Welcome to My Blog!

And I'm sure I mean that literally, considering that the average readership of a blog is 1!

Despite that, I will try to post weekly, but if topics come up that are of interest and immediacy, I will at least attempt a quick note.

Who am I and why should you bother to read my blog? I can answer the first, and give inducements to the second, but ultimately you will decide whether your time is well spent here. Hopefully there will be lively discussions and a minimum of A**holes.

Answering the first question:
I am Dave Tainer, Director of Information Systems at GMHC, a New York City-based Non-Profit dedicated to the national fight against AIDS. In my role, I support the great staff at GMHC by providing them with the tools and the technology to do the best possible job. I offer strategic technological vision for the organization in its fight. Most importantly, I offer technological solutions to the myriad projects in organizing, testing, administering, counselling and record-keeping that are necessary on a day-day basis.

I've been involved in technology, directly or indirectly, since the dawn of the personal PC era, working for the government (Dept. of Energy, FEMA, both at Argonne National Labs), for-profit businesses, and teaching in the computer science department as adjunct faculty at DePaul University. Because I've worked in many different areas of IT (networking, programming, project management, strategy, vision, management, operational), I have a well-rounded view of all that technology can do, as well as what it can't.

I am also very interested in politics and can therefore speak of how technology is affecting our political culture and our political process. What has really sparked me to start this blog is the latest tech-related political flaps, namely, the following:

• Karl Rove's and the RNC's "lost" emails (hardware/software technology)
  
• the "1984" Hillary/Obama ad (viral video)
• The Giuliani campaign Website SQL flaw (Web/Internet)
• Voting Machines (hardware/software)
  

These all made me think that technology and politics are fast becoming like technology and business, heavily intertwined and inseparable. This is already ushering in a change in how campaigns are executed, financed, and viewed culturally. I will try to treat these topics in a journalistic fashion, that is, to tell the truth without distortion of my personal view of things. For the record, I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, which, in these days, the loudmouths of the right refer to as "radicals". In any case, the blogosphere will act as my ethics board!

Let's hope this is the beginning of long friendship (just hope it's not with myself only)!