This is the personal and professional website of Deane Barker.
Professionally, Deane is:
- Global Director of Content Management at Optimizely (formerly “Episerver”)
- Prodigious producer of content management-focused content and author of books about CMS:
- Web Content Management: Systems, Features, and Best Practices
- Real World Content Modeling: A Field Guide to CMS Features and Architecture (available free online)
- The Web Project Guide: From Spark to Launch and Beyond
- Things You Should Know: 25 Lessons I’ve Learned About Selecting Content Technology and Services
- Documentor of Fluid
- Maintainer of The Web Content Management Glossary
- Creator of Denina
- Instructor of Content Management at FH Joanneum
- Member of the Boye and Co. CMS Experts Group
- Moderator of the /r/cms subreddit
- Host of The Content Management Bible Podcast
- Co-Host of The Web Project Guide Podcast with Corey Vilhauer
- Former prolific Tweeter
- Current Mastodon enthusiast
- Average developer (mostly C# these days, but quite a bit of PHP as well)
- Sometime conference speaker
And here are some past professional activities and pursuits:
- Co-founder of Blend Interactive
- I worked at and helped run Blend for 15 years
- I left Blend in 2019 and sold my shares in 2020
- Former blogger at Gadgetopia
- In December 2020, that website was shut down and all content was redirected to the technical blog on this site.
- Former publisher of Squirrel Notes
- Former board member of Content Management Professionals (now defunct)
- Content curator and MC of the early Now What Conferences (mainly 2013-2015 – less so for the later events)
Personally, Deane is:
- Husband (to Annie), father (to Alec, Gabrielle, and Isabella), father-in-law (Taylor)
- Relentlessly proud resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- New Zealander by birth. I spent my younger years in Napier. I’ve lived in the United States since 1977, and been a US citizen since 2009.
- Moderate Democrat (Kennedy Democrat?)
- Owner of two cats and one dog
- Member of Central Church in Sioux Falls
- Youth Group Leader in Central Church student ministries
- Sunday morning coffee-maker
- Property Board Member
- Occasional coach and struggling, middle-aged athlete at CrossFit Sioux Falls
- Alumnus of Augustana University
- Member of the Computer Science Advisory Board
- Former Member of the Alumni Council
- Student mentor
- Former Vice-Chairman of the Trustee Board at Sioux Falls Seminary
- Former hospital corpsman in the U.S. Naval Reserve
- Documentor of fine cheese plates
- Maintainer of The Interesting List
- Annoyed pundit behind Step Away from the Share Button
- Obsessive reader
- Lover of bookstores
- Former Porsche 911 owner and former president of the Dakota Region Porsche Club of America
- Stubbornly determined to know all the things