A long needed Hiatus

To my dear readers, subscribers, friends, and colleagues:

This is a very personal post and because I believe in transparency, I would like to share the following…

I have been anxious to get back to blogging, public speaking, and writing for some time. But as some of you might know if you follow my personal and semi-professional twitter feeds, that I have been dealing with a multitude of personal crisis which have for the moment subsided. This absence is the reason I was unable to attend Gov 2.0 Camp in LA, which I was really looking forward to attending.

In mid-December 2009, I decided to finally put my health first and get a Gastric Bypass (RNY). I have been struggling with weight issues since my honorable discharge from the Army in 1998. I am a disabled American Veteran and I had suffered multiple injuries while in service. As such, these injuries and the medicine to help me cope contributed to a weight gain I was unfamiliar with. I spent 2/3 of my life being mostly underweight. Encouraged by family to eat more — I was never a big eater.

In 2008, I learned I had developed Osteo-Arthritis in both of my knees not only as a result from carrying too much weight, but as a result of how physical I once was before all the injuries. My damage from the injuries were common for a woman who had been a runner/basketball player, as I was both before and after high school. In early 2009, I had learned I had multiple esophageal ulcers, a hernia, and GERD. All of which my doctors attributed to stress. Not to mention adding to the problems of comorbidity. I decided this was my final straw and the weight had to come off.

I started looking into Weight Loss Surgery in 2007. But all the surgeries seemed too severe. I tried again weight watchers and other online monitoring tools. I would lose some, but it always came back. In Spring 2009, I started seeing a professional nutritionist in McLean, whom I have recommended to others. She put me on the right track and got me ready for surgery.

Many of my friends have been asking me questions of my progress and asking for pictures. I promise you that is coming. I am planning a public reveal at the WIRe Conference next week at the Gaylord National on February 24-25. As of this post I am 43lbs lost at day 63 of recovery. I have already been fitting and wearing clothes I bought myself and never had a chance to wear.

In other news, my family has recently gone through a very sad loss. My Aunt Claudia Romeo, who was also my Godmother and very close to my heart passed away on February 7, 2010 after being summoned by the Angels to end her battle with Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She was a careerist in the Foreign Service of the US State Department. Two weeks before her death, we were told that she would not be with us much longer and so during the first of the two snow storms, we were able to say our last goodbyes and tell her how much we loved her. The service for her memory was held this past Valentine’s Day at our family Church, Oxon Hill Lutheran. So please take a moment to kiss and hug your loved ones. They can never hear this enough.

All in all, you can tell that I have had a trying two months mentally, emotionally, and physically. I have been battling personal depression and weakness when it comes to dealing with my recovery and the loss of someone so close. Luckily, friends and colleagues have been so supportive in this time of confusion for me. I am also lucky that last year I met someone special in my life that finally can be a partner to me rather than just a boyfriend. So Joe Higgs, you have been a rock, a nurse, and a HUGE help when it comes to making life a little easier.

And back to my weight loss adventure and new life, an even MORE public reveal will be this year at SxSW in Austin, TX. I may not be able to indulge in the drinking and the BBQ (maybe just a taste), but I will be able to participate in many sessions and reconnect with the online relationships I have been fostering for years. So if you happen to be in Austin for Geek Spring Break as well, please come find me — I know it might be harder to spot me, since there is less of me to go around

I am now back to work full time (if snow days allow for it) and I am focused on a real busy spring in public appearances, writing, and working with my wonderful customers. So my sincerest apologies, if you have called, emailed or tweeted looking for me in the past two months. I look forward to renewing our connections.

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US AIR GUITAR FINALS IN WASHINGTON DC

Finals in Washington DC

NBC had some great coverage about the event I judged as a preview for tonight’s finals. Take a look, I show up in the video at the end showing my love for STD!!

