MarkM's Resume
Please also see my papers, patents, and talks

Mark S. Miller
PO Box 451
La Honda, CA 94020

(650) 618-1521   voice-mail & fax
(650) 747-9432   only if you're serious
markm@caplet.com

Mr. Miller has been a trailblazer in the computer software industry for the past twenty-five years. He is the co-inventor of the agoric paradigm of market-based distributed secure computation. A co-founder of the Vulcan project at Xerox PARC, he is a pioneering designer of secure distributed programming languages including Vulcan for Xerox PARC, Trusty Scheme for AutoDesk, Joule for Agorics, Tclio for Sun Labs, and E for Communities.com, ERights.org, and Combex. Mr. Miller was also the chief architect of Xanadu -- a groundbreaking hypertext system that anticipated many of the Web's virtues.

Mr. Miller is a co-founder of Agorics, a successful startup company established to capitalize on the agoric computing vision. He is a co-director of the Agorics Project at George Mason University, researching market-based computing ideas. At Communities.com he was the chief architect of the E platform. He formed ERights.org to utilize the open-source process to advance both the recognition and the technology of the E platform, and co-founded Combex, Inc. in order to commercialize the results.

Mr. Miller holds a BS in Computer Science (cum laude with distinction) from Yale University. Mr. Miller is an inventor on seven patents in the areas of cryptographic protocols, automated combination auctions, and distributed secure object systems. He has two more patents pending.

Combex, Inc.: Founder and Chief Technology Officer (2000-Present)

Pursuing commercial applications for the platform and applications built on it -- including our virus invulnerable distributed desktop, CapDesk. See the Combex website for details.

ERights.org: Open Source Coordinator (1998-Present)

The continuing open development of , and its application to Smart Contracts.

E is a cryptographically-based capability-secure distributed persistent pure object language, whose concurrency model & network protocol enables the deadlock-free maintenance of invariants, and massive compensation for network latency. In E, one can easily write Smart Contracts -- contracts as programs, in which the terms of the contracts are automatically enforced

Extropy Institute: Director (1997-Present)

The Extropy Institute seeks to understand how technological and other advances can substantially improve the human condition and beyond, while also seeking to avoid the dangers looming on this path.

Communities.com: Chief Architect of the platform (1996-1998)

Designed a technique for retro-fitting capability security onto the Java platform despite Javasoft's pursuit of conflicting security goals, while still playing within the "Pure Java" constraints. (This work is derived from, but different than, the technique I developed at Caplet™.)

Designed and implemented orthogonal persistence framework that enabled straightforward application-level recovery of distributed consistency following any of the normal partial failure conditions.

crit.org: Participant and Kibbitzer (1997-Present)

Provided conceptual and architectural guidance, to varying extents, to the three parts of CritSuite:

  • Ka Ping Yee's CritLink, providing extrinsic backlinks to the web able to support open critical discussion
  • Terry Stanley's CritMap, Dynamic visualization of web connectivity. Focal Motion technique

  • Peter McClusky's CritMail, Hypermail archiving enhanced to turn email-quotation into bidirectional linking

Caplet™ Security: Sole Proprietor (1996-Present)

Independent consulting.

Named for a technique I developed to build capability-secure applets within the Java environment. A Caplet™ == a Capability-based Applet.

Agorics, Inc.: Founder and Sr. Software Architect (1994-1996)

Agorics is a successful startup, founded to pursue the agoric computing vision.

  • WebMart Project (originally done for Sun)
    • Technical lead developing the WebMart framework for object-oriented electronic commerce
    • Built and demonstrated at Interop an ATM Network Bandwidth Auction 6 months after starting the contract.
    • Several prototype automated businesses and market institutions were successfully deployed in Sun Labs.
  • Joule Project (originally for Fujitsu & Communities.com)

    • Co-architect of Joule, a massively concurrent secure distributed object programming language.

Agorics Project, George Mason University: Co-director (1994-Present)

The Agorics Project asks the question: What can economics learn from the theory and practice of computation?

Xanadu / AutoDesk: Co-architect (1989-1994)

Xanadu was a distributed hypertext publishing system that preceded and influenced the Web.

    • Started the Trusty Scheme project: We built a secure programming language enabling (what has since become known as) "applet" functionality in our hypertext system, but with a sound security model.

Xerox PARC: Consultant (1985-1988)

    • Co-authored the seminal Agoric Open Systems papers, initiating the field of capability-based electronic commerce.

    • A founder of the Vulcan Project, which created a secure distributed programming language. (Most of what was good about Vulcan is now in Joule, and ToonTalk.)

Datapoint Technology Center: (1980-1985)

    • Created the first commercial distributed window system, VistaView™.
Please also see my papers, patents, and talks