We’re not Long Beach, but having our own hat would be pretty phat.

Peace.

This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.

One of the perks of working for O’Reilly is that we get any of the O’Reilly books for free. For anyone into technology (like me), that’s pretty cool. I admit I had to think twice as I packed my books in North Carolina whether I should bother with all my animal-emblazoned tomes. They were heavy, but they came with.

For anyone who hasn’t made a pilgrimage out to O’Reilly World Headquarters in Sebastopol, California, the front lobby is a mini bookstore, with three walls of bookshelves filled top to bottom with O’Reilly titles. I feel like a kid in a candyshop every time I walk through there.

But I played it cool. I didn’t head home on my first day, arms all bulging with a stack of books. I waited until Thursday, and I picked up just one: Ben Hammersley’s new book on RSS and Atom. There is one great responsibility I should mention that comes with a perk like free and unlimited O’Reilly books. Don’t go out and try to sell them. Especially not online.

All that said, let me introduce myself. I’m Justin Watt, formerly of Carrboro, North Carolina, having recently relocated to Santa Rosa, California in order to take a position as a Senior Web Producer in O’Reilly’s Online Publishing Group (OPG). I have a blog outside the Belly of the Beasts at justinsomnia.org if you’re interested in checking up on my shenanigans outside of work.

This post first appeared on From the Belly of the Beasts, a weblog from some of the people who build O’Reilly websites.

monday was my first day as a senior web producer for the online publishing group at o’reilly. a producer is responsible for preparing an article for publication, which in the case of an online publication means preparing the content to go live on the site. the senior part really just means that i have relevant web and development experience. it also means that my responsibilities may involve some development related tasks once i’m comfortable with the basic production tasks.

at which point it might be wise to mention that o’reilly does a ton of online publishing. of course there are the book blurbs that you see at oreilly.com. that site is divided up into categories (called resource centers) which i’ve often used to filter for the books i was interested in, especially web.oreilly.com.

but you’ll notice on the right is a column with articles relevant to those resource centers. these articles are actually housed at a separate url/site/entity called the o’reilly network, located at oreillynet.com. the o’reilly network is an evolving collection of subject specific sites (or development centers) where articles are published daily on subjects relevant to linux, macs, windows, java, lamp, perl, etc. the o’reilly network is really the “baby” of the online publishing group.

it’s interesting to realize that a number of these “written for and produced by o’reilly” articles have burned up the web (you might have seen them linked to from boingboing or slashdot, for instance), such as Rolling with Ruby on Rails and Top Ten Digital Photography Tips. apparently what is rss? and what is xml? are some of the most popular articles ever.

what’s amazing is that all of these articles have editors who manage authors, graphic designers who develop graphics, producers who manage content, and copy editors who read everything over. at least that’s my cursory understanding after three days. coming from the near zen simplicity of blogging, it’s really quite an amazing production, with many people working together under deadline on each individual article.

the sun is setting in front of me. i’ve taken down the blinds i had put up to soften the light in my office. i’ve boxed up the pottery and travel doo dads that found their way here. i’ve sorted through stacks of paper, filed things away, finished writing documentation. my diplomas and photos are off the wall. drawers have been emptied. i’ve even given away my english ivy.

it’s almost as if i’m waiting for someone from “security” to walk me out. except there is no security and i’m the only one in the office. going about my last few chores to get everything cleaned up for whoever uses this computer and works in this office next.

it’s time to go.

5 years ago this month, i answered an email that came across a listserv i was on as a part of my residential computing consultant job. i wish i still had it. a project at the carolina population center was looking for someone to work on a microsoft access database. i was looking for a summer job.

i answered the email—as i was in the habit of doing at that point in my life (i was working several campus jobs concurrently). i knew microsoft word, powerpoint, and excel, so why not access? after interviewing, i was offered the position, to replace someone who was leaving in a month for the peace corps. i was going to be responsible for a financial database that would track $47 million dollars.

later i would go on to build a health indicators database that would send me to kazakhstan, cambodia, tanzania, and ghana. somehow in the midst of all this i managed to graduate from unc with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and a masters of science in information science. for my masters project i redeveloped the access-based financial system for the web using php and mysql. then i wrote a sixty-six page paper describing what i’d done.

over the last year i’ve been adjusting to life on the outside. i worked on a few other projects, i traveled to ghana in november, but otherwise i’ve worked pretty consistently on developing and extending the web-based financial system. until now. april 2005 is my last month at measure evaluation.

i’ve accepted a position as a senior web producer with o’reilly media, inc. starting in may.