 Folks on the net have done a lot of work creating and sustaining virtual communities, electronic commerce, distance learning, and other things that use technology to help us all live and work closer together. But where ever you happen to be when you use this stuff, you have to be somewhere. Where we are and what we do in relationship to it is something I'm always interested in. I was born and spent my first eighteen years in Cascade, Michigan, which is near Grand Rapids. My mother's family were among the original settlers to that area, arriving there in the 1833. West Michigan is in my bones. The area is quite well known for some of it's conservative and religious leanings. When I left there fifteen years ago, the community didn't have much use for anything new. The place has changed in recent years, and now some of the people there are among the best prepared for what the digital world is bringing to us. They may not be motivated by cutting edge technology or culture, but they do know a lot about cutting edge life. From my 18th to 22nd years, I lived in East Lansing, Michigan, where I attended James Madison College at Michigan State University. The MSU campus is my favorite place to be in the world. I'm one of ten people in my family to have attended there. True to it's land grant roots, it's a place where anyone on the street can go and get the tools to become a great person. I spent my time at MSU basically working and thinking. The ground was made ready for what was to come, but it was a long time before I learned to start living... When I was 22, I arrived in Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. I've lived and worked near here ever since. It's the place where I learned my craft, and where I began to grow up. The digital and industrial worlds are crashing together in Ann Arbor as much as anywhere else in the world. There are a lot of brilliant people here doing some incredible things with science and technology. It's also the place that produced people like Jake Baker and Mark from Michigan, and gave the Unabomber his Ph.D. When I was around 30, I began to travel. In the last four years I've visited almost 30 different cities throughout the US, and lots of places in between. My heart is still happiest when I'm home in the mitten.
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