Reclaim – Reclaim Hosting https://www.reclaimhosting.com Take Control of your Digital Identity Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:58:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 https://www.reclaimhosting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/RHprofilelogo-100x100.png Reclaim – Reclaim Hosting https://www.reclaimhosting.com 32 32 Greetings from Reclaim Hosting https://bavatuesdays.com/greetings-from-reclaim-hosting/ Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:58:54 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30637 Continue reading ]]> Turns out a few days ago was Reclaim Hosting‘s 11th anniversary, crazy how time flies when you are providing a range of infrastructure options for higher ed and beyond. Recently Meredith Huffman and I sat down with Bryan Mathers to try and map all the different products and services we offer. The beauty of these sessions is that they often lead to new ways of framing Reclaim Hosting, and this meeting did not disappoint. We came up with the overarching theme of visiting various products as if they were places, and the postcards become the key element for visually capturing their essence:

Visual map of places you can visit in the land of Reclaim Hosting

Greetings from Reclaim Hosting

Back of each postcard: Greetings from Reclaim Hosting

Each card has the same background, and these postcards become physical elements we can give out at events like WP Campus and DH2024, both of which Meredith and I will be attending this week and next, respectively. So, anyway, here are the various postcards with each of the products, so awesome!

Domain of one’s Own

Domain of One’s Own

The industrial strength of WordPress Multisite hosting

Managed cPanel Hosting – pick your source

cPanel hosting, more generic remote

Some old gold Reclaim Cloud visuals

ReclaimEDU and Managed Hosting “Offload your dread…”

ReclaimEDU – a visualization of how our failover system works

ReclaimPress – the very bold label

ReclaimPress- because your WordPress site is your baby

A more abstract Andy Warhol-inspired record that came out of RclaimPress but can really be used across products like WPMS, ReclaimCloud, ReclaimPress, etc.

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DS106Radio Summer Camp https://bavatuesdays.com/ds106radio-summer-camp/ Mon, 29 Jul 2024 07:31:06 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30629 Continue reading ]]>

Bryan Mathers is at it again with his Remixer

While the Learning Management System may not be dead, I certainly feel better when it’s not around. In fact, the ds106radio Summer Camp from August 12th through the 16th is embedded in the idea that doing edtech is anything but isolating and depressing. The schedule highlights just that fact, with sessions about everything from the Austerity Blues to Dream Teams and Apollo 13s. And the platform? The open and free airwaves of the mighty ds106radio. I’ll get things going each morning with some impromptu radio with musings about such topics as “What is art?” and “Why you can’t kill what’s already dead.” This format allows for folks to tune in as they like and enjoy a frictionless experience all the while. Major kudos to Maren Deepwell for organizing the summer camp so seamlessly, and creating a free and accessible event that is open and available to anyone interested—my favorite kind of open! If you’re interested in playing along you can register here for reminders and updates or just listen in when the time comes.

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Team Reclaim https://bavatuesdays.com/team-reclaim/ Wed, 26 Jun 2024 11:13:13 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30399 Continue reading ]]> As Reclaim continues to morph, I ‘ve been thinking a bit about working teams. One of the real joys—and possibly under appreciated privileges—I’ve had professionally is being part of really amazing teams, which often translates to working with great people. I was living in New York City in the late 90s, just in time to witness (many times first-hand) the NY Yankees 3-peat World Series championships in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Now it might be easy to dismiss this team given they were chock-full of money and talent (they’re the Yankees, after all), but turns out the Orioles had an even higher payroll with arguably as much talent in 1998.* And also, remember the Mets!!! 🙂

Beyond the money and individual stars there was something more at play—a sense of joyful commitment to the work married with talent made them something else all together. Even the leagues of folks who hate the Yankees would crack a little with that particular team—they were hard not to respect because they played as a team and the greatness transcended any one player. What’s not to love about an impossible infield play by hall of famer Derek Jeter to rob the opposition of a hit followed by an equally impressive stop from everyman utility player Scott Brosius. It was greatness all around; they made each other better and as a result were unstoppable for 3 straight years—a herculean feat in any sport. To boot, they seemed to be having fun all the while.

Now edtech is not Major League Baseball, and this comparison is flimsy at best, but the NY Yankees of that era were emblematic of a great team, and one I witnessed first hand.† And for me the key seemed to be joy, having both a shared purpose as well as a lot of fun with your teammates. I think that translates very well for me with the work I did as an instructional technologist at University of Mary Washington alongside many amazing folks, but in particular Martha Burtis, Andy Rush, Shannon Hauser, and Jerry Slezak. They’re folks I miss being around regularly, but when we were together in the bullpen (maybe the baseball metaphor does work) exploring the magic of the mid-2000s web for higher ed was undergirded by a lot of laughter, and thankfully not spoiled by the years of million dollar state salaries. I’ve talked about the magic of working at the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT) on this blog extensively, so I will try and keep things moving along.

