So who am I? Iphigenie (Iphi, sometimes superiphi) is a screen name for fun she-geek with an attitude. I’ve been online on some network or other under that name since I was 14, it’s almost my middle name now. Iphigenie was my Half Life / CS etc. name. I am also know as Zenaide, invented for Baldurs Gate but now used in neverwinter nights and Guild Wars. And I am Azzurre (the World Famous Battle Priest) in World of Warcraft on Stormrage (EU).

I’m a web witch turned bossy exec… Not only do I practically live online, I work there too! I have worked as a web producer-project manager-senior architect-business analyst-technical sales-tech support-developer-sysadmin…. you name it, I’ve done it! Now I am CTO for a media company and related companies. Until recently I was a director in an 20 man internet company which I spent the last 4 years building - lots of great (and some painful) stories there. Before that I worked on the web side for two different publishing / media companies, and before that I was a theoretical physicist.

I’m endlessly curious. I like exploring, from little known places to independent music, alternative films, small publishers… This carries over to the computer where I have a keen interest in shareware, independent games, alternative websites and communities.

I’m a social animal. I love meeting people, and hanging out with people. I think in an ideal world I’d love living in a huge house full of people, bohemian style, if that still existed… I wish I spoke a few more languages and always mean to learn another. Maybe I should take the time… I believe everyone is fascinating, except maybe people who are so full of themselves there’s no place to communicate anymore.

I happen to be a community builder kind of person, and I am fascinated by community, both in the real world and online… that interest goes from architecture and urbanism to politics, to technology and psychology… How it takes so little to allow people to interact and empower themselves… and so little to treat them like numbers and shut them off.

I’m a free thinker… I get really annoyed at all the things in the world that try to manipulate us, prevent us from thinking for ourselves, feed us belief and opinion and trying to prevent us from questioning and applying critical thought… As a result I’m a bit of a debater and I like playing devil’s advocate, because no opinion is ever 100% right, and forcing people to clarify their thinking and justify their ideas is always good… I like challenging common platitudes, and received opinions, the kind of things people say without ever thinking about it, the thoughts we were “fed” to think.

And I get really wound up when I see all the things in the world today which seem to be dedicated to suppressing people’s curiosity and their ability to learn and question and think for themselves… all the messages out there dumbing people down, especially children and young people, telling us the world is too complicated for peons like us, leave it to the technocrats… Well I am a technocrat and you know what, rocket science is not *that* complicated…

I’ll stop before i start ranting