About Susan Pomeroy, Ph.D.
web site designer, social media expert, internet strategist, business transformation facilitator
As a ten-year-old, I led other neighborhood kids on daring explorations along creeks, around lakes, over hills, and to the tops of tall trees. After vainly pleading with my parents for walkie-talkies to communicate among expedition members, I created an inter-house telegraph from an old tin can, some wire, children’s wooden blocks, and nails, to share the news about upcoming adventures.
Later, I traveled throughout North America, living for several years in a small town in Mexico where there was no telegraph, and only three phones in the whole town. Life was simple, rich, and slow-paced. But letters from home took two weeks to arrive… creating a round-trip communications delay of over a month, and giving rise to a poignant and unbridgeable sense of isolation and distance.
When I returned to the States, I explored careers. I owned a print, poster and framing shop. I worked in law firms, editing legal briefs and contracts. I got acquainted with a number of unique characters while mixing drinks at a San Francisco bar. I toyed with being a business consultant, or a graphic designer. But more vivid than any of these ventures were my village experiences in Mexico. How to find my niche; how to live an American life, yet integrate those deep, life-changing experiences?
Aha! It turned out that there was an entire field of study called “geography.” I applied and was accepted to grad school at UC Berkeley. But imagine my delighted surprise when, during my first computer class, the instructor described the Internet, which was then a well-kept academic secret available only to those affiliated with universities.
I was the first student in my program to sign up for email. I felt like I was coming home: exploring the world, connecting with others… with and through electronic communications! And suddenly I wasn’t studying Mexico any more… instead, I was writing a pioneering dissertation on the geography of this new thing called cyberspace.
While finishing my Ph.D., I worked as chief interface designer for a global software firm, creating complex financial applications and websites. I initiated the new millennium by teaching the first-ever course on the geography of the Internet at U.C. Berkeley.
Today, I am in my element exploring the net, ferreting out and sharing the most useful and empowering tools and techniques for independent professionals who are creating thriving businesses out of their own unique genius. I now do most of my web development in WordPress, the versatile, flexible, powerful and easy to use Open Source web platform that’s now used by 14% of all new web sites, and which integrates beautifully with social media.
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