"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." -Bertold Brecht

It's now been three and a half years since DemocracyInAction and I got together -- three and a half years of change and growth and learning on the fly.

We got to thinking ... why not try out a long-distance thing?

So I'm excited -- and, yeah, a little nervous -- to announce that next week, yours truly will shake the Beltway dust off his heels and open up DemocracyInAction Midwest. (That name could be a little snappier. Suggestions?)

DIA Midwest will be based out of lovely Bloomington, Indiana, conveniently located where someone smarter than I can study something I don't understand while I do stuff like this:

(And of course, the ol' hobby blog.)

What does this mean for Salsa users in the Midwest?

It turns out that most of what I do I could easily do from a decent broadband connection on Io, so it'll be an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change in my own daily schedule.

But DIA Midwest -- that is, me, in my den -- will obviously be turning user focus towards groups in the region, along the lines of our existing field offices in San Francisco, New York, and Montana.

And dang if Bloomington isn't right in the middle of the action:

That's a whole new territory to learn.

So you'll see me stalking the conferences, mailing lists, happy hours and blogs from Nashville to Chicago, from Hockeytown to the Show-Me State ... especially when basketball season rolls around.

Trepidation notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to it.

D.C. is not bereft of charm but it's a company town, and even if my never-changed Washington (state) license plates attest another state of mind, I've somehow managed to keep my hearth in the capital for nine of the last eleven years. Helpfully, that game-changing global communications infrastructure we're always nattering on about here has sprouted up in that time ... so you can change your longitude without changing all your friends.

Just the same, everyone needs a new beginning now and again.

I'll see you on the other side of the drive.