (Bantam)
Desktop Publishing magazine (founder/publisher/editor)
Portable Companion magazine (editor)
User’s Guide magazine (founder/publisher/editor)
CP/M User’s Guide (Baen Books/Simon & Schuster)
Free Software (Baen Books/Simon & Schuster)
InfoWorld’s Essential Guide to CP/M (Harper & Row)
WordStar Pocket Reference (Addison-Wesley)
TRS-80 Model III User’s Guide (John Wiley & Sons)

Recommendations

“You did such an amazing job on the Android courses, both the fundamentals and the advanced. Your tenacity at getting the necessary information was inspiring, and the speed and quality of your work was impressive. I feel very fortunate to have had you on the team. This group we had was one of the best I have ever worked with, both in terms of quality of our work and how we all pitched in and helped each other… I’d love to provide a glowing reference for you any time you need it.”

Jocelyn Becker, Google

“Tony is an excellent technical writer, able to work multiple projects in parallel. He is fast, clear, and thorough, and is very resourceful about finding the information he needs to complete a document. At Rearden Commerce, in addition to writing, Tony develops writing standards, glossaries, and improves processes for ensuring consistency and quality. For example, he designed and implemented a better way to prepare generic and partner-specific release notes for multiple product lines, all running under their own release cadence. He delivers all of the release notes while also writing white papers and other materials on special topics and preparing responses to customer RFPs. His deliverables are always on time, and always of excellent quality. Customers and partners have expressed their appreciation for the improvement in document quality. I know that Tony would be a great addition to any organization in need of someone to lead and drive excellence in the technical writing function.”

Julie Butterfield, Vice President, Program Engineering, Deem, Inc. a.k.a. Rearden Commerce

“Tony is an excellent writer who can dive deep into the technical aspects of a product or solution and articulate its business value. He backs this up with an incredible work ethic.”

Lisa Morway, Sr. Director of Corporate Marketing, SumTotal

“Tony Bove is a technologist and writer who ‘gets it’ and possesses the business savvy to make a real difference in an organization. I’d work with Tony in a New York minute if I needed something written right, tight and tonight.”

Brian Gleeson, Group Manager, Alliance Marketing, Adobe Systems

“Tony Bove did outstanding work to help us arrive at a clear message for our company and articulate that message in white papers, advertising, and web content. Not only was he efficient and produced great results, he was incredibly personable. Tony went above and beyond what we asked of him — he knew what we needed better than we did! I would recommend Tony for any organization that needs to refine and articulate its high-level and product messages for marketing campaigns.”

AnnaRae Grabstein, Steep Hill Lab

“When we suddenly needed Tony to step in as a customer reference manager, he rose to the task and did an excellent job. His experience in the industry, in technical subjects, and in customer reference work helped us immensely.”

Lara Grant McGurk, Sr. Group Manager, Customer References, Sun Microsystems

“Tony is a superb communicator. He is adept at both executive messaging and boiling down complex technical concepts into simple, comprehensive communications.”

Norma Watenpaugh, Sr. Director World Wide Partner Development, BEA

“Without any reservations, I highly recommend Tony. He will quickly understand what needs to be communicated, and he will add a clarity that will further enhance and contribute to strategy.”

Ray Love, Product Manager, Live Picture

“Tony was and is one of the most astute observers of new media in the Internet era. A generation of new media auteurs weaned themselves on his writings about tools such as Macromedia Director and his cutting-edge insights into the business of interactive media.”