August 25th, 2007
So long and thanks for all the fish
I’ve had an interesting and varied journey through the sphere as a blogger with the exceptional good fortune to have been involved with three great communities of writers at the OfficeZealot.com portal, Weblogs, Inc., and now ZDNet. Working in these networked environments, I’ve had the opportunity to cover a variety of topics and meet an amazingly varied and talented group of passionate experts. Blogging has become a fixture in my work – an irreplaceable tool for learning, sharing information, and making connections.
I was recently approached with the opportunity to participate in the creation and launch of a new international network of blogs focused on emerging technologies, the explosive growth of mobile computing and application development, and coverage of important industry events. The network, blognation, was conceived by Sam Sethi, a blogger and entrepreneur based in the UK as a way to generate more awareness of what’s transpiring globally in the burgeoning world of 2.0 technologies by covering the important work being done around the world on a country-by-country basis. When my good friend Oliver Starr, the mobile guru and original voice at Mobilecrunch, told me about what Sam was planning and that he hoped I’d partner with him to launch the US site, I found the idea awfully compelling.
I like building things. “Getting in on the ground floor” is a special kind of thrill I have come to really enjoy and the chance to have another go at participating in the birth of a network of blogs was impossible to resist. So this is my farewell as the author of Office Evolution here at ZDNet as I begin another chapter in my bogging adventure.
It’s been a terrific experience. The opportunity to work with talented people like Dan Farber, David Grober, Larry Dignan, and David Berlind will always be a high-water mark in my personal history. Establishing or enhancing my relationship with great folks like Ed Bott, Matt Miller, and Ryan Stewart has been a highlight as well.
To the many readers who’ve been interacting with me during my tenure here and who have become an invaluable part of the conversation, thank you. Your comments, e-mails, and IMs have been a real inspiration and have challenged me often to reconsider my opinions and perspectives on the impact of technology on the way we work (and play). I hope you’ll come by to check out what I’ll be writing about at blognation USA technology and consider it another great resource for keeping abreast of the ever-changing landscape in which we live and a forum for great conversation and debate about the implications of the technological revolutions occurring all around us.
And, if you have plans to attend the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco (September 6-7) or DEMOfall 2007 in San Diego (September 25-26), look me up. You can reach me at marc [dot] orchant [at] blognation [dot] com.
Marc Orchant has been building, testing, and sometimes breaking hardware and software for 25 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 08/25/07
