On to the next great adventure. Tomorrow I am starting with a consulting(ish) company called Gestalt - and very excited, and anxious at the same time.

It really is a fear of the unknowns. But, there are a few things that I do know. I will be working with Brian O’niell (here too), and Jim Stogdill, a couple of really smart people. Gestalt’s play in the GIGlite arena is an indication of their willing to be Open.

My role as a Technical Architect will be a new one. Although, I’ve architected my share of systems, it has always been a byproduct of “waterfall” methodologies - and was never intentional. Generally, my teams simply built systems based on the knowledge at hand. Another great indicator of the things to come is Gestalt’s PathFinder. Formal acceptance of a methodology that promotes the flexibility to do new things is something I’m very much looking forward to.

This will also be my first go around with working completely remote. I’m looking forward to this as well…I’m instantly getting 2 hours of my day back (minus commute and 9+hour days). I’m a work-a-holic anyway, now I get to be an efficient and flexible work-a-holic. Right now, I’m planning on “openly” documenting my day-to-day stuff, as function of GTD. We’ll see how that goes. I still haven’t solved a problem with publishing blog posts from Journler

I’m also planning on re-joining the JBI 2.0 EG (JSR-312) as an individual participant, and probably a couple others. In addition, it appears that ServiceMix 4.0 efforts are going to be highly influential to the JBI 2.0 effort. Things are looking good there.

I’m also creating a generic wish list of stuff that I hope to get to work on/with:

• OSGi
• Ruby
• Jabber
• MANET/IPv6
• Open Technology Development
• Enterprise development patterns, applied to embedded/tactical problems (read Java in devices)
• Open Source leadership

So, here’s to it. Tally-ho!