DTLT Reunion at Reclaim Open

My next team was in many ways taken from DTLT, as Tim Owens and I started Reclaim while working together there. We both eventually left the university, taking the newly minted graduate Lauren Hanks (Brumfield at that time) with us as we ventured into the unknown territory of Reclaim Hosting. We were a super small team for many years, it wasn’t until 2017 that we brought on Meredith Huffman (another fresh UMW alum). And with the addition of Chris Blankenship a couple of years after that (yet another UMW faithful!), we had the core of a team that would define the first 10 years of Reclaim Hosting.

Tim and Lauren in a recently Completed CoWork

This was quite an intense period as we stayed lean and grew quick, but at the same time it carried over a lot of the fun and experimentation of our time at UMW, only with a fraction of the meetings. On top of growing our shared hosting, Domain of One’s Own, and managed hosting significantly, we also had time to open up a CoWork space, a VHS store, and eventually Tim took over the arcade we built and spun it off into his own career—leaving the now civilized terrain of Reclaim. And not too long after Tim became the pinball wizard, Lauren left just this past September after realizing the previous eight years Reclaim was all she had known professionally. It was time for both to strike out for new territory, leaving old man bava to his devices. The contributions both Tim and Lauren made are too immense to list here, and in many ways I’ve not written either a proper goodbye on this blog for fear of letting either go—but I’ll save that discussion for my next appointment with Dr. Freud.‡

I’m not going to lie, I was a bit concerned this past fall and winter as I was saying goodbye to Lauren and buying out Tim’s remaining share of Reclaim Hosting, and my mental stated reflected that transition. At the same time, one of the things I underestimated was just how resilient and awesome the team we’ve been building over the last several years has become. Meredith and Chris have become the pillars of both support and infrastructure this new city on the hill was built upon, and in addition to that, bringing on Goutam Vijay Narang, Pilot Irwin, and Taylor Jadin almost three years ago now ensured a really solid base from which we could continue to provide the service our community was used to, while at the same to building community through avenues like ReclaimTV, Discord, Roundup Newsletter, and Reclaim the Blog—all of which we have never done to the same extent previously. In many ways we’re now getting the word out better than ever before, and it’s still retains the tone and humor of Reclaim always represented. Just 18 months ago we brought on Noah Dorsett who has done a phenomenal job helping us shore up security, helping us all sleep that much better at night. But when Tim and Lauren were coming to their end of their reign, Meredith stepped up to play and all around manager; Pilot stepped up to manage support like a star; and Chris remained Chris keeping everything online.

Team Reclaim at Reclaim Open

It is also worth noting, eight months after Noah came, we hired on Amanda Schmidt to buttress our growing Edtech group, which Taylor and Pilot were already helping us define.  It has been truly rewarding to watch Edtech find its legs, part of which has been the push for community building, and we have become able to support Reclaim Cloud that much more effectively, as well as introduce new offerings such as ReclaimEDU and ReclaimPress, we’ve done anything but sit on our hands.

But when Lauren left there was a serious HR and operations gap that we got truly lucky to be able to bring on Maren Deepwell as a contractor, her impact to keeping the team focused and sharing her vast expertise and mentoring has been invaluable. When I had to more extensive time off she worked with Meredith and the entire Reclaim team to make sure everything remained on track, and we scarce missed a beat—that fact alone speaks volumes to how much we have grown with our current incarnation of Reclaim.

I think part of my musings here might be that I just finished up annual reviews, and it was amazing to see how happy folks are at Reclaim—that for me is the number one indicator of success. By that metric, we are by and large killing it. And our team is still growing, with a brilliant hire of superstar Jason Teitelman, whose has been an amazing fit to further reinforce out focus on all things support. And just this month we have added Cass le Fay into a hybrid support/infrastructure role to provide Chris some relief with all things sysadmin—long overdue.

I would be remiss if I did not end with one of the most impactful changes that has happened in just the last two months, bringing on Justin Webb as managing partner, to manage finances and bring some of his long-honed expertise in all matters IT to bear on Reclaim’s future. We have worked with Justin for more than 7 years as a consultant, after being colleagues at UMW for almost 7 more—so the ability to partner with a know entity who has seen the inner-workings of Reclaim for so many years was a true relief. As the reality of not being entirely alone takes hold, I can feel the pressure and dread turn once again to joy and possibility.

As Tim stepped away the infrastructure team felt that hit, just as Lauren’s departure had us scrambling organizationally, so bringing on both Maren and, six months later, Justin marks the beginning of yet another era of Reclaim that has me excited all over again. Managing growth and valuing our services appropriately has it’s real challenges, and given Reclaim was never the work of one person, the fact that we’ve built a team that’s as good, and arguably deeper, than the one we had out first ten years really has me excited for what’s to come. It’s all about the people, and Reclaim has made all the right moves!

_____________________________________

*If you look at MLB payrolls since 1998, the Yankees have consistently been amongst the biggest spenders, but that has led to only 1 championship in 23 years—although arguably 2 given the Astros cheated. So while money always matters, there was also something else at play with this group.

†It was also hard not to be drawn in by the Chicago Bulls of the mid-90s and the god-like talent of Jordan even if you were not a basketball fan. But that team seemed to struggle with the cult of Jordan—whereas the Yankees championships were not as predicated on the one superstar (in fact, the one superstar often is an albatross in baseball, A-Rod anyone?). Now this could be a difference of sports, granted, but Jordan’s persona and talent were so ridiculously great that it was hard for any other player on that team to get much of the glory, which is unfortunately still playing out between Pippen and Jordan. What’s more, Jordan and the Bulls made Basketball a global phenomenon, which no team or player has been able to do for baseball. In fact, I’m seeing the impact of Jordan’s footprint 30 years later with basketball’s immense popularity here in Italy.

‡I think the same was true of Shannon Hauser when she graduated and “left” UMW

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Reclaim’s Daystream Nation https://bavatuesdays.com/reclaims-daystream-nation/ Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:27:16 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30407 Continue reading ]]>

It’s an anthem in a vacuum on a hyperstation
Daydreaming days in a daydream nation

Not sure exactly what hyperstation means in the Sonic Youth song “Trilogy” quoted above, but I do love the way it sounds. Maybe it’s alluding to the future fact that Reclaim Hosting will create a “hyperstation” on Reclaim.tv. A regularly streaming daydream pushed through a make-believe vacuum tube out to a glowing web. I’m not sure that even makes any sense, but that’s what I hear and see in my mind’s eye. All this nonsense to say that Reclaim has been streaming pretty regularly for a while now to Reclaim TV, and I wanted to highlight a few of the recent streams, as a way to celebrate this development.

As a way to embrace the anachronistic web of vacuum tubes, I want to first point out the stream Taylor and I did featuring Protoweb:

a free public service that hosts historical Internet websites to demonstrate the Internet in it’s early days. It is also a community driven project consisting of volunteers with the goal of rebuilding and restoring early Internet services to offer a seamless browsing experience.

We were going to use it on my Windows 98 machine I have been playing around with, but I bricked that machine right before the stream, so Taylor used his MiSTer multi-system card to reproduce a Windows 95 machine, and it really is an impressive toy. It can re-create a wide-range of old consoles and computing systems, and it is not so much emulation as an engineering/programming feat to run many of those systems in their native form on a more compact, shared hardware. Now that I have a new Windows 98 machine running, it’s time to get it connected to the web to try Protoweb out, it really does get at the heart of what surfing the web used to be like.

Speaking of the retro web I also streamed last week about the “pain and pleasure” of returning to an old operating systems like Windows 98. It brings back a whole slew of prior knowledge, and reminds me how difficult even simple tasks could be with a bug-ridden system like Windows. Although, truth be told I am loving returning to this late 90s operating system, and have a few more streams to share on this experience for sure.

We also caught up with Stephen Downes a couple of weeks ago to get his take on cloud computing, and what his process has been as he moves more and more of his cpanel and/or VPS based sites to various cloud providers. Turns out he is a regular “consumer digest investigator” on the various cloud platforms,* and his ability to keep pace with the changes and use his own code, domains, and tools as his laboratory is remarkable. An edtech is many things, to be sure, but the ability to dig in on the infrastructure and make open source tools do your bidding is one definition I’m biased towards—Downes truly walks that walk with his own fleet of sites.

And coming in just a over an hour will be a discussion with “tell me again about my eyes” Tim Owens about how he is approaching marketing for the inimitable Reclaim Arcade—reconnecting with the OG Reclaimer.

And those are just the streams I have been involved with over the last month, there are many, many more accessible at archive.reclaim.tv that you can browse at your convenience, but here are a few I will highlight:

Taylor and Pilot caught up with special guest Quinn Dombroski (of whom Reclaim is a big fan) to talk about “Modeling Project Planning in DH throwugh Games.”  Quinn is just too cool and obviously loves what they do, and the passion for teaching and learning is infectious.

Maren and Meredith catch up with another very special guest, namely Bryan M. Mathers, to talk about his early adoption of newest product ReclaimPress. As it so happens, Bryan was not only an early adopter based on his needs for visualthinkery.com and his own website, but also he created the Reclaim aesthetic—up to and including the art for ReclaimPress. In fact, the visual “From Passion Project to Web Empire” is in many ways the metaphor we needed to explain what this service does differently than cPanel hosting in one, elegant graphic. As usual Bryan takes our thought chaos turns them into a compelling and elucidating communique that folks can wrap their head around.

And if you’re wondering if the Reclaim Support team can have some fun, Taylor’s creation of “The Best Support on the Internet” game show highlights Reclaim’s deep comradery, playfulness, and, of course, hosting knowledge. And while a bit indulgent, the streams are most fun because we’ve given ourselves the freedom to explore and share whatever we’re working on at the time.

In fact, I am so excited about our ability to stream regularly on Reclaim TV is that I imagine it as a multimedia-rich and often communal blogging process. I have long had the dream of us creating a “TV Station” for Reclaim, and over the last 6-12 months that vision has become a reality and I could not be more thrilled with the collective effort that has made it possible. YEAH!!!

_______________________________

*This is a paraphrasing of an Eric Likness comment during the live stream that was too good not to re-purpose here, so thanks again Eric, for being there!

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Reclaim’s Daystream Nation https://bavatuesdays.com/reclaims-daystream-nation/ Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:18:05 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30403 Continue reading ]]>

It’s an anthem in a vacuum on a hyperstation
Daydreaming days in a daydream nation

Not sure exactly what hyperstation means in the Sonic Youth song “Trilogy” quoted above, but I do love the way it sounds. Maybe it’s alluding to the future fact that Reclaim Hosting will create a “hyperstation” on Reclaim.tv. A regularly streaming daydream pushed through a make-believe vacuum tube out to a glowing web. I’m not sure that even makes any sense, but that’s what I hear and see in my mind’s eye. All this nonsense to say that Reclaim has been streaming pretty regularly for a while now to Reclaim TV, and I wanted to highlight a few of the recent streams, as a way to celebrate this development.

As a way to embrace the anachronistic web of vacuum tubes, I want to first point out the stream Taylor and I did featuring Protoweb:

a free public service that hosts historical Internet websites to demonstrate the Internet in it’s early days. It is also a community driven project consisting of volunteers with the goal of rebuilding and restoring early Internet services to offer a seamless browsing experience.

We were going to use it on my Windows 98 machine I have been playing around with, but I bricked that machine right before the stream, so Taylor used his MiSTer multi-system card to reproduce a Windows 95 machine, and it really is an impressive toy. It can re-create a wide-range of old consoles and computing systems, and it is not so much emulation as an engineering/programming feat to run many of those systems in their native form on a more compact, shared hardware. Now that I have a new Windows 98 machine running, it’s time to get it connected to the web to try Protoweb out, it really does get at the heart of what surfing the web used to be like.

Speaking of the retro web I also streamed last week about the “pain and pleasure” of returning to an old operating systems like Windows 98. It brings back a whole slew of prior knowledge, and reminds me how difficult even simple tasks could be with a bug-ridden system like Windows. Although, truth be told I am loving returning to this late 90s operating system, and have a few more streams to share on this experience for sure.

We also caught up with Stephen Downes a couple of weeks ago to get his take on cloud computing, and what his process has been as he moves more and more of his cpanel and/or VPS based sites to various cloud providers. Turns out he is a regular “consumer digest investigator” on the various cloud platforms,* and his ability to keep pace with the changes and use his own code, domains, and tools as his laboratory is remarkable. An edtech is many things, to be sure, but the ability to dig in on the infrastructure and make open source tools do your bidding is one definition I’m biased towards—Downes truly walks that walk with his own fleet of sites.

And coming in just a over an hour will be a discussion with “tell me again about my eyes” Tim Owens about how he is approaching marketing for the inimitable Reclaim Arcade—reconnecting with the OG Reclaimer.

And those are just the streams I have been involved with over the last month, there are many, many more accessible at archive.reclaim.tv that you can browse at your convenience, but here are a few I will highlight:

Taylor and Pilot caught up with special guest Quinn Dombroski (of whom Reclaim is a big fan) to talk about “Modeling Project Planning in DH throwugh Games.”  Quinn is just too cool and obviously loves what they do, and the passion for teaching and learning is infectious.

Maren and Meredith catch up with another very special guest, namely Bryan M. Mathers, to talk about his early adoption of newest product ReclaimPress. As it so happens, Bryan was not only an early adopter based on his needs for visualthinkery.com and his own website, but also he created the Reclaim aesthetic—up to and including the art for ReclaimPress. In fact, the visual “From Passion Project to Web Empire” is in many ways the metaphor we needed to explain what this service does differently than cPanel hosting in one, elegant graphic. As usual Bryan takes our thought chaos turns them into a compelling and elucidating communique that folks can wrap their head around.

And if you’re wondering if the Reclaim Support team can have some fun, Taylor’s creation of “The Best Support on the Internet” game show highlights Reclaim’s deep comradery, playfulness, and, of course, hosting knowledge. And while a bit indulgent, the streams are most fun because we’ve given ourselves the freedom to explore and share whatever we’re working on at the time.

In fact, I am so excited about our ability to stream regularly on Reclaim TV is that I imagine it as a multimedia-rich and often communal blogging process. I have long had the dream of us creating a “TV Station” for Reclaim, and over the last 6-12 months that vision has become a reality and I could not be more thrilled with the collective effort that has made it possible. YEAH!!!

_______________________________

*This is a paraphrasing of an Eric Likness comment during the live stream that was too good not to re-purpose here, so thanks again Eric, for being there!

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Un-CORK-ing the #OER24 Thoughts https://meredithhuffman.com/un-cork-ing-the-oer24-thoughts/ Tue, 02 Apr 2024 01:02:26 +0000 https://meredithhuffman.com/?p=3266 My 5th OER conference is in the books! I’m just getting back to my desk after taking the weekend to reflect and think through the experience of OER24 this year and I’m so grateful for the entire trip. From coffee shops, trips to see the Titanic’s final port of call, seeing family, catching up with colleagues, and most of all experiencing all the goodness that OER brings to the EdTech world each year.

Preparing for the Conference

Surprisingly enough I found out I was heading to Cork back in November. In fact it was the day after my wedding! I remember chuckling to my husband over brunch that a conference proposal was submitted while we were dancing the night away.

Jim, Maren, and I planned to create a presentation about our EdTech offerings, and professional development, and talk through some of our new product offerings! We ultimately decided to record a full version of the presentation as we all wouldn’t be able to make it in person. This honestly turned out great! There wasn’t an option to watch any of the individual presentations virtually so we were able to share this along with the slides as a way to incorporate a virtual option.

Pre-conference Festivities

After meeting my parents in Dublin (they just so happened to be in Europe at the same time attending a travel agency conference!) we were off to explore the city! It was a short and sweet visit as we were off to see family the next day, but it was the perfect chance to fight some jetlag. We walked the river into the Temple Bar area and explored the streets. And of course, a pint of Guinness was for lunch.

Next, we went to see some family in Clara (in County Offaly). My dad’s mother’s family immigrated to the US and it is always so special to see where they came from. The last time I saw them was in 2016 so I don’t entirely remember so much about the trip and the visit with them in general.

After the stop in Clara, we were off to Cork! We spent the next 2 days walking through the city center and exploring Cobh (pronounced Cove), indulging in some coffee, whiskey, shopping, and even some nautical history! Cobh (or Queenstown for the Brits) was the final port of call for the Titanic on April 11, 1912, before meeting its inevitable iceberg on April 15, 1912. We took in the sights at the riverfront in Cork and the striking cathedral in Cobh that overlooks the beautiful waterside and colorful houses. Then I found a Whiskey tasting at a local bar, where the host holds the Guinness World Record for making the most Irish Coffees in three minutes. We definitely decided to bring some Whiskey back with us!

As folks were arriving for the conference, I spent the day before catching up with Maren and Anne-Marie over sushi and artwork!

OER24 Events

Day 1

Day 1 was off to a great success. Dr Rajiv Jhangiani‘s keynote was fantastic, creating a base for the themes surrounding OER at a crossroads.

Then, Maren and I were up next! We started things off in the very first session of the individual presentations on the Innovative Pedagogies And Creative Education track. And we had a blast! It was my first presentation with Maren and I think we make a good team 🙂

I was glad to have the presentation finished as that meant we could really focus on the other presentations happening with the other attendees. I caught up on podcasting with Maren and Martin, creating conversation starters and stepping away from the screen through audio formats. There’s A school creating a practical MOOC through a cooking class, too! It’s taught in a virtual format using Atem Minis and H5P for production.

With Gasta sessions ending the day I left the first day inspired and excited to see what was next. Tom Farrelly facilitates 5-minute presentations in such a charismatic manner that you can’t help but stay engaged.

Day 2

Day 2 arrived too quickly! We started the day with an amazingly thought-provoking keynote with Dr Catherine Cronin and Professor Laura Czerniewicz. They spoke on their recent book Higher Education For Good: Teaching and Learning Futures which sparked a lot of awareness around key issues we’re facing in our community as a whole over the last few years from 2015 to now. Their slide picture below brings up a lot of ideas and things I’ve been thinking about over the last few months too.

Then Martin Weller spoke on his 30 years of Ed Tech experience and where he’s heading as he’s preparing for retirement. I had the pleasure of spending some time with him over the conference and I’ve been inspired by his work over my short career as well. “Blogging is the way…”

Lunch rolled around and Maren and I found ourselves having our own hallway chat in the form of a stream! Jim was able to join us virtually for just a bit along with many members attending the conference to share some of the ideas that stuck out to us the most over the conference itself. We got talking and realized we’d completely missed lunch! The stream really captures our thoughts in the moment and it’s worth a watch (my blog post doesn’t cover it enough).

We ended up finding a quiet place in the main arena space to keep chatting. We sat with Alan Levine talking through radio streaming and Bryan Mathers about upside-down presentation formats.

And we wrapped up the conference with the Day 2 Gasta sessions once again and celebrated the accomplishments of Martin.

Reflections

If you’ve taken the time to read this far, I’ve got some reflections! OER24 was by far one of the most inspiring conferences where I’ve been a delegate, to date. I am always inspired by the community projects, classes, and research everyone is working through, some mentioned in the conference program above.

I was facing a bit of burnout throughout the winter, feeling knee-deep in my to-do list really focusing on what needed to happen to keep going, and haven’t had a chance to really step back to set new goals and projects for my professional career.

While I’m feeling a little bit of burnout, I’m also feeling rooted in my position at Reclaim. I’ve been with the company for 7 years, on to my 8th year and I’ve seen how much the company’s grown and changed over the years. We’ve really focused on building the capacity as a team to scale to new growth through ReclaimPress and ReclaimEDU with Cloud Infrastructure. We’ve grown from a 4-person team to 11 people and we’re not slowing down! We even built a Slack back channel to share our experiences on the ground for OER24 to allow the team to follow along. It also served as a great way to take notes throughout the conference.

OER24 was just what I needed to remember why I work at Reclaim. To help members of the Open Education community create their projects in an open format, in an affordable way, all while teaching to build capacity. To encourage folks to share their stories and even find ways to bring that into Reclaim. I have a list of folks to follow up with to bring into our live streams, or even Reclaim Case Studies.

So I’m back in the US, with a lot of gratitude, inspiration, and excitement to see where we go in 2024! Gasta!

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That Mathers Aesthetic! https://bavatuesdays.com/that-mathers-aesthetic/ Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:51:50 +0000 https://bavatuesdays.com/?p=30113 Continue reading ]]> The great Maren Deepwell (who Reclaim Hosting has been lucky enough to work with after her long stint as ALTs brilliant CEO) has created a visual anthology celebrating 10 years of Reclaim’s art. It’s a very cool video, and I highly recommend you partake in the celebration 🙂

I’m really proud of the brand we’ve been able to forge over the last decade. Trying to make a relatively boring product like web hosting compelling has been one of the funnest elements of the job. What’s more, getting to partner with the entire Reclaim team and the likes of Bryan Mathers to do it has been the real gold.

Gold Record plan for the newly launched Reclaim.Press

Bryan will quickly deflect any praise or compliment right back at you taking little to no credit for how much his own visual storytelling shapes our identity by capturing a raucous sense of cultural play without sacrificing a deep, company-wide commitment to an open and independent web.

Bryan Mathers early vision for the indie edtech record store with snide proprietor and all 🙂

There’s a fine line to walk between tongue and cheek references and an underlying commitment to what can be referred to as indie edtech or trailing edge technology. A belief that the new and shiny can often obfuscate the long history of edtech, but also erase any sense of its embedded cultural history that impacts ours daily lives.

The iconic, industrial visual label of Reclaim Cloud

The link between edtech and vinyl or edtech and an independent record store is not only playful, but also an argument for the production of online culture and the value of an independent space to do it. Reclaim understands itself outside the homogenizing box-store mentality of massive social media sites and hosting services, much like independent record labels such as Dischord that are anathema to the mainstream business of music. It’s about community, it’s about focus, and it’s about controlled, responsible growth. These are so many of the understated, subliminal messages in the Mathers Aesthetic that are directly linked to an ethos of indie edtech.

The ds106 album cover where Giulia Forsythe remixes Raymond Pettibon that in many ways pre-figures Bryan Mathers remixing

I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that Bryan, however inadvertently, has become the Raymond Pettibon of indie edtech, and his aesthetic permeates far beyond the confines of Reclaim Hosting’s “album covers.” If I was being selfish I would refer to all the great work he has created for us over the years as the “Reclaim aesthetic,” but if I were to be honest it’s more appropriate to say “that Mathers aesthetic!”—and we have just been lucky enough to be early to the party. Go ahead, try and create your online identity with an AI prompt, we’ll be over here working with the artists.

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Reclaiming the #edtech4life mentality https://meredithhuffman.com/reclaiming-the-edtech4life-mentality/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 17:27:59 +0000 https://meredithhuffman.com/?p=3220

As I’m preparing for OER24 (so excited!!!) I wanted to write a blog post about my presentation coming up to get my thoughts together. I’m keeping the blog train rolling.

I’ll be on the ground representing Reclaim and the EdTech team. We have some fun things planned leading up to the presentation (check Reclaim.tv on March 22 and 26) and a fun impromptu Radio Stream with Maren (speaking of I need to make sure my computer can run AudioHijack!) on Day 2 of the conference.

This will be my first OER since they picked back up in person! These conferences (besides Domains and Reclaim Open, of course) always hold such a fond place in my heart. It’s where I did my first presentation as a young professional in 2018 in Bristol (I wish I’d posted a blog about this), announced Reclaim Video in 2019, then presented again in 2020 over Zoom. Then teaming up with ALT to provide OERxDomains21!

I am beyond excited to head over to Cork, Ireland to catch up with some colleagues and present all the goodness that Reclaim’s done over the last year and as we’re looking into the future for 2024 and beyond.


As we continue to navigate an ever-changing work life (especially after the pandemic, which is crazy to think this happened 4 years ago), have you noticed that work is continually becoming more demanding? Especially as educators or those in the Customer Service realm, projects become more time intensive, deliverables need focus, and customers have increasingly difficult questions.

I’ve even found that I’m constantly moving from task to task on my to-do list and that my day is filled with things that need attention immediately. I’m focusing too much on the day-to-day operations of the company, keeping my head down to get the work done. Is anyone else feeling that way?

Project Management is one thing, but putting the intentional time to explore new tools on the web and even researching that difficult question from a client is another!

It can be difficult to find resources that provide learning new tools/software/products in an easily digestible way, from self-paced learning to workshops and other events. What’s more, these resources are often behind a paywall, or only available live. Or they’re highly technical where you have to practically learn another language to understand, who has time for that?

That’s where Reclaim comes in!

As a company with a large EdTech background, we get it. We understand how quickly tools are changing, requiring you to learn more. Heck, I’ve even been working through learning Ghost as Reclaim’s been working through our monthly Roundup newsletter, and even exploring our Cloud infrastructure when I can.

I’ll talk about more of what Reclaim’s been up to over the last year in a bit but, I do want to focus on some other groups who’ve come before us!

Groups Before Us

We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from groups before us, like Catherine Cronin, Mia Zamora, and Maha Bali with Equity Unbound. “Equity Unbound is an emergent, collaborative curriculum which aims to create equity-focused, open, connected, intercultural learning experiences across classes, countries and contexts.” With their initiative, you’re able to explore emerging topics like AI in the classroom and Digital Wellbeing. Users can asynchronously run other topics in their classes as well. A perfect example of open, connected learning happening around the world! This community shows how you CAN tackle equity and equality in a way that helps connect people around common themes.  

Maha also co-founded Virtually Connecting, a group that provides a virtual option to conferences for those who are not able to attend conferences in person. This group utilizes live streams, recorded videos, and video calls to include virtual participants and encourage the discussion on social media. I’ve always admired groups that include some sort of virtual option in their presentations.

There are also the Open Education Interest Groups (OpenEd SIGs) as well! Run through ALT, the group has been around for well over 10 years, and become a staple in the OER community as well, and has proven ever more valuable in the last few years. Now I only just found out about this community and you bet I was subscribing to all the ListServs I could! Members of this group continue to an active part in the OER community. 

And even groups like ds106 continue to pave the way through open communities worldwide. Combining traditional classroom offerings and an asynchronous workflow is important to provide an open space for us to continue learning. #4life

 

What Reclaim is Doing

So now, where does Reclaim come in? Well, let me tell you! Over the past two years, we’ve created our EdTech team, working with educators to develop their institutional capability. We’ve focused on community building first, building in teaching as we go. We want to help you reach your goals!

From workshops to short classes, community chats, live streams, and more, we’re focudsing on professional development and building capacity for each tool. Personally, working with the EdTech team has almost forced me to put professional development on the calendar, so I can be prepared to teach you!

Within our work, you’ll see we’ve been intentional on how we’re presenting the work. We wanted the courses, workshops and Chats to be as accessible as possible for participants. We understand schedules are busy, and you may not be able to attend a full workshop or the weekly flex course sessions. So we create a watch site for each Workshop and provide links to the the published videos. We also archive the videos on our Peertube instance so you can binge all the content.

We built out a community landing page as a one-stop shop for all visitors to get in touch with Reclaimers and see the professional development offerings! We maintain a Discord server for anyone in our community to join and chat. We’ve organized it so folks can focus on their specific interests, and topics, and even join in on the event conversations!

Continuing with professional development, we offer workshops on WordPress Multisite administration and Domain of One’s Own throughout the year. We run month-long flex courses, for specific topics. We’ve covered Open Publishing Ecosystems, WordPress, Ghost, and an overview of our Cloud-based products. The flex courses consist of 4 weeks of learning, where we come together to discuss and reflect on each week’s topic. Stay tuned for our April course, on Ghost!

