Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on consultancy http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic consultancy Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Okay so what's next? Tue, 09 Jul 2002 20:38:57 +0100 Strangely enough being made redundant on Monday was not the most unnerving that has happened to me this week. What is more unnerving is my decision not to look immediately for another job.  Instead I have made the decision to see if I can make an adhoc mixture (as I see it now) of blogging, k-logging, knowledge management, intranets, collaboration and communities into a compelling business proposition and make a living from it. For some time now I have wanted to strike out in my own direction.  To lead rather than be led.  It seems fate just handed me my chance. This is not a risk-free strategy, and I'm just beginning to admit to myself what I'm letting myself in for. So from here onwards I will happily entertain any offers of work, suggestions about what works (and what doesn't).  Ideas, novel solutions, novel problems.  It's all good.   I've also got an acre of understanding to do, here goes! Suddenly I feel like I am growing into my weblog title. Matt   http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000132.html More on licensing for liveTopics Tue, 20 Aug 2002 23:18:09 +0100 Here's how I'm leaning: <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> I make liveTopics free software issued under the GPL. </BLOCKQUOTE> I can see the arguments for and against commercial licenses for the software.  But like the Zope guys I have weigh up how much license revenue I'm actually likely to generate versus the inertia that having to pay could generate.  I'm hoping to build a reputation in the KM/klogging space and liveTopics if widely accepted could be a part of that.  I also want to take liveTopics into corporate blogging directories, topic-maps, XTM, and visualization.  I want to take it into group/shared-blogging.  I want lots of you to come along for the ride. So I think it's real values to me are: <UL> <LI>reputation</LI> <LI>a lead-in to other services</LI> <LI>the vision</LI></UL> The other services could be support, as well as more general KM/klogging consultancy or integration work. Am I making sense?  I guess we'll know if I end up starving and homeless in 6 months time! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000398.html Can you see the light? Tue, 22 Oct 2002 23:05:17 +0100 I don't know where to start, so I'm just going to start. Keys problem in my efforts to define services for klogging have been: <UL> <LI>Blue Sky - Klogging is a better tomorrow, golden path, etc...</LI> <LI>Scattershot - Ooh it does this, and this, and this, and...</LI> <LI>Where do I fit in?  "He doesn't look like a real consultant.  Quick! Don't let him get away!"</LI></UL> Well I've seen the light ladies and gentlemen.  In the time left to me, before the great job in the sky beckons, my approach shall be: <UL> <LI>Klogging as an applied business tool.  How much money will this save you today, tomorrow, this week, next week</LI> <LI>1 problem at a time</LI> <LI>I am providing consultancy, implementation and product.  I may not look like a consultant but I know how many beans make 5.  Also this is a non-existant market, there's nobody else doing this stuff to make me look bad.</LI></UL> Only when I've got some success from this approach will I broaden it out, leveraging case studies and satisfied customers.  Sound sensible? I'm open to suggestions about what people think is the most fertile ground to start on but my own preference right now is visbility.  I choose this because it is: <UL> <LI>a recognised problem, I don't think anyone claims that visibility within companies isn't an issue for them anymore (or do they? I don't want to kid myself again)</LI> <LI>affects all companies large and small, in all markets and sectors, i.e. universally applicable</LI> <LI>klogging provides a unique and, hopefully, compelling solution</LI></UL> I'm going to try and flesh this out into a proper paper/article/story in the next couple of days but here is the main gist. Organisations have difficulty knowing what is going on both internally within their own systems and at their edges (in interaction with customers, partners, suppliers and so forth).  The tools most commonly used to address this are (in no particular order): <UL> <LI>e-mails</LI> <LI>mailing lists</LI> <LI>bulletins</LI> <LI>magazines</LI> <LI>news letters</LI> <LI>web pages</LI> <LI>meetings</LI> <LI>telephone calls</LI></UL> Each of these can under the right circumstance be an appropriate tool for improving visibility, but they are not a general solution and as organisations have discovered they have many shortcomings and pitfalls.  In short they don't address the real problem. The issues I have identified are: <UL> <LI>Asynchronous / Synchronous</LI> <LI>Passive / Interruptive</LI> <LI>Self-archiving / Self-destructing</LI> <LI>Lateral / Hierarchical</LI> <LI>Deep / Opaque</LI> <LI>Public / Secret</LI> <LI>Connected / Disconnected</LI> <LI>Matrix / Linear</LI></UL> There may be more formal, well known terms for each of these, and I will explain more later to allow people to guide me.  