And Mitt Umlaut, I will be looking for you tonight

Full-screen

930
815 V St NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 393-0930

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Starting Over, Yet Again

And no its not that book that is in the self help aisle that Charlotte was looking for in the “Sex in the City” tv show, but its about the newest chapter in my life as a Government Consultant. Last month was my last day as a full time wiki Gardener/Digital Curator for Intellipedia and other social software tools for the Intelligence Community. I am still doing project management for the contract as my/our vested interest of Navstar and Enterprise 2.0 work, in the bigger picture of Government 2.0.

When one does consultant work, especially in the Federal Government, as I do, you tend to rotate to new contracts on occasion. I’ve been on some contracts for years, others for months depending on the work. Sometimes I have been on a contract from inception, others I have taken to a close. But with each one, I learn so much and gain new friends and colleagues.

In fact, since I have been consulting in the same field since I left the Army in 1998, I keep running into the same familiar names and faces. Some even go back to those days when I wore BDUs.  I have worked with several kinds of contracting companies, from Small to Medium to Large. So now, with all this time under my belt, I can tell you my best experience so far has been with the small female owned company by Joanna Alexis, Navstar, Inc.

With Navstar, I have been growing up a lot. When I first joined I was still doing work as a billable employee as a Developer (I even learned a bit of Ruby on Rails). Even though I had previously done work as a Project Manager and even a small venture as an Independent Contractor. Over my time here at Navstar, I have pulled away from being just a developer and back into Project Management and Business Development.

As my mission to continuously grow the Enterprise 2.0 division of work, I have been scouting fine talent inside and outside of the Federal Government to work towards and more Open and Transparent ethos inside and out. Not only have I been recruiting great minds to our team, but I have been growing this business in the same breaths. Which brings me to where I am today and the subject of this post.

A few weeks ago now, back fresh from a mini beach vacation in Ocean City, I started back with the organization I was formerly a developer, in an Agile project management role. The team I join has a stellar background in delivering innovative work with the use of new technologies and agile business development.

Yesterday I spent some time in an Agile Refresher “talk” that was tailored to my work I will be doing with the team as a Project Manager. While in the “talk”, I realized that Agile falls right into some of the rethinking your mind and fits into what I am trying to evangelize when I am talking Enterprise 2.o to my customers. My role now as a PM is not only to be a liaison between the developers and the website owner and stakeholders, but it is also to innovate an agency, if not a community into bigger and better ways to achieve our over all mission. Because, its the mission that is the focus, not just the tools.

So today, I am opening my mind even more by attending Blog Potomac #blogpotomac in Falls Church, right down the street from Navstar Headquarters. And in two weeks, I am looking forward to meeting some of the Enterprise 2.0 luminaries at Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston. #e2conf

But no matter what the case, I promise I will still be a rockstar, realist, and edgerider to deliver quality work to my Government customers.

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I’m Just a Geek – Part 2

High School

Oakland Mills High School sign

As probably some of you other geeks could relate, I hated High School. I wanted nothing to do with it. I started 9th – half of 11th at Oakland Mills High School. I hated math and never remember anything about class except for getting a perfect score on the Maryland Functional Math test, one of only two students in the county that year, IIRC. I also hated science. I put my head down in class everyday for the 1st semester proclaiming, “why do I need science, I’m going to be a famous singer ?” I realized soon, that the reason hated math and science is that the day in middle school you pick your HS classes, I missed. I was in classes that were too easy and annoying. So the next semester, I figured out the system of grading and set the curve over 100%. When I wasn’t working at the Ice Rink after school, I would hang out with my stepfather bonding by watching Star Trek:The Next Generation. I had a uber-crush on Wesley Crusher, who we all know is just a geek by following him on twitter @wilw and his blog.

Andrea in Pompei, Italy

At the end of junior year, I had obtained all my credits for graduation, except for English and Gym. In fact, I failed English when I moved to NJ because I stopped going to class. I was further along at OMHS and was frustrated to have to reread books I had covered years before. I also thought the teacher was a real witch. So Senior year was a blast. Since I couldn’t get my mom convinced I should just drop out and get my GED or home schooled, I returned with a new scheme and a different persona. I sold the Chrysler and got my uncle’s 1978 Ford 150. It was “Dukes of Hazzard” Orange and I loved it. It stood out in the parking lot that is for sure.     

