On blogging and busy lives

I just redesigned my blog yesterday.  It was a sunny Sunday morning, and after sneaking around the house quietly for an hour or two so as not to awaken anyone, I slipped out, rode my bicycle to the office, and after several hours of productivity, decided to do something fun.  Let me know what you think of it.

This blog has been with me since February 2008, nearly five years ago. And quite appropriate, really: I started it just before I started my job at the Berkman Center.  I was at the WeMedia conference with a group from Global Voices—the first time I’d met anyone from the network—and having a conversation with Solana Larsen in the backyard of our Miami rental about my desire to turn my hobbies into a job.  Shortly after, she connected me with Ethan Zuckerman, who offered to pass my CV around…and did, later connecting me to my future employers at the Berkman Center. (I am obviously, infinitely grateful to both of them.)

It was only yesterday, in redoing my blog, that I realized how much had happened in five years.

This week, I was able to help someone the way Solana and Ethan helped me.  And requests like that come by me every so often, and I always try my best.

Today, writing this, I looked back for those emails, and was reminded that, after thanking Solana for sending off that message so quickly, she emailed back to say: “If I don’t do it straight away it’s less likely to ever happen.”

A nice reminder for busy lives.