As an information technology communications officer at the University of Georgia, I have the wonderful opportunity of sharing, learning, and leading others within our organization in a variety of projects to create an information technology environment which contributes to the success of the University. The responsibilities are wide and varied but focus primarily on strategic communications planning and execution to disseminate information related to technology changes, trends, and projects to more than 40,000 students, faculty, and staff.

The More Things Change
I began working with online information delivery systems soon after joining my current employer, Enterprise Information Technology Services, on June 14, 1983. Of course, in those early days, there was no Web. But there was an IBM mainframe, where something called the Information Distribution System (IDS) was available. IDS, written by EITS, served a rather small community of UGA computer professionals. No Internet. No client/server. If you wanted computer-related documentation, you had to log onto "the mainframe in the sky" to access IDS documents.

As the requirements and expectations for e-delivery of information grew far beyond the single realm of technical documentation, I began to focus on EITS' role of becoming a delivery partner for content and service experts at the University of Georgia. We currently have a very formal partnership with Public Affairs; they manage the content and design of the main UGA Web site while we provide system administration and account management for the Web servers. With the University of Georgia Libraries and the Center for Teachning and Learning we have a less formal, though highly significant, partnership for Element K, an e-learning solution available to all UGA affiliates via the UGA portal (http://my.uga.edu). And the portal itself offers countless opportunities for similar partnerships. Though I no longer lead the development of the UGA portal, I consider leading the initial launch of the UGA portal in February 2003 one of my most prized achievements.

The More They Stay the Same
Even though access methods have changed--from a command line interface on an IBM mainframe to the point-and-click Web browser--fundamental principles haven't changed. I still consider myself an information broker, just on a much grander scale than I ever imagined. It's a long way from An Introduction to JCL and about 150 other computer-related documents to hundreds of thousands of Web pages accessible to the world and a burgeoning portal providing personalized and customized access to Web services and content to all UGA affiliates.

Webmaster Emertitus
Along with leading the initial launch of the UGA portal, I consider being the first webmaster at the University of Georgia one of my greatest professional achievements. I was awarded Webmaster Emeritus status in 2003 for my leadership in this area.

I've Got Papers
I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia in 1977 with a B.A. in English. I had planned to go to law school, but decided against it. So I stayed at UGA and received my M.A. in 1980 (also in English). My graduate thesis is titled The royalist muse : a study of the commendatory poems prefixed to William Cartwright’s Comedies, tragi-comedies, with other poems, 1651. I detailed how several popular British poets of the time were able to express their Royalist sympathies (they liked having a king) in their poetic eulogies to Cartwright (also a Royalist, in addition to being quite dead) during the Interregnum (which was going on at this time in England ... Oliver Cromwell, who didn't like kings very much, was in charge after having Charles I beheaded).

I have also presented papers at several regional and national conferences over the years, most on issues of document management and information delivery. Articles I have written have been recognized by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services on two occasions. In 1988 I received a third-place prize for the article "An Introduction to CDCNET" and in 1993 the article "Lassoing your Modem's NVRAM (and other bis-ness)" was awarded a first-place prize. I am particularly proud of my publications in The Edutech Report, "Harmonic Diversity and Campus-Centric Web Portal Design"; EDUCAUSE Quarterly, "Directory Services: The Foundation for Web Portals" and "Rethinking the IT Core"; EDUCAUSE Review, "The Wap Rap"; The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Academic Freedom for Administrators?"; and Academic Leadership,"A Follower's View of Leadership."

Northern Baby, Southern Man
I was born in Scranton, PA, in 1955. My family moved to Carrollton, Georgia, 4 years later. I grew up there, leaving to attend college in Athens, GA. I liked it so much that I stayed and now live in Athens with my wife, Brigitte, and our sons Billy and Wylam. I also have two sons by a former marriage, Daniel and Steven.