An Ordinary Person
Busy Busy Busy!
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Readers of this blog might have noticed I am still posting but infrequently. Maybe one or two blog posts per week, sometimes even less. For a blog that is pretty unusual and violates the first rule of blogging which is to provide a constant stream of fresh content for your readers so they will come back and hopefully frequently.
A busy life the past several months is to blame for my slacking on the blogging end — I simply have too much going on in my personal life. My day job (thank God I still have one in today’s horrid economy!) of course is taking up much of my time. But I am also letting things like my guitar-playing hobby slide as I’ve been out of practice for several weeks now.
Tags: maryland, montgomery county
The Political Outsiders Part II: Progressive Democrats
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I recommend reading a couple of books and a blog post to get a good background on the insurgency within the Democratic Party by Progressive grassroots activists.
Both books make the point that Internet and advances in social media technology have the capacity to empower ordinary people who have felt powerless and shut out of the political process to effective political participation. More than that, they have a potential to and in many cases, have had real impact in challenging and toppling entrenched interests in the Democratic Party and in traditional two-party politics. The blog post provides context on where this Progressive insurgency fits within the various groupings of the Democratic Party.
Back from Blogging Slumber, Into a Conference
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Nothing like a two-month break to make a blogger come back feeling refreshed! I took a break for various reasons in March. I feel like the time and my mood is right to get back in the saddle again so here I am!
I just got back home from an interesting event today: the Redux DC mini conference held at Georgetown in Washington DC where some great speakers reprised the presentations that they presented at the 2009 IA Summit and IxD ’09 conferences.
Yes, this was a professional development-oriented event that deals with my line of work—the web. More specifically, the event dealt with Information Architecture and User Experience—two aspects of the field of web design and development that I am curious and about which wanted to learn more.
Web Dude, Know Thyself
I am at a point in my career where I have made the decision that I like what I am doing and that I do not foresee myself switching careers to something completely different. The problem I face, however, is what aspects of the web to focus my efforts and energies on to build a solid foundation for a career that will last for the next decade (or two or three!)?
I know at the very least what I am not as a web professional. I am not a coder or a programmer who deals with and writes in complex programming languages. I am also not a designer—visual or otherwise—who designs and creates the look and feel and functionality of websites. I am also not an IT professional who deals with hardware, software and servers.
That leaves me dealing with content and the user experience—to a certain extent, what I am already doing now. This is the aspect of the web field that excites me and which I foresee myself developing into some sort of specialty. This is why Information Architecture and User Experience are logical choices to explore.
Dealing with content for large-scale websites—gobs of content. Organizing them into some sort of coherent systematic, structure. Presentation and delivery of that content so end users are able to find what they are looking for to be able to do the tasks they need to do with that information. This is the subset of the web field where I feel someone like me who is not a programmer, designer or IT wizard can find a professional niche. This is an area also where my analytical and writing skills as former Sociology and English major can come into play.
Tags: conference, IA, Information Architecture, professional development, Redux DC, User Experience, UX, web careers
Progressive Movement Crash Course
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I took the day off work today to attend a fantastic educational event, the Progressive Movement Crash Course organized by the New Organizing Institute (NOI). I have been following the NOI online for about a year now, curious about the high-quality training and political campaign bootcamps they have held in the past to encourage young professionals and those who are cutting their teeth in political organizing to continue in their careers. Most impressive to me was their focus on how to harness the power and potential of New Media technologies in political activism.
The day was divided into three panels of three speakers each who spoke about their fields of expertise and focus area. Each panel closed with a brief Q&A session with the audience and a meet and greet where audience members can approach the panelists to request their contact information and to chat briefly.
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