Work History

My work experience includes:

  • computing (bioinformatics, systems administration, electronic publication, Marklogic, XML, XQuery, relational databases, programming)
  • data science (R, RStudio, Shiny)
  • health physics (radiation protection, shielding, sealed and unsealed isotopes, gauges, compliance testing)
  • New Testament textual research (manuscripts, text encoding, multivariate analysis).

Bioinformatics Systems Specialist, Telethon Kids Institute (WA), 2017-2018

  • systems administration of numerous Linux computers used for bioinformatics
  • maintain user data base (LDAP)
  • resolve user problems
  • write documentation
  • ad hoc programming jobs (using e.g. shell scripts, R, RStudio, Shiny)
  • systems development

Data Analyst, Department of Health (WA), 2015-2017

  • use SAS and SQL to extract data required by clients from large data sets using various selection criteria
  • perform regular data loads to keep databases up to date
  • perform quality checking on data sets prepared for health and medical research
  • write documentation
  • systems development (set up and maintained development server).

Scientific Officer, Department of Health (WA), 2013-2015

  • assess diagnostic x-ray licence and registration applications and renewals
  • perform structural shielding assessments for x-ray installations
  • inspect and report on x-ray installations
  • deal with enquiries concerning radiation safety
  • conduct laboratory work
  • perform other authorized officer duties under the Radiation Safety Act (WA).

XML Programmer and Analyst, University of Virginia Press, 2011-2013

  • Marklogic system programming for the Founders Online collection of US founding era correspondence.

XML Programmer and Analyst, Documents Compass, 2010

XML Programmer and Analyst, University of Virginia Press, 2005-2009

  • design, implement, test, and troubleshoot digital editions using Marklogic, TEI XML, XQuery, XSLT, CSS, Unicode, and scripting languages.

Health Physicist, Department of Health (WA), 2003-2005

  • coordinate the diagnostic x-ray group responsible for licensing and registration of diagnostic x-ray users
  • maintain and develop the Radiological Council’s compliance testing program
  • deal with enquiries concerning radiation and health physics
  • perform authorized officer duties under the Radiation Safety Act (WA).

Digital Library Consultant, Oxford University, 2002-2005

  • specify and install development and production server systems for the papyrology section of the Classics Department
  • develop and maintain a digital library of edited papyrus collections
  • develop XML encoding specifications using TEI
  • write documentation
  • provide basic computer training for university papyrology researchers.

Text Encoding Specialist, Religion and Technology Center, 2000-2003

  • develop and maintain digital library systems (Greenstone, Perseus, TeraText)
  • coordinate digitization of large textual corpora
  • develop and maintain web sites
  • develop systems for text and image processing (Java, Perl, shell scripts, XSLT)
  • server and network installation and administration (Linux)
  • systems administration (Linux, Mac, Windows).

Qualifications

Bachelor of Computer Studies, Murdoch University

Postgraduate degree including C++, Java, assembly, object-oriented design, data structures and abstractions, computer networks, relational databases (SQL), systems analysis, and image processing components.

Doctor of Philosophy, Murdoch University

Dissertation on the text of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Greek New Testament involving palaeography of Greek manuscripts, text encoding and markup, Perl programs to process and collate manuscript texts, multivariate analysis of the collation data, and interpretation of the results in the light of known textual history.

Bachelor of Divinity (honours), Murdoch University

Postgraduate degree including theology, church history, languages (Greek, Hebrew), pastoral care, missiology, homiletics, religious education. I wrote a thesis on the collation of three Greek manuscripts of the Epistle to the Hebrews for the honours component.

Bachelor of Science (physics major), University of Western Australia

Degree including classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity, optics, electronics, solid state physics, nuclear physics, high energy physics, calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, vector algebra, complex analysis, statistics, physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and zoology.

Examples of My Work

Founders Online

Lead programmer for this digital archive of Founding Era presidential correspondence. I worked under contract to the University of Virginia Press who were commissioned to do the work by the United States National Archives. This site receives thousands of visitors and hundreds of thousands of hits per day.

Rotunda digital editions

Lead programmer for the American Founding Era Collection, The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, The Journal of Emily Shore, and “Typee”: A Fluid-Text Edition.

