About

My name is Tim Barkow, and I currently busy myself with Web development (design and programming), a smattering of writing and editing, and a smattering of other pursuits. I’ve worked at magazines online and off, marketing consultant groups, Internet startups, and ad agencies.

Currently, I’m focused on Web-only communities & experiences, exploring the emergence of personal media as well as DIY craft (a term I borrow from Dennis Stevens), both of which have led me to research in collaborative networks of “communities of practice” and how social networks might help reinforce and streamline participation. I’m currently working on several projects where I hope to implement some of these ideas.

After abandoning 12 years in the Bay Area and San Francisco, I relocated to Portland, Oregon, which I should have done earlier in those hairy dot-com years. I originally hail from both Wisconsin and Texas—having had my adolescence neatly split into two very different halves.

I’m also transitioning my inner tinker to a newly found interest in furniture design (partially inspired by Mike), which is thankfully replacing my previous obsession with gadgets and tech-mology (sic). I’m also trying to find time to work some drawing and painting back into my life. Art is important.

In past and present, I’ve written articles for Wired, Inc., ESPN magazine, Business 2.0, POV, and numerous online publications, including Wired News and Webreview.com.

Some facts about me:

  • My first computer was a Mac 512K. We had a Lisa at home for a while, but it was my dad’s friend’s and he took it back.
  • I was doing desktop publishing at my college paper using Multi-Ad Creator, an SE/30 and an Apple Laserwriter. Then I’d cut out my printed creations with an X-acto knife, wax ‘em and do paste up. Not quite the revolution.
  • I and my fellow editors got suspended from that college paper (for one week) for putting a photo of two dogs copulating on the back page. The picture of Reagan with a pig’s nose on the cover didn’t seem to garner as much scorn. Regardless, many people were not pleased. College is fun.
  • I moved to San Francisco on a dare, and lived in a $800 3BR apartment that came with a cat named Woody, 55 gallons of angry, cannibal fish, and a kitchen covered floor to ceiling in wicker baskets. We were sad when the woman who lived there came back, not realizing her two ex-con buddies had moved out and sold all her stuff (most of it to us).
  • I once built a networked sales force presentation system for a Fortune 100 beverage manufacturer (not Coca-Cola) that presaged the HTML Web applications we use today. Suffice to say it kinda sucked. :)
  • I started at Wired while it was still in the “old” space. Right above Might magazine.
  • I once fired a net gun at my friend Jesse on Wired’s roof (“new” space). I have a picture somewhere.
  • I have a Louis Rossetto trading card. Jessica Halgren gave it to me. I don’t remember why.