Tribute to Vicki Davis

You know it isn't often that you meet someone virtually, work with them for a year and finally meet up with them and make great connections. Well, this is how I first met Vicki Davis.

Vicki and I were approached by Jen Wagner and Sharon Peters to make a quartet and become the Women of Web 2.0 in an effort to present at NECC07. It came about when Jen was listening to the male bloggers at NECC06. This had nothing to do with the male bloggers, some of them are counted among my virtual and face to face friends now, but the women's voice was lacking.

Our proposal was accepted. We all chatted online, we decided to try a live podcast, called a webcast, since I had taken WebcastAcademy and was a beginning webcaster. That was back in October 2006! Now 84 or so shows later, Vicki is leaving the show and moving on to make more time for her family and more flexibility in her global projects.

What will this mean? Well, first of all Women of Web 2.0 has taken on a life of its own. The audience and members make the show in the chat room and by being guests. This organization will live on. This organization will change and this organization will be by the educators and for educators.

However, this is my tribute for Vicki! I have learned so much from Vicki. I really admire that she has been so transparent in her presentations, she provides google chats for the back channel, for her classrooms, she blogs about them, for her turmoils, she chats/blogs/struggles openly about those moments and gathers information from her network. She is constantly looking for purpose with new web tools, she is constantly looking to make connections and provide opportunities for others!

Her organizational skills are incredible. She has calendars I have never heard of, she makes connections I have been part of and she orchestrates many behind the scene ideas with great chutzpah! I mean, Thomas Friedman has been part of Flat Classroom, and now VIcki and Julie are in his book!

I am so glad that Vicki was able to come to Maine and get introduced to our wonderful teachers, was a huge positive part of our ACTEM Conference. She is now part of our Maine family.

Vicki has paved the way for those of us in education to continue to make connections, to market ourselves and to look to the future. I am proud to call Vicki Davis a friend, I am happy to have met her family in San Antonio, and I am glad she will be taking more time to hang with her family because family time is precious. You need to be available to make those memories that will get your family through good times and tough times. I agree with the blogger who said, I don't want to regret missing my family times,  I can never make those up,( that is why I took my Mom to dinner this June and missed a show)  but I know my educational peers will be with me through those times and will carry me through those times. So Vicki, enjoy your family, make your own schedule and keep in touch!
Thanks to Gary for this photo of Vicki, Will and Cheryl at ACTEM 07.