Hello. Welcome to my web space. Thought you might like to know a little about me, beyond my web work.
I'm originally from Baltimore, Md., aka "Charm City." I'm a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and I have a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia University. In 1993-94 I spent an academic year at Stanford University as a John S. Knight Fellow, one of 12 US journalists selected each year to study at the Palo Alto campus.
For those of you who care about that sort of thing, here's my resume. And here's my schedule of appearances, workshops and lectures. And I've emptied out my bookmark file if you'd like to see where I hang out online.
Since 1983, I've made Boston my home. I moved here to go to work as a copy editor for the Boston Globe. My journey to new media has its roots in traditional media. I came into the newspaper business in the early '80s, just as the transition from hot type to computers was nearing completion.
I was one of a generation of young journalists who skipped the hot type era. We learned to write and edit on computers. Naturally, sitting in front of a terminal at work all day I got interested enough in how they worked to buy a home computer. I hooked up that Commodore Vic 20 (with 300 baud modem!) to my tiny color TV set, and the rest is history.
Over the past 14 years, I've been a subscriber to CompuServe, AOL (and its predecessors "Q-Link," - a service for Commodores, and PC-Link), as well as Prodigy, MSN, Delphi, and Genie. I've visited dozens of bulletin boards, and swapped e-mail with folks all over the globe. I've been in a unique position to watch the evolution of the web from a text-only medium to what what you're looking at today.
In the fall of 1993, during my fellowship at Stanford, I was in a library one afternoon when I glanced over at a Mac and saw an icon labeled "Mosaic." I clicked on it, and four hours later I stumbled out of the library knowing I'd seen my future. In those four hours I'd "traveled" to England, Austrailia, and back to Boston via MIT. I'd "met" people all over the world. I'd been educated and entertained. I'd been enthralled.
And I'm still enthralled by the web.
I left a position as Editorial Manager at boston.com in the spring of '96 to pursue a mission that's critical to me. As I worked on larger and larger projects over the years, I had a bird's-eye view of the widening gap between the technology haves and have-nots. Many of those have nots are small businesses, African American businesses, and non-profits. I now work with clients who have not traditionally had access to high tech, as well as smaller businesses and non-profits seeking to expand their use and knowledge of emerging technologies.
My philosophy is simple: Build web sites that download quickly and contain useful content. "Give the people something for their money," as one of my old editors used to say. While some web producers feel tools like Java, ActiveX, and ShockWave are that "something," I strongly belive that they they're barriers for the majority of folks online who still don't have the equipment or the bandwith to deal with plug-ins and proprietary extensions.
This will change some day. In the meantime, if you're not sending your message out to the high-speed "wired" crowd, there are many ways to create attractive pages that download quickly and work the way they're supposed to. I specalize in creating those kinds of sites.
And unlike many other web producers, I bring a wealth of editing experience to my understanding of the web and online culture. I offer my clients writing and editing services, along with HTML, consulting, and content development.
If you're a small business, media outlet, non-profit, or individual looking to be on the web, contact me and see why what I have to offer is different from what you'll get from the kid down the block or that high-concept design group.