The medXcentral project
This project was where I "cut my teeth" on the internet. Understanding the following story will help you understand my digital roots as well as how and why I may be of value to you and your endeavors.
Allow me to explain; medXcentral was/is the community I launched in support of, and as a means to draw attention to, the "medical staffing exchange", a.k.a.; The Candidate Network. The Candidate Network arose as my solution to the Nursing Shortage (video further down the page.) I took on this grand problem because I was up against a grand problem of my own (and still am) ... namely; Attachment Based Parental Alienation. (Link goes to video on YouTube. Watch if you dare and you will understand my plight.) Intuitively, I knew I needed to create/do something big or I was going to lose my children. No exaggeration.
THAT was, and still is my "why."
Technical aptitude
When I set out on my own in 2007, I had little understanding of the Internet and NO knowledge of how to build a website. I didn't even understand the difference between a domain and hosting. Yeh, born in 1966, I'm no digital native. I just knew I had to figure it out. I also knew I was high school educated, broke, AND the U.S. banking system was crashing.
No hill for a climber...right?
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape. ~ William S. Burroughs
The result
Thank goodness for SaaS/PaaS. Through experimentation, trial, and error...lots of error, I managed to find and figure out CMS systems and a database technology that I could use to craft a solution. All the while exploring social media (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were gaining traction) and niche communities such as RecruitingBlogs.com so as to network with those who would find my solution valuable. Discovering RecruitingBlogs was built using Ning.com, a white label community PaaS, and learning that self-promotion was frowned upon in most networks controlled by others, I decided it would be best to launch my own. Thus, medXcentral was born. (See current status further down the page.)
The following three videos allow you to see the systemic solution I engineered, how it worked, and assess whether I was on the right track or not. The current status of medXcentral can be found below the videos.
The Problem (June '09)
The Solution (April '09)
The Model (August '08)
Former Community
What came next?
Without funding, I was not able to keep the core project in motion long enough for it to realize it's potential. As of the drafting of this page, July 7th, 2015, medXcentral is essentially idle. I've kept things quiet...but active enough that they are still viable. My medXcentral Twitter account has over 5k followers. I still have a LinkedIn group with over 800 members and a small Facebook page with 180 likes. I shut down the Ning-based community in 2014 and I'm currently exploring new community platforms in search of ways by which I might make good use of the network, community, and brand I had developed.
medXcentral Twitter account
Ultimately, I did lose my children (watch the video linked in the first paragraph before you judge me) and I ended up disassembling the medical staffing exchange in 2011 after returning to the workforce, in a non-digital capacity, in March of 2010.