About Me

Here’s a quick introduction to me and my work. If you want more technical details, you might want to look at my resume.

I started working for myself in the Fall of 2006. Prior to that time, I was the Executive Director of HoosierNet, a small, local Community Network and Internet Service Provider. HoosierNet was a small organization (our staff was never bigger than six people), and being the Executive Director meant being the lead systems administrator and network administrator as well as being the one who managed the staff and reported to the Board of Directors. It was a great place to work, I loved the people I worked with, and I got invaluable experience. But, like so many small ISPs, we were caught in the crossfire of the fight that the Big Cable Companies and the Big Telephone Companies started once they finally realized that the Internet was more than a passing fad. I’m not bitter about it. Part of me is actually proud that I realized when we were beat, and that I engineered a mostly-smooth transition out of operation. I did not want people to just wake up one day to find their Internet service gone, and I’m pleased that we avoided that embarrassment.

Besides, I realized that, in many ways, Internet access is better suited to those kinds of companies. They can afford infrastructure and redundancies that no small organization could provide. And, really, Internet service should be a commodity. As I type this, it doesn’t matter if my Internet is cable, DSL, or coffee-shop. You’re able to read it all the same.

In the waning days of HoosierNet, I knew which kind of work was most exciting to me. I’m very glad to have had the experience of navigating data packets around the ‘Net, and configuring Linux servers for 24/7/365 availability. But, I’m happy to leave that work to others at this point. It’s mostly well-understood, and the new things are mostly keeping up with the latest developments in software and hardware which might incrementally improve your operations. Not exactly my style.

I see the Web as a wonderful tool, and I see that most small organizations are only scratching the surface of what they themselves know the Web can offer.

I’m excited about dynamic web content.

Well, thanks to the experience I received and the local contacts I made at HoosierNet, I’ve been able to keep quite busy now that I’m working on my own. And I love dreaming about the next connection I’ll make and the system that we will build together. If you have an idea, get in touch and let me know.