Global Moxie

I make stuff

Specifically, I make stuff to help you make stuff. Through my software and books, I help creative people get clear of technical hassle to share their interests, ideas and enterprises with the world.

I started building sites in 1994, interactive web applications in 1997, and since 2003, I’ve focused my efforts on Big Medium, software that lets mere mortals edit websites without any technical know-how. I also work on a variety of other projects.

I help creative people get clear of technical hassle to share their interests, ideas and enterprises with the world.

I’m flattered (often flabbergasted) that Big Medium now powers several thousand websites. My customers have included big organizations like Gannett Company, the United Nations, the European Commission, Cornell Medical School, etc., and that’s been terrific. But I’m especially delighted that the vast majority of people using Big Medium are little guys: small businesses, boutique design agencies, nonprofits, community newspapers, church groups and individuals with something to say.

When I’m not building friendly programs, I write about them. In my books and blog, I explore humane software, clever design and the creative process. I’m the author of two books, iWork ’09: The Missing Manual and Big Medium 2: The Complete Guide. Both aim to help you create gorgeous documents and websites, vehicles worthy of your words and ideas. The goal of my books is to help you get the most out of the technologies I write about, so that you not only master them, but you also enjoy the process along the way.

That’s my gig: I help regular folks use technology to turn out sophisticated creations that rival the pros.

A one-man show?

“All very nice,” the world-weary reader might say, “but why should I rely on software produced and supported by a one-man company when I could buy from MegaGigaCorp with its gajillion developers and fancy voicemail system?”

Some folks feel more secure in the hands of a big company, and that’s fine. Me, I believe that smaller outfits often provide better experiences. It’s the same reason that veggies taste better at the roadside stand, or that a cup of coffee is more pleasant in an independent cafe. Small has its amenities. Dealing directly with the artisan means knowledgeable service from someone who cares deeply about his product.

You can find out more about my approach to business, software and customer service in these ComputerWorld and Gadgetopia interviews.

Or you can just read the Global Moxie manifesto. “Wait, you have a manifesto?” Well, of course...

I live and work in Paris

A bit of post-9/11 personal reflection prompted me to leave New York in late 2001 and join my fiancée Ellen McBreen in Paris, who was here researching her dissertation about the sculpture of Matisse. Ellen and I were married in southwestern France in June 2004.

We’re now happily ensconced on the Right Bank, in the middle of the Marais, where I help people make sense of technology and design, and Ellen helps people make sense of the city’s art collections with her educational service Paris Muse.

What I did before all this

I was born in 1971, grew up in Minnesota (too cold) and North Carolina (that’s better), and graduated in 1991 from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I started out in television, working on a slew of national PBS programs at Boston’s WGBH. I shared my three words of Russian with Mikhail Gorbachev, strolled the ranch with Nancy Reagan, talked torture with Attica prisoners and, um, wrote trivia questions for a primetime game show. After WGBH, I traversed the dot-com boom as editor of The Next Big Thing, an online business magazine published by The Monitor Group.

Along the way, I dabbled online, creating several sites, including a bunch of mini-sites for PBS programs. In 1996, I created a popular website for runners called “Kick!” at kicksports.com, and that site eventually merged with Cool Running. You can still find my training articles there, including the wildly popular “Couch to 5K” program for new runners.