I just got back from the Domains19 conference and some thanks and perhaps observations are in order.

It was a very interesting, stimulating, and useful conference. Frankly, I’ve come to expect nothing less from the ReclaimHosting crew: Jim, Tim, Lauren, Meredith, Judith, and Justin(?, we didn’t meet yet, I think).  It’s a human level conference and it’s a mix of folks from different views, backgrounds, walks, and interests, united by an deep emotional and rational commitment to learning and making the world better for people.  All people.

Actually, I don’t think I have that much “observation” to put into this yet. I can feel differences but can’t articulate them yet. Domains is like that for me.  I’m still in the absorbing, thinking, and non-verbal stage. The best conference experiences are ones where you leave as a different person than you arrived  but it’s your agency and connection to others that changed you.

Good Job, Reclaim.

via GIPHY

As a former biz strategist and now economist, it’s fun to watch Jim Groom and Reclaim grow. I think Jim said this their sixth year(?) and I believe I’ve been a customer for 5 of them.  It’s exciting to see the group start to navigate the difficulties of maintaining the spirit, soul, and mission that motivated the original founding while they grow and add people.  So far, so good. I like what I see.  It’s no secret that I think higher education is and should be, at its core, a commons. In my opinion, Reclaim is a model of how a for-profit company can serve and interact with a commons in ways that don’t extract from or enclose the commons but instead actually further it.

There’s way too many people that were at the conference for me to start naming all the folks I learned from or thought it was great to see. Many are long-time fellow travelers in this open space, others are long-time Internet fellow travelers that I now know for certain are in-the-flesh humans, and others that I just met for first time. Thank you all.