About me
Freelance web designer and developer Keith Penton lives in Reading, UK. He has been building family and hobby websites since 1995, and took it up as a business in 2007. His focus is on building effective and affordable websites for clubs, small businesses and charities. He has experience in building, setting up and maintaining PCs and internet connections. Keith operates as a sole trader under the name of KP Web Solutions.
Background
Keith was awarded a first-class degree in Russian Studies by the University of Hull in 1975. Soon afterwards he started working for BBC Monitoring, part of the World Service, selecting and translating news from the Russian media.
He had an early interest in radio, electronics and computing, which he maintained throughout his studies. He built his first microcomputer in 1976, and gained an HNC in Computing in 1985.
While working at the BBC, Keith became involved in development of computing for editing and publishing, and saw users through several generations of systems, from the mainframe system of 1989 to adoption of Windows XP in 2005. He acted both as user-group leader and as software trainer for fellow journalists.
Combining editorial and computing skills, Keith developed Microsoft Word macros to automate formatting tasks, and played a major role in designing, developing and managing internet-based systems so that contributors from across the globe could submit material to BBC Monitoring.
Keith continued to combine roles as user representative, software trainer and Russian media-watcher until taking early retirement from the BBC in 2006 to pursue his freelance career.