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Alvin O. Forteta

Web Applications · Linux Infrastructure · Remote

I build PHP/Laravel web applications and run the Linux servers they live on.

Institutional data systems, billing and provisioning portals, and the hardened servers underneath them — designed, built and operated by one person.

Technology executive and digital governance researcher. Based in Nigeria (WAT, UTC+1), working remotely.

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Alvin Forteta

Systems I’ve Built

Three systems in production. Each one I designed, wrote and still run on servers I manage.

Higher Education · Data Portal

OIRE — Institutional Research Data Portal

American University of Nigeria, Office of Institutional Research & Effectiveness

Problem
The office needed one place to load, check and report on admissions, enrolment and retention data, with control over who can see and change what.
What I built
A role-based portal for administrators, analysts and viewers; CSV import pipelines with import history; analytics modules for admissions, enrolment, retention and academic performance; and an audit log of every significant action.
Stack
PHP 8, MySQL 8, Apache on Ubuntu. No framework; CSRF-protected forms and per-page role checks throughout.
Outcome
Running against live institutional data: 3,540 users, 16,094 student records and 10,184 enrolments across seven academic semesters.
SaaS · Payments & API Integration

Digital River Infrastructure Portal

Digital River Technologies Ltd. · app.digitalriver.ng

Problem
Selling cloud servers to Nigerian and international customers without provisioning each order and raising each invoice by hand.
What I built
A self-service portal: customers order a server, a queued job provisions it through the Contabo API, and recurring billing takes over — PDF invoices, renewals, grace periods and suspension. Payments by Paystack, Flutterwave and PayPal with webhook handling, Naira and US dollar pricing from a daily exchange rate, and multi-organisation accounts with five roles and per-server access.
Stack
PHP 8, MySQL, cron workers, dompdf, Brevo transactional email, Google sign-in. Third-party credentials stored encrypted (AES-256).
Outcome
Live and open for sign-up, with ordering, provisioning and billing running without manual steps.
Consumer App · PWA + REST API

Gospel Genius

Bible mastery platform · gospelgenius.ng

Problem
A Scripture study app that installs like a native app, keeps working offline, and shares one backend between the web and a mobile app.
What I built
An installable progressive web app with a service worker for offline use; a quiz engine with 1,047+ questions in seven categories; leagues, a 365-day reading plan and daily devotionals; and a REST API that serves the mobile app.
Stack
PHP 8.2, SQL, Alpine.js, Tailwind CSS. Front-controller routing, OAuth sign-in, switchable email providers.
Outcome
Live and free to use on any phone or desktop browser.

Also delivered: a membership portal for an alumni association in Laravel 13 and Filament (members, levies, wallets, documents, audit log); administration of a Moodle LMS; and websites for two agricultural investment summits and an infrastructure firm.

What You Can Hire Me For

Two services, usually together: I build the application, then keep the server it runs on fast, patched and secure.

Services

Web Application Development

Custom PHP and Laravel applications: data portals, customer portals, admin panels and REST APIs. Role-based access, payment gateways, third-party API integration, CSV import and reporting.

Server Setup, Hardening & Managed Hosting

Linux servers built and looked after on a monthly retainer: Apache, PHP-FPM, MySQL and Redis; a full mail stack with DKIM and spam filtering; TLS certificates, firewall and intrusion blocking. I currently run more than a dozen sites this way on one server.

Working With Me

Remote, from Nigeria (WAT, UTC+1) — the same working day as the UK and Europe. Contracts and invoices can go through Digital River Technologies Ltd. (RC 8761968) when you need to deal with a registered company.

Technical Stack

Application Development
PHP 8
Laravel & Filament
MySQL 8
REST APIs
JavaScript / Alpine.js
Progressive Web Apps
Moodle
Servers & Operations
Ubuntu Linux
Apache & PHP-FPM
Redis
Postfix / Dovecot / DKIM / rspamd
Let’s Encrypt TLS
fail2ban & ufw
Integrations
Paystack / Flutterwave / PayPal
Contabo API
Brevo Email
Google OAuth
Cloud & Data
Microsoft Azure
AWS
Oracle OCI
Python & R
Power BI / Tableau

Executive Track Record

Resource Optimization

Proven track record of cutting annual internet expenditure by 50% while expanding network capacity by over 200% through strategic negotiation.

