Tuesday evening, 27th of January, 2009, at the London Geek Dinners, in Hummus Bros in Covent Garden, a bunch of techies and geeks gathered, waiting expectantly to hear some inspiring words of wisdom, and learn from Jeff Pulver, headlined as “Technology Anthropologist; Entrepreneur; Early-Stage Seed Investor; speaker, Living in Social Media”..

Arriving at Hummus Bros a little after 7pm, I was glad to find that I had arrived earlier than the guest speaker.  Digging into a warm apple juice with cinnamon, some tabouleh, and some hummus and avocado, gave me a chance to catch up with some familiar faces, and enjoy a satisfying dinner, before Jeff’s arrival.  Apparently, he was coming, straight from the airport, and arrived a short while after I finished ;) Nice timing indeed!

After Jeff got a chance to get settled, and have some dinner, he gave us a short 20 minute speech, sharing some interesting insights, and giving us some of his thoughts around Social Media.

He related some of his childhood stories, of being a Ham radio operator, as a child, and how his persona as a shy child at school was a completely different identity to the person that he could be on the radio.  The two worlds, allowed him to experience being “himself” – without people being able to go on anything more than his voice, and what he talked about.  That liberating freedom, to hide behind the technology, back when Ham Radio’s were mainstream, hasn’t really changed too much, to this day.  That ability to be yourself, with technology dealing with the job of masking the real you, has really become something of an everyday reality.  In fact, so much so, that I remember turning up to an event, where I was sat right behind someone, who I had befriended virtually, but until that moment, didn’t even know who she was ;)  It’s crazy that you can hide yourself, so well, behind the technology, and if you’re just a little afraid, you don’t have to worry about being yourself, until you’re hidden.  Then you magically discover the courage to be yourself.  Scary, yet empowering at the same time :)

Jeff related a story of his high school reunion, which he attended, and went equipped with a video camera, to ask people what they remembered of him, and the first three folks he asked couldn’t even remember who he was, and then the fourth person he asked remembered him, saying something like – ah yes, you’re the one with a cool dad!  Jeff’s take, on that, after reviewing the videotape, after the reunion, was to remember, that it’s not about how you remember yourself to be, but about how others remembered you to be.  An interesting point, I think, we can often forget about.  When creating an impression, it’s not about what you do, or say, it’s about how the other perceives what you’ve said or done..

My final take, from Jeff Pulver’s talk that evening, was about how he would never want to have, on his public facebook identity, pictures of his children.  He discussed the way in which there were clear segments of groups of people, and the ways he related, and connected to them, meant that to different groups of people he wanted to share different things, or disclose different bits of information.  That challenge alone is enough to realise the shortcomings of our current tools of communication..  This point, was, more saliently touching upon an idea that I’ve been playing with for a few years now, and been refining, and synthesizing, through my own needs.. Having the ability to segment, and selectively email groups of people has been in my list of targets to accomplish for a long time now..

Imagine that you have personal pictures that you want to share with your family, pictures of your work colleagues, you want to share with your work friends, and pictures of you out on the town, with friends, that you want to share with just that group of friends.. Right now – there’s no easy or simple solution to that dilemma.. but rest assured, I’m working on it ;) – If you want to talk more about that challenge, hear about some of the innovative solutions that have been thought of already, or help develop the next generation of information filtering and distribution, then get in touch, or comment below, and let’s get the conversation rolling ;)

Jeff, ended by sharing his take on the future… He saw the future as being even more converged, even more connected, even more interconnectedness across our world… He also talked about how technology is making the world smaller, and mentioned a bit about how the ability to stay connected, to have an ambient awareness of everything your friends have been upto.  He described how his childrens generation stayed connected with their friends, even through the school holidays, and that they each know what the others have been upto, thanks to facebook, myspace, and similar platforms..

Imagine who you might still be friends with, or connected with now, if you’d had these tools at your disposal when you were younger??  Our children are growing up in the world, where it’s normal to have travelled to another country, have friends around the world, and stay connected through technology.

Food for thought eh?? Or Fodder for your dreams!!  Night all!

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So, I started 2009 taking a few days away from the computer, the internet, and taking some time for myself, to just start thinking about what the coming year has in store?  It’s not often, in our always, on, always connected world, that we can find the time to just step back, and think, and reflect, without having a hundred and one thoughts at the back of our minds, of all the things we need to do, or people we have to respond to, and so it was good to be able to just switch off, step back, and unplug, knowing that it would just be the jovial, merry partying, and festival spirit being carried by the internet across the world, at this time of year.

Traditionally, the Winter, is associated with retreating inwards and being introspective.  To people who manage to notice the seasons, and the changes in pace of life, and the change in nature, Winter is traditionally a time of hibernation, and deep slumber, a time when we look inwards, and re-focus our dreams, and aspirations.  It’s a time that naturally lends itself to staying indoors, and having some quiet time, given that it’s so cold out, and it’s nice to be snug indoors.