Oxyrhynchus Online

Makes available a number of collections of ancient documents including the Oxyrhynchus papyri. I did the original system design and implementation, installing the servers it first ran on.

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism

Technical editor of this online journal from 2001 until 2018; responsible for web publication.

What Does the Text Actually Say?

Edited this Festschrift in honour of my New Testament teacher.

PhD dissertation

Downloadable copy of my PhD dissertation.

My home page

More examples of my work are available here.

Teaching

I was lecturer for these tertiary courses:

Romans, Vose Seminary

John’s Apocalypse, Vose Seminary

General Letters, Vose Seminary

Letter to the Hebrews, Baptist Theological College (WA)

Conference presentations

Australian Society of Archivists, Perth

Presented a paper titled “Applying Markup.”

Digital Humanities, Sydney

Organized the inaugural Digital New Testament workshop and presented a paper titled “Manuscript Copying Simulation.”

Marklogic Users, San Francisco (USA)

David Sewell presented Planning for Growth with and without Performance Metering. He kindly listed me as co-author.

Digital Humanities Australasia, Perth

Presented a paper titled “How To Discover Textual Groups.”

Association Internationale Bible et Informatique, Stellenbosch (South Africa)

Presented a paper titled “Computer-oriented Transcription, Collation and Analysis of the New Testament Manuscript Tradition (Starting with Hebrews).”

Digital Resources in the Humanities, Oxford (UK)

Presented a paper titled “Transcribing New Testament manuscripts.”

Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, Bergen (Norway)

Presented a paper titled “Computer-assisted Collation of New Testament Manuscripts”

Courses attended

Unsealed Radio-Isotopes, UWA

Safe use and handling of unsealed radio-isotopes.

MarkLogic Server Training, Mark Logic Corporation

Introduction to use of the MarkLogic XQuery server presented by Jason Hunter.

XQuery Training, Datypic

Introduction to XQuery presented by Priscilla Walmsley.

Non-Radiologist Fluoroscopy, Medical and Scientific Services

Radiation safety for fluoroscopic x-ray machines.

TeraText XML Database, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

XML database design and implementation.

Tutoring in Social Sciences, Murdoch University

Lesson preparation, learning paradigms.

Papyrology Summer School, Oxford University

Palaeography, papyrology, Greco-Roman history.

Latin for Beginners, UWA

Basic Latin.

German 1 and 2, TAFE (WA)

Basic German.

Abseiling Instructor Certificate, Ministry of Sport and Recreation

Rope skills, safety procedures, rescue techniques.

Senior First Aid, St John Ambulance Association (not current)

CPR, management of cuts, burns, sprains and broken bones.

Publications

(Finney 2018) (Finney 2014) (Finney 2010) (Finney 2006) (Finney 2002b) (Finney 2002a) (Finney 1999) (Finney 1997) (Finney 1996) (Finney 1994)

Finney, Timothy J. 1994. “A Proposed Reconstruction of Hebrews 7.28a in P46.” New Testament Studies 40.

———. 1996. “Transcribing New Testament Manuscripts for Computer Collation.” Religious Studies News 11 (1).

———. 1997. “Mapping the Textual History of Hebrews.” Revue Informatique et Statistique Dans Les Sciences Humaines 33.

———. 1999. “Acts of the Apostles XXVI 31-32; XXVII 6-7.” In The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vol. 66. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

———. 2002a. “Computer-Oriented Transcription, Collation and Analysis of the New Testament Manuscript Tradition (Starting with Hebrews).” In Bible and Computer: The Stellenbosch AIBI-6 Conference. Leiden: Brill.

———. 2002b. “What Agreement Is Not.” In What Does the Text Actually Say? http://www.halotype.com/RKM/.

———. 2006. “Manuscript Markup.” In The Freer Biblical Manuscripts: Fresh Studies of an American Treasure Trove. SBLTCS 6. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

———. 2010. “Mapping Textual Space.” TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 15. http://purl.org/TC/v15/Mapping/.

———. 2014. “Varieties of New Testament Text.” In Digging for the Truth: Collected Essays Regarding the Byzantine Text of the Greek New Testament, edited by Mark Billington and Peter Streitenberger. Norden: FYM.

———. 2018. “How to Discover Textual Groups.” Digital Studies / Le Champ Numérique 8 (1): 7. doi:10.16995/dscn.291.