For the last few years I’ve been actively encouraging people to set up a web presence and to use technologies to assert their autonomy and voice. This is important to me, and I felt it was worth advocating for others. I think exposure has a lot to do with people figuring things out, and I’ve had lots of people approach me because of the sites I worked on with my friends, or just because they know I am into “web stuff”.
In fact, the reason I am a web developer is because I was running my own site and people started to notice. So, there is definitely something to all this.
However, in many ways in my life I’ve reached capacity. I am doing better now, but the last month has been rough. On top of various body failures, my activity load has become overwhelming. That includes work, play and the things that I consider both. I need to focus on closing loops, and taking better care of myself so I can do more in the long run (I realize that my motivation is to get the most out of myself, so maybe I need to think about my body as a temple some more…).
What does that mean? Well, for the time being I am going to step back from actively going after people to get on the web and using the good stuff (you know, all this awesome free software and open protocols that make computers such great tools for humans). I am going to just relax, and spend more time with my tribe and the existing projects I am working on with them. I would like to document what I am doing, both technical and not. I also want to spend some deserved selfish time working on my highly personal, non-essential projects that aren’t going to change the world in a way I want, but which I will still learn and be happy with.
Another mode I want to be in is receptive. I see a lot of opportunities for collaboration being generated, and I want to have the option to grasp them instead of just reading about them. Two things that I can think of is pretty much everything going on at Drumbeat, as well as the Open Web book.
Drumbeat has a lot of neat projects, and right now I just read about them because I don’t feel I can commit any amount of effort to do them justice. I would really like make that time available.
The Open Web book had a period where people were collaborating on polishing it for a few days, and I was buried in work and hating myself. I felt like I could have really contributed, but my active mind wouldn’t let go of deadlines and project worries. It is sad, because the “open web” is my passion, it is this thing that I live and breath, and that is a document that I want to succeed as much as possible. I still plan on going through it and using their ongoing editing process, but in the future I would like to luxury of being on the ground with other passionate folks, working with them to create something great.
So, I am going to still be doing everything that I do now, setting up sites and trying to break walls on the web. But I need to spend some time looking after myself and paying attention to the foundations of my beliefs and skills. 