Recently in Personal Category
Its been an extremely interesting few months since leaving my last job. Changes abounded in every aspect of my life, some good...some not so great.
At my last organization I was almost completely focused on CMS implementations, ignoring most of the other aspects of website development. CMS work is nice, its the backbone of the internet, but I was missing the application engagements that precipitates true user interaction. After leaving there one of my first adventures was attending the New New Internet conference in my hometown of Reston, VA. I was introduced to (or should I say immersed in) social media and the reality of Web 2.0. My next few months entailed my engagement in the Facebooks and Twitters of the web, more usage of my LinkedIn account, and a presence at multiple local tech activities. I've met and interacted both in person and over the internet with many great people, too many to list here.
My challenge became finding a position that leveraged the two. Most social media positions today are in the marketing and PR domain. Unless I wanted to start my career over from the ground up I did not see those domains as options. Weeks became months which became quarters while I looked for that job. I then stumbled across a local startup named WorthPoint.
WorthPoint is a social media site that catalogues and tracks the sales history and current value of antiques and collectibles from around the world, and makes this information available to everyone. Anne Zeiger stated "The company is gaining significant visitor traction and is well poised to capture the lion's share of this untapped market."
Thats the company's story. For me it's the perfect match I was looking for.
We utilize Drupal as our CMS. Well utilize is the wrong word, we actually push Drupal up to and beyond its intended limits. We provide a plethora of tools and features for collectors of every domain. Communities that include user abilities to list items in their collections, videos of them, mixing of professional knowledge along with wisdom of crowd knowledge, blogging, buying and selling, along with a deep database of historic data on auction items called the Worthopedia. Thats just the short list of features, there's more in the works (whoops, I almost said worx. old habits huh?).
Whats my role in this you may ask? They've asked me to manage the product development and implement an Agile process using the tool Rally Dev. Our first sprint started today. I'm happy with the team so far as they've taken to the change in the way they work and the new tool. Rally Dev is an interesting application that I plan to cover in another post but I will say now that they have a great sales and support staff.
So for now I'm deep in the midst of a CMS driven social community application utilizing an Agile process with distributed teams all over the world. To quote some of my older relations back in Arkansas....I'm like a pig in shit!
Have you changed jobs recently?
At my last organization I was almost completely focused on CMS implementations, ignoring most of the other aspects of website development. CMS work is nice, its the backbone of the internet, but I was missing the application engagements that precipitates true user interaction. After leaving there one of my first adventures was attending the New New Internet conference in my hometown of Reston, VA. I was introduced to (or should I say immersed in) social media and the reality of Web 2.0. My next few months entailed my engagement in the Facebooks and Twitters of the web, more usage of my LinkedIn account, and a presence at multiple local tech activities. I've met and interacted both in person and over the internet with many great people, too many to list here.
My challenge became finding a position that leveraged the two. Most social media positions today are in the marketing and PR domain. Unless I wanted to start my career over from the ground up I did not see those domains as options. Weeks became months which became quarters while I looked for that job. I then stumbled across a local startup named WorthPoint.
WorthPoint is a social media site that catalogues and tracks the sales history and current value of antiques and collectibles from around the world, and makes this information available to everyone. Anne Zeiger stated "The company is gaining significant visitor traction and is well poised to capture the lion's share of this untapped market."
Thats the company's story. For me it's the perfect match I was looking for.
We utilize Drupal as our CMS. Well utilize is the wrong word, we actually push Drupal up to and beyond its intended limits. We provide a plethora of tools and features for collectors of every domain. Communities that include user abilities to list items in their collections, videos of them, mixing of professional knowledge along with wisdom of crowd knowledge, blogging, buying and selling, along with a deep database of historic data on auction items called the Worthopedia. Thats just the short list of features, there's more in the works (whoops, I almost said worx. old habits huh?).
Whats my role in this you may ask? They've asked me to manage the product development and implement an Agile process using the tool Rally Dev. Our first sprint started today. I'm happy with the team so far as they've taken to the change in the way they work and the new tool. Rally Dev is an interesting application that I plan to cover in another post but I will say now that they have a great sales and support staff.
So for now I'm deep in the midst of a CMS driven social community application utilizing an Agile process with distributed teams all over the world. To quote some of my older relations back in Arkansas....I'm like a pig in shit!
Have you changed jobs recently?
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See that girl in the picture? The one with the stupid grinning guy? Her name is Sherri and she's the love of my life.Twenty years ago today in a small country church we faced each other and vowed to live together forever in marital bliss. I never tell her this but as I look back over my life that was the single best day of my life.
Sherri is an amazing woman and an amazing wife. I'm not saying that she's perfect. We both learned long ago that neither one of us is perfect, and therefore, our marriage is not perfect. But, even though she is not perfect, she still amazes me. Besides taking care of our home and children she also takes care of me.
She's put up with a lot over the years, especially the early years. Shortly after our marriage I converted to active service in the US Navy, moved her from her family to Charleston, SC and left her alone for many months at a time while she raised our newborn daughter. Those that served will understand how easier deployments are when you have a spouse at home that can manage the family matters, not only their side of it but yours as well. Of course I worried about her but she never complained and was always there waiting for me to come home.
Words cannot express my gratitude to her. I could not imagine my life without her and would not want to. I just hope I can make the next 20 years better than the first.
I love you Sherri.
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Tomorrow is January 23rd which marks my 20th wedding anniversary. It got me wondering what else happened that year. Here's a list from my deteriorating memory and a little web research:
The Washington Redskins handily defeated the Denver Broncos 42-10 at SuperBowl XXII in San Diego, CA a week after my wedding. I did see this.
The Edmonton Oilers gained their 4th Stanley Cup but lost Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings. It was a good year for Los Angeles as their Dodgers won the World Series.
The Games of the XXIV Olympiad were hosted in the Winter at Calgary, Canada and in the Summer at Seoul, South Korea.
At the Oscars The Last Emperor won Best Picture, Michael Douglas won Best Actor for Wall Street, and Cher won Best Actress for Moonstruck. (My personal favorite is Harry and the Hendersons winning Best Makeup)
INXS (5 awards) was the star of the MTV Music Awards and Guns N' Roses walks away with Best New Artist award.
The Writers Guild of America goes on strike....deja vu?
TV Debuts - 48 Hours, America's Most Wanted, China Beach, Roseanne, Yo! MTV Raps, Murphy Brown, Mystery Science Theater 3000, COPS
TV Endings - Magnum, P.I. , The Facts of Life, Cagney and Lacey, St. Elsewhere, Punky Brewster, Solid Gold
Oprah Winfrey created Harpo Studios to produce her already successful talkshow. (I added this one for Sherri)
The Soviet Union began it program of economic restructuring (perestroika) under Mikhail Gorbachev.
Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The United States was tied up with a presidential election which would eventually see George Bush defeat Michael Dukakis and the Iran-Contra affair.
An unknown governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton gave a disappointing 32 minute opening night address at the Democratic National Convention. He made up for it a few nights later on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and again 4 years later by winning the presidential election.
The US Navy retaliates for the USS Samuel B. Roberts mining with Operation Praying Mantis, in a day of strikes against several Iranian oil platforms and naval vessels. (I had first hand experience with this one)
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Its the first snow of the year but Fairfax County decided it was not enough to keep the school bus's off the road.
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Boing Boing linked to a pic and how-to for a PacManGourd (what I like to call the PacO'Lantern). I sent it to my wife and she had to try it out. We decided to use pumpkins but did get some small gourds to use as pellets. She did a good job if you ask me:
She can be pretty original too:
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She can be pretty original too:
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