Imagine this but really, really orange and no motorcycle

I took video production, public speaking, several classes of singing, gym, drama, & two English classes. I was able to work out a deal with my English teachers for 11th and 12th English to turn in the same paper for each assignment but with more stringent grading criteria than the other students. It had to be longer, have more sources, and footnotes. So I adhered and got A’s in both classes from doing the same amount of work. The problem was that English and Public speaking were the first three classes of the day and I have never been a morning person, ever (we’ll by force in boot camp, but that’s the next installment). I would stay up really late with my best bud (we’ll call him CS). CS and I would stay up and listen to hours on end of music just being silly. He made these cool adventures up and we’d go on them spontaneously. He was my rock in New Jersey. When I would finally come home, I would not want to sleep, so there I would be up to 4-5am, getting in a nap before heading off to classes. 

So a typical day would be mostly just spending time singing in school all day long. I was in Advanced choir where I sang tenor with 3 others, only one was male. I sang in schola, which was an all female A Capella group, and I fronted the Jazz Band. Since my range was vast and I could hit the low notes, I was the first person at the school to sing for the Jazz band. It was a success I think, because we would do gigs on the weekends outside of school. I remember one winter performance in front of the entire school. I sang “When I Fall in Love” in front of a darkened room and was so nervous, because I kept wondering if they thought I was singing about someone. The whole school knew I was in love with my best friend.

Another class I was fond of was Video Production. Our school had one of those weekly news reports that aired on local cable. But aside from the “news” we did all sorts of video shorts as entertainment. I had won a “Rosie” named after our teacher Richard Rose, for one of my shorts. I also remember spending hours on the couch in studio just goofing off trying to come up with ideas for my next piece. CS was in the class with me, as he was in Statistics and Analysis. It was really hard to think when he was around. 

I also recall the time when Jon Stewart came to talk to our TV production class, as his younger brother was in one of my classes. I am only guessing he some how arranged for this little interview to happen in our studio. This was obviously before the Daily Show, This was The Jon Stewart Show. To be honest, at the time, even though he was funny, I thought he was really cocky. He was only at MTV at the time, but something stuck with me about him. So I have followed his career over the years and bought his book, “America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction”. 

The Jon Stewart Show w/Claire Danes

I also enjoyed drama classes as my class was very competitive. I had drama only every other day, because I was able to convince my guidance councilor to put gym on the opposite days. Because I looked and acted older, I got the more obscure parental roles and really enjoyed my parts. I was the mother in the “Marriage of Bette and Boo”, a girl (can’t remember which) in “Stop the World I Wanna Get Off”, and my award winning slap to my fake daughter Kelly Hutchinson in “The Rhymers of Eldritch”, where I played the disappointed mother, Evelyn. 

I was also an athlete all through High School At Oakland Mills, I played field hockey as the goalie my freshman year. But after an accident the summer before sophomore year, I stopped playing and became the team’s manager. I also played tennis and was quite good, making it to the state championships in singles my freshman year, but pulled out of the tournament to have surgery on my scalp. In the winter months, I played basketball, the only sport I continued while I was at Hightstown. My senior year I played both JV and Varsity as their was a rule you could play up to 5 quarters a day and we didn’t have that many girls to cover both rosters.

The end of High School became a whirlwind as I already knew I wasn’t going to go to college. The summer before my Senior year, I joined the Army and spent my last year in High School trying to enjoy it, knowing that all I had to do was graduate. I hated school and I felt the Army was the best thing for me, because I wouldn’t have to go to any more classes. (A lesson I learned differently, in the next installment). 

The coolest moment was graduation, because of the size of our class (I think like 400 seniors), our graduation was held at Jadwin Gym on the Princeton University campus. My father was so proud of me. He put the invitation on display at work, as it read as if I was graduating FROM Princeton University. 

