Me: I live in Silicon Valley with my wife, child and cat. I have worked at Microsoft since I graduated from College, both in the Macintosh Business Unit on products such as Outlook Express, Entourage, IE, and Virtual PC and in Windows Live on Hotmail, Calendar and People. I am currently a Principal Lead Program Manager on the Windows Live Social Networking team. I basically manage a team of Program Managers responsible for delivering features to support our web and client applications. I've been blogging since 2001 and like to play around with .NET in my spare time working on projects such as dasBlog (the blog that powers this site) and Send to SmugMug (an application for uploading photos to SmugMug). I blog about a number of technology and productivity related topics.
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I was kinda floored this week, when talking to the SmugMug folks at ETech, I found out that Thomas Hawk (a pretty prolific blogger and amazing photographer) uses a Pen Name. His real name is NOT Thomas Hawk. Maybe I'm the last person to find this out, but I had no clue.
He actually says so right on his blog (I never noticed). He explains why he uses a Pen Name in this article.
Scott: Why the pseudonym? Can you discuss your decision to go with a pen name in the context of the emphasis on transparency in the Web 2.0 world? Tom: I use a pseudonym because I have a day job in the investment business (in a non technology related field). Because the investment industry is highly regulated and because if I used my real name I would have to have my boss review everything that I write, I have chosen to blog under a pseudonym. Many people know my real name and it's something that I openly share with friends. I state that I'm blogging under a pseudonym publicly on my blog and it is the only pseudonym I use. I don't particularly hide my identity (anyone can do a "who is" search) and if I were ever to leave the investment business I would be more open about my identity. I feel that I'm pretty transparent about my situation and have found most people accepting of that. My salary at Zooomr is $0 as we try and build it out so I still need to pay the bills somehow.
Scott: Why the pseudonym? Can you discuss your decision to go with a pen name in the context of the emphasis on transparency in the Web 2.0 world?
Tom: I use a pseudonym because I have a day job in the investment business (in a non technology related field). Because the investment industry is highly regulated and because if I used my real name I would have to have my boss review everything that I write, I have chosen to blog under a pseudonym. Many people know my real name and it's something that I openly share with friends. I state that I'm blogging under a pseudonym publicly on my blog and it is the only pseudonym I use. I don't particularly hide my identity (anyone can do a "who is" search) and if I were ever to leave the investment business I would be more open about my identity. I feel that I'm pretty transparent about my situation and have found most people accepting of that. My salary at Zooomr is $0 as we try and build it out so I still need to pay the bills somehow.
Now here is the kicker. As far as I know he really is the CEO of Zoomr, an online photo site like Flickr. I think it's very strange that some one using a Pen Name can use that when acting as the CEO of a company. I guess if the company is private who cares right? Oddly enough he isn't mentioned anywhere on the About Zoomr page.
I don't know, I just think it's weird. I would imagine that he would have to have some kind of moonlighting agreement with the investment company. Does it really make it OK to do all these things just by using a Pen Name? That seems to easy. I know that if I engaged in any side activities at Microsoft I'm required to complete a Moonlighting Agreement and get that approved by my manager. This includes any official positions at any company... using a Pen Name doesn't make this requirement go away.
Do other's find this just strange?