Panel Discussion: Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Questions Around Outsourcing Your Hosting

I am the co-founder of Reclaim Hosting, an independent web hosting company focused on the higher education community. Previously I was the director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

I have been working for more than twenty five in education with a consistent focus on the development of teaching and learning in higher education. In addition to my extensive experience teaching at the college level, for the past eighteen years I have worked primarily in the field of instructional technology.

My experience as an instructor coupled with my extensive collaborations with faculty and students with a specific focus on curricula, pedagogical and technologically enhanced projects has informed much of the innovative work I have been a part of in the field of instructional technology over the last decade.

I have been part of a number of exciting projects at the University of Mary Washington. In 2006 I started the web-based educational publishing platform ELS Blogs for the English Linguistics and Speech department at UMW. This pilot project led to the development of UMW Blogs in 2007 which went on to become an enterprise level academic publishing platform. In 2008 the madness that was EDUPUNK was attributed to a series of posts I wrote on my personal blog.

In 2010 I re-imagined the Computer Science 106 course on Digital Storytelling at UMW as an open, online community referred to as ds106—an experiment in teaching and learning on the web that is still going strong and has been celebrated internationally as a compelling community-based approach to online learning. Additionally, I helped spearhead an initiative at the University of Mary Washington called A Domain of One’s Own that, starting in Fall 2013, gave all incoming Freshman their own domain and web hosting account. For a clearer picture of my approach to teaching and learning technologies in higher education take a look at a selection of presentations and interviews I have given over the past eight years.

In 2015 I left UMW to go full-time at Reclaim Hosting, and it has been a joy running a company that supports the work faculty and students do in higher ed, a space my work was born out of and remains near and dear to my heart.

Finally, I write regularly about my work as an instructional technologist–in addition to several other interests of mine such as film, literature, video games, and media of all kinds–on my home away from home: bavatuesdays.

Jesse Friedman brings nearly two decades of experience in working with and contributing to WordPress. He is the host of the Impressive Hosting podcast and a regular contributor to notable publications. He is a local WordPress community leader and an experienced WordCamp organizer. As an author of several books including the 'Web Designer's Guide to WordPress' and a decade of experience as an adjunct professor Jesse has had the privilege to educate thousands of students in and outside the classroom. Currently, as the Head of WP Cloud at Automattic, Jesse focuses on innovating and elevating the standards of WordPress cloud hosting.

Angie Wolf has worked in IT at a small liberal arts college for three decades, in both technical and administrative roles. Presently, she has responsibility for Library and IT budgets and assuring that contracts and services are the best fit and highest value for the college. She has a background in systems and network administration as well as providing technical support for events and video production.

Boone Gorges is a WordPress developer and consultant. He is an emeritus commiter for WordPress and an emeritus lead developer for BuddyPress. His consultancy Hard G LLC specializes in custom plugin development and WordPress services to cultural heritage and educational institutions.