So when someone who writes about today’s workplace, about corporate culture, about working at EMC, slowly dries up in terms of post count, it might be a good default assumption that they’ve hit a rough patch at work and don’t want to write about it.

In some ways, this is true.  I’ve struggled a bit over the past year to balance the different roles I have to play in the office,and I’ve felt like I don’t have anything insightful to say about that struggle.  Some of the struggle has been in getting to know and work well with new people, and I’m never comfortable blogging about the specifics of “live” interpersonal relationships.

But there are other factors at work here.  I’ve been busy as hell with my day job, trying to figure out how to rebalance my time management mechanisms to keep me from going insane.  Entire sections of my day job are getting deprioritized in any given week, so you can assume that blog posting is getting hit, too.  And my family life has gotten busy too — for great reasons!  Having a two-year old at home is more than enough to keep you occupied and engaged.  And when I do get a few free moments, I’m more apt to deal with things that need to be done around the house than writing a post.

The truth is, day by day, I’ve just been doing other “stuff” during the time when I used to blog.  I am still active; I monitor twitter and occasionally speak up.  I read blog posts, and share them on my Google Reader feed (which gets posted here on the blog and goes out to my Buzz account).  But I miss the outlet this blog provides.

From years of blogging for personal and professional reasons, I know better than to promise anything about the future.  But don’t unsubscribe yet.  Things are about to get really interesting in my office, and odds are I’ll find things to write about.  And if not, well, you know where else to find me….

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Where has Dave been?

There might be some changes coming on some of those lines.
Today I officially enter a new role at EMC.  I still work for the same team, doing Storage Resource Management for Ionix.  But I’m stepping “sideways” into a Technical Lead role.  The context of my day to day work will not change, but my focus is shifting more to the technical side, putting management of people to the side for now.

My journey from technical contributor to manager was a strange one, and my journey back to the other side of the fence was just as unusual.  I won’t go into too many details but I will say this was something I’ve been debating for many long months, and when circumstances aligned and a clear need arose, I spoke with my management chain and we decided together the time was right to explore this path.

I am not walking away from management with any kind of finality.  Who can say what will be happening in 3 years, never mind 30?  But for now, my focus is going to shift, and you can expect I will be talking about some new topics here.

My focus on thriving in the 21st century workplace will not change, though, unless I find some topics which consistently move me as much as that topic does.  But I’m sure the technical side of my life will bleed into here a bit.  We’ll see how it goes.  I hope you stick around and explore it with me.

Oh, and on a side note, if you’re a current ControlCenter customer and want to be sure your voice is heard in the next generation of EMC’s Storage Resource Management, make sure you’re part of the ControlCenter Online Community.  I’d love to make advocating for your wishes part of my job description, and having your voices heard loud and clear makes that job much easier….

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Nothing is so constant as change

Now, I don’t usually worry too much about that.  I write about general tech/corporate/management topics, and some people do read it, but I have yet to settle on a single topic just to better fit my audience.  I did try to answer his question though, and in doing so I realized I wasn’t telling him anything about web site demographics.

I was telling him about twitter.

A link between your blog and twitter is a huge benefit, because while it’s all well and good to know how many readers you have, knowing who those readers are is a bit more interesting.  If some amount of your readers are following you on twitter, you can comment on at least a subset of your readers (there may be certain demographics who are more likely to follow on twitter than others, so maybe you’re response is skewed, but it’s better than nothing).

Based on my recollection of who is following me on twitter, I could immediately tell him my readers included:

• EMC employees
• Customers of EMC storage solutions
• Users of EMC ControlCenter
• Industry analysts and press
• Competitors

Now, I couldn’t give him a breakdown of percentages, or anything precise, but it was something useful.

I’ve been hearing people say they don’t “get” twitter for some time now.  I finally have an answer beyond the use cases I find compelling.  It helps you identify what communities you are a part of, and what your potential reach is.

You can follow me on twitter.  I apologize if I gripe about power outages and TV shows too much.

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Who reads this stuff? (or how I “got” twitter in a new way)

And now, I’m getting busier.  This week starts the pilot of the EMC ControlCenter Online User Community I mentioned earlier this year.  I’m going to be heavily involved in trying to keep it thriving.  There’s also the fact that we’re all trying to do more with less.  As I find myself taking work home, I find myself having less time (and inclination) to fine tune a blog post at 10 PM.  And as much as I love my readers, you don’t pay my salary .

Finally, of course, we’re heading into the holiday season.  It’s a time when I try to spend my spare hours with my family, and not in front of the computer.

So I’m slowing down a bit.  I’ll make an effort to post weekly, and I’ll occasionally drop in with a mid-week post when something interests me.  Heck, you’ll probably find a Casual Friday post or two showing up.  But I’m not looking for rigid scheduled posting, right now.

If you absolutely need your Dave Talks Shop fix, follow me on twitter.  You’ll learn all my secrets….

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Posting frequency to drop

Even today’s video games are about the people.  The most vastly successful games are massively multiplayer, and even game consoles (long the holdout of those who wanted to stay alone in their basements) are online and designed around networks of friends.

It used to be, networking was about meeting new people face to face and exchanging business cards.  These days, you’re often “meeting” people for the first time (face to face) after dealing with them online for months or even years.  It presents a slew of new challenges, but opens many new doors.

In the past couple months, I’ve had dinner with co-workers, carved pumpkins with geocaching enthusiasts, and enjoyed live music at a pub with fellow video gamers.  In all three instances, the people I met were people I “knew” from the network, but had never met face to face.  To quote Ferris Bueller, “If you have the means, I highly recommend” adding the “real life” dimension to some of your online contacts.  It’s a good way to deepen your network instead of just widening it.

And, in honor of today’s topic, there are a couple changes to the site:

• You can now subscribe via email
• I’m experimenting with using delicious.com to share interesting links
• I’ve added a blogroll of EMC people you might want to follow

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

It’s about the people

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

2.6 Upgrade

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Posting to resume July 8

Posts will resume soon, but on a slower schedule.

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Explaining my absence

But while I’m blogging about EMC, I am not blogging for EMC. That can be a pretty big distinction.

See, most of my posts are about working at EMC. But I’m not here to talk about disk arrays, information life cycles, RSA encryption, or VMware stock. I’m here to write about my experiences in my “work” life – that happens to be at EMC. So I’ll write about EMC, but not in the same way many others are. I think that’s a good thing.

So, who am I?

Well, if you’re looking for another Vice President, or an industry founding-father, you’ve come to the wrong place (though please do go and read those people’s blogs, they’re great and I’m not just saying that). I’ve developed SRM software for EMC (and Data General before that) for over a decade, and now I contribute to the same effort in a managerial role. The topics you’ll find in this blog are more personal in scope, but I think that’s part of the strength of blogging as a medium. I don’t have to stick to the press release topics, and honestly, others cover that so much better than I could.

Oh, one last thing. Read the disclaimer over there, and if I say something terribly wrong, don’t sue EMC, sue me. Actually, don’t sue me either, I wasn’t kidding about not getting paid to do this. Thanks.

This post is from: Dave Talks Shop

Talking Shop