New Job, New (non-technical) Blog Feature

Frequent readers of this blog will note that today is my first day at my new job in the SQL Server Center of Excellence. I've been camped out in my new office with a cell phone and my balky laptop (which, so far today, has behaved). My office phone arrived while I was at a staff meeting after lunch; my desktop machines and the rest of my goodies arrive tomorrow.

I mentioned over the weekend the hullabaloo surrounding Robert Scoble's departure. It seems to me that one of the lasting lessons of Robert's tenure here is that we "put faces" on our company through our blogs. The idea here is that sharing details about me as well as my technical expertise makes our communications more effective for both of us. Humility engenders a bit of skepticism with respect to what your interest level might be, but as a man with deep respect for my ignorance, I'd like to conduct a small experiment in this regard..

One of the wonderful aspects of my new position is that I'm now working about a mile and a half from my house, which means I'm able to walk to work. As I was starting the MG this morning for the first time in almost three weeks (I’ve just finished a stint as Mr. Mom to two boys and Mr. Grandma to another, the transportation aspects of which are not easily addressed via a two-seater), it occurred to me that being able to walk to work is a much different thing that actually walking to work.

So I thought it might be fun to keep score.

Today I’ve started a new post category (and corresponding RSS and Atom feeds) on the blog called “DWWTWT?,” which, of course, stands for “Did Ward Walk to Work Today?” Each day, I’ll drop a short post into this category which answers this question for the day and offers a running tally of how often I’ve availed myself of this particular “benefit” of my new position. If I don’t walk, I’ll also offer a brief explanation as to why.

A couple of cool features of the Telligent Community Server software that runs this website make me comfortable doing this in a work-oriented, technical blog. The software allows me to suppress display of individual posts on both the https://blogs.technet.com and https://blogs.technet.com/wardpond aggregate websites. So as not to dilute the focus of the blog for those here for the technical details without the personal ones, this is the only post on this topic that will appear on either of the aggregate websites. If you want to keep track of my progress after this post, you’ll need to subscribe to the RSS or Atom version of the “DWWTWT?” category, or read the posts over the web here.

So, did I walk to work today? Well, I was out until 11:30 last night retrieving my wife and daughter from the airport (they barely made it out of Tampa before Alberto hit; if their flight had departed five minutes later they would’ve been stranded) and as a result I was a little bit late getting my younger son and grandson to school this morning. Those elements, combined with a light rain and a desire to arrive before 9 on my first day, led me to drive to work this morning. So..

Walked: 0
Drove: 1

More on this topic tomorrow.. remember you’ll need to access the new feed if you’d like to play along at home. Let’s see how many people are watching in a couple of weeks.

          -wp

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Another grand week spent telecommuting from home: Commuting Options Selected since 12 June 2006 Mode

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The second one hundered work days of walking has started out much more promisingly than the first did:

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  June is definitely milestone season in this neck of the woods. Not only is today the third anniversary

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  In the second of my annual indulgences , I’m “treating” you to a summary of my commuting life this year.

• Anonymous
  June 12, 2006
  I wish you all the victory in your fresh job and Hope to read more update.

• Anonymous
  June 13, 2006
  Thank you Chandana.. :)