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I’m Just a Geek – Part 1

The Yahoo in Me

My humble beginnings as a geek girl come from a supportive father, mother, and stepfather. Through my childhood, as the first kid, first grandchild, and just all around ham for attention, I had a network of family to support my desires to know more about everything. So please forgive this long story in advance. I wanted to share with you more about me, so my readers can understand my drive. This will be a three-part series blog.

Elementary School

Despite moving all over Prince Georges (P.G.: Pretty Ghetto/Plead Guilty county – just some of the nicknames) and Charles County in Maryland, I always came back to Brandywine Elementary School. This is where I would be challenged by the same group of kids through 6th grade. There were about ten of us who were picked to be in the “talented and gifted” group of classes. This was before the “Tag” program sent you away to a special school. I wrote reports on Halley’s Comet, Hurricanes and Tornadoes: What to do When They Find You (after a visit from NBC4 Weatherman Bob Ryan). We dissected a grasshopper in 3rd grade. I remember one day in 3rd, January 28, 1986, I refused to do my homework based on some logical argument in my head, so my teacher decided my punishment would be to go to her husband’s 5th grade class and complete my assignment there. Instead of being embarrassed for being called out to an older kids class, I was actually able to witness the Challenger explosion on live TV. I wouldn’t have seen it if I had not been so stubborn.

Alicia (left) and Andrea (80s on the bottom, 90s on top)

In part of 4th – part of 6th, I went to J.C. Parks in Waldorf where I joined a statistics and analysis math class and participated in Olympics of the Mind (before the PC name change). I remember our thesis was on Cro-Magnon Man. All through school I was involved extracurricular in music and theater. I was in the “King and I” and “Brigadoon” at Charles County Community College, while my Father and Aunt always had leading roles. In school I performed hand bells, chorus — as a soloist, band (flute and Suzuki-method violin), as well as the lead in the “Pied Piper” musical which we performed on the White House ellipse for President Reagan. I did play the flute live. All the while, my father would take us to concerts to meet the A-list musicians of the 80s, like Tina Turner, who I was for Halloween one year.

I also remember somehow even though my parents didn’t make a lot of money, we had Intellivision, Atari, and a Texas Instruments computer. That was a black and green screen kids. No color. I learned to write my first codes for programming my own games. It was tedious hours of coding, but I remember it was fun when the results came out.

Middle School

Middle School was weird, because I started it in 6th grade for about a month in Waldorf, but moved back yet again to Brandywine elementary during my parents divorce. I was upset about coming back to PG county where 6th grade was still elementary. I was already accustomed to having my own locker. But returning meant being back with my old friends from kindergarten through 4th again. I remember my 6th grade teacher told my mother as I was at the top of my class, that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to and it was a good thing I hadn’t discovered boys yet.

I graduated elementary for the second time with the Presidential Academic Fitness Award. I then moved to Columbia, Maryland (a new place for the new family – Howard County) for the rest of Middle School (Oakland Mills) and part of HS. I continued in acting and singing, and a even soloist again. I remember winning the school’s talent show with my father’s arrangement of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

I still played in the band, but switched from flute to percussion where I really enjoyed the Tympani. I think this switch to the rhythm section lay the ground work as I was discovering industrial and electronic music embracing New Order, Depeche Mode, and KMFDM. This was a time of adjustment as our family went from three kids to six to eight kids in just a few years.

…Coming next, The High School Years…

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My Web 2 Makeover

For years on the web I haven’t had the same hair color, cut, or style for more than 6 weeks. My hair has been my outlet for creativity for years, but has that era come to an end…? (My colleague at work asked, does this mean no more purple hair?) I am leaning towards yes. As a future legislator, I think my crazy colored hair days are over. In fact I believe a memorial session on flickr is in order. I’ll get to work on that soon.

So what spawned this hair-life change? Why I’m I giving up my most visible creative outlet? Well aside from wanting to take a more professional tone with my appearance, its now healthier. I using better color, shampoo and conditioning treatments to help it grow out and forget the days of a “Technicolor do”.

