I started publishing in 2008, before Sher had entered my life and long before anyone heard us speak about a Trott Bailey Family Civilization. Those early websites were part of my education. America had shown me that culture travels in stories, images, programmes, songs, advertisements and news reports. The Caribbean knew America through the television as surely as through trade. Whoever owned a powerful media channel could teach entire generations what to admire.

Sher changed our publishing from several ventures into a family mission. A robotics lesson could sit beside a demonstration of solar installation. A chapter from her creative writing could bring a reader to 1Drop. A family video could show the children in Turkey or Jeju. A photograph could anchor a design study. The university, Oasis Videos, PhotoFall, public commentary and the family archive began forming a connected ecosystem. We were learning to own the record of what we did rather than depend on a stranger to summarize our life.

The shift was thrilling. We tested languages, interfaces, global content delivery and new formats. Sher could conceive an entire body of cultural work while I solved another set of technical problems to carry it. We were creating content that entertained us first, taught students, introduced our children to audiences and later became part of a very serious civilizational archive.

Independent writers have now examined different pieces of our work, including our published WordPress software and agricultural projects. Some of those publications originate with journalists and editors; others are contributions we have written for outside outlets. The distinctions matter for a complete historical archive. What delights me is the growing breadth of the record: people can discover the young Jamaican engineer, the couple on the move, the parents, the designers and the operating systems, all through their own work and through people who have taken an interest in it.