It may also be that there is considerable overlap here.  But what I've tried to do is think about the various attributes of the problem and solutions and come up with axes that describe them and allow judgements to be made. In my opinion, for improved visibility, the left hand choices are important and the right hand choices lead to solutions that, whilst they may be effective in specific cases, are generally sub-optimal. It is also my opinion (although this may be self-fulfilling prophecy at work) that k-logging fulfills all of the left hand choices. Hopefully I will get enough down tomorrow for you to judge for yourselves. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000763.html Making ends meet Sun, 01 Dec 2002 19:52:55 +0000 This is a difficult post to write. The last 5 months have been some of the most interesting and exciting of my life.  When I started blogging I couldn't have imagined what a dramatic impact it would have on me.  I've been thinking more during this time than at any other time in my life and, having found a voice, sharing more.  It's been very liberating.  It also seems to me that the path I am on now may define my course for years to come. Starting a business was something I really wanted to do.  But I wasn't ready for the challenge, economy or no economy.  I've learned so many things, like the supreme importance of your network and, by extension, your brand relative to things like products and services.  But it's hard to run a business when every little thing is a lesson.  Despite good advice I've made mistake and after mistake and they keep coming.  On one hand I'm constantly learning and that's fun, but on the other hand it doesn't necessarily make for good business. I want to continue, I hope to continue.  I believe (dangerous as that is) that k-logging has an important future, my inability to come up with the right message or pilot site not withstanding, and is going to be a good business to be in.  I also want to continue because I'm talking to and sharing ideas with some great people and that's always cool.  But the hard reality is that I haven't made it work yet and I'm almost at the end of my rope. I've started looking for a job, posting my resume to various recruitment sites.  So heres where we come to the difficult bit: Please, if you or someone you know could use my skills (CV will be up when Word agrees with me about what HTML is): <UL> <LI>Java application development</LI> <LI>Technical consultancy</LI> <LI>Web development (Servlets/JSP, Perl, Cold Fusion)</LI> <LI>Knowledge Management (+quite a lot of experience with Livelink) implementation or consultancy</LI> <LI>Systems Management (Quite a bit of Solaris & WinNT/2K + a smattering of linux)</LI> <LI>Tech support / Client support</LI></UL> please do get in touch, I could really use some help at the moment. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000938.html Can you help me? Wed, 08 Jan 2003 13:45:42 +0000 Over the last several months I've been striving to develop a message about the problems and opportunities that I perceive for knowledge management.  The results of this activity are an evolving philosophy and the outlines of a methodology (which I am calling eXteme Knowledge Management). The journey is far from over, and yet I have already met a lot of great people who have had a profound influence on my thinking and helped me to many valuable insights.  The list is too great to mention but many of you are in my blog roll.  In many ways what I am doing has been successful, but in other, important, ways it has not. I have failed outright in making sufficient contacts in the trenches.  I haven't talked to enough people who are buyers, users and ultimately either victims or champions of KM.  In short I haven't spoken to the people the message is for...   What this means is that to a great extent this message is growing in a vacuum and that's not what I want. And so I turn to you, gentle reader.  Can you help me? I would be really grateful if anyone can give me names of contacts within companies that they think would wish to talk about Knowledge Management.  Better yet, if you felt confident to introduce me to people who you think might fit the bill. Before I go any further though, let me say that I am absolutely not looking for an opportunity to make a sales pitch.  I want the opportunity to listen to people and try and understand their pain a little better.  I want to discuss the message and get some feedback.  Do the ideas I am promoting make sense?  And, if not, can they be made to?  How should they be applied?  What are the concerns? I'm looking for an opportunity to converse, not to put on the hard sell. My primary focus is on project delivery (management, visibility, collaboration,...) and I would like to aim at: <UL> <LI>Pharmaceuticals</LI> <LI>Research & Development</LI> <LI>Software Houses</LI></UL> So, please, if you can help me, do get in touch. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001048.html