Where did those 22 other people come from?

Nine days ago was the one year anniversary of our incorporation of Six Apart (prior to that we were a LLC). In this last year, we went from two people working out of our apartment to a company of twenty-four including a Japanese subsidiary (announcement) and a team in Europe working as our exclusive agent.

It's been, and continues to be, a good year.

Ten days ago, when we announced TypeKey, much of the initial criticisms we read could have been answered with more information. After reading most everything that people had to say about the service, Ben and I worked on an FAQ that addressed almost all of the objections we saw.

And oddly enough, providing more information about TypeKey helped answer questions and clear up the misconceptions.

Last week it finally sunk in that we've done an extremely poor job communicating about the growth of Six Apart to our users and to the weblogging community. This silence can be partly attributed to the sort of confidentiality that's required when working with partners or brokering deals.

But, fundamentally, our silence was due to the fact that we were, for a lack of a better word, scared.

When we knew that Movable Type Pro had to be postponed because the direction of the product hadn't been clearly outlined in terms of development resources, we should have told our users. Add to that the stress of setting up the company, staffing and launching TypePad and you could understand

We were scared of seeming human; scared of being perceived as complaining or making excuses. We were scared of ruining the image of the sacred "Trott," a perceived perfect entity that is so cute and sweet and productive. We were scared of saying the wrong thing that could affect a company that wasn't just a hobby of a married couple anymore.

So we didn't say anything.

I've always advocated personal voice as the strongest asset of a weblog. In the past year, Six Apart has lost its public voice. We wanted our products to speak for themselves and hid behind our busyness. This, I feel most responsible for, since I have always tried to be the eyes, ears and voice of the company.

Coincidentally, it's Dave Winer's essay about Six Apart that does an extremely good job articulating one of the prime reasons for our fears:

"If they have to walk on eggshells in order to communicate, they're going to do less of it. So try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and try to work with them."

So what does this all mean to you?

It means that we've entered a new era of Six Apart. We're going to pull back that curtain and not be afraid to reveal what Six Apart has become. We realize that we're never going to please everyone and, without sounding like a daily affirmation, that's okay.

We want to show our users what goes on at Six Apart and what we're doing to keep our growth in tune with our vision of what Six Apart should be. We want to show that there are other people at this company other than the Trotts and that these people work hard, contribute a great deal and are part of what we've become.

And, of course, we won't be able to share everything, but we'll try to share a lot more.

We're committed to remaining a successful company and providing the best tools possible. Frankly, I'm glad I can write this when we are doing well and have a lot of opportunities ahead of us rather than as a retrospective on bad decisions we made during the life of our company.

So, on this year and nine day anniversary of the incorporation of Six Apart Ltd., I christen this weblog "Mena's Corner.^*

^* Not the greatest name, I know. But, it doesn't have to be perfect.