Important things about me
I'm an Apple fanatic, a Linux enthusiast, and a Drupal evangelist. I work as a Drupal developer for Jackson River. My wife Maggie and I live in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, DC.
A brief history
1999-2005
1999-2003 was spent pursuing a BS in Library & Information Studies at Florida State University. 2003-2005 was spent pursuing a Masters degree in Information Studies at FSU. My concentrations were in information architecture, usability, and online journals (blogs).
From 1999-2005, I also worked as a independent contractor designing and then supporting the original CMS powering WWSB-TV, an ABC affiliate in Sarasota, Florida.
2005-2006
Between Aug 2005 and May 2006, I was pursing a Ph.D at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science in Bloomington, Indiana. My research interests included blogging, computer-mediated communication, and information seeking behaviors. I worked with Susan Herring and her BROG research group.
2006-2010
Due to family matters and the high expense of being a student for 7+ years, I stepped back from an academic career and returned to Tallahassee to work at FSU as Coordinator of Information Services for the College of Social Sciences.
I met my wife, Maggie, through work in 2007. She was working as an office assistant and I was brought in to help with a computer problem on her first day. We immediately clicked, and started dating shortly after that. After proposing in 2009, we were married March 20, 2010.
2010-Present
We moved to the Washington metro area in 2010, shortly after our wedding and honeymoon. I started working at Jackson River.
My interests
I am a lover of all music. I have a strong preference for progressive rock, although my iTunes library leans toward mid-90s alternative rock.
From time to time, I've played guitar and bass guitar. In my high school days, I was in a band with some friends. We self-produced an album of original material in 1999.
I am a die-hard Apple fanatic. My first computer experience was programming LOGO on an Apple IIe. My parents bought an Apple Macintosh LC III in 1993, and I spent as much time as I could learning to program under System 7. I released a shareware application called Tagline that was mildly popular.
I am also a Linux geek. I've been tinkering with Linux and been a big supporter of the OSS movement since the late-90s and the early versions of Slackware and Red Hat. I've worked with Debian, Arch, and Gentoo.
About this site
Benclark.com is hosted on a Debian virtual server at Linode.
I registered this domain in 1999. The blog first made an appearance in 2003, and it has gone through several cycles of use and design. The blog started on MovableType, then moved to WordPress, and then finally to Drupal.
Elsewhere in the tubes
I posted regularly to my LiveJournal from April 2001 to March 2007. These days, it is mostly neglected.
For social networking, I primarily use Facebook and Twitter. I have a LinkedIn profile.
I post photos to my Flickr photostream.
