Rambling about Data on Wheels – origins, branding, expansion

I have been asked many times about how the name “Data on Wheels” came to be. I decided that is a good topic to ramble about, so here goes.

An origin story

By the end of 2010, I had been presenting on technology for over four years including PASS Summits. While I was building out a decent reputation as a speaker, I didn’t have an online presence. I needed a blog.

I decided to kick off a blog in December 2010. But I needed a name for my blog. Something cool. After looking at bunch of peers’ blogs and Twitter handles, I landed on Data on Wheels. I drew the name from my work with data, obviously, and my work at XATA a transportation management company. Little did I know at the time that I was creating a brand.

The Data on Wheels blog was built on WordPress.com. It was and still is an easy way to create a blog. WordPress manages the backend which is really nice for those of us with full-time jobs. My first real blog post was about this new product from Microsoft called SQL Azure. One of the keys to keeping up with blogging, especially technical blog posts, was to write for myself. If I needed to remember how to do something, I wrote about it. I also used it as a reference for customers.

Next, I started the process of building my brand.

Building a brand

Why did I think of building a brand? Well, I was working closely with the marketing team at Magenic. I wanted to represent Magenic well when I presented in public. I learned that your brand is important and will make it easier for people to find and trust you.  

Domain

In 2012, I set up the dataonwheels.com domain. While I couldn’t apply it to my blog because WordPress charges for that, I used the domain on Azure and Office 365. I have my domain email accounts managed there.

Logos

Logos are a fun part of branding. I created my first logo with a wheel as a key visual element. The next logo was created by a graphic artist at Magenic. My son Alex created the next couple of logos. The current logo is used in multiple other logos. Here is my logo tree.

Logos became stickers and elements used in PowerPoint presentations and templates.

Social Media

I used Data on Wheels wherever I could – Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. By using the name wherever, I was able to establish the brand more firmly.

Expanding the brand

Over the past few years, I have been able to expand the brand beyond me and the blog.

Kristyna joins Data on Wheels

In June 2020, Kristyna joined the Data on Wheels blog. She was doing exciting work with Power BI. At the time she was working at a transportation logistics company. It seems she was destined to join me, I am glad she did.

Data on Rails

Data on Rails was our way to give a platform for up-and-coming data professionals who wanted to start blogging. The inspiration was Kristyna’s success building her reputation on Data on Wheels.

#DataOnWheelsALS

July 2021, I started exhibiting symptoms of ALS. We created this hashtag to build awareness. Matt Gordon even put it on his racecar.

YouTube channel

When writing content became more difficult than speaking, I started creating video content. The first video was about my journey with ALS. Later, I launched Fabric 5 in which I discussed architectural topics. The channel has a mix of technical and ALS content.

Data Dragoness takes over

In 2025, I passed the torch to Kristyna. Now Data on Wheels is wrapped up in a dragon! Wheels and wings and data!

Data on Wheels ~ ALS

In September 2025, I was bored, so I launched a website – als.dataonwheels.com. This has been a great opportunity to learn something new, to share my story, to share ALS tools, and to write about anything I feel like.

Keep rolling on

I don’t know what may be next for Data on Wheels, but I have enjoyed the trip so far. I’m thankful to everyone who have supported me along the way. I never would have thought that it would still be part of my professional and personal life like it is today.