Note:  This is a really rough draft. It has a wack sack of typos and abuses commas.  Proceed with caution..

The story behind the game used to be pretty simple.  ”K12 school tech guy finds blogging early on, meets people, shows others how it’s done.”  As I look back over the past 2 years, I realize the game is very different.

“What does @ijohnpederson do?”  ”Why am I following him?” ”Does he really nap that much?” ”Is he training for the 2018 Olympic Curling team?” ”Does he work for Mercedes-Benz?”  ”How was he elected Mayor of the Internet?”

Here’s the full story.

In 1996, I planned to be a high school social studies teacher.  I was passionate about this thing emerging called the “world wide web”, particularly what it had in store for teaching and learning.  As an undergrad, my first Madeline Hunter-styled lesson plan about the Bill of Rights was, instead, a lesson about how teachers could use the web to find resources about the Bill of Rights.  I received a D- because it was “off-topic”.  Heh.

I sent my first resume to a small school for a position called “technology coordinator”.  Got an interview, got the job, and got $600,000 to spend buying stuff.  ”It’s not about the stuff…”, right?  That’s what I hoped.  So I left.  I intended to go to graduate school, but I quickly fell back into the K12 world when I much larger K12 school district hired me, gave me many millions of dollars, and we bought more stuff.  Laptops for all the teachers.  Many computer labs, carts, projectors, SmartBoards, etc.  In 2004 I was, again,  burned out on the “stuff”.   To cope, I started a blog.  That introduced me to a few folks including Steve Dembo, Will Richardson, Tim Wilson, Tim Lauer, Chris Lehmann, and a handful of others. While these were all “online” relationships, they mattered.  Deeply.

In late 2005, I really needed a change.  At what should have been the pinnacle of my career, I quit.  Flat out said, “No more boxes and wires.”  Craziest, and best, move of my life.  Steve Dembo immediately called, asking if I’d be interested in coming to his place.  Will Richardson emailed both Tim Wilson and I that he’d soon be in town and wanted to grab dinner.  Turned out that all three of us had come to the same conclusion…we all needed major career changes…quickly.  Will was writing a book and considering the speaking tour.  Tim was looking at being a technology director in big schools.  On the drive home that night I stopped at a Target and picked up a copy of World of Warcraft to kill some time.  Heh.

World of Warcraft was my first game.  After playing solo for 20 or so levels I met another person named Marcozer from the guild We Know.  We spent a few hours killing fish and crabs on the shoreline.  I was curious about guilds and the social part of playing in World of Warcraft.  I soon joined We Know and became completely involved.  Our guild master (he retitled himself “guild custodian”) was Joi Ito.  The next year of my life was spent inside World of Warcraft.  Words cannot describe everything I learned about online community, leadership, relationships, and the power of the Internet during this time in my life.

At some point I needed a real job again.  :)  I cut back on the gaming (a bit) and went to work at CESA #3 doing educational technology professional development for teachers throughout schools in southwestern Wisconsin.  I happened upon something called Twitter in late 2006 and used it to follow what was happening in our World of Warcraft guild.  I spent a good amount of time in early 2007 trying to figure out if this Twitter thing was something.  A way to connect, and stay connected, with folks I was following online.  2007 was also my first trip to NECC (now ISTE).  A few of us were involved in organizing a thing dubbed “eduBloggerCon”, the idea being that we’d get together the day before the conference and have our own little, informal conference.  ISTE contacted us and asked, “How can we help?”  Our answer was simple.  ”Give us a spot with chairs, tables, and power strips during the conference where we can congregate.”  This became the first “Bloggers Cafe”.  This is where I first met Jen Wagner, David Jakes, Chris Sessums, Darren Draper, Vicki Davis, Sharon Peters…and a bunch of others.  Far too many to count.

It was also at NECC ’07, and in the Bloggers Cafe specifically, that we really began playing with Twitter.  A few of us were already using it.  A few had accounts but hadn’t quite figured out what it meant.  Many others joined Twitter that week.  I was sort of a “patient zero” when it came to Twitter and K12 educators.  I showed it to folks, they showed it to others, they followed me, etc. It added an interesting dynamic to the conference.   There was a “back channel” of sorts where you could share bits and pieces from sessions.  We also used it to mock people carrying around gigantic bags provided by Best Buy on the vendor floor.  This lead to an interesting question.  ”Between what we experienced with eduBloggerCon and the Bloggers Cafe, would there be enough interest in pitching a conference for the same group, without all the corporate/vendor/marketing silliness?”  Chris Lehmann blurted, “We could do it at SLA, say January 2008?”  A few months later I booked tickets to Philadelphia and tweeted to Chris, “I”ll be out there for that conference we talked about.”  Chris was leaning towards canceling plans for Educon, but went forward once he realized people actually would show up.  Heh.

By 2008, I had a nice network of folks I had come to know both online and in person.  I was sharing them with others through conference presentations and work I was doing focused here in Wisconsin.  From way out of the blue WiscNet contacted me, interested in whether I wanted to come work for them.  WiscNet’s tagline, “Connecting People, Connecting Strategies”, along with their human sounding strategic plan, sold me.  My job would be to build “people networks” around the “physical networks” that tie together Wisconsin’s higher ed, K12, libraries, hospitals, and municipalities.  My job is to listen to, interact with, and connect WiscNet’s members.  At our core is this thing called the Internet.  We do it in a very big way.  But it’s only as powerful as the people.  As Hugh MacLeod says, “Granted, the network is more powerful than the node, but the network needs the node, like flowers need sunshine.”

One of the more interesting people I’ve met as a result of all this is Todd Sanders, aka @tsand.  Todd does this “social media” thing at the UW-Green Bay.  I was watching him weave magic on Twitter until, one New Years Eve, I tried a chicken wing recipe he was working on.  We going back and forth, having our own little brand of fun.  Trying things.  In late 2010, DM’d, “Do this.  Don’t ruin my Christmas dreams.”  We entered and won contest  to drive a Mercedes-Benz to the Super Bowl, collecting tweets as fuel and earning points in an “American Race” type of event.  The community that came together and helped us win this thing was amazing.  A few hundred followers sent many thousands of tweets using the hashtag #MBTeamS.  We got to go see the Packers win the Super Bowl.  And drive nice cars.  They gave us both new cars.  However, the best part is still the story.

Soon after returning from the Tweet Race, things in Wisconsin went to hell politically. Protests at the capitol brought together hundreds of thousands of people.  I found myself marveling at the role social media, particularly Twitter, played in connecting and organizing people.  Once Wisconsin’s governor dismantled the teachers unions and things settled, lobbyists and legislators turned their attention on broadband in Wisconsin, and, in particular, WiscNet.  Over two weeks in June 2011 I learned, once again, the power of connecting and organizing people.  It’s far too early to call this situation a win, but we’ve manage to withstand serious pressure.

As I look ahead, I’m very much where I was at the start of my career.  Back then, I was excited about connecting people to stuff.  I had a hunch that social studies teachers would love the resources available online.  Today, with an abundance of stuff, I’m more interested in connecting people to people.  I also get to do it in my “jobby job” all day long.