A cryptic title (although a fairly easy lyric to identify) to note that five years ago I started blogging “seriously” outside of the corporate firewall… although I’d had a couple of little online journals before that, 12th December 2005 was the day I kicked off my more active participation in the blogosphere.
It has been a period of enormous change – in online technology, hardware and software capabilities, and in my life, profile and career. I started blogging for a couple of reasons… I tend to mention this when I do my “social @ IBM” talk as a speaker. Primarily it was to share information, knowledge and opinion with colleagues and customers, when I was often working along as a Software Services consultant. It was also to act as a journal.
I mentioned in my last blog entry that I’ve recently taken on a new role as WebSphere Messaging Community Lead at IBM Hursley, and that is in part a reflection and validation of the “social bridgebuilding” I’ve been doing across the corporate firewall and into various spaces over this period. In the past five years I’ve actually ended up moving out of my services / consulting career and into our lab where I try to bring my field experience and customer relationships to bear on what we’re developing. Often it’s actually just about helping to expose some of IBM software’s existing strengths and capabilities to new folks, rather than changing things!
Looking back over five years of this blog (and the others that I contribute to) it’s interesting to see the directions in which my interests have moved. Fundamentally I believe I’m still interested in the impact of technology on society, and in people and individuals. As a pointer to the future, though, I think the next 12 months will probably see a lot more content here focused on solutions I work with. I’ll still continue to sprinkle in other interests – the web, podcasting, video, gaming, photography – but I can feel a body of content building up in my mind that centres more on WebSphere technology. We’ll see what 2011 holds š
As ever – thanks for reading – I hope I continue to provide useful content!
