I want to get out of IT, but still work with technology. What options are out there?

technology news, reviews or guide writing would seem right up your alley...

How about seeking freelance magazine gigs writing about how to select and maximize technology? After some time doing that, you could perhaps parlay it into a full-time job. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1582972710/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ would be a helpful starting point. As far as technical writing goes, you might see if you can find work writing manuals for a software firm, a process that may require you to move, so you can spend time with the developers.

Have you thought of working as a technology specialist for an educational institution? For example, professional schools (law, business, etc.) often have educational technology specialists who are there to help faculty and students make the most out of educational technologies. You have to be a generalist to be good at that --- on any given day, you may teach a professor some rudimentary HTML, show a class full of students how to use Blackboard, assist a professor with preparing a Powerpoint slideshow, etc. It sounds like that would be a good fit for you.

What about starting your own technology consultant shop, as opposed to working for someone else? Since you don't mind doing things for free, you can do free "consultations" to get people started. Since you're in a small town it might be a good thing to have a "mom'n'pop" place to go that can compete with the high prices of the Geek Squad / Firedog etc. Or, you can try to work at Firedog/Geek Squad etc :)

Neros, As a laid-off technical writer between jobs, I can tell you right now to avoid the field entirely. Most of the types of companies that hire technical writers (financial services, defense, manufacturing), consider tech writers disposable resources, and F/T jobs out there are almost non-existent. The majority of jobs out there are 3-6 month short-term contract jobs which don't lead anywhere. ALso, a lot of companies that I've seen mostly want someone with significant (Java, C++, .NET) programming experience who can also write, with the technical writing being a secondary function. Your best bet might be to pick up a degree in education and try to move into the educational technology field working for a school district or college.

You sound like you'd make a good teacher, or perhaps a consultant for small companies that are trying to figure out what their IT needs are, what to buy, and how to set it up. Also, if you're interested in traveling at all, there seems to be a fair number of NGOs that will send people to developing countries to train the locals in tech skills.

The educational technologist idea sounds like a good one, but you might also check out the library world. Part of what Jessamyn does is related to technology education in libraries; check out her blog at librarian.net and see if it's the kind of subject matter that interests you. Please note that neither the education world nor the library world are going to supply you with vast quantities of money.

Technical writing and/or technical training (if you can see yourself in front of a bunch of people teaching classes) would indeed be good areas to explore: they both require technical skills but also put a great deal of focus on communications and helping people solve practical problems, or as you put it, "helping people get the most out of the technology they are trying to use." If you enjoy that, you'd enjoy tech writing and/or training. Gingercat is correct in that a lot of the tech writing work on offer is on a contract basis, but in my experience (20 years in IT, most of it as a technical writer, specialized several years ago in proposal management and new business development) there are still plenty of staff jobs on offer. Whether you are a contractor or a staffer, most of the work is likely to be project-based, meaning that you will be working on something (or several small somethings) for a while and then move on to something(s) else. If you want to get a feel for the day-to-day concerns of a technical writer, http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/index.php3 is a terrific resource; if you want to talk directly to someone who's made his living at it basically his entire adult life, my e-mail is in my profile.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting replies so fast – this place is great. First, to clarify “small town” is probably not how I should have phrased it. I live in a college town with about 100k people in the area, so it is far from tiny but not a big metro area either. Either way, I want to get out. I’m definitely leaning towards a media related job as bsummers and others mentioned. Doing something like that is actually why I went back to finish my degree (I took two years off to work). Working someplace like CNET, etc has been something I’ve been interested in for a long time. In fact, I think I would love doing something like that, especially for an online publication. I just don’t know how to get going. I guess I just need to start writing etc, maybe on a personal site, and see if any local pubs would be interested and move from there. Opportunities in non-print media would be of interest as well. The ed tech advice is interesting. I’ve worked for an edu as a sysadmin and enjoyed the technical aspects, but I couldn’t get interested in the other side of the coin such as the higher curriculum development theories and practices, etc. I may poke around the web and see if I can find out more. Training outside of an edu institution, like workshops, would be interesting as well.