Mike Ortiz

Mike Ortiz, a former La Plaza volunteer and staff member is a special young man who has become a much sought after Systems administrator and LINUX guru in northern New Mexico.

Mike was born in 1978 in Taos, New Mexico to Alex and Jackie Ortiz.
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In early Spring, 1997, Mike was hired as a volunteer at La Plaza Telecommunity.After graduating from Taos High he attended UNM- Taos for one semester.He left UNM after trying out their Human Resources program knowing it wasn't for him.Mike knew that information technology was the wave of the future and he wanted to explore the possibilities.He heard that La Plaza was in need of volunteers and decided to he could not only help out the community, he could learn more about computers and Internet technology by working there.His father was aware that Mike would need computer skills for future employment opportunities and supported him in his decision to work at La Plaza as a volunteer.

Mike's computer skills were limited but his drive to learn was not.During Mike's tenure at Taos High School, there were no computer classes nor was the school wired to the Internet.He had learned how to dial-up to the Internet via La Plaza and had used the computer for some word processing from home.

Mike was hired at the front desk to help community members set up new accounts as well as help current La Plaza users with technical problems they may have accessing the Internet or with any computer software problems.He remembers the first time he helped a user set up their TCP/IP settings successfully and he knew that he wanted to be involved in Computer and Internet technology at some level.

With a voracious appetite to learn everything he could, Mike became a Windows expert within a few months and was soon assisting La Plaza staff on their computer problems.He became interested in computer programming after experiencing Windows operating system limits and soon began to explore LINUX and Free BSD.

Mike was hired as a full time staff member within two months of volunteering at La Plaza after the former Help Desk Assistant left.In his spare time Mike devoted his time to learning LINUX and in 1998 decided to go back to college to learn computer programming.He enrolled at Northern New Mexico Community College and soon dropped out because he was actually learning more on his own than what they could offer him.He came back to La Plaza in 1999 when he was hired as the Field Support Tech and soon after became the interim System Administrator.

Mike's reputation and ability to build and maintain systems grew throughout Taos during this period and he was hired as System Administrator by the local electric cooperative to help them develop their ISP.In 2000, Mike came back to La Plaza as the System Administrator.He says, "I knew not only could I help them out, I could pay them back for the opportunity they gave me."

Today, at the ripe old age of 23, Mike has his own consulting business where he can command up to $200 per hour for his expertise.His expertise lies from System administration to systems development.He is considering several job offers he has received from outside New Mexico.Mike continues to assist La Plaza with any special needs they may have.

When asked if he ever considered going to a major University to complete a Computer Science degree, Mike said no because he felt that the technology was moving so rapidly that by the time a university decided to offer classes he may want or need the technology had changed.

Mike is an accomplished musician and plays with a local Taos Band, Amigos Unidos.He has a recording studio in his home where is presently working on his own soon to be released CD that will feature popular Spanish/Mexican cover songs.Mike supports the work La Plaza has done not only for him, but for the entire community.He encourages other young people to explore volunteer opportunities at similar community networks and community technology centers where they live.

about Mike Ortiz who began as a volunteer at La Plaza then zoomed quickly up the technical ladder