William Holcomb
B.P. 222
Nouakchott, Mauritania

Alison Green
Marijuana Policy Project
P.O. Box 77492
Washington, DC  20013

Dear Ms. Green,

In response to your advertisement of a web administrator position, I am submitting this resume for review. I received notice of the position through a friend who forwarded the information through idealist.org.

I believe that my experience and skills with XHTML and CSS would be an excellent match to your requirements. I have worked with both the refactoring and redesign of several sites and my knowledge of the applicable standards is extensive. Three examples of my recent work are:

• julbrew.gm: [original / refactor]: Julbrew is the primary distiller and bottling company in the Gambia. Their site made extensive use of nonstandard HTML and this refactoring maintained almost exactly the original appearance, but changed the structure of the files extensively.
• cisco-academy.mr: [original / refactor]: Cisco operates networking academies across the developing world as part of the UN's Least Developed Countries Initiative. The refactoring of the site for the Academy at the University of Nouakchott maintained the majority of the original design, but did remove some gaudier elements.
• ecodev.mr: [original / redesign]: ECO-Développement is a nongovernmental organization aimed at improving environmental conditions in Mauritania. They wanted both to make their site bilingual and add a section allowing them to apply for financing from foreign donors. These requirements necessitated a more complete redesign of the site with the basic appearance modeled on a paper brochure prepared at the same time.

I also have over eight years of Linux server administration experience running servers with sites actively on the internet. I am familiar both with configuration and software associated with properly hardening a server against attack. I worked helpdesk servicing Apple computers for a year and a half and am also comfortable with that environment.

As for my opinions of national marijuana policy, I consider it a misguided waste of resources. The majority of the issues are based on inaccurate information and preconceptions rather than either accurate science or first-hand experiences. That people are in jail for possession or consumption of marijuana is silly. That the government is spending millions to incarcerate people and keep them in jail while there are so many real problems in the world that need addressing is a tragedy. The United States' ability to be a responsible player in the world is grounded in the clarity of its people's values. The current national attitude toward marijuana is causing time and attention to be unnecessarily drawn from more important issues and I would like to work to fix that.

I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Mauritania. My contract ends December 15^th. My availability to start employment is January 10^th. If you you need any additional information, feel free to contact me at wholcomb@gmail.com.