For my hair, I started going to The New You in Lusby, MD. My colorist, Renee, does amazing work as you can see from the photos below. She has been using Redken color on my hair, and when at home, I use Redken shampoo. I am being very aware of what I do and put on to my hair. I found Renee from my Grandmother who has been a customer of hers for as long as I can remember when she was local to her in Clinton, MD. When Renee opened her new shop in Southern Maryland, not only my grandmother, aunt, and cousin remained clients, but so did many of her other loyal customers. This expanded to my mother and I becoming customers because we take turns driving my grandmother the 45min to and hour drive to get our hair done. This is great family quality time, being at a salon with people you know helps pass the time much faster.

So now I got new hair, well I got to show it off. Thanks to a tip from @charyis, I was introduced to Michael Collins of Studio 1 Photography in Pasadena, MD. Michael was able to accommodate me on very short notice. I had to get professional business photos for my website, my company website, and for any publications or speaking engagements that wanted a picture. he was able to meet with me late into the evening and make magic out of the clothing selection I had brought. Michael is also very funny and amazing to work with. He made me feel comfortable and pretty, which I felt was a great task considering I had spent all day in a salon going darker in my hair color shade. I was also able to see some of his work displayed in his studio. If you are looking for someone to make you look amazing and feel natural doing so, Michael is the guy to go to.

I also want to take the time to mention his wonderful make-up artist, Laural Hargadon. Laural was very quick and very much a part of “Team Andrea” that day. In a matter of minutes she took my blank canvas of a face and made me look gorgeous, if I can say that. Yeah, its my blog, I can say that. I was suffering a little from a long-haired cat allergy and with her work and constant attention to detail by my side during the entire shoot, the end result was nothing short of amazing.

I would like to extend a very public thank you to www.studio1baltimore.com. I highly recommend them, professionalism and fun experience throughout.

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Digital Street Cred and Validity

Just Full of Ideas by Cayusa

I just finished reading my social media in Government colleague’s Steve Radick’s latest blog post. As per usual, his posts trigger deep thought and a loquacious response on my end. First I would like to say I just started reading “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It was a gift from my mother who loves thrift store shopping and came across the book. In fact my mother has supplied me with a great deal of good reading when it comes to Government and change (thank you MOM). Her great finds and the people I speak with daily continues to shape my knowledge and opinions of Government 2.0 and where it is and where it is going. Those of you whom have heard me speak, you know I am not fond of the term/meme Government 2.0. But as it is what I apparently live my work-life balance in, I cannot escape it … but that’s another story, another post, another time.

Here is an additional point I would make (based off Steve’s post): It is not only who you know that makes the domino fall, but the right momentum to get that first push. If you do not have substantive information, poignant thought, or a new look on an old way of doing things: all the connectors in the world will expose those weaknesses faster than you can blink. With fact checking at the tip of our fingertips, it is easy to find out if you indeed are the SME or you’re just a johnny-come-lately. In terms of Government 2.0, we saw this first hand when if you watched the Presidential debates on CurrentTV where they infused twitter hashtags #current #debate08 and others to respond to the candidates and fact check statements made. In fact when searching Google for the term “debate fact check” the number one site returned appears to be a “nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters” according to their “about page”.

Of course this point of this post is not directed at Mr. Radick, its supplemental. This is just something I thought I should mention, as our digital exhaust becomes our street cred and virtual resumes its best to wear your colors on your sleeve and be who you are and not inflate who you are not. You can build your personal brand to have name recognition and thousands of contacts via social media websites.

For example, I recently went to a meeting in which the person I was meeting with had his people do research on what I can only assume was my digital exhaust from my expertise on social media. They asked me questions based on my “digital resume” and were impressed with my speaking engagements.

