Today I announced that I am closing Tectonic. It’s been a lot harder to do this than I ever imagined it would be.

I made the decision to close Tectonic some time back but have managed to stay the final execution for as long as possible. But eventually I could put it off no longer.

It’s been almost ten years since I started the site and in that time the site has dominated my life. The site was always more than merely a source of income. It was a place for me to express my ideas, it was a place for the open source community to gather and share ideas, it was a place to advance the interests of free and open source software.

In truth it was mostly the last three and was never really the income generator hoped for and it required countless sacrifices and compromises on my part to keep it always ticking over. I’m not unhappy about those sacrifices because I always got so much more out of the chance to run Tectonic than I would otherwise have got. Increasingly, however, the sacrifices became harder to justify and, frankly, the rewards were not abundant enough to make it seem worthwhile each and every day.

All things have their time. Personally I hope that Tectonic made a small difference over the years by giving a voice to the free and open source community. Hopefully it made a difference by raising issues that many other publications simply ignored or were unaware of. Hopefully it made a difference by helping the free software community grow just a little bit stronger.

Over the past week I have received a number of emails, phone calls and direct Twitter messages asking if I, and Tectonic, were okay. Obviously my lack of new content on the site over the past couple of weeks has not gone unnoticed. I appreciate all of these calls. It’s awesome to know that I only have to stop doing what I do on Tectonic for a few days and loyal readers are already asking after me.Thank you.

I have no intention of abandoning free and open source software. I started Tectonic because of my passion for free software and I will continue to promote it at every opportunity; it may just take a different form from a news site.

Closing Tectonic is sad but it also opens up new opportunities. The demands of running the site often made it difficult to pursue new ideas, something that I hope will now be possible. Tectonic has taught me more about online media than I could ever have hoped. Hopefully I can now put that knowledge to good use in new projects, some of which are already in their formative stages.

I started this blog more than a year ago with intention of using it a base to talk about all of the projects I work on, about the things I do, think and see and the plans that I have. Embarrassingly, in the 18 months since I started it, I have posted just three things, this post included. Clearly I am either a lot more lazy than I would like to admit or I have been too busy doing other things. I suspect it is the latter because during the same time I have posted hundreds of articles on Tectonic, written a good year’s worth of material for MyBroadband, experimented with new projects like OpenZA and done the usual freelance work.

Much of that is about to change, however, as I plan to enter yet another new phase. Over the past six months I have been taking stock of the things that I have done and the things that I still do and I am now fairly convinced it is time for some changes. Nothing radical like dumping IT in favour of being an organic farmer (though that does appeal at times) but rather a slightly revised focus and some new projects. Which means, sadly, that some existing projects might well have to come to an end.

This may well be part of a mid-life crisis – I turned 40 recently – but even so, it now feels right to be wanting new stimulating opportunities. Over the years I have invested huge amounts of time and money in projects and ideas, many of which still don’t make me anywhere near a decent living. Which is not to say that they haven’t been immensely rewarding in so many other ways but doing this has meant I have always either had more than one job at a time or I have had to juggle a hundred things to make ends meet while still pursuing new projects and ideas.

Eventually, however, dodging bullets and constantly careening from one place to another gets tiring. It also doesn’t use my skills to their best advantage – or build on their breadth – which is where I think I should be aiming right now.

Welcome. A new year and a new blog.

Over the course of 2007 I accumulated a number of new sites and gradually they appear to be taking on a life of their own. So I decided to start AlastairOtter.com as the home base, a place to collect all the various loose ends that relate to Tag.org.za, Treevolution.co.za and Tectonic.co.za. A processing bin, if you will, of common themes and thoughts.

AlastairOtter.com is also, of course, a place to explorer other ideas. All of the other sites I run have their own, generally narrow, focus and I don’t really want to crowd them with disparate and disconnected thoughts. So this blog can be the clearing house where the thoughts and ideas see the light (and maybe finally put to rest).

The common themes will undoubtedly include technology, open source and environmental issues. But will equally likely include other themes that occupy my mind; thoughts, for example, on food, music, a different life and making a change.

Enjoy the blog and enjoy the year. May 2008 be a great year for all.