Personally I like to enter the New Year, with a clear purpose, and sense of what my priorities are for the coming year, as well as clearing the slate from the previous year, and letting go of what’s not been working so well, and coming to terms with those failures too.

So 2008 was a “huge” year, for me, in so many many ways.  I’ve grown tremendously in the last year – personally experiencing and living through an entire roller coaster of emotions at times.   I’ve had some incredible highs, and some unfortunate lows.  Some of those low’s unfortunately, are still on a downturn, and until I get some closure on them, they’ll possibly continue to keep going downhill..  There’s not too much I can say about the low’s just yet, not until some things become clearer, and I know exactly what’s happening.  But the highs, equally, have been a real joy and pleasure to experience, and perhaps everything in nature finds it’s way of balancing things out – making sure we never get too high, or too low, before we get to experience the opposite.  I will gladly reveal all, as they say, when the time is right, for now, suffice it to say, it’s been a very very tough time for me personally and as a consequence, professionally.

I started 2008, with a very clear aim and purpose – “to restore my health”.

I wanted to become physically fit, wanted to restore my body to a health and vitality which I posessed perhaps 10 years ago now, and I wanted to overcome a physical condition that I’ve been fighting for over 5 years now.  No, I’m not talking about my obesity, which is also a challenge, but I’m talking about my Lymphatic condition..

Since 2003, during my stay in South Korea as an English Teacher, I went and got ill, with a condition, that has meant that I’ve had to spend the last five years, experiencing a series of recurring fevers, pains in my leg, and an abnormal amount of swelling in my left leg, which has made it challenging at times, to even find a pair of trousers I could wear, without my leg becoming completely swollen, and painful.

In the past 5 years, I’ve worked with traditional allopathic doctors, I’ve worked with healers from Mexico, with shamans from Peru, with acupuncturists, with homeopaths, and ayervedic physicians – but it seems that no-one was able to concretely deal with my illness, or I was unable to follow through with any medications, and courses of action that I was prescribed, given how much I’ve been travelling over the last 5 years.

End of 2007, I made the conscious choice to stay fixed in London, to not go gallivanting round the globe, and to do everything I could to get my leg healed, and get back into shape…  I continue on this journey, to this day, having now decided to go at this, from every possible angle I can.. I’m religiously following the advice of my allopathic doctor, and will be consulting with some of the other doctors and healers I’ve worked with before, to attack this ill health on all fronts.  But perhaps, my health is going to resolve itself in it’s own time, and I need to choose something more appropriate to focus on now??  I realised that perhaps part of the challenge is in not having something to get healthy for, I wouldn’t be as motivated.  Perhaps just being healthy wasn’t enough of a motivation, or didn’t support me enough in my goals?

Of course, I have other goals too – but they all took a back seat last year, whilst I put all of my time, attention and energy into getting healthy.   Result? I’m healthier now than I was this time last year.  (I’ve definitely lost more weight, and the swelling in my leg has reduced).  But I’m not there yet.. I’ve not reached the goal or target that I aspired to hit.  And to be completely honest, heading into 2009, with the same overriding focus, or theme just doesn’t appeal to me anymore..

The mission to get healthy, and recover completely is still there – but I don’t feel like 2009 feels like a year I need to devote to my health and wellbeing in the same way.  I’ve learnt heaps, in the last year, and if I just continue applying what I’ve learnt, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I will eventually come out of this stronger, fitter, healthier, and more alive than I’ve ever been.  So if my primary focus for 2009 isn’t going to be my health anymore what is it going to be??  For the longest time, I just couldn’t understand which to choose..

I had my pick, narrowed down, to:
1) Personal Development – I could focus on learning new skills, learning new languages, studying something, etc..
2) Personal Relationships – Investing the time and attention this year, in getting closer with family, with friends, with colleagues, and with acquaintances.  Building my network deeper, and wider, and connecting with ever more people.
3) Get a career – Choose a career – and get laser focussed with it.  I’ve been drifting between projects and ideas, and volunteering, and helping people out for a number of years now, but I haven’t had that singularity of focus, on a single vision, or a single career path, that’s yielded the results I aimed for.  When I discovered recently that a friend of mine, who graduated in the same year as I did – is now a Vice President of the company he’s been working with.. I wonder where I would be today, had I just committed, and focussed on one thing already??  Conversely, if it weren’t for the variety and breadth of exposure I’ve had in life, I probably wouldn’t be the well travelled, well rounded, and lateral thinker that I am.  So there were pros and cons to my lifestyle choices.

Ironically, I’m drawn to getting a career.  I know – most people, seeing me living my life, travelling at a moments notice, the world at my fingertips, think that I have such a “great” life, and why would I ever want to give it up?? Well, I guess I’ve done all the travelling, seeing the world, and having adventures that I want to have for now.  Yes, the thought of living on a desert island, and enjoying warm weather, and a great laid back lifestyle is all good and all – but knowing that I could at any moment get myself a job as an English Teacher in Thailand, and be “living that life”, is just not appealing anymore.  I’ve been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, and bored of it already.

