A few days late but here is my review of 2009 and preview of 2010. Let us start of by looking at the website itself...
This website, nickbits.co.uk, has seen a record number of visitors reaching 31,262 between 1st January 2009 and 31st December 2009. The previous yearly high was achieved in 2008 reaching 15,737. The site continues to attract an increasing number of visitors, whilst 31,262 doesn't sound much, I am more than happy and proud to have that amount of visitors. That is over 85 visitors per day on average. Of those visitors, 90% are referred from other sites (over 61% from Drupal.org and 14% from Google.com).
The site, along with several of my others, was moved, in early 2009, to a new hosting company, EUKHost. All the domain names are still handled by 123-reg.co.uk though. The site has seen over 54 blog posts, so at least one a week, which for me is good. I have added advertising to the site via BuySellAds and have ported several themes to Drupal 6.
Business
I set-up on my own (see DevZen.co.uk) in February 2009 offering website development services along with computer build/repair, IT consultancy, programming, training, etc. This has taken off and now have several websites created via the business including hosemaker.co.uk, thatchamfloodforum.org.uk and thatchamonline.net. Several training programs have been delivered to local business on topics including website development (XHTML and CSS), networking and network protocols.
Personal
I also had my first book published, "Thatcham: an historic town in a changing world." This was worked on with three others, Peter Allen, Tony Higgott and Sue Broughton (all members of Thatcham Historical Society). Peter instigated the publication and asked us each to write a section. It had long been an ambition and wish to write a book with Peter, who was the best local historian about. Sadly Peter passed away in May before the completion of the book. I then took over running it and the whole team put an enormous amount of effort in to getting it finished and published in memory of Peter. The book has been the highlight of the year, just so sorry it has happened in such sad circumstances. I can honestly say it has been an honour to have know Peter and a privilege to have been able to write a book with him.
I have been on the radio (BBC Radio Berkshire and KickFM) several times in 2009, the former with presenters Henry Kelly, Maggie Philbin, Sarah Walker, Mary West and Anne Diamond. I have also written articles for the BBC website (see these two 1 | 2) and a few other minor newsletters and sites, mostly to do with Thatcham Historical Society.
In addition I have had two articles (a third is on its way) published in the Micro Mart magazine.
What is planned for 2010?
All in all, 2009 was a good year. Okay it could have been better, but it could also have been a lot worse. So what am I going to do this year?
Photography: One of the things that did get neglected was my photography. Thus I plan to get my photography back in action this year and am already creating a new website, nickpics.co.uk, as an outlet for my commercial work (will be part of my main business, devzen.co.uk).
History: There are plans, already being put into action, for various events, mostly to do with Thatcham Historical Society, that I am involved with, some very heavily (i.e. I am leading at least one major project). More to come on this later.
Website Projects: I have various website projects I would like to either start and finish or abandon altogether. So I need to have a good sort out. I have already started work on one, jimmyriddle.com, and abandoned several others (beachables.co.uk, digital-slr.net, nywd.co.uk and thepenniesdropped.co.uk [note - all for sale if you are interested]). I have learnt now to concentrate on one project at a time, so once I have other things out the way, will plough on with jimmyriddle.com. The others will take a back seat, but will all be documented at some stage so you can all keep track of them, and maybe even get involved.
Publications: I have been working with an old colleague on producing a short paper on some Morphology work, which will get completed this year. I am also working on several articles for a local history journal. I will also, at some stage be working on some books (history and computing) but that is longer term and I doubt will be completed this year.
So all in all, a lot is planned, stay tuned, or come back this time next year to see how much (or little) I get done!
