About the Authors

John Cummings is a senior product support engineer working with ColdFusion for Macromedia, Inc. John began working with ColdFusion in 1998, when he started using ColdFusion to develop web-based applications. Prior to joining the Macromedia Product Support Team, John worked for Allaire's consulting group, visiting ColdFusion development shops around the country and assisting them with developing and tuning their applications.

John has written several articles on various ColdFusion topics, several of which can be found on community web sites. John also worked as a contributing author on Que's Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit.

In addition to working for Macromedia, John and Laura provide periodic consulting work, and they can be contacted regarding this at www.igensolutions.com.

John lives and works in Huntington, West Virginia, with his wife, Laura, and their two cats. John and Laura are expecting their first child in September 2002. You can contact John at [e-mail] or by visiting his web site at www.mauzy-broadway.com.

Neil Ross is a ColdFusion application architect with Ciber, Inc. in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Neil has five years of web and application development experience and is a Macromedia Certified ColdFusion Developer. Neil is a former member of Allaire Consulting Services and worked with Allaire clients to improve the stability of their servers and the efficiency of their application code. While with Allaire, Neil became an Allaire Certified Instructor and conducted public and private classes throughout the United States.

At the 2000 ColdFusion Developer's Conference, Neil was a key presenter, conducting hands-on sessions on optimizing ColdFusion Server performance. He has published articles and product reviews in the ColdFusion Developer's Journal. He has also contributed content to various online technical publications.

Neil is active in the ColdFusion community and is a frequent speaker at CFUG meetings. He is a founding member and currently serves as the manager of the Central Pennsylvania ColdFusion User Group.

Neil, his wife, Louise, and their three children currently live in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Neil can be reached at [e-mail] or by visiting his web site at www.codesweeper.com.

Robi Sen is the Vice-President of Department13, a software consultancy focusing on e-procurement, supply chain management, enterprise application integration, and web services. Formerly, he was the Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Software Development at Granularity, Inc. Mr. Sen has been working professionally in the software development world for the last 15 years, since he was recruited at the age of 16 to develop software systems for Westinghouse Hanford Co. and the Department of Defense. Mr. Sen's chief areas of interest are in the creation of a new breed of network-based applications and the development of intelligent agents, which are software systems that can interact with humans and other machines in a thoughtful manner. These systems make context-appropriate decisions for their users, without having to receive instructions from those users. He is also interested in the development of web services. He is a sought after speaker and speaks to user groups, universities, and at major conferences all over the United States.