free software consultant

I haven't heard back from the FSF, but I've been thinking about how I present myself to folks in a professional capacity. Since Impact Hub Oakland has opened I've been meeting lots of folks who ask me if I make "apps", by which they mean for mobile devices. Sometimes they mean "webapps", which I don't know, is like a social network or other tracking site that collects information about users. I point out that I provide infrastructure and other things to orgs that need a clean, straightforward way to communicate their message. And I support the whole stack, registration, server stuff, even copy editing.

I may have a big gig coming up in the next few months, and it will give me some downtime afterwards. I intend to use that to develop my site and services, to hone in on the software and user cases that I want to support, and write some documentation explaining why I do what I do.

I think "webcraft" explains what I do well, but it also includes all kinds of communication tools that people may not expect, like email and jabber. I tend to think of the web on many levels and contexts, and my elevator pitch may not be getting that across. I don't think it suffers for that (I have terrific client conversion rates!), but I'd like to start doing more projects that make me come alive, things I can get excited about.

I am going to get some business cards made soon (I've resisted for so long, but I keep running into people that want to talk about free software in passing), and it will read as such:

maiki

webcrafter, free software consultant