Tonight on air I will pass the keyboard of the blogger in chief to Greta Pemberton. Greta started last summer as an intern and now serves as the living example of what I say at every conference: “Step one, hire someone younger than you.” If you went to Brown you may remember Greta as last year’s commencement speaker; if you work in the Open Source office you know her as the woman who cracks the whip to make sure that all community emails get answered and all community-pitched shows get responded to. She has refined blog search to a black art, and if you’re an active part of the Open Source community, Greta is already the best friend you didn’t know you had. She cares — aggressively — about making sure the website and the radio show talk to each other.
As the title of this post suggests, I am leaving Open Source. I will be consulting a bit, most immediately for Economist.com in New York. But I’m also looking around; if we were a rock band, the press release would read “pursuing other projects.” As with all decisions that involve people you love dearly, this was a difficult one; I have certainly enjoyed the novelty of being the only blogger in chief in public radio, and I have certainly enjoyed the daily miracle of sitting around with a group of really smart people and making something up from scratch. Those people, the producers at Open Source, already got a long and rather overly soppy email from me; I’ll save myself the embarrassment of replicating it here.
What I wanted to say here, though, is that the most fascinating part of my last two years at Open Source has been watching the comment threads become sentient, become a community that knows itself, that emails back and forth, that demands improvements to the site and that even hops back out into the real world onto ferries and Vespas to meet up. On Friday at a concert in Boston I met a man who on our website calls himself “nother.” I had known nother for two years online, but never off; I quote him at least once a week on air, but there he was, incarnate, offering me a beer. I’ve talked via skype to a Brit in Finland; I’ve taken development advice from an American in Amsterdam. A very generous woman taught me how to knit, and is still teaching me about web community.
Turns out you people all really exist.
This is the joy of this program, that very real people happen by the website and give of themselves so willingly and so often. I thank you for that, I hope that you email me in real life (greeley gmail com) and I remain, for the next six hours at least, your grateful Blogger in Chief.
Perhaps then a Blogger Emeritus. I’ll ask Mary.
Long live Brendan! Long live Greta! Yay ROS!
Wow. Not sure what to say. Sorry to see you go. Thanks so much for all your good work. Best wishes and all of that.
-John
Will miss your radio voice !
Wow. double ditto (to coin a phase I picked up here on ROS) Best of luck in all you do Brendan and thanks for hanging in and hanging out with all of us out here in blogland. – Peggy Sue
Wow. Best of luck, Brendan! Thanks for making this so much fun!
Brendan, promise you’ll continue as a lowly contributor.
Greta, “don’t stop doin’ what you’re doin’.”
Good work all.
Brendan– best of luck in future endeavors!
Brendan, otsukaresama.
Iroiro arigato gozaimasu.
Ganbatte ne!!
Brendan as I have had to shade my eyes from all these bright lights, I have hardly gottn to know you. Thank you for your inspiration, and I know you won’t need my “good luck” but good luck anyhow…..Jon
Best wishes to you! May you have the good luck of the Irish!
Dear Brendan- It could not have been easy to start and then to manage this blog from a sort of wild start. I don’t know what else you had on your plate, but I think you had enough to keep you pretty busy. You are leaving something solid here, a culture of intelligent comment and mutual respect, forming, that you helped to guide. I hope something wonderful is waiting for you. Best wishes to you in whatever you do.
Well done on a great job with Radio Open Source, Brendan. It’s been fun!
I remember with glee the first time Brendan came on the air with a comment of mine.
Thanks for your cultivation and love of the ROS community.
Great luck in the future!
Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye!!
I will miss your “hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, this is ……………..”
Best wishes!!! you have left your mark!!
Happy trails to you! Untile we meet again!
Thanks Brendan!
Peace
I hope Brendan will remain a contributer through the blog. Perhaps using the name “BIC Emeritus” or some such.