Capital Acquisition

Successfully secured multi-million Naira technology funding to facilitate computing hubs, improving institutional research capacity and connectivity.

Digital Governance

Expertise in aligning technology strategy with core business priorities, ensuring regulatory compliance, and strengthening organizational memory.

Research Programme

Most governance failures are not failures of will. They are failures of memory — specifically, the kind of forgetting that gets built into digital infrastructure before anyone thinks to question it. The Theory of Infrastructural Forgetting (TIF) is my answer to that problem. It proposes that silence in sociotechnical systems is not an absence but a product — structurally manufactured, historically layered, and remarkably difficult to see from inside the system doing the forgetting. DEJM, RVSM, and the CVD Index grew out of this proposition. They are not companion papers. They are tools for a different kind of institutional autopsy — one conducted on systems that are still running.

Core Theory Theory of Infrastructural Forgetting TIF
Applied Expressions DEJM  ·  RVSM Governance Instruments
Measurement Instrument Colonial Variety Deficit Index CVD Index
Featured Research
Manara Centre — Lights of Coexistence, Abu Dhabi · June 2026

Tacit Weaponization of Historical Narratives

Manara Lights of Coexistence  ·  American University of Nigeria

The framework operationalises epistemic justice through the Tacit Score Index (TSI) — a metric that detects how historically accurate narratives are quietly weaponized inside trusted digital micro-publics such as WhatsApp and Telegram groups. The Digital Epistemic Justice Monitor (DEJM) is the live governance platform built to surface these dynamics, visualise narrative asymmetry, and equip communities with the evidence to reflect, contest, and rebalance — without suppressing any voice. Research site: Mubi North, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Visit DEJM Research Flyer Pitch Deck

In collaboration with Mr. Kamal Bakari, Mr. Joseph Ingio, Mr. Muhammad Bello, and Dr. Zainab Shamsiya Usman (Faculty Advisor) — American University of Nigeria

Programme Outputs
Governance Platform

Digital Epistemic Justice Monitor

A real-time governance instrument that detects and visualises narrative asymmetry in community digital spaces, operationalising the Tacit Score Index (TSI = Cw × Ts × Ar). Field site: Mubi North, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Manara Centre — Lights of Coexistence, Abu Dhabi · June 2026
Framework

Rethinking Institutional Memory

Introducing the Reflexive Viable System Model (RVSM), which reconceives institutional memory as active infrastructure — deploying System D to filter paradigm-threatening anomalies and System R for performative regeneration to restore organisational viability.

AUN International Conference 2025
Deployed Implementation

RVSM in Production

The Reflexive Viable System Model instantiated as working institutional infrastructure at the American University of Nigeria — System D signal filtering, System R regeneration, Cynefin classification and SECI knowledge conversion running against live institutional data: 3,540 users, 16,094 student records and 10,184 enrolments across seven academic semesters. A theory of institutional memory, tested on an institution that is still running.

Proof of concept · AUN Office of Institutional Research & Effectiveness · 2026
Taxonomy

The Four Faces of Forgetting

A diagnostic lens for memory loss in digital governance: Procedural, Relational, Epistemic, and Structural forgetting in sociotechnical systems — the empirical groundwork for TIF.

AUN International Conference 2025
Case Study

Disruption-Aware Governance

Rethinking digital governance through disruption awareness and resilience memory: investigating LMS implementations in developing economies as sites of institutional forgetting.

MoodleMoot Africa 2025
Google Scholar ORCID Profile

Let's Connect.

Available for remote contract work — web applications and server management — as well as executive roles, digital governance consulting and academic collaboration.

alvinforteta@gmail.com
+234-913-938-0175
AUN Coding Hub
© Alvin O. Forteta. All rights reserved.