But none of these contacts will give you the return on investment you desire unless you deliver first. Why do you think twitter is so effective on finding out the spammers and fake accounts? I know when I get a friend request, be it twitter or facebook, I check who they are friends with, what do they tweet/talk about and what is the value of that connection to me? If a person is doing all the following and not being followed and posting jibber-jabber, we can feel confident it is something we should not waste our short-attention spans. I mean we have enough FOMO and HOLI to deal with, right?

Its not that I am an elitist or think of myself too picky. I follow a great deal of you on twitter and vice versa, compared to some of my colleagues. Why? Well because of the time of our connection I made a brief inquiry to the ROI for the both of us. So going back to the debates and election, when it came down to it, you most likely voted based on your mutual ROI between you and the candidate. For the country en masse, it was President-Elect Barack Obama.

So when you are making your connections, think about what the ROI will be for you and them? Are you just trying to get high numbers or are you more concerned with the content and message you produce?

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More Thoughts on Work Life Balance

In an earlier post last week, I talked about suffering from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). A colleague of mine, The Doyen of Intellipedia – the US Intelligence Community’s classified wiki, Don Burke mentioned to me that he had read my blog, but it wasn’t FOMO he was suffering from, it was HOLI: The hatred of losing information.

I have to agree with him that HOLI is a subset of FOMO. While the fear of missing out is more encompassing to to what’s going on at work, on the television, the news, on twitter, out at a social meetup, it is the hatred of losing information is a big part of that. The knowledge gained when we participate on a collaborative site, watch the news, tweet on twitter, or meet in person is astounding.

The Doyen let me know he hates to see information disappear, information lost when there was an opportunity for it to be captured. I agree. That’s the very thing that Intellipedia is doing for the Intelligence community. The knowledge of government, contractors, and other qualified users dispersed around the world being shared on a wiki that anyone can contribute.

It’s very easy to get wrapped up in wiki-markup and esoteric solutions for me. Many a night I enjoy working late as there is time for me to think and play with code. (I am sure many other code-geeks out there know what I am talking about). To me it is fun, fun to see a solution come to life that can effect massive change. Sometimes just 4 lines of code can make a big impact. Those are the time I really smile and get uber-geeky about my work. But then there are times the solution just doesn’t come, so I go to Starbucks or just have to call it a night and come back the next day or next week to it. We can’t expect to know the answer if we get too in the weeds.

Another colleague of mine who I was chatting with today online was commiserating with me about all the projects we juggle and body aches we suffer as we get older. His quote was “Our passions can easily be interpreted as Obsessions“. Even not having a significant other in my life, I know my family and friends can see this about me. My best friend asked me days in advance to go to karaoke last week, because he knew if I didn’t put it on my Google Calendar, then I would just stay in the office and work until I got hungry enough to come home.

Family matters – As you might have read from my tweets and my blog, I have been getting more involved with the church. Which connects me more with family. I feel good when I participate in church functions because my family has been with the church since before I was born and my pastor knows me not only by name, but what I do for a living and what I want to do with my career and life. I was even the first to volunteer for the Chili Cookoff we had this past Saturday and I did come in Second Place. (Dare I share my winning recipe with you all — nooooo like my votes, it will stay a secret).

Going to church and my mother coming down on the weekends gives me time to spend with my ailing grandmother and youngest brother. She’s been suffering from extremely low blood pressure among her other symptoms of her condition. She used to be able to outlift me when we would go grocery shopping. She’d grab the 50lb bag of dogfood because I have a bad back. Now its a good day when she can leave the house. Spending time with her I can see is good medicine, it lifts her spirits. Now that I could never do from my office.

My youngest brother and I have an age difference of 14yrs so much of his life growing up, I was not there. This is something I am working with him on as he has Aspergers and I learn his idiosyncracies. He doesn’t like chili or spaghetti, but he loves to cook and grill. He’s 18 and just graduated from High School, so he spent time living with me this fall and now he comes down on weekends. He is a big help around the house and I have been teaching him how to drive. I am proud to say he just did his first round-trip from Pennsylvania and back this weekend. He beat that new game on XBOX “Deadspace” in less than a day.

