Change in the autism blog world, too
by Beth
With so many other things in the country changing these days, I guess it should be no surprise to hear of changes in the autism blog world, too.
Last November, Change.org advertised a part-time blogger position to manage its autism portal. Important note here: Change.org has no relation to the Obama-Biden transition team or the website Change.gov. In fact, Change.org was talking about change even before the Obama campaign coined the word.
Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA. The company was founded by Ben Rattray in the summer of 2005, and with the support of a friend from Stanford, Mark Dimas, and a founding team of Darren Haas, Rajiv Gupta, and Adam Cheyer, Change.org launched the first version of its site in 2007.
The Change.org ad for the new blogger ran like this:
Previous blogging experience is a plus but not required; we’re most interested in someone with passion for autism activism, excellent writing skills, and the drive to lead an online community of like-minded people working for change.
A blog called Left Brain/Right Brain – Autism News and Opinion reported that Change.org’s ad worked well:
I doubt very much if Change.org were quite prepared for the utter deluge of applications that hit them. I have it on good authority that applications ran into the thousands and has been by far the biggest launch Change.org have held.
On January 1, Change.org announced who they had hired: Kristina Chew and Dora Raymaker.
Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at Autism Vox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.
Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum–including herself!
Though I am not yet familiar with Dora Raymaker, I have been following — and admiring — Kristina Chew’s Autism Vox blog ever since we started our autism blog here at Easter Seals. Now I’ll be adding another blog to my list — I send Kristina Chew all good wishes at her new post on Change.org.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 am
Beth, that’s great news. Kirstina-Chew and Change.org is a powerhouse combination! I’ll be excited to see what they produce.