Sunday, March 16, 2008

Changing Course

I started this blog a while ago now... back when I was still in law school. I've stuck with Blogger as a platform for longer than any other, so I feel like I have something invested here. Since it's inception, Pro Bono Geek has been a decidedly political blog, emphasizing the Pro Bono over the Geek. My law school and student government experience provided a lot of good fodder for blogging... and while the online comments I received were never great in number, I was always surprised at how many people at least read what I posted and told me in the "real" world.

But since I've moved to Santa Cruz, I've been posting a lot less. I think being out-of-sync from actual political discourse has been a big part. My political world is pretty much Sarah and the Washington Post. On top of that, I'm not entirely certain I have anything new to contribute to the larger discussion. For the most part I'm just recycling what you can read elsewhere tempered by a bit of market-idealism. Yes, I've got the occasional intellectual property rant, but I think those were more for me than anyone else.

The question remains: if the blog is to continue, what will it be about? I think, perhaps, the answer to this question lies where I started this post: Pro Bono Geek. Except, this time, maybe we need a bit more geek. I feel like I'm got an interesting viewpoint on the larger technical universe right now. Author of the world's formost legislative simulation website, a sprawling Perl CGI application in desperate need of love (mod_perl anyone?); system administrator for one of the largest Zope deployments around hosting some of the biggest names in Democratic politics; a lieutenant of David Chelimsky world renowned Agile evangelist and core contributor to R-Spec with whom I will developing some kick-ass stuff in the next couple of years; power-user of Debian GNU/Linux and KDE; and javascript wizard for a leader in political web design. For better or worse, my life has taken a decided turn towards the geeky end of my personality, and it's time I embrace that way of life.

To that end, I'm going to start posting again (trying for once a week) about the interesting technical/geeky stuff I'm doing... tragically, not everything I do can be disclosed, but it's not like a Google-NDA, so I'm freer than most to discuss my latest thoughts on all manner of topics. For some of you, this may be that final excuse to kick me off your RSS reader... and I understand that. For others, you might finally be interested in what I write here. Others may be interested in just continued life updates, and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of that too, but no promises.

Oh, and if you were hoping I would stop posting political content all together, I have some bad news for you.

5 comments:

Alex Kim said...

Oh Sean, I would never kick you off my RSS feedreader.

ethan.john said...

i have ever envied your geek prowess, sir, especially in light of the fact that for you it is a secondary concern. Your blog will be awesome regardless of what you post about.

Sarah Bakker said...

When I am one-half of a person's political world, you KNOW something's going horribly horribly wrong. Unless of course you're really into deconstruction and the critique of the secular....

Which means you're screwed.

:-)

Anonymous said...

I like geek topics, although my particular focus has shifted from tech geek (oh so long ago) to biology geek.

Shannan said...

Thank the stars for your geeky side, as how else would I be able to connect to the wider world with technology outside of my incredibly small sphere of human contact and knowledge without your help in making said technology install correctly? Having said that, how free are you this weekend? I purchased my new hard drive and wireless router (no decision yet made on Qwest DSL vs. Comcast Cable!) and I guess I'll need some long distance help installing the hard drive and maybe helping me choose the right responses during the XP install again! Just remember my loving words in your Easter card from last Sunday.... Please?!?