Web design and ASP development for an Ottawa-based hemispheric policy think tank — a site that ran from first launch until the organization closed its doors nine years later.
The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) was an independent foreign policy centre with a mandate covering hemispheric relations, Canada-Latin America policy, the OAS, the FTAA, democratic governance, and Cuba. This was my first freelance engagement after leaving Corel Corporation — and it came with a second deliverable attached: CubaSource, the Foundation’s dedicated Cuba research directory.
What I built
I designed and built the full FOCAL web presence on an ASP/Windows/IIS stack. The site gave researchers, policymakers, and press access to the Foundation’s publications, event listings, and policy positions. ASP on Windows was the standard stack for Canadian government-adjacent and policy organizations in 2002 — the infrastructure most policy orgs already ran.
Stack and context
ASP, Windows/IIS. The site ran from 2002 until FOCAL shut down permanently in 2011 — nine years on the original build. A dedicated portfolio page with a full-page screenshot was live on thisismyurl.com through at least March 2005, confirmed by Wayback Machine.
Read next
- The Walper Tobacco Shop (1996). A site from the same era — what the early work looked like when ASP and shared hosting were still the question.
- From Layoff to Consulting: What the First Year Costs You. The career arc that came out of this era of legacy and policy work.
- What 15 WordCamp Talks Taught Me About WordPress Careers. Where the long view of a web career meets fifteen years of community talks.
