User:Jim Butler

Hello! I'm a licensed acupuncturist with a prior career as a chemist. I earned my Master's degree from Harvard University (1989) and worked in pharmaceutical research and development. In 1996 I decided to change careers and start a family. I studied acupuncture under distinguished Chinese doctors at the Maryland Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, graduating in 2000, and then began a private practice. I have a son with nonverbal autism and serve as a board member of the Autism National Committee.

I've been editing Wikipedia since early 2006. I joined CZ in April '07 but remained inactive due to (a) real-life obligations and (b) lack of motivation to edit here because of concern that not enough people were reading the site (I'd hoped for a complete fork of WP: more content, more readers). The former will always be an issue, but my experience on WP has convinced me that this site is the best wiki for substantive topics, especially science. WP is fine for popular culture and trivia, but for science it will never fare well due to lack of expert oversight. And there is plenty of stuff on WP that can be imported, then improved. It's a more incremental process than starting as a complete fork of WP would have been, but if we're going to err on the side of quality over quantity, that's cool. So, as of January '08, I'm pleased actually to be editing here.

Sites I own:

• Autvocate - Disabilities advocacy
• Arlington Acupuncture - My private practice