under new management.

[III]

i've heard that there's a new head of the burning man web team.

will it affect the eplaya at all? for better, or for worse?

(will anyone even notice this rumor?)

[juanicoheal]

Your rumor has been spotted.

But I'd prefer stripes - or swirls

[Bob]

Even with the 2003 facelift, I still see the eplaya as pretty much the online equivalent of walk-in camping -- which is why I've looked a bit askance at the recent efforts toward micro-management, btw.

RE: macro-management, I'm still a little hazy on who constituted the old regime. I thought I was king of the eplaya.

[KellY]

Bob, you will always be El Presidente For Life of the eplaya. The web team are just the ones who pave the roads.

[Mayfield]

Hey Bob, haven't seen you since Decompression. Cheers mate. Resistance is futeless.

KelleY: I can't afford the Smax Toybox series right now- SHIT! Can I borrow it??????

As for the web team, I didn't realize there was a new lead. Who is it? I know Playaquest has come on board, I think as a Project Manager. Good to see him in the orifice.

[Bob]

Still here, but moving to Excelsior.

[DVD Burner]

Even with the 2003 facelift, I still see the eplaya as pretty much the online equivalent of walk-in camping -- which is why I've looked a bit askance at the recent efforts toward micro-management, btw.

RE: macro-management, I'm still a little hazy on who constituted the old regime. I thought I was king of the eplaya.

For what it's worth, (and it may not seem to be worth anything to you comming from me.) you'll always be one of the number one guys if not the #1 on eplaya.

you always come up with the most origanal ideas and so far IMHO have the best alternative to bob wire.

[technopatra]

As for the web team, I didn't realize there was a new lead. Who is it? I know Playaquest has come on board, I think as a Project Manager. Good to see him in the orifice.

The web team has been run for the past 2 years by more of a council structure. There were skill leads -Tech, UE, Images, Design, Content, Volunteer Coordinator, Special Projects(me) and the Web Team Lead. We had pretty much equal say in defining the direction of the team and deciding on projects, however the Lead handled much more of the day-to-day site management than anyone else.

Think of a wheel with each spoke being a skill area, and add extra spokes for our sysadmin, database, and extranet folks. Our wheel was kinda flat on one side. Some things were working great, other things were not, so a couple of us proposed a slightly different structure.

We reduced and redistributed some of the duties of the web team lead, added a Project Manager, PlayaQuest (yay PQ!), changed my role to Online Community Manager, and proposed some much-needed changes in process.

This proposal was accepted. After being with the web team for 4 years, helping to shepherd it from a wee endeavor of 200 pages and 3 team members to 1300+ pages and more than 15 active members, and doing a big fat chunk of that work himself, the Web Team Lead, Dave Marr, decided that he was ready to move on to something new.

The team is still run as a council, largely making decisions by consensus with the rest of the team. We are very excited to finally have a real tech project manager. Everyone who has worked with a good PM knows that the PM is the quiet seat of power. It's amazing how much we accomplish every year with our ragtag yet fiercely talented band of volunters, and with PQ on the job, we'll be able to do more, more efficiently.

There is a sense of harmonic convergence in the team right now - we are all looking toward a common goal, and our offerings are poised to take a great evolutionary leap on several levels - technology, management, our own team interaction - all within the context of serving our community better. The momentum is building.

I think it's safe to say we're pretty damned stoked about the coming year.