With that in mind, I’m making 2009, the year that I focus on my career, and my professional development, through working, and having a job.  It’s pretty easy to do the whole job thing, but for me, the real challenge is going to be in becoming the very best in my field.  I’ve often wanted the “regularity” that comes with having a nine to five, your life takes on a basic routine, and rhythm, that allows you a certain amount of freedom and flexibility that comes with the structure that a regular working day brings.  I’ve done many of those “exercises” where you imagine what you would do, if you had all the money in the world, and whilst in the past I might have dreamt of great worldly ambitions, and lofty goals, in truth, I don’t really want any of those things.  What I want is to “work”.  That kind of work that at the end of the day, you look back on it, and get a sense of satisfaction, knowing that you’ve done a days productive work.  It’s that feeling you get, after accomplishing something, knowing that you’ve completed something substantial, and completed something productive.

I haven’t yet, learnt to “monetise” my work, and my contributions, and perhaps it’s  a reflection of the fact that whilst my contributions are useful and of value, I still have some things to learn about business, and money.  My recent reading of The Richest Man in Babylon, has made me realise just how much I love and appreciate work, and how there’s some basic fundamental principles, of wealth, and abundance that I’ve been missing out on.  The most basic being – that if you don’t love your work, then you won’t be able to get really really good at something, and then be able to command a greater salary for being ever more proficient in your field, or area of expertise.

So, 2009, I’m going to focus all my energies on becoming excellent at faciliting online community.  Managing an online Community is challenging at the best of times, but comes easily and effortlessly to people who have mastered those skills, and know how to support their colleagues or constituents in generating content, and deriving value.  So with that in mind, this year, I’ll be focussing my time, attention,  and skills to both engaging more deeply online, and also to learning and developing the skillset, or toolset that’s required to be successful in facilitating online community :)  I look forward to seeing how accomplished I become in this field, by the end of 2009.  Wish me luck!!

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Chainreaction08 at session on scaling
technology’s with accenture’s david tomlinson

chris – salesforce.com

foundation

billion dollar business 3k employees

2-300 in uk

foundation launched when company was
launched

started, long before company was
profitable

1% model

1% of all time, money, and product,
donated, to charities non-profit charities

over 1k charities using salesforce in
their global community

2 very successful projects working with
accenture

accenture worked with kids company,
member of staff took accentures expertise and project management

adp – accenture development platform
– rolling out across many countries, sharing best practices

sales force – best of breed of
technology, accenture giving best of breed of expertise

grace, organisation partnering with
accenture

nurse from kenya, refugee

scale up number of nurses, able to
respond to community health issues. –

national council of kenya, sets
standard for nurses

accenture, looking at scaling up
capacity of nurses by scaling up, and

nurse remains working, and continues
studying.

Exposing nurses to wider areas

within 5-7 yrs, over 2k nurses who are
trained..

scaling access to technology across
africa

young foundation

50yr track record – how to eliminate
and solve social problems, and creating organisations around the
world

open university, school for
entrepreneurs, education extra,

incubator of enterpises – condusct
research into what will scale up

three key lessons – focussing on
innovative things where paying customer is usually govt.

important to focus on effective demand
of what you’re doing, ,as well as building organisation demand and
capacity – if you don’t create something that other people want to
use.

2^nd learning – scaling
impact of what you’re doing, organisation growth is only one way of
scaling impact, diffusing ideas, easy if it’s simple, easily
understandable.

organisation growth – best suited
whre there are high barriers to entry, complexity, challenges to
market,

lastly – 3^rd learning,

when scaling organisation, shift the
culture and capabilites, from explorer mode to execution mode.

Everyone’s doing a bit of everything,
being the charismatic leader, personal connections with leader,
larger scale organisation needs more equality, efficiency. Person
running it is general manager type, rather than charismatic

governance is about checks and
balances.

Be able to fire the chief executive –
finding right balance between explorer, and growth mode.

Most good ideas are developed by very
innovative, highly creative, people, who get bogged down by admin

henry, gemini heads up

project rafiki, large online project
for schools,

objectives

education – comunication skills,
teamwork skills, it skills

bridging cultural, social and religious
deviides

global interconnect – understanding
how we’re all linked.

When we started the organisation, it
wasn’t possible to collaborate and connect, now with web 2.0 we can
have huge impact, with huge numbers of kids.

Fairtrade – example – talk live
into ghana with people in coffee fields

islamophibia, kids in iran, iraq,
palestine, tower hamlets – connecting directly

long term impact, on these kids, over a
long period of time – is ayone still going to be there in a years
time, in a few yars time..

the long term impact – friends with
people in 5 countries, change in career, because of it,

software path becomