This is an archived site.
Please see ux.kegill.com or WiredPen or kegill.com

This page appears "as written" in 1996.

For more current biographical information, see Twitter (@kegill), Facebook, LinkedIn, WiredPen or my faculty site.

You can call me a communications professional with too many years experience in written and oral communications to admit in print. My career has encompassed community, public, stockholder, media and state-and-federal government relations. Primarily in the natural resources sector -- food, agriculture, forest and paper products -- although the past few years have been intimately linked with aerospace.

Since 1995, I've been exploring new media ... stretching my creativity ... and developing strategies for organizations and associations to use these tools to develop communities and to provide information to the world at large.

Because that's what technology is: a tool. In fact, Webster defines technology as the application of knowledge or the methods and tools of applied science.

In the process, I am an active member of the WebConsultants and Web-Women discussion lists as well as an active member of Seattle Web Grrls [former steering committee member]. I have been a volunteer helping teens learn this technology and am a past member of the board of the HTML Writers Guild. I'm currently volunteering a bit of time to Digital Eve and also contribute to PRFORUM and ACM's SIG-CHI lists. I am also donate time to Georgia WIN List, a political action committee.

I also teach at local community colleges and have conducted a variety of workshops on Net technology, focusing on universal access and community building. In 1997, I became the Agriculture Guide for The Mining Company, now About.Com; I left that position mid-2000.

You can read my periodic column on design and usability on my companion site.

 
The fun stuff

• A major Macintosh enthusiast.
  
  
• A dyed-in-the-wool Georgia Peach who has (successfully) migrated to the land of lattes and web feet otherwise known as Seattle.
  
  
• A (downhill) skier, rollerblader, golfer, scuba-diver and general sports dilettante. Bulldog, Redskin, Dodgers/Mariners/Braves fan.
  
  
• A committed WetLeatherite on my 1981 BMW R65 and Y2K Ducati Monster.

• An avid mystery, science fiction, communications, psychology, political, business and other eclectic books (and magazines -- electronic and printed) reader. Jazz and blues. Tabs for acoustic guitars. Owner of 12-year-old Cairn Terrier, Peaches.

 
Famous people whose opinions I admire and respect
(Although I might want to argue a point or two!)
Warren Bennis; Dale Carnegie; Charles Handy; Carl Jung; Margaret Mitchell; Jakob Nielsen; Don Norman; Norman Vincent Peale; Tom Peters; Ayn Rand; Adam Smith; Jared Spool; Edward Tufte; Lynda Weinman; Jan White.

 
Publications I read (or have read) fairly regularly
(online, at the library or by subscription)

• A List Apart
• ACM Interactions
• c|net
• The Economist
• Fast Company
• The Futurist
• Internet World
• The Industry Standard
• MacAddict
• The New York Times (registration required)
• San Jose Mercury News
• Seattle Times
• Utne Reader
• The Wall Street Journal
• Washington Monthly
• Washington Post
• Web Review
• Wired

 
Serious stuff (for those who care)

Credentials
An online/Net user since 1994; an award-winning writer and publications designer; webmaster and member of HTML Writers Guild, Web Consultants, Seattle WebGrrls, and Digital Eve. Former columnist on technology trends for non-profits. Presenter at WWW6.

Most important: a passionate belief that this new medium has an amazing potential to enlighten, empower and educate. It's just that right now (as more famous people have already stated), we are at a point not unlike the days when Aldus and Apple created desktop publishing: everyone can publish, so they can and do, even though the results might not be in the best interests of the users. And of course, the timeframe for adoption has collapsed.

 
Subjects with varying degrees of expertise
Dairy, solid waste & recycling, air & water quality, water resources (quantity), dioxin, risk communications, environmental justice, resource economics, international trade/affairs, politics of most stripes. General public relations, marketing, technical writing. All things Macintosh, some things Windows and UNIX; most things web, particularly web usability and accessibility.

 
Formal education

• Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, GA, associate of arts in journalism.
• University of Georgia, School of Journalism, bachelor of arts.
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (otherwise known as Virginia Tech), master of science, agricultural (resource) economics.

Please check out my online resume or a Word or RTF version.