Happy Birthday Evolt Org

Happy Birthday evolt.org!

One year of evolt. Wow. I remember the note I got - "we're planning something interesting, you want to be a part of it?". You bet. That was the beginning for me.

I had been around on the MonkeyJunkies list and knew a lot of the founding members from their posts. I didn't really know what to expect from this new list, but thought it could be interesting. The tone of inclusion that I sensed in the initial mailings was far too sincere to possibly be artifice - evolt really was a "we". Most of the lists I had been on before had an owner - one person who had control over everything, final say on membership, final authority to scold an offending poster. I could sense immediately that evolt would be different.

Over the course of the last year, I have been involved with evolt.org in varying degrees - a lurker, a contributor, someone who needed an answer, growing with evolt to the point of being involved in some of the janitorial work required to keep it all running. What I find most rewarding, though, is the daily interaction with a group of like minds.

We may not agree on every point. We may disagree bitterly on some. We are creative people with a passion for what we do. We always want to be the best web developers we can be though, and we all see to it that every other evolt.org member is the best he or she can be by sharing our experiences, our knowledge, our stories - giving freely of ourselves what there is to give.

As a group, I'd say we're the finest web development team on the planet - and (and this is the coolest part) I think that if we all went in on rent for office space, we'd have a blast while we built the web.

Imagine the scene in the evolt.org offices:

Every web developer out there that wasn't "in" for whatever reason (even though the only thing you'd have to do to get a job is stick your head in and listen) would point at the monolith building with the cubes on top and think - "that's where I want to be".

When they came in, they'd listen to the laughter and heartfelt discussions, see hugely complex and beautifully elegant code given away freely, see skills that took years to develop be shared and taught and wonder if they had died and gone to WebSlave nirvana.

In a sense, that is what the original members helped to create. They laid out the ground rules, and practiced the philosophies that had forced the evolution/revolt that occurred. They led by example. Their behavior and encouragement let us all collectively build what we have today.

I never saw it coming. I was never much of a joiner - then I found something worth joining. Thanks guys - all of you.

Bob Davis
bobd@members.evolt.org