I started blogging back in 2001, stopped, then started again in 2002. Those early posts were all over the map, topic-wise, and they were often very short blurbs on really random stuff. I was scratching a creative itch–I just wanted to write and I didn’t care too much about what. It wasn’t until 2005, when Alfresco was first released, that I started to narrow my focus and really find my voice.

I’m often uncomfortable singing my own praises, but over the last ten plus years I’ve heard from so many of you–in person, via email, in comments, and forums–that what I’ve written has made a significant difference in your professional lives. For some it simply helped you fix an annoying issue. For others it saved a project. And multiple people have credited it with giving them the confidence to make a career change into jobs where they could follow their passion. Regardless of the significance, each of those stories makes me very happy.

I started this blog selfishly, as a way of keeping track of what I was learning about open source ECM, search, and workflow, and documenting that for my teammates and clients. I figured why not make the knowledge available to the public–maybe a few others outside of those circles would derive benefit from it.

What I didn’t know at the time was that my blog would eventually:

• Lead to a new job at what was then an open source-focused consulting firm
• Result in a book deal and then another book deal
• Launch a temporary career experiment in community leadership in a C-level position
• Become a go-to reference for half a million technologists and business users from all over the world (true, that’s not “unique users”, but still).

I realize I’m not solving world peace. And this is one of many tech blogs focused on ECM and related technologies. But it’s kind of cool to see what ten years of picking a subject and writing about it when the mood strikes me ultimately turned into. So I wanted to take a minute to kind of appreciate that.

I also wanted to say thanks to you. To those reading this now, to anyone that’s ever left a comment, to anyone that’s ever stopped me and told me your story: Seriously, thank you. Your continued support means a lot.

What’s next for ecmarchitect.com? No idea. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been trying to mix it up a bit, to be less Alfresco-focused. That’s reflected in my client work, so it’s natural it comes through here as well. Ultimately, I suppose I’ll continue to write about what interests me, and hopefully you’ll continue to find it interesting and helpful as well.

If you have ideas on topics you think might be good to explore in this space, let me know in the comments.