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Running With a New Pack

This is a quiet Spring Break week at Maricopa (faculty are off the whole week, staff work MOnday to Wednesday), and I am heaving a rock into the waters, sending some ripples out. Change is all around out there (including Arizona getting in some places, 4 feet of snow in one weekend) and I am ready for some myself.

After fourteen years of doing technology “stuff” here at Maricopa, I am making a break to run with a new pack… I have been offered (and accepted today) an excellent opportunity to join the New Media Consortium, where I will be something like “Director of Technology Resources and Member Services”. Whatever the title (like what does “Instructional technologist” really mean?, I’ll take something like “web geek”) , it is exciting to be joining a Great Organization doing Cool Stuff.

Oh, and I get to work from home.

This has not been easy in terms of leaving a place I know, people I know, and work I know. It is starting over in some ways. They took a heck of a chance 14 years ago hiring some geology grad student drop out who had some teaching experience, and technical expertise in HyperCard, FORTRAN, a little bit of 1980s internet, and a gold earring. I’ve grown and learned so much here and the list is endless of the people I ought to give credit to.

Anyhow, this is the day of making this news public. I will be at Maricopa through April 7, trying to wrap up as much as possible. I’m likely taking a full e-hiatus starting tomorrow, as I have a week of time scheduled to be off to run up and play in the snow, and I am planning on leaving the computers at home.

But the CogDog shall still Blog (one small reason to have my own domain, thanks Aud!) and the bite shall remain.

So to quote a writer more eloquent than I, “So long and thanks for all the fish”.

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An early 90s builder of web stuff and blogging Alan Levine barks at CogDogBlog.com on web storytelling (#ds106 #4life), photography, bending WordPress, and serendipity in the infinite internet river. He thinks it's weird to write about himself in the third person. And he is 100% into the Fediverse (or tells himself so) Tooting as @cogdog@cosocial.ca

Comments

  1. Wow! That’s great news Alan. NMC is getting a great talent. I’ll be looking forward to your blogs post-Maricopa. Good luck with the transition.

  2. This is terrific news, Alan. The NMC has gotten itself one heck of a resource, and one heck of a great person. Can’t wait to see the augmentation that will result!

    Congratulations!

  3. Congratulations!!!

    that is a wonderful addition to the NMC (and a loss for Maricopa). I hope you will continue to push the limits at the new post!

  4. Go play, chase your tail in the snow and reflect on the great things you’ve contributed to MCCD as well as the terrific opportunities that lie ahead. It’s well deserved, as the growing chorus has already spoken, but it’s more than that. Looking forward to your insights from a new dog house!

  5. Alan,
    Of course…. NMC’s gain, Maricopa’s loss, …
    But I suspect that you’ll continue to be an international treasure, generous with your skills, insights, and opinions. Checking out new options before the rest of us have noticed them, and helping the lesser-technologicaly-adept make better choices and betters uses of what we can.

    Many thanks.
    SteveG

  6. Heh. Brian stole my line!

    A big hearty congrats, Alan! It’s a huge change, and should provide some interesting challenges. Have a blast with it!

  7. This almost feels like a yearbook signing(chuckle), Alan,

    I bet the Maricopa folks will truly miss you and appreciate all you’ve done there. Nonetheless, have a Great Next Adventure.

    Best,

    Alice

  8. Well done Alan.! NMC has made a great gain. Maricopa should be proud and hopefully also gain from your new experiences.

    I suppose that now you will be working from home the dishes will get done at last 🙂

    NZ will be keeping a eye on your ouputs 🙂

  9. Congratulations! I can’t think of a better match between a person and an organization – looking forward to your upcoming projects.

  10. You never asked for my permission to put a screenshot of my site up on your presentation on online diaries. You never asked for my permission to link to my site. Whether you read it or not is not the issue here. My site is as private as I can make it and I do not appreciate the fact that you’ve used it without so much as even letting me know, and then put up a link for all to see, and use. It would have been common courtesy to at least ask. I doubt you’ll do anything about it, but I found it and couldn’t just sit back and not say anything. Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Do the words ‘Quod Me Nutrit, Me Destruit’ ring a bell?
    Please, at least just remove the link.

  11. Very cool new gig, Alan! NMC is a great group, and obviously with this announcement, it is getting better all the time! See you in Cleveland – rock on!

  12. Congrats! I watched a Pachyderm demo this Spring and hooked up with someone who might be helping us with it thru UCB and SF MOMA. Looks like a great place to do creative and on-the-edge stuff. Enjoy.

  13. Blush.

    Blush.

    Blush.

    I am touched by the 22 comments here (and annoyed by the 200 spams I had to chuck out of the clutches of SK2 filters). I cannot believe how fortunate I am, how excited I am and how scared I am of all the change.

  14. Sorry, I’m late to the game with the congrats…but this sounds awesome. What an opportunity! And working at HOME! Wow.

  15. Thanks James, you’ve got plenty on your hot plate to bother reading about my job change.

    So, there are problems with their site? Really? I am shocked!

    </sarcasm>

    I do have ideas, though I am not being hired to be a web master, but have some architectural thoughts to up the Web.0 decimal place a few notches.

  16. The wonder of human nature and human contact that I find out by word of mouth instead of digital glow that you’re headed to NMC. You and Ron Bleed in one year. MCC will never be the same. NMC will blow the roof off the media house. Congrats.

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