Jef Nickerson works at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Department of Public Safety. He is also President of the urban advocacy group, Greater City: Providence and moderator of the Rhode Island sections of the popular webforum, UrbanPlanet.

The Rhode Island blogosphere and the national media has been engergized since the announcement last month that MIT's John Maeda would be the next President of RISD. Those of us who learn and work at RISD have also been energized. Since before the Christmas break RISD's students, faculty, staff, almuni, and trustees have been engaged in conversation with John and with each other about the future of RISD on an internal blog. We've all been asked to place a cone of silence over the internal and sometimes frank discussions that have been taking place. But I can tell you, the future of RISD looks bright and we are planning to take Rhode Island along for the ride.

Last week, a blog was created where the world outside RISD can listen in on parts of the conversation, our.risd.edu. Writing from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, John says:

Since the recent announcement of only a month ago that I would succeed RISD President Roger Mandle in June 2008 as the 16th President of RISD, I have been blogging with the RISD community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni one.risd.edu on an internal blog; this blog here as our.risd.edu is designed to be external facing, and I will be regularly posting here my various perceptions of RISD and its relation to the world at large as I travel along the road to becoming president. I have so much to learn, and am grateful to all the people that have stepped forward in the RISD community to help me wear RISD eyes. I see better day by day.

June 2nd will be here before we know it!