Moving to a new blogging home

For the past 26 months, I've been posting my thoughts, ideas, and opinions about workforce development. I've focused on local and regional issues pertaining to the workforce and employment, as well as national trends and innovative initiatives I've come across. This happens to be one post short of 200 of these digital snippets, and some that were quite a bit longer than a mere snippet.

I'll have completed my fourth year in my position with the Central/Western Maine Workforce Investment Board in August. Over that time, I've acquired a firsthand understanding about workforce development that comes from having boots on the ground. It's experiential, and at the risk of sounding boastful, it's an experience that few policymakers, politicians, and average citizens have. In my opinion, it's also an experience that has value to these three constituencies. Sadly, the first two groups often think they know best, even steeped in their ignorance. The third grouping, average citizens, often benefit from efforts by our local workforce board, and other partners that I have the privilege to work alongside.

This post is intended to let all of Working in Maine's readers know that I've reached the end of the line posting on this blog.

Technology continues to evolve and better platforms and social media tools are being rolled out faster and more frequently than ever. Because of that, and because I think anyone that's involved in the work that I do should be on the cutting edge of the communication revolution, I've decided to consolidate all of my blogging, including anything related to workforce development, at a new site that I've set up.

Posterous is a communications platform that I just discovered. What I love about it is that I can post directly from any email account, including my BlackBerry. This gives me the capacity to communicate information that requires more detail than Twitter, or even Facebook allows. What's especially cool about this, is that I can automatically send a link to both of these social media tools. I can communicate widely, while on the go, which is where I spend most of my work time.

What is a bit different with the new site, which I've titled, "Digital Doorway," is that you'll find other personal writing on topics wider than mere workforce issues. Part of this comes from a great deal of soul-searching and personal reflection I've been engaged in over the past few months, which allowed me to recognize that I've become too cautious in my writing out of fear of my opinions and ideas possibly alienating someone from my professional life.

I didn't begin getting serious about writing seven years ago in order to become cautious, or even a scribe for the status quo. Unfortunately, our culture and pressure to conform pushes all of us in directions that we don't always intend to tread.

All of this is to say that I hope regular readers of Working in Maine will migrate over to Digital Doorway for workforce-related posts and so much more. Additionally, I hope you'll check out my redesigned site at my personal url, jimbaumer.com, where I'll post my more "serious" writing, and much longer, narrative-driven styles of writing, some of which may eventually find their way to becoming part of a future book project.

Thanks for reading.


Cheers,
Jim Baumer