He’s not with me now in the house because I haven’t been able to spend much time at home as I juggle all my work responsibilities. I sat him down and told him he can come stay with me again in the future, but right now I can’t do much for him to help him get a job or education when I am not at home to help. He is scheduled to get his license soon and that should help out tremendously. Maybe then I could have a driver? I keep saying I need a personal assistant.

Anyways, back on point to this work-life balance, I know we all are trying to find it in our lives and what might work for others, does not work for all. With the openness of the web and new tools for collaboration and communication coming out every day it seems, we can’t know or share all the information. We will miss out and we will lose information. But now, we don’t have to be the only one who knows, goes, and shares. We can work together.

I hope reading my experiences let’s you know, we can’t be expected to do it all at 100%. I mean, even Barack Obama doesn’t do the dishes and Michelle Obama never slept at his DC townhome while he was a Senator. But they have identified and verbalized with each other what their priorities in life will be once they move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Obama is going to work on the Economy & hunt down Al-Qaida and Michelle is going to work on being Mom-in-Chief for the first year. (You can thank 60 Minutes for this knowledge tidbit)

My final thoughts are that time spending with loved ones is time always well spent. I think we should take a moment to remember that as the holidays come around.Be thankful for your health, your loved ones and for the passion that drives you.

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Groundswell is the new Grassroots

In this post, I thought I would take a moment to let you know a little more of the story of my background and how while my career has taken me all over, the lessons learned from one industry to another carry over:

Years ago I ran my own promotions company (Emerging Sounds) for the music industry. My focus was creating a methodology for success in helping bands get noticed and get signed, it was all about grass roots marketing.

This was around the time when e-groups was bought out by Yahoo, so we created groups for our bands that we supported. In addition, we would take thousands of pictures of our bands so while we traveled from show to show, city to city, we had images to capture their essence. This was before digital cameras were affordable and as mainstream as the are today. So we would have to go to CVS or another photo development place, as for the pictures not only in print, but on floppy disk. Those were the “glory days”.

We were the “gardeners” of the Mid-Atlantic Music Scene and we were happy to do it. Why? Because we believed in our product: The bands we selected to promote. This just wasn’t any old band of the street, but ones we felt we knew and could get to know better as people. We became a family with them and in turn, we’re able to put 1000% efforts in to pushing them out to the rest of the world and record labels. This was the beginning of a new era for the music industry as MP3’s on the web were a way of getting your music into the hands of fans. I was working with industry reps giving them the inside scoop of what fans in our area were listening to and who we wanted to see on MTV (they were still playing some videos) and the short-lived Television show “Farmclub“. To me, this is as close to a point when I can remember a user-generated web beginning to form. Before we started calling it “Web 2.0″.

If you take a look at the bands listed on the Mid-Atlantic Music Scene page, you might see names of bands that you still know of today. Some had regional success, some even more national an world exposure (Remember Sev’s Pepsi Blue commercial), and some well are dating world famous socialites.

Sev – Pespi Blue (Same Old Song)

Now to my point of this blog post title. This was all grassroots work. Done by those who loved what they did and it didn’t matter if it wasn’t their “official” job or even if they were getting paid for it. It was for the love of the game. This is what I see happening with social media tool adoption with the communities I am involved.

Just as I took an initiative to create a company for recognizing and promoting the talent in a music industry that was on the verge of a technological change, I wanted to do the same for my organization. I believe I started using Wiki’s in 2005, with Confluence and at least in May 2006 with Wikipedia (when I finally decided to get a user account).

In early 2007, I became the first ever paid Intellipedian. My job as lead wiki gardener (a position I have since passed on to other colleagues) was to maintain the wiki and other social web tools for the Intelligence Community. I used my position to mentor and shape the “edit swarms” that have helped Intellipedia grow into what it is today. I have to believe a lot of my mentoring and efforts in shaping Intellipedia come directly from my experience in managing a music promotions community, all grassroots.

