For those of you who haven't been following my travels, I began my new role in Atlanta last week as head of EarthLink's Value Added Services group. It's been a dizzying first week, meeting many (but not all - there are 1700 employees at ELNK) of my new colleagues.

First impressions: ELNKers are super-smart, and there is a real "can-do" culture here. The attitude seems to stem from the company's more than 10 year history providing internet service in all sorts of difficult and extreme conditions.

There is an entrepreneurial zeal here which I find very energizing – and not surprising in a place that was a commercial first-mover in many innovations, ranging from total access plans http://www.earthlink.net/software/main/ (from dialup to broadband to BPL (broadband-over-powerlines) to the first protection tools to include anti-phishing and anti-scam sniffing technology. http://www.earthlink.net/software/pcc/

Now, with such exciting new opportunities as line-powered voice and MuniWIFI the company is well positioned at the intersection of communications, technology and services. This "Total Communications Company" strategy is what brought me here, and I am very happy to be part of the team. Our role is to expand the range and value of the services we can provide to our customers beyond the very significant levels these businesses already are at. It's going to be a very exciting time.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be traveling a lot, meeting folks around the country who are on my team and in the company. I'm very excited about the road ahead and looking forward to working with and getting to know everyone.