Joe Rinehart

This is the first of two blog entries about a major change in my professional life. Originally, I was going to make one entry, but I felt Firemoss deserved its own.

In November 2006, I left Booz Allen Hamilton with the intent of launching an independent consultancy. It's been successful, I've never regretted the decision, and Firemoss has been one of the most enjoyable ventures of my life. I have, however, decided to move on (more on that later). Firemoss, LLC will continue to exist as a legal entity, but I will no longer be doing freelance work on an active basis.

For Firemoss Customers

First, thank you. I've worked with great people and teams over the past two years on some amazing projects.

However, I'll no longer be available for project work.

For Those Seeking ColdFusion / Flex Consulting

I'll still be doing a bit of architectural consulting from time to time, but I'm not actively seeking engagements that aren't reviews or short-term high-level architectural engagements.

For Model-Glue

The new path I'm taking promises to mean good things for Model-Glue.

Yesterday afternoon I received the official word that I'm now a member of the Adobe Community Experts. I'm excited to be in this network, as it gives me a new pool of resources from which to draw upon for continued community support.

Thanks Adobe (and to Adam Lehman for helping me "apply" at the 11th hour)!

My apologies for any interruptions to Firemoss or Model-Glue web sites this afternoon. I've moved off of a shared dedicated server that was a bit of a co-op between Doug Hughes, Scott Stroz, and myself, and I'm now on my own server.

Please let me know if anything you're using breaks - there's a lot of old stuff linked from this blog! DNS is currently propagating for firemoss.com and model-glue.com, so there's no telling which server you're on, as everything should be pointing to the same database server.

Today's the 366th day of Firemoss, LLC being a company my full-time job. Other than learning my lesson about not blocking off more vacation time, I've got no regrets.

This paragraph was supposed to thank my "customers." Over the past year, I've been lucky enough to work with multiple teams delivering great ColdFusion and Flex applications,. The experience has redefined how I feel about the word "customer" in the role of my business. It's actually hard for me to use. I feel more like we've been coworkers and teammates rather than a "customer" or "client" working with a "consultant" or "contractor."

Over the next year, I'm going to aim to keep this the goal of Firemoss: not being just a technical services provider, but a member of teams that produce great Web-based software.

Some time in the next few weeks, I'll be stopping regular work until January, as I'm going to be taking on a new role with the title of "Dad." Once I've taken a few weeks off, I'll be back to work doing Flex and ColdFusion applications, and I'll be putting the finishing touches on a new framework for an alpha release.

We're winding down a five-month project, and I'm entering negotiations for more work. It looks like expansion is on the horizon, but we're not quite ready for fulltime employees. I see subcontracting as win-win: we don't need to manage fulltime employees, and we can pay you more as a subcontractor!

To that end, I'm looking to begin ongoing, contract-based relationships with other developers. If you're:

• A ColdFusion developer able to spend 10-40 hours a week of time working on freelance gigs
• At least familiar with ColdSpring, Model-Glue, Mach-ii, Reactor, and/or Transfer
• Experienced or interested in Flex 2 development
• Always looking for smarter ways to get a job done
• Okay with working 100% remotely (who isn't?)
• Interested in making a pretty sweet hourly rate

...please send your resume, contact information, and what sort of hourly rate you'd need to jobs@firemoss.com.

If you have any questions you'd like publicly answered, feel free to leave a comment. If you've got private questions, please e-mail jobs@firemoss.com.

If you use GMail for domains, and you use contact lists, there's an important caveat: when you mail the list, you're not mailing a normal "listserv," but instead sending an e-mail with every list member in the "to" line.

I just learned this in a semi-embarrassing way when sending out an announcement about Firemoss - my apologies to all involved.

I am pleased to announce that as of November 20, 2006 I will be available for hire as an independent consultant. With the support of my wife and members of the ColdFusion and Flex communities, I've made the decision to leave Booz Allen Hamilton and form Firemoss, LLC.

Frankly, I'm one excited geek. In 1999, I formed another LLC with one of my roommates. It was successful, but I eventually sold my share of the company in order to pursue other interests. The sale was a decision I've never ceased regretting, and a mistake I do not intend to repeat.

In my role as an independent consultant, I'll be able to provide the following consulting services:

• ColdFusion Development
• Object-Oriented ColdFusion Training and Mentoring
• Flex Development
• Model-Glue Training and Mentoring
• AJAX Development

In addition to consulting, I plan to release a series of products supporting ColdFusion-based Model-Glue and Flex development as well as business applications aimed at various commercial markets.

If you or your company would be interested in my services, please contact me at joe@firemoss.com or (703)380-9105.