Hey people!
I’m James, a soon to-to-be finished computer networks and cybersecurity student living in Newcastle Upon Tyne, that has a year of experience working in a very much not worker-owned business as an IT Risk Analyst. If you came along to the Winter Gathering 2019 at the Star and Shadow cinema in Newcastle then you have probably already met me, as I was invited along by some friends over at Code-Operative.
I was interested in working in a worker cooperative long before I did my year-long placement in IT-Risk, but having first-hand experience of modern office life in a large, toxically hierarchical organisation has certainly pushed me more towards thinking of worker-owned ethical cooperatives as the way forward. I found having no control over the work I was doing, and feeling that said work was anything but meaningful, to be rather soul-crushing. I’m sure many of you would agree!
Above I mentioned Star and Shadow, a cooperative that is part of the Social Centre Network, that I have volunteered at coming up four years now, and have more recently taken on keyholder and steward responsibilities for. So I do have some experience of working in cooperatives, albeit not a tech orientated one. If you used the network at Star and Shadow during the Co-Tech gathering (whether that be the Wi-Fi, in-wall Ethernet, or buying something from the café) then you can (mostly
) thank me for that!
I’m a long time member of the IWW, and have spent time working in a number of horizontal community-based projects.
I’m currently doing my dissertation as a comparison piece between virtualisation and containerisation for use in computer network infrastructure. For containerisation I’m using Docker, which I’ve noticed a number of the Co-ops here at Co-Tech use.
So a bit about my technical skills:
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Routing and Switching skills: primarily using Cisco routers and switches. I have CCNA qualifications Level one to three and have intricate knowledge of various Routing protocols (MPLS, RIPv2, OSPF, GRE, PPP, etc).
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Operating Systems knowledge for computer networking: Mostly LAMP infrastructure, though I have done some work on Windows Server.
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WordPress: I have done work on a number of WordPress websites for a whole array of personal projects, and for friends. I have also done WordPress hardening as part of a project for university.
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Programming ability of varying levels in: C, PHP, HTML, CSS, Bash, SQL, Javascript.
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IT Risk knowledge: I have done work through a ISO-27001 continual-assessment audit, and have done work to maintain an ISMS.
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Cybersecurity knowledge, practical and informational.
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Digital Forensics knowledge: I have found this to help me a lot when participating in SIRT meetings, or mitigating security risks in the past.
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Basic Penetration Testing with Kali.
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Hands-on experience with DLP solutions, such as Mimecast and Forcepoint and McAfee (yes, I know, awful).
I’m most interested in working in Computer Networks, or in Cyber-Security Training (teaching normal people about cybersecurity was one of the areas that I actually really enjoyed at my last job!). I am however, totally open to most areas in Tech. I’m a quick learner, and I enjoy picking up new skills, so if you think I just sound friendly, or a good fit to your current cooperative’s mission, ethics, goals, etc, etc, then feel free to drop me a line! james.poxon@protonmail.com
I hope you are all looking after yourselves during the Covid pandemic, and thanks for reading.
Solidarity and love,
James