thestoryofjory.com

I’m irrationally exuberant¹ to announce that I’m going to be the new Training Coordinator at Bocoup!  Although the company primarily works on consulting projects, they’ve also begun adding jQuery, Javascript, and HTML5 training in Boston and abroad. I’ll be helping build the training curriculum, coaching developers to become better instructors, coordinating training sessions, and evangelizing Bocoup and the Open Web movement. Developers at Bocoup are “kind of a big deal” and I’m looking forward to helping them make the Web a more dynamic, accessible and democratized place. In short, I think it’s a great fit for my skills and interests.  I’m sure I’ll be writing more about what we’re up to, but in the meantime, check out these classes at Bocoup and tell your friends.

¹Yes, it is a little ironic that I’m sharing a flash video here.  But remember how cool this was in 2001?

This website has long been my catch-all web presence. I’ve tried making it a sort of ‘one-size-fits-all’ space for my blog, professional and personal portfolios, and social connections; but I’ve never been quite happy with how it all fit together.

In truth, it didn’t. Like many other products, if you try to make your website do everything, chances are it won’t be very good at anything in particular. Co-mingling my personal life with my professional work on this blog sent mixed messages that didn’t do much to support my personal branding efforts. That’s what I saw as I monitored this site’s analytics. Pages displaying my past work didn’t generate any meaningful traffic. And the hacks that had to be done to display that work in this theme and template on a static Wordpress site didn’t make it look its best.

With help from my favorite graphic designer, Michael Champlin, I’ve now split the two conflicting personalities on thestoryofjory.com. The new site, joryburson.com, will be home to an edited collection of past work tailored to individual companies through the use of a ‘hire’ subdomain. And I’ll be free to continue blogging about whatever I fancy on this site, without much worry about confusing a potential employer. As an added bonus, it’s quite a bit easier to navigate with fewer pages!

Chances are you’re getting one of these in the mail soon. I’m sure you’ll be asking lots of questions about it too.  To answer some of them: I made the sweaters; Ein was not harmed in the making of this picture; We’re not really pooping out pine cones; and I don’t know what’s scarier – the diffuse glow or the crazed expressions on our faces.

Merry Everything, Everyone.