It’s 2007 already?
Wow, another year has come and gone. Amazing.
All in all, even though the end of 2006 kind of snuck up on me quickly, it was a very good year. In many ways, even though I actually changed jobs in 2005, 2006 was more of a transitive year in terms of my life on-line. This blog has been changing since late 2005 and becoming a different beast. No longer the one-man IT Department, it’s taken some time to develop into the “next” thing. I have had in my head for awhile now what I wanted this to become, but no clear path to how to get it there. As the year-end approached, though, you guys have seen me making some changes in the way I’m working, or in the way this information is being presented. Don’t worry, there is a plan. 🙂
Basically, the plan involves being a much larger part of the tech and web community. Moving all my photos to Flickr was part of that. Being invited to join Friends in Tech was an unexpected honor, but the decision to take up that invitation was part of that. Creating tools to make it easier for readers to share information they get here is part of that. Changing to Feedburner and doing some other things to help identify who you are, where you’re coming from and how you’re reading and/or finding this site will help me figure out how to bring the most value to you, and to be a larger part of the overall community.
That means you’ll probably see me experimenting some more this year, focusing more on some things, and less on others as time goes on and my own interests change. I want to bring you helpful information about not only technology, but about careers and personal development, photography, and whatever else you want to talk about. I want to be involved with Friends in Tech and other endeavors in as many ways as possible to bring what I have to offer to folks outside of my normal subscribers.
2006 was the year that my other site really took off, in terms of traffic and just a real sense of being part of a larger community. I can’t really even begin to describe the pleasure I’ve gotten from interacting with abuse survivors, and tossing ideas back and forth with other survivors. There’s always been a sense of that on this site, but it hasn’t really taken off in that same way over the past couple of years. It reached a nice level and has since plateaued. I want 2007 to be the year I figure out how to break through that plateau, or at least find out what steps we can take in that direction.
The year will start off with it’s own challenges. Our help desk will be down one person (out of two and a half, total, people) while she’s on maternity leave. (She’s due to give birth any day now.) Our plan for getting through that time just fell through on Friday, so there will be some serious scrambling, and I, as the only full-time, permanent person working at the desk, will be forced to take on more. I need to get back on the workout bandwagon, we fell off that particular bandwagon hard when my surgery ran straight into an illness and then the holidays. I need to rebuild, and eventually start to transition, the communication committee of the Friends of the Library Trustees. This is the last year of my 3-year term, and I’m leaning toward not running for re-election once this year is up. Someone will have to take responsibility for the website, and chairing the committee. Throw in continuing to enjoy time with family, friends and my lovely wife, and you see things will be as hectic as ever, but I’m also finding more tools and ideas to keep myself on task. I’m sure I’ll even be blogging about some of those things as well.
So, I hope you all had a great holiday season, and I look forward to another great year of life, and blogging, in 2007!