Three years ago today...

...I acted on David Gurteen's and Lilia Efimova's suggestion that opening a weblog might be a good idea.

In those three years,
I learned an awful lot, and am still learning daily from everything you bring to our interaction
I found myself immersed in literally hundreds of new relationships with great and bright people around the globe
I had the good fortune to meet up with scores of those new people in my blogging vicinity, at workshops, conferences, at our home when they visited, as well as at their homes across the continent.
I changed jobs, where my blog helped establish my professional credentials
I now work with 10 fun, bright and exciting colleagues at Proven Partners, where I can follow my passion about knowledge work so much more closely than before
I found in my blog my voice in expressing my passion as well as a critical and likewise passionate audience
I find myself giving presentations, trainings and workshops on social software and knowledge management on a growing number of occasions
I found 7 fun and exciting people with whom me and my partner Elmine established a brand new Institute devoted to the things that I also find in my blogging: creativity, culture and above all collaboration.
I radically changed the way I gather and view information, and the daily routines surrounding that

And almost every day I feel more strongly that it is all only just beginning.

I don't think blogs as such will change the world. I don't think my blog does.
It's people that change the world. And all of you certainly changed mine.

With the simple step of opening up a place at blogspot in 2002 I did not set out to change my life. It was just a new tool to play and experiment with, that Lilia and David pointed me to. And it wasn't blogspot or Movable Type that changed my life in a myriad of little and bigger ways. It was you and me when we started building our relations and conversations that did that, and when we started building on the patterns that emerged.

Tools never change anything. It is people seeing opportunities and grabbing them with those tools that change things. Thank you all, who have read, commented, debated, reflected, worked and connected with me. Thank you for seeing those opportunities for change, grabbing them, and sharing it with me. Thank you.

Here's to the next three years!