As a consultant for Accenture, one of my specialities was Data Migration – the process of moving old content into a new system.  It’s always easier to start with just new information, but the old data is the pride and joy of clients.  The challenge of making the old data fit into new rules is both a technical process of transforming old data and a customer-focused assessment of whether they will agree with how the data looks in the new system.  I’m very good at this.

I just had to update my old 2001 static website to a 2008 cutting edge blog.  I am both the customer and the consultant.  It was the toughest data migration job ever… I never knew I was such a pain in the ass. .  Check out my final decisions here.

It’s interesting to assess myself based on the site I created in late 2001.  Was I:

• a self-absorbed nut case who had to create his very own fan site with an excessive amount of information?
• so frightened after 9/11 that I wanted to post everything I had about myself in case something happened to me during my Peace Corps stint?
• so caffeinated and manic during the 72 straight hours I spent building the site that it blurred my idea of what’s appropriate on a personal web page?

It was probably a combination of all three.  Have I changed much? 🙂

I was proud of that 2001 site so I brought everything over.  However, not much since I built that site is appropriate for a blog without major editing.  As a client, I’ve had to make a major decision between moving forward or continuing data migration.  Since I’m over budget on time, data migration is over!

Now that I’m done, there is only one thing left to figure out.  What will I write about and will anyone care?