DaveNet: Sunday, April 13, 1997; by Dave Winer.
Major life change announcement
From Denise Caruso, dc@technomedia.com, 4/12/97:Greetings!
I'm doing an all-points bulletin because I'm embarking on some major life changes and I wanted you to know about them:
I quit my formal position as contributing editor at ZD-TV's 'The Site,' and now serve informally in the same role. I love the show and the folks there, and I'm still 'on' occasionally (Friday past, for example, I did a commentary on child abuse v. net censorship for the MSNBC 'Tangled Web' theme day -- a transcript is available.
I have resigned as executive producer of Spotlight, the executive conference on interactive media which I have produced for Infoworld Conference & Media Group for the past two years. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and even after last year's sold-out conference, I simply could not muster the proper level of enthusiasm for such an undertaking. The conference is going forward without me, though I don't know who the new executive producer will be. I believe an announcement is forthcoming. If you need/want information about Spotlight 97, be sure to call Lia Lorenzano, the general manager of Infoworld's conference group, at (415) 312-0693.
On April 1, I began teaching a course at Stanford called 'Understanding Digital and Interactive Media and Their Implications.' Terry Winograd, a world-class computer scientist and professor at Stanford, brought me in at the behest of David Liddle of Interval Research. Me and 20-plus students from CS, communications, English and symbolics are in the throes of building a new critical literature for digital and interactive media, and I'm also hipping them to social and cultural and economic implications. Big fun.
I have also accepted an offer from David Liddle to serve as a visiting scholar at Interval until the end of October. I'll use my time both for thinking/reflection and for working with some the smartest people I've ever met.
And finally, the New York Times is generously allowing me to take a sabbatical from my Digital Commerce column while I'm at Interval. I hope to write occasional pieces from the field, especially whenever some particularly fabulous or egregious trend or news event gets my knickers in a twist. As always, suggestions welcome. I should return to my regular slot in Monday's Business Day at the end of October.
I think that about covers it.
This is a pretty amazing time for me; all these changes happened, literally, within three weeks. But they've been a long time coming. For years, I have had a nearly cellular craving for TIME, to process and reflect on all the chaos in which we've dipped ourselves over the past seven years or so. Many startups and projects later, I'm delighted finally to have some -- not to mention landing at such great venues.
And I have no idea what will come of all of this, either. Which, frankly, is at least half the fun.
Denise
let's put the fun back in dysfunctional