I never really paid attention to blogs until I started working as the Engineering Manager for Blogger at Google, back in April 2004. Oh, certainly read some blogs here and there, but never really felt like I had anything to say in a blog. Once I started working on Blogger, I "got it" but did not want to write one for fear of people mixing my opinions with Google's opinions.
Today, that has changed. I have left Google and thought this post about "why" would be a great start for my own little corner of the Internet.
My time with Google has been awesome. It is an amazing company to work for. After Blogger, I spent several years working with Chris DiBona to shape Google's Open Source policies and strategies. I traveled and spoke about Open Source. For a while, I was involved with Google Gadgets, and Google App Engine. But I was getting distracted (more on that in a bit) and I sorely missed writing code. Last year, I switched things around and started to work with Neal Gafter and the Google Calendar team to add CalDAV support (just launched yesterday!). After that, I worked again with the App Engine team for a while.
But I've really been missing out on writing Open Source code. It has been several years since I have significantly contributed code to any Open Source project, and that has been a growing dissatisfaction for me. I've been involved with Open Source for over fourteen years... it is one of the things that I love to do.
I've also been greatly distracted by a major upheaval in my life. As many of you may know, about two years ago, I moved out of the house and a relationship that was over 18 years long. I've since moved to San Francisco, met many wonderful new friends, and have met someone that brings new joy into my life.
My departure from Google is going to allow me to get back into Open Source development. It is going to allow me to travel. And it is going to allow me to explore where I'm going with my new life. I see a world and a lifetime of opportunity with this move, and am tremendously happy about it.
And no, I'm not going to be working any time soon. Please feel free to contact me about short-term projects, and I'll keep it in mind, but I don't foresee any real interest until at least January.
In closing... I'm here for a few days, then off for a wonderful week in Europe. More trips are planned later this year, and I'll write about those as they come up.
See you around, my friends.
