Did you miss us? It's been a bit quiet around here lately, I'm afraid.

Mike Riversdale has kept us going with a few recent posts, but I've been swamped with work and haven't had the opportunity to keep up regular posting. I already have 3 blogs of my own that have also been a bit quieter lately.

A few months ago I realised I was suffering from data overload. I was receiving too much news, too much information, from too many sources. So I cut back. Drastically.

Less information coming in meant less opportunity to share it with others. It also meant more peace of mind and more focus on the paid work that (barely) allows me the luxury of giving away my time and energy to community groups through this blog, the Engage your Community conferences and in other ways.

Recently I've started to think hard about my life. I've decided 2009 will be a 'gap' year for me: I'm retiring from all volunteer and unpaid positions in the interests of getting my own metaphorical house in order.

I've been doing unpaid voluntary work for decades now, in addition to the paid work that buys the groceries. Often the paid work has been on behalf of community organisations and the rate of pay has not been high.

It's just not sustainable.

I have very high standards. I expect to offer excellence with my work, whether I'm paid for it or not. I've contributed 3 posts here in the last month. I haven't updated any of the content in the Webguide for many months. That's not enough, and I can't do more.

So, this may well be the last post here from me, and I've resigned as the person who 'looks after' Groupings and the Webguide.

The Webguide organisers are looking for someone to take over — they have funding for some payment for the job. If you're interested contact Ted Zorn for more information.

Meanwhile, I sometimes write about the kinds of topics that appear in Groupings over at my work blog, KnowIT. You're welcome to visit, maybe sign up for the RSS feed.

[Cartoon: Geek And Poke: Scoial Graph. The cartoon has a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Licence. ]

I'm also looking for work writing for the web. Feel free to contact me directly if you have something to offer. The wording on your website has a huge impact on your visitors — I can probably help make it more powerful and more successful.

If you're a Mac user do visit my MacTips archive, where I add a new Tip for Mac users each week.

Cheerio,
Miraz

Welcome back to Groupings blog. Now that you are a regular, please feel free to comment on any story that you feel comfortable with.