Jim Wright's Home Page
This is the home page of Jim Wright, of Redlands, CA. I am currently
the President of CommSoft Corporation, d/b/a
CommSoft Systems Development
, a software development and consulting firm I founded in 1992, and an Associate
at the law firm of Sidley Austin Brown &
Wood
.
Previously, I was the Director of Developer Relations and General Manager
of Java Product Development at InstallShield
Software Corp.
, the premier developer of software tools for Installation. A rough
description of my position there would have been 1/4 Developer Relations
(giving speeches & papers at customer sites, hosted conferences, and
trade shows, working with our strategic customers on development planning,
etc.), 1/2 Business Development (working on business and technology partnerships
between InstallShield and other industry leading ISVs, including Sun Microsystems,
IBM, and Oracle, for which I served as primary relationship manager, and continue
to do so in a consulting capacity), and 1/4 Development Management (management
of the Java product team and joint development projects between Sun, InstallShield,
and IBM).
Outside of the computer industry, which I live and breathe, my personal
interests include:
- Motorcycling - My current motorcycle is a 2000 Triumph Sprint
ST, and my previous street bikes have included a 1995 Honda VFR750 and an
1989 Honda Hawk GT. I ride as often as possible, both for recreation
and occasionally commuting, subscribe to virtually every motorcycling publication
known to man, and make a point of attending track schools to hone my riding
skills. I have attended Reg Pridmore's CLASS riding school at Monterey's
Laguna Seca raceway, and two sessions of Keith Code's California Superbike
School, level 1 at Loudon, New Hampshire, and Level 2 at Willow Springs Raceway.
Like many I'm sure, I would love to make a move to the industry, especially
in motojournalism, so if any of you guys at Motorcyclist, Cycle World, MCN,
Rider, etc. are looking for a new test rider/MIS director or web site creator/manager,
please give me a call!
- The automobile industry - I also love cars! I subscribe
to AutoWeek, Automobile, etc., I go to car shows, and I watch racing whenever
I get a chance. Auto Magazine guys, need a tester? Web site developer?
I'm your man! Like I said, I was born to be a motojournalist...
- Politics - I have distinctly libertarian leanings, and thus
often disagree alternately with the major parties on social and fiscal issues.
I love to watch our politicians slug it out, and read the newspaper religiously,
clipping a lot of editorials, though I'm disturbed recently by the obvious
bias appearing more and more in a lot of our "news" publications. If
any of you reporter types are reading this, let's leave the editorializing
to the opinion pages, people! If you have a need to promote your political
agenda, fine, go work for the Democratic Party or a lobbying group.
When you let it be reflected in news stories, it isn't news, it's just editorial
disguised as news, and really unprofessional. (Sorry folks, this is
clearly a rant topic for me.)
- Software and telecommunications law - I have a keen interest
in the evolution of the law and legal system around rapidly changing technology,
and after working in the software business throughout the 1990s, I decided
to enter the field professionally. I was fortunate enough to be admitted
at Harvard Law School
for the fall of 1997, and deferred until Fall 1999. I graduated in
June 2002, and now practice at Sidley in the field of Intellectual Property,
specializing in technology licensing and joint ventures in computing and
IT.
- Riba, my nine year old German Shepherd (though she looks and
acts nine months :-), is pictured with me at right in my home office just
after our arrival in Chicago in 1997.
You can contact me any time at jwright@commsoft.com
. If you wish to reach me at Sidley, you can mail me there at
jewright@sidley.com
.
Links of interest
