Amanda Wheeler
This is me, and I work on the web.
I live physically in Auckland, New Zealand - and metaphorically in a community full of friends and smart people who are scattered all over the globe. Inspiration and motivation to make the web better has come from so many different faces and places. I believe in communication through the web, and I support self-publishing online - whether you call it journalling and blogging, and do it macro or micro - to the core!
I was lucky to have a geek-inclined family who introduced me to the internet at 16. IRC and online journalling were my first forays: I used to spend hours making my Geocities journal with Notepad and huge images of all my friends and family. I went to university in 1998 to become a lawyer-slash-politician, but ended up with a BA in Politics & English, a part-time job at a small webshop in Auckland and a burning desire to do and make more online.
By the time I graduated, I was several personal websites along, had vastly improved the HTML handcoding skills which got me the web job and started to move into project management. Since then I've worked on brands large and small, projects successful and not, and loved every minute of it.
I'm very lucky to work in a space that I love, with people who have incredible vision and passion. I am surrounded by them and I hope that I give back as much as I get. You can find me at vortex.net.nz