Happy 8th Birthday to our dear @ReclaimHosting! ??
— Lauren Hanks (@brumface) July 23, 2021
Little note here on the bavablog to recognize that last week Reclaim Hosting turned 8 years old. Seems like just yesterday I was blogging about Reclaim turning 4 from a small airport in Wagga Wagga.
It’s interesting too, because 4 years ago was when Lauren went full time and we brought on Meredith. Now both of them have become integral figures in the Reclaim Hosting story. I also noted in that post that we just opened CoWork, and it just so happens that the ashes of CoWork became Reclaim Arcade this year. What’s more, the company doubled from 4 to 8 people since 2017, and we’re hopefully going to hire two more folks this month.
Growth has been slow and steady, and sometimes harder than we’d like, but there is not one thing I would do differently about this amazing little corner of the indie edtech web. I both believe in and love the work we do. I also love the community we remain a proud part of. And, most importantly, my co-workers rule the school. Still happy and determined after all these years, and that is enough.
A few highlights for me from year 8 was working with Maren Deepwell and the ALT crew to put on OERxDomains21. We followed that up with the virtual Reclaim Roadshow which allowed us to reconnect with admins in a fairly compelling virtual format, piggybacking on the work Michael Branson Smith, Tom Woodward, and Lauren Hanks did for OERxDomains21. Year 8 was also big for Reclaim Hosting in that we launched Reclaim Cloud last August, and a year later we have over a quarter of our infrastructure on it—that is something!
In January we brought on new team member Paul Jova and he has been amazing, as has our more veteran support agent Gordon Hawley who has been with us for just over 18 months. I should also note Chris Blankenship continues to take on more of a central role in our infrastructure group, and there’s not enough space in this blog for me to sing all his praises. One of the coolest things I have experienced being part of Reclaim is watching folks like Lauren, Meredith, and Chris really come into their own and build a professional identity atop the bedrock of their amazing daily work. I am in awe, and there is no way Reclaim Hosting would look so good at 8 years old without them.
And of course there is the inimitable Timmmmyboy, who has taken the passion and energy he brought to Reclaim Hosting to conjure something from nothing into making Reclaim Arcade the absolute darling of retro arcades. All while setting up Reclaim Cloud, migrating infrastructure, and juggling support and infrastructure for most of this year. Tim has been an absolutely amazing partner these past 8 years, and I think that has been THE key to us being stable and even prosperous during these uncertain times.
There has been some real reward knowing that we have remained scrappy, small, and focused throughout our short history, and we remain masters of our own domain. No selling out here, we still believe the web you create is the coolest learning management system around. So, here’s to at least 8 more years of awesome!
Happy Friday!! ????https://t.co/bkgR1wfW1J@reclaimhosting #ReclaimRoadshow #ReclaimCloud #DoOO pic.twitter.com/KUrmNmhfpD
— Lauren Hanks (@brumface) July 30, 2021
And to help celebrate, you can now get your own Reclaim Hosting swag at out slick new shop, just another thing Lauren did off the side of her desk. #sogood
No idea what the fuss is all about. In my day we just had a WebCT server (old clone we hauled out of the dumpster after hours) tucked under an office desk. Easy peasy. The arcade is cool tho.
I think Brian and D’Arcy actually did that for UBC Wiki and blogs, crazy kids 🙂
That doesn’t sound like us. We’re usually pretty stringent in our responsible and dutiful stewardship of enterprise platforms.
D’Arcy,
Social Learning Technologies were smuggled into higher ed in Canada like booze over the board during prohibition, and we are still paying the price for what you two hath wrought 🙂
Been there, done that, need the tshirt! Thanks so much, Jim and Reclaim. You made it possible for me to have the last several years be easy instead of continually fighting my hosting company. It’s been great, though I’m quite sure I’ve abused the privilege.
Lisa,
The honor and privilege is ours, and given we came up through the blogs and still connect over our own space is just the special kind of connections this whole thing has fostered, so thank you!!
Happy Birthday Reclaim Hosting! Here’s to another 8 years! It’s been fun watching the team grow, and seeing the great projects you’re all working on.
D’Arcy,
You commenting here reminds me how much I love the blogosphere. You made me, and I remain a big fan—thanks for saying hi buddy!