If you were at Fastforward2008 this past February, you might have heard Professor Andrew McAfee mention the story above as a part of his keynote.

So this grassroots term is now being referred to as groundswell, when it comes to the growth of any social web tool. For Intellipedia, it has been a wonderful ride as to see my suggestions to the gardeners who I have mentored use their “spare-cycles” with managerial buy-in. Their work has been to me the great success of the wiki, as we are not only capturing knowledge, but organizing it in a robust way.

I used to use the term “Community Manager” to define my role, however I never felt manager was the right term, I believe myself to be more of an advocate. A “Community Advocate“. I have shaped the term and role from past experience to what I have learned from the likes of Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeremiah Owyang, and others in the world of social media. I am an advocate not only for the tools, but for the people on both sides of the application, the developers and the users. I have walked in both sets of shoes in my life and that experience helps me make the communication flow between the two parties. Then there is marketing… you know the fun stuff. The stuff that drove me to want to do more when I was in the music scene. I believe those skills I have sharpened over the years, so I can tell what potential users, listeners would probably want to hear and see to get them to use their tool or buy their music or go to a show.

I hope that in all my work, in all the talks, in all the blog posts, and online chats: inside the community, my company, and beyond; that my work inspires others to be community leaders. I would love my grassroots work to make the groundswell happen within these “families” to take-off and build bigger and brighter things. And I know they do, I see the work of others and I am proud to call them a colleague.

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Work Life Balance

When a new employee joins our team or I speak to someone who asks to be mentored by me, I always mention right from the get-go, know your work-life balance. You may learn and absorb all the knowledge and best practices from me, but you really should find your work-life balance. In short, do as I say, not as I do.

I am writing this post as a comment back to Steve Radick’s blog in which he commented in how I mentioned part of my drive came from my having met and spoke to Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV.

I suffer from the “fear of missing out” (FOMO). When I want to commit to everything, be logged in on twitter, write my blog posts on whatever network I happen to be on at the time, edit the wiki, be at social media events in DC, and so on…

It is very taxing on my physical well-being, as well as mental. In 2008 I can say this is my sickest on record. I have had more allergies, flu, colds, and just complete exhaustion than before. I am hoping I am learning to self-correct this as I have made corrective measures at home. So when I leave the office and walk in my door at home, I am not attached to my laptop.

Earlier this year I remodeled my den to turn it into an at home office. I do work from home from time to time and I wanted to have a more ergonomic place to go to without the interruptions of other things like the TV or front window. I got a nice wooden desk, lamp and place to stick all my magazines. I even got an ergonomic chair (better than I have at work), for home.

So now when I am working from home, I am working away from distraction and in comfort. When I am in my normal office, yes I do have TVs on (cable news), that is normally background noise as its not one of the many serial dramas I have come to be addicted. So when I am working at home, at least I am not contributing to my bad back or what I am sure will be carpel tunnel syndrome someday.

Also, having my office in another room is making it easier for me to just go to the couch or easy chair and just escape in front of the boob tube. Time usually only spent when I was sick. Now I can watch a couple shows as I decompress from home and then off to bed.

I still can’t pull away completely from twitter or work, but since switching from a HTC Dash phone to a Blackberry curve a few months ago, my ability to stay on top of emails at work has improved and twitterberry has been able to abait some of the FOMO of what is going on with twitter by at least letting me see who is @’ing me and what my friends and colleagues are talking about. Sometimes I see a good debate going on, which I would love to chime in… and I do… but I keep it to a short response when I am in my downtime now. I don’t let it get to the point of where I need to get up and walk into the office right away to get deeply engaged.

At least, that is what I am doing now to handle the balance. I am sure it will creep back more work-less play again. But I am trying. Now that its colder, its harder to get out and just drive the jeep with the top down to the beach. So maybe I will be more active on the Wii again. I love Wii tennis and Guitar Hero. I have also been persuaded to go to Karaoke on Wednesday nights. Will i see you there?

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