WWZD?
January 6th, 2010
The year 2010 will be to some extent about recasting Pemaquid, or at least my perspective. The Web has changed a lot I first went into business in 2002. Then, people used Dreamweaver to edit the Web and Netscape Navigator 4 to browse it. Now they use WordPress and… IE6 (if you know what I mean).
So this seems like a good time to rededicate this blog to two individuals who have been influential in bringing it into being.
The first is Jeffrey Zeldman. As the author of Designing with Web Standards, publisher of A List Apart and one of the most important voices on best practices in Web design, I’d been an admirer for some time. Then I had the opportunity to meet him at South By Southwest in March 2007. I mentioned how I felt my business was ‘stuck in neutral’ and seemed to be adrift after some early success.
“Do you have a blog?” Zeldman asked me.
“No,” I replied, “I’m not sure I have anything original to say.”
“Don’t worry about that,” he told me. “Just say what you think needs to be said. And, after all, it’s searchable.”
So, I jumped on the blogging bandwagon, after arriving fairly late to the game, and though I’m usually skeptical of the intrinsic value of new trends like Twitter and Facebook, I’ve made a more concerted effort to be an early adopter and figure out how new Web technologies will affect how we interact.
My second rededication is for Zack Gaulkin. I worked with Zack at MaineToday.com back in the early naughties when sock puppets ruled the Earth and people still used the phrase “New Economy” to describe what was happening online. The Web was a creative free-for-all, and I would love to brainstorm with Zack, and we’d come up with all kinds of whacky ideas – and could try them out. The whole Web was our laboratory.
I’ve mentioned Zack before on this blog. He’s passed on, and I miss his creative energy and playful spirit.
In many ways, these are two people worth emulating. If I remember to ask myself “WWZD?” (“What Would Zack – or Zeldman – Do?”) I’ll probably be able to stay on the right track.
