In One Week

In one week I and my family will be off to China. We’ve got a one way ticket and definite travel plans through April, but beyond that we’re not quite sure where we’ll end up. You can follow our adventure in more detail on our Perigrinari blog.

William and I are in the midst of launching a start up. I’ve been independently consulting this year in order to help raise funds and over the next couple of months he and I will be putting together our first software product. There’s not much to say about it yet, but we’ll post more info here when we’re ready.

My goals in China are two fold—first, I hope to become involved in open source software efforts there. Thanks to some friends in Apache I’ve been introduced to several prominent individuals in the free and open source software (FOSS) movement there. For the first month or so, my family and I will be traveling from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong (with a few stops in between). Even though many use our software there, we don’t have any Chinese members in the Apache Software Foundation and that’s something I hope I can help to change.

Secondly, I’ll be on the lookout for any interesting opportunities for my new company. However, William and I have some plans for the US market first, so it’s with a long term vision that we approach this visit to China. And he’ll be staying in Florida to handle things in the US while I’m abroad.

I’ve very excited to go. It’s been over six years since I came back from my two years in Taiwan. My Chinese is a little rusty but I believe it’ll come back to me once I’m there. We’re not quite sure where we’ll settle down yet - one of the goals of our first few months of traveling is to decide that. When we do find a stable location, Jenny hopes to teach English while I keep working on the start up and my open source contributions. And of course, our wonderful two year old, Maeli, will be with us to make things more interesting, er, uh, I mean fun. :)

For those hoping to keep in touch, we’ll be regularly updating our blogs on Cubicle Muses and you can still reach us via email or Skype. More updates and details, coming soon!