My name is Sharon Foley. I’ve been helping people make sense of computer technology and software since the first Personal Computer came on the scene with the IBM PC. Now, that is dating me, isn’t it?
I have been fascinated with computer technology from the get go. But, always from the practical point of view: How can we take this amazing tool and use it to do the Stuff We Want to Do? Quite frankly, I am in awe of the remarkable people who actually do the heavy lifting programming. I am not a programmer! So, throughout the years my role has always been to ‘run interference’ between the Real Geeks (who can do the coding) and the Regular Folk who don’t speak “Geek”. They only know they have a problem that needs to be solved. And, I solve problems. That’s what I do.
I have done this problem solving in a variety of ways. One of my very first jobs in the industry was selling IBM PCs (and the first Apple Macintoshs) at a dedicated computer store. In fact, it was actually called “The Computer Store”. I was really good at this job because it was all so new and everyone needed information. It was an exciting time. I was always better at the educating-the-consumer part of the job than I was at the selling.
Next came several years working for a company that was riding the new PC software wave into corporations. We sold software with technical support packaged with it to companies that were just starting to buy PCs for employees and needed support for their own internal help desk organizations. I was on the support team answering phone calls and resolving problems.
Over time I learned about all kinds of software applications and got involved with helping people use their computers on many different levels. Besides doing phone support, I wrote documentation, training manuals, and taught training classes. Later I would work for a software development firm that was writing collaborative web applications with Lotus Notes. There I played a different kind of support role: I would work with business users to understand their requirements and then communicate these requirements to the developers. I knew enough about the needs and concerns of both parties to be able to effectively bridge the communications gap thereby resulting in a better experience for all involved.
So, here I am twenty years (OMG) later and I love Wordpress. You will, too, once you see how it can do what you need it to do. And it is pretty easy once you know how. That’s how I can help. Talk to me!