We’ve built an all-inclusive calendar to help keep you up to date on all the happenings at Reclaim. You can subscribe for updates and even register for the events.

And if you’re a fan of written content, we’ve got you covered too! We maintain a blog to announce these events, post important updates to the company, and include some fun topics along the way. We send out a Monthly Newsletter showcasing what the team and community have been up to over the past month. (Also built in Ghost).

What’s Next

With all of these tools ready to go, you may be asking yourself, well what’s next Reclaim? And that’s super exciting because we have some new products to share too! First, we’re going back to our WordPress roots with ReclaimEDU. After more than 10 years of supporting digital projects for colleges and universities around the world, Reclaim Hosting is pleased to offer our higher education partners the option of hosting their campus .edu in the cloud. Offering high availability servers and failover options, you can take comfort and know that Reclaim has your back!

We also realize that sometimes simplicity is better– and you just need WordPress, either through a simple new site or a long-standing WordPress multisite. So we created ReclaimPress! ReclaimPress is a cloud platform that is specifically tailored to hosting WordPress sites. It provides your site with dedicated, fast, and scalable hosting at an unbeatable price, all the while living in an easy-to-use dashboard. It’s simply put, WordPress hosting. We’re excited to announce our beta program starting now! Feel free to sign up and start testing. 

(ReclaimPress is officially launching the beta

Because we’ve put the practice in, to progress our professional development in intentional ways, we’re able to provide the top-notch support to help you get where you’re going!

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Communications and Digital Studies Panel: UMW https://meredithhuffman.com/communications-and-digital-studies-panel-umw/ Wed, 21 Feb 2024 21:41:31 +0000 https://meredithhuffman.com/?p=3121 Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking on a panel for Communications and Digital Studies Majors at the University of Mary Washington! I joined 4 other students who recently graduated (within the last 10 years) to talk about our experiences in the job market and how we got our current jobs.

(Shoutout to Brandon for being the photographer!)

This was such a full-circle moment for me as the students who attended this panel are very familiar with Reclaim Hosting and Domain of One’s Own. They all receive their domain name in their Freshman seminars and take that with them throughout the CDS major.

I felt super nostalgic throughout the panel because I was one of the first groups of students who received a domain name (I talked about this in my Turning 10 blog post), and as Reclaim has been working closely with UMW over the years through Domain of One’s Own and WordPress Multisite, it has been incredible to see how much the program grows year over year.

And I always enjoy seeing the student’s perspective when working with their domain name. As my job has shifted over the years, I tend to see more Administrator questions and behind-the-scenes server management and I miss out on the individual projects students are working on.

All in all, this was such a great professional development moment, to hear perspectives of the wide range of IT/Communications/Digital Media and to get students excited to start their careers!

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WP Campus 2023: New Orleans https://meredithhuffman.com/wp-campus-2023-new-orleans/ Sat, 17 Feb 2024 03:33:43 +0000 https://meredithhuffman.com/?p=3054 (This post has been a long time coming!)

Back in July 2023, I checked off a bucket list city and traveled to New Orleans with some of the Reclaim crew, Jim and Lauren to attend WP Campus 2023 at Tulane University.

This was such a fun event! As my first in-person conference after the pandemic (not counting Reclaim Open), I was anxious and excited to network with folks in the community and even present on a topic close to home at Reclaim and tease new products.

We took the presentation back to Reclaim’s roots in WordPress at the University of Mary Washington, after celebrating our 10-year anniversary. Jim lamented on centralized IT departments, with the rough and tough, jaded IT directors, through email, and on to ~ spaces.

We glance at the creation of the LMS, into custom-coded brightly colored applications, and on to the world of web hosting and cPanel.

After this, we moved to open tools, like WordPress and WordPress Multisite, where we started to investigate our agency with the web and started learning tools for working on the open web through the curriculum at the University of Mary Washington and Domain of One’s Own

Lauren and I showcased our time at UMW how it shaped our online presence and how we found our roots in WordPress. We worked through Domain of One’s Own and WordPress Multisites using examples that Reclaim works with, like UMW Domains, Coventry Domains, and OUCreate. In each of these instances, WordPress explores the mix of WordPress single sites and WordPress Multisites, bringing a valuable tool to students.

Flash forward to the future and Jim finished up the presentation by talking through Reclaim Cloud and Multiregion hosting to expand the world of WordPress on the Cloud.

And bonus points! The session was streamed live and the archive can be found below! (The full video is about 9 hours long, fast forward to the 7-hour mark to catch the presentation!)

Thank you so much to the WP Campus group for creating such an awesome conference! I’m so grateful to meet new people, travel again, and do some good ‘ol professional development with this presentation. I enjoyed collaborating with Jim and Lauren on this presentation, it was funny to reminisce through Reclaim’s history and explore what the future would look like as we continue to expand our products!

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