Tuesday, 17 Dec 2002
Chris takes a job at MyFamily.com
Shayne and I (Chris) had been working our freelance business for almost two years. Until recently, things were looking good. But this darn economy just doesn’t seem ready to get started again. For me, the anxiety level was rising. My monthly health insurance bill was nearly as much as my mortgage (thanks COBRA), and I had two new mouths to feed. It was time to get serious about finding some stability.
So, I’m heading to Utah where I’ll be the director of creative services for the online genealogy company, MyFamily.com.
What do I know about genealogy? Shamefully little. But that clearly wasn’t a deal breaker for MyFamily.com, which also runs Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com. What sold them, in large part, were the ideas on this blog and my other writings.
This made me think: Perhaps I’ve been trying to convince the wrong people about collaborative media. As far as I can tell, it’s not the news organizations that are interested in participation - it’s everyone else.
MyFamily.com understands collaborative models are essential to its long-term success. (That’s all I can really say about that.) All of our ranting and raving at conferences, online and in publications generated exactly zero inquiries from news organizations. (Actually, there might have been a guy in Poland whom expressed some interest a few years back.)
So what does that mean for Hypergene MediaBlog? Our passions still reside here, but, for the next week or so, we’re in heavy transition. Plus all of you have a lot of Christmas shopping to do…
Happy holidays from Provo,
// Chris
