links for 2006-11-29
November 29, 2006-
Services are where it’s at … software/products are a commodity. Change or perish!
Cory Doctorow round-up
April 19, 2006There’s already been a bit of coverage on the Cory Doctorow lecture that I went to last night. I’m a bit behind the eight-ball, so rather than be repetitive I thought I’d provide some links …
I’ve also put together a mind-map covering the main points of the talk and my perceptions, which I thought I’d share with you. Unlike Cameron, I decided to go oldschool and mind-mapped with a notepad and pen–worked a treat! I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible in summarising … apologies to Cory for any salient points I might have missed. You can find a PDF of the mindmap here (416K).
I really enjoyed the talk. It was informative and interesting. A lot of the material was stuff that I am relatively knowledgeable about already, but nevertheless, I found some things framed from a different perspective. I particularly relate to Cory’s description of Free and Open Source software as “an expression of enlightenment … a philosophy.” It’s often difficult for me to express my own interest in Open Source software, and I think that this sums it up nicely. For me, it’s not necessarily the ‘output’ i.e. the software per se but rather, an interest in this field is more from the human endeavour perspective and in the belief that that there are different ways to find meaning and create value, than most of us have been taught via rationalist ideals.
Another thing that I also really enjoyed about the night was meeting up with other like-minded individuals and having a good old chin wag over a few beers. Thanks to Cam for being the ‘connector’ and hooking up with a number of us local bloggers.
Metal for Melbourne
February 7, 2006Donna bought me a turntable (remember those?) for my birthday back in December. Its got a built in pre-amp, so I can easily hook it up to my PowerBook with a RCA -> 1.5mm input adapter. And it works a treat! I’ve been using it a lot lately to rip some of my old vinyl.
The process of ripping the vinyl and converting it into audio (mp3) is a relatively simple task thanks to Audacity — an open source audio editing suite, complete with mp3 libraries and available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The instructions here helped me get up and running in no time at all. Warning: the burning process itself is time consuming! You’ll have to manually flip the LP’s and also tag the audio file with track names. You can also play around with the audio so that you can remove some of the ’space’ at the front and back ends of the recording. The quality of the audio is suprisingly good.
I’ve been digitising some of my old ‘Metal for Melbourne’ labelled stuff that — as far as I know — was never released on anything other than vinyl, and is unlikely to be. I’m so rapped to be able to listen to some of my all-time favorite riffs! If anyone is aware of if/where I could lay my hands on some of this material on CD, I’d love to hear from you. Specifically, I’m interested in mid-80’s local metal bands such as Taramis, BlackJack, Nothing Sacred, Tyrus, Rampage, Prowler etc.
Rock on!
Principle-Centered Leadership
February 3, 2006I wrote this some time ago (early 2004 I think) — and in fact, it was my first ever ‘blog’ contribution. I just realised that I did not have a copy of it on my own site, so I’m adding a slightly edited version (so it makes sense) of it for the sake of prosterity. I still think a lot of it is relevant.
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It is undeniable that the very nature of work is changing. (Peter Christo has succinctly spoken and written about this before here) Despite all of the evidence pointing to a changing landscape, indeed a paradigm shift, many managers are still bound to traditional vertical hierarchies, stability, financial security, a homogenous workforce and the belief that profits and capital are the goals of success.
Those companies that have failed to adapt to this new paradigm can be spotted a mile off as they have a tendency to engage the marketplace using a ”wagon circleing’ mentality, whereby traditional business models and methods conditioned towards quick-fix, short-term thinking are being loosely adapted and applied to a changing market. This is being illustrated in the IT Industry by practices such as vendor lock-in, inequitable and unfavorable licensing, sending work off-shore in an effort to reduce cost and selling vapor-ware to fund product development and gain market share (snake-oil sales tactics). Frankly … the IT industry wheels tend to run smoother when oiled with bullshit!
The Open Source Software movement (www.opensource.org) is providing real leadership in the adoption of innovative business models and practices that adapt to a new paradigm which is centered on our lives and our leadership of organisations and people based on true north principles. Covey [1] argues that “People do not want to work for a cause with little or no meaning, even though it taps their mental capacities to their fullest. They must be purposes that lift them, enable them and bring them to their higher selves.” Limerick [2] also argues that “collaborative individuals are emancipated by discontinuity, empowered by knowledge, and driven by values. They collaborate with others because they agree with their values and the joint mission and not because of their commitment to the organisation.”The reason Open Source software is becoming pervasive is because it is driven by values. Indeed, the movement was founded on the universal principles of freedom — of choice, of thought; of speech. These are principles that uplift, enable, fulfill, empower and inspire people.
What is needed is a more efficient model of engaging talent (knowledge workers) with opportunities in a fluid marketplace that is a principle-centered approach that works with the whole person — seeing them not only as ‘assets’ but economic, social, psychological and spiritual beings who crave meaning in their work. The courtship of the such a talent engagement model and open source software principles and practices is an exiting romance.
1. Covey, S.R., 1992 p.178 Principle Centered Leadership. Simon & Schuster; 1st ed.
2. Limerick, D. in Nankervis, A.R. and Compton, R.L (eds), 1990. Readings in Strategic Human Resource Management. Thomas Nelson Australia.
Open Source Guide
November 30, 2005via NetSquared
O’Reilly has just released Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution “a collection of insightful and thought-provoking essays from today’s technology leaders that continues painting the evolutionary picture that developed in the 1999 book Open Sources: Voices from the Revolution. Both those links provide tables of contents and sample chapters — in the latter case, the whole book is accessible.
The latter is a fantastic resource. I’m looking forward to checking out ths new offering.
