About Stuff

This site has always been about the writing, and the practitioning of what I write about.

Writing

The first order of business is to fairly give myself a voice in topics that interest me professionally, which fall into the broad category of Web publishing. I tend to write more essay-like than Weblog-ish so my articles come less frequently, but hopefully you’ll find them to be more informative and even enjoyable to read. My articles on Textpattern have proven to be quite popular so you can expect to see more of those with time, particularly as it continues to be my personal publishing engine of choice.

Design

I’m in the business of user-centered design, so this site provides a nice place to play, experiment, and skill-hone. Since I’m occasionally shuffling things about, the site’s compliance with standards and accessibility tends to fluctuate, but more often than not it’s simply an issue of time. However, I do aim to satisfy those folks who would find my site of interest and value. If you are in that group and are having problems with accessing this site somehow, please let me know and I’ll certainly look into it. Any feedback about typos, broken links, and whatnot are also very appreciated.

Theme

You might wonder about the site’s decor. I call this theme Maroc (the French word for Morocco), it’s design version 3 of wion.com, and it’s continuously being tweaked. I tend to favor designs that are not too graphics heavy, but rather use text as much as imagery for presentation. Whether I’ve succeeded here with that, I don’t know, but I like where it’s going. Certain graphical elements in the header and footer are not my original work, but that does not unsettle me too much.

Professional Background

My professional pursuits have not always been in Web publishing, though they have always involved writing and technology. I initially pursued a career in marine science years ago. I only dipped my toes into it, really, never actually reaching the status of researcher myself, but I have worked with many world-renowned marine scientists, supporting their work with information technology and GIS services. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the Bering Sea aboard a variety of ships, doing and seeing remarkable things that I really need to write about someday. I’m still quite passionate about our world’s oceans, and I have tremendous respect for ocean science. I only hope humanity finds a balance between ocean harvesting and healthy marine ecosystems, but I fear we are failing in that effort.

At any rate, my new professional path began when I took a Webmaster position for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, Washington. The whole Web communication process became of great interest to me.

Web standards and accessibility entered the picture thanks to a very significant book and the Section 508 requirements for federal Web sites, respectively, but as I quickly learned, implementing good Web design involves more than just knowing how to do the code, it also takes cooperation from other people, such as content authors and decision makers of the Web site in question.

I realized that I needed the theory as much as the practice if I was going to make convincing arguments to upper management about doing things right, or should I fall into management myself, so I decided to double my daily dose of activities and finished a Masters degree in Technical Communication while working full-time. That was not easy. I studied at the University of Washington’s fantastic Department of Technical Communication, and emphasized in user-centered design…writing too, of course. My Webmaster position offered great opportunities to exercise many usability activities, particularly where the intranet was concerned as the public side was off limits to my usability and technological improvements.

Life After the Feds

Armed with a new understanding, fueled with a new sense of purpose, and anticipating a move to France with no job waiting, I established myself for a time as a freelance Web designer with hopes of making ends meet while integrating abroad.

That time has passed, much to my wife’s relief, and I am now a regular working stiff again at a SME in Strasbourg, France; responsible for developing and integrating an usability program into their Web product development.

More recently, my French is improving, I have a new son (getting bigger by the day), and I’m adding an international dimension to my work, all of which I enjoy very much.

Et voila...there it is.

Something on it's way (last minute change).