nigelparry.com: the website less traveled

about nigel parry

Resume/CV

PRESENT DAY

Freelance Internet consultant & Web designer (1996-present)

Chief designer and consultant on tens of Internet projects for local, national, and internationally-known individuals, businesses, and non-profit organisations, including the United Nations, Birzeit University, The Electronic Intifada, Electronic Iraq, Electronic Lebanon, Middle East International magazine, the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, the Institute for Middle East Understanding, United Palestinian Appeal, the Religioscope news service, the Tilsner Artists Cooperative, Partners for Peace, Stop The Wall Campaign, the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights, Soul Asylum's Daniel Murphy, and others. Services include consulting, taking website projects smoothly from conception to launch, content management systems, content creation, multimedia, and photography. For more information and to browse the web portfolio, see nigelparry.net, "award-winning communications solutions for clients with something to say".


PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

Recipient of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's "Voices of Peace" Award, (June 2003)

The award was presented to Nigel Parry and Ali Abunimah on behalf of the Electronic Intifada team for their work on Electronic Iraq and The Electronic Intifada "in recognition of its commitment to bringing the concerns, voices, and experiences of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples to audiences the world over via the Internet."

"Macintosh OS 9 and OS X", Survey of Operating Systems, Charles and Jane Holcombe (Osborne-McGraw-Hill, 2003)
Apple chapter in popular computer operating systems textbook for students training to be computer professionals, from OMH's Mike Myers' Computer Skills series.

The Past and Future of Information Technology in Palestine: An introduction for the Palestinian NGO community, by Nigel Parry (1997)
First paper to examine the history and appropriation of Internet technologies in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, presented at the International NGO Meeting/European NGO Symposium on the Question of Palestine at the United Nations in Geneva, August 1997.

Making Education Illegal - Students from the Gaza Strip: Israeli restrictions and international reactions, by Nigel Parry (Birzeit University, 1995)
First human rights report to document the systematic violations of freedom of movement of Gazan students trying to study in the West Bank, and flagship publication of the international Academic Freedom First campaign.

A Personal Diary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Nigel Parry (birzeit.edu/nigelparry.com, 1994-1998)
Book-length non-fiction account of the implementation of the Oslo peace accords on the ground in the Palestinian West Bank. Positively reviewed by The Independent newspaper (UK), Ha'aretz newspaper (Israel), Le Monde newspaper (France), and Stern magazine (Germany), A Personal Diary was featured in TIME magazine's end-millennium story, Visions of the 21st Century and other publications, and has received over one million visitors since its launch.

Street Children in the Philippines, Edited by Fr. Shay Cullen, Danny Smith, and Nigel Parry (Jubilee Campaign, 1992)
Flagship report of the campaign that successfully instituted laws which removed the immunity of British citizens committing sex crimes against children in other countries.


WRITING AND EDITING

Freelance writer

Including feature articles, news articles, and book reviews in MIT's Thresholds journal, The Electronic Intifada, Electronic Iraq, Electronic Lebanon, Middle East International, The Jerusalem Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, The Link, The Cairo Times, and various online publications including The Cockburn Project and others (1994-present).

Editor, Electronic Lebanon
Founder, editor, and key contributing writer of Electronic Lebanon, a media analysis and alternative news project launched during the summer 2006 war with Lebanon to bring voices from on the ground in Beirut, Lebanon, and other besieged Lebanese cities, which received 30,000 visits a day during the war.

Editor, The Electronic Intifada
Founder, editor, and key contributing writer of The Electronic Intifada, a media analysis and alternative news project which received 250,000 visits a month (2001-2006).

Editor, The Electronic Iraq
Founder, editor, and contributing writer of Electronic Iraq, an alternative news project which received 200,000 visits a month (2003-2006).

Editor, Al-Bassaleh
Founder, editor, and main contributing writer of this Middle East-related satirical online publication, which received 10,000 readers a month (2001-2002).

Publisher, The Cockburn Project
Founding editor, contributing writer, and publisher of this leading Internet resource on Canadian singer-songwriter and environmental activist Bruce Cockburn, inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2001. The Project received up to 312,000 visits a year (1998-2003).

The Middle East & the Internet
Column looking at the development and appropriation of the Internet in the Middle East, printed in Middle East International magazine (1998-1999).

Between The Lines
Satirical column written under the pseudynum "Giles Hogg" in The Jerusalem Times.

Editor, Birzeit University Newsletter
Editor and primary writer for the print and online versions of university news publications which offered editorial and feature stories on all aspects of university life and the role of the university in political, environmental, legal, and medical development. www.birzeit.edu welcomed its millionth visitor just 2.5 years after I launched the website. (1994-1998).

Editor, On the ground in Ramallah: Reports from a town become battlefield
First-ever alternative news website published by residents of a warzone (1996).

Editor, Friends of Birzeit University Newsletter
News publication of this charity (1993-1994).

Deputy Editor, Living Stones magazine
Feature and news magazine of this non-profit (1993-1994).

Researcher, OXFAM in Scotland
My voluntary summer research for Oxfam brought to light a previously unknown link between one of Britain's largest defense contractors and a U.S. subsidery that manufactured cluster bombs (1998).


OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE

Publicity and Public Relations

Publicity and public relations support for the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, the Lens on Syria film festival premiered at New York's Lincoln Center, the New York debut of the Made in Palestine exhibit (the first museum quality exhibit of contemporary Palestinian art in the US), and Olive Films' 2005 New York releases (2005-present).

Public Relations Officer, Birzeit University
"The Palestinian Harvard or Oxford", an internationally respected higher educational institution and one of the key engines of progressive and sustainable development of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. Work included publishing, writing, education and large-scale fundraising (1994-1998).

Coordinator, Living Stones
UK non-profit that promotes responsible pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1993-1994).

Coordinator, Friends of Birzeit University
UK charity founded to "support education at Birzeit University" (1993-1994).

Parliamentary Unit, Jubilee Campaign
UK charity lobbying in parliament for the rights of street children and for the release of prisoners of conscience (1992-1993).

Assistant, Tai-O House, St. Stephen's Society
24/7 live-in assistant in first stage heroin rehabilitation home, Hong Kong (1991).

Roehampton Institute Senate
Student representative on the board of this UK higher education institution (1989-1990).

Southlands College Board of Governors
Student representative on the board of this UK higher education institution (1989-1990).

President, Southlands College Student's Union
Elected representative of this UK students' union (1989-1990).


EDUCATION

BA (Hons) in English and Psychology, from the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (now Roehampton University, then accredited by the University of Surrey). (1989)


CREATIVE ARTS

Various multimedia/music works are always in process.

This Side of Paradise - Through a glass darkly: Bootleg tracks from the coffee bars of St. Paul, MN (1999)
This Side of Paradise is a debut CD spaning a decade of songwriting by Nigel Parry, described by New Internationalist magazine as "..a disc whose recommendation is its deftly managed intensity" and by Lydia Howell, KFAI Radio, 90.3/106.7FM, Twin Cities, MN as "Deeply moving songs... With quiet intensity, Parry gives voice to this 'invisible people' living under siege."

Droplet, On the face of the earth (2002)
Contributed several guitar tracks to the song "Soft Focus" on this CD by Minnesotan band Droplet.

Static, soundtrack for multimedia installation, "Call to Prayer" (2000)
Composed and recorded the soundtrack for Call to Prayer, multimedia sculpture installation by artist Suzanne Klotz, who has pieces in several U.S. museums including the Smithsonian.