Our Drupal WebMASTER Team

In 2004, Giovanni Cojocari and Ron Cadid decided to form a partnership and they set up their own web applications business, ONWEB Systems Inc., targeting larger businesses and organizations. ONWEB has successfully developed and deployed a range of widgets and web based applications which continually prove to be helpful to a variety of diverse clients.

ONWEB initially focused on building a custom Content Management System (CMS) but soon realized that the turnover rate in building and delivering such applications proved to be impractical for both the company and their clients. Luckily, at this time open source CMS was starting to mature and was becoming quite reliable to be used for mission critical business online presence models. After a review of various open source CMS's available, they finally settled on Drupal in May 2006 for its broader user base, module extensibility and adaptability to a wide range of business models.

Pam Greenstock - Quality Control

After having numerous clients ask for copy editing skills,
we asked Pam to join our team.

Pam Greenstock Quality Control Expert

 

Pam's attention to grammar and detail is a cut above the rest. Acting for our clients as an editor / text creator releases some of the stress that comes with building or revamping a website.

Time after time we have found that the text is a lagging part of the development process. Often our clients are too busy to do it themselves, so we offer the alternative to hire a responsible and authorized person to take care of the text.

With a degree in English Literature, she is well read and very down to earth - a pleasure to work with! A positive attitude comes along with working with Pam as she asks the hard questions about your text.

Her interests include dancing to fun music, riding her bike as a primary mode of transportation, reading, sailing, ocean swimming, kayaking, singing, cooking, laughing and eating great food.

Ron Cadid - Programmer

Ronald was born in Manila, Philippines on Christmas Day, 1966. He completed his Chemistry Degree at University of the Philippines (with the highest score ever recorded on the final exam) and initially got involved in chemistry research and the quality insurance industry, which led him to working in the Middle East for a number of years.

He immigated to Canada in 1998 to pursue his passion with computers and information technology.

Ron Cadid Custom Drupal Programmer
  

He got his Applied Information Technology Certificate Program from Information Technology Institute and graduated in 2000. On the same year, he was hired by Corporate Media Arts Group as an Internet Web Developer, building web based applications for various businesses around the Pacific Northwest. He honed and developed his skills and technology expertise over a period of four years while employed with the Corporate Media Arts Group (CMAG). 

Ron is also an animal lover and has taken care of a variety of pets from cats to dogs to fish. Currently, he is a member of the Finnish Lapphund Club of America and the Finnish Lapphund Club of Canada, and he is the proud owner of Arvi and Ella.

GiO Cojocari - Information Architect

Born and raised on the West Coast of Canada, GiO has embraced change
all of his life.

GiO Cojocari Drupal Information Architect

  

Living in one of the fastest growing regions helped to hone his skills in becoming a digital agent of change.

GiO's diverse educational background includes:

  • Emily Carr Institute for Graphic Design
  • Marketing Management studies from Kwantlen College
  • Bachelors of Commerce Degree from Royal Roads University
  • Rail Traffic Controller and Crew Dispatcher
  • Private Boat Captain's License

This education has served him well in his career in engineering internet based systems.  GiO has worked in the IT industry since 1999, starting as Operations Manager for a Software Development firm. Wanting to set his own corporate culture and pace, he co-founded ONWEB Systems in May of 2004.

ONWEB began as a Flash Development house utilizing GiO's multimedia skills.  During his discussions with clients he came to understand the importance of a Content Management System (CMS).  Seeing the trend in the marketplace towards Open-Source CMS, ONWEB tried Drupal and has never looked back.

 

What is Open-Source Software Development?

What the world was like before Open-Source Software projects...

During the height of the dot com in Silicon Valley the business model of web software development was to find a niche market in need of a software module.  Countless hours would be spent by internal designers - programmers - marketing / sales people.  There would be a huge effort put forth by 100s of people before the launch.  After the launch a loyal customer base was expected to pay for license fees or for upgrades.  The client in the end was delivered a static design/result.  Support might have been offered but changing the source code was very expensive and tedious.

Since programmers had their own style, often it would be easier to re-write a module than try to understand how another coder solved the problem in a historical way.

Linux created the platform that runs Drupal CMS for Websites 

This led to a very protectionist attitude towards source code and sharing was unheard of.

Open-Source has turned that model on its head and gives the goods away for free.  You may ask: How does this work and maintain sustainablility? 

The community benefits from a rapid development and testing cycle that can't be matched by any single team!

The concept of Open-Source got its start in 1991 with a guy by the name of Linus Torvalds.   He was a university computer geek-type that was unhappy with the performance of his computer's operating system.  His frustration led him to write a new operating system...lucky for him he was pretty smart!

Few people can program an OS but that was not his stroke of genuis.

What set Linus apart was that he shared his source code with other academics for peer evaluation and review.  This community of programmers sent him suggestions on how to make his code better, to which he diligently included all beneficial changes.

Voila...the start of a new software era!

By sharing his source code Linus could leverage not only his own brillance but the shared intellect of his peers.  The next step was to share his Operating System (OS) with other computer programmers around the world.  The process of peer evaluation and review snowballed into the revolutionary Linux OS that today serves up a good part of the web.

Open Source process disrupts the software development cycle

Only about 2% of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. Despite the relative size of his contribution, Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the Linux kernel.

 

The concept of Open-Source projects has moved into other IT projects.  The website CMS Open-Source project that ONWEB is currently advising our clients to use is called Drupal.  You can find more information by visiting the organization's website drupal.org

As of September 2011, there were 1,000,000+ Drupal users/developers.