Hard to believe, but I started this website 11 years ago today, on February 7, 2007.
Since then, online communication has evolved rapidly. Blogs were declared dead (I never got the memo, obviously), and social media of various types come and go all the time. Just two years after I started blogging, the internet was already littered with failed online platforms, and the count of forgotten "communities" continues to mount every year.
But AlumnI Futures is still here, thanks to all you who are reading this now (whether it's on the website itself, in an email, or – for a small but dedicated number of you – in an RSS reader). And my purpose has not changed: to help my readers "hear and comment" about things that may affect their work.
I also post my articles in LinkedIn's Pulse platform, where they reach an audience outside my core higher education/alumni relations profession audience. And recently, Switchboard has hosted the same articles on the Switchboard blog, among a large number of other pieces designed to stimulate thought and discussion – and understanding – among people who care about the well-being and future of their communities.
Through it all, I still encourage, and benefit from your feedback and responses.
Meanwhile, thank you to all who have supported the blog over the years! (And watch this space for a guest-written article in a few days, about starting an alumni Board from the ground up.)
Happy Birthday, Alumni Futures!
Photo by Allen Lorde via Creative Commons