Over the last few years, I have walked into The New York Times building so often, the security guards know me by name. Today, though, will be the first time I walk in to pick up an official badge.
When the elevator doors open after the ride up Times Tower, I won’t be walking into the newsroom. I’ll be a few floors up with a new title: Developer Advocate for The New York Times.
It’s a public-facing role and an extension of the work I’ve been doing to bring people together at the various intersections of code, design and journalism. Among other things, you’ll see me at Times Developer events, like the one this Thursday. (You should sign up if you’re in town. It’s free.) You might see a few posts from me on the New York Times Open blog. And I may be pushing code to NYT GitHub repos.
Some things won’t change. You’ll still hear about me organizing Ruby Women and Hacks/Hackers NYC. I’ll still be helping other Hacks/Hackers chapters launch around the world and advising GORUCO. And I’ll still take on occasional consulting projects.
You’ll still see me giving talks and working on conferences like Write/Speak/Code, ONA13 and Strata + Hadoop World. With any luck (or maybe to your horror), you might even see me emceeing again at Visualized 2014.
Today is both the start of a new adventure and an extension of what I’ve always done to help others: solve problems, connect people, and create situations that allow for spontaneous awesome.
I’m looking forward to talking with you.
