About
Me: Greg Ritter
Location: Washington, DC
Contact:
Why “Ten Reasons Why:” Apparently, I tend to number my points when making arguments (probably stemming from high school debate team days). My colleagues noticed this rhetorical tic, and anytime I’d begin an explanation they’d jump in with “….and here’s ten reasons why!” Rather than let that stand, I have subverted their derogation and re-appropriated their good natured ribbing for the theme of this site. :-)
I’ve been weblogging off and on since the summer of 2000. This site is the second incarnation of Ten Reasons Why, and was begun in March 2003. The first Ten Reasons Why was hosted on a personal webpage through my then-ISP. There was also an even earlier weblog, Monkey-Mind. All of the Monkey-Mind and Ten Reasons Why v1.0 posts have been imported into this weblog. Since it has gone through being managed via Blogger, then Movable Type, and most recently WordPress you may find some of the formatting — especially in older post — to be a bit wonky.
Career: Currently Director of Product Management at Blackboard Inc., a leading e-learning company.
In the past I have been (in roughly chronological order from age 16: an Arby’s cashier, a summer camp counselor, a stock attendant (aka truck unloader) at a now-defunct department store chain, a Domino’s pizza delivery guy, a library assistant, a freelance photographer, a student newspaper reporter, a bartender, a student newspaper editor, a camera salesman, a human guinea pig for various ergonomics engineering studies, a dishwasher and cook at an Italian restaurant, an English department teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, a freelance writer, a waiter, the only non-vegetarian cashier for a natural foods store, personal assistant to a minor real estate tycoon and restaurateur, co-founder and associate editor of a now-defunct monthly humor magazine, a data entry drone for an auto financing company, a technical editor for the Federal Reserve, copywriter for travel catalog CD-ROMs, English department faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, English department faculty at the University of Richmond, an only-marginally-successful playwright and short story author, project leader for an Annenberg Foundation grant on integrating technology into the writing classroom, instructional technology specialist at Gallaudet University (the university for the Deaf and hard of hearing), Acting Director of Learning Technologies at Gallaudet University, and then a variety of positions at Blackboard including Instructional Designer, Trainer, Business Development Manager, Associate Director of R&D, and Product Manager.
I’ve been at Blackboard for 10+ years now. Since the longest I ever stayed at one job previously had been just under three years, I guess this counts as a career.
The Usual Disclaimer: This is my personal weblog and does not reflect the opinions or positions of my current employer, nor any of the other past employers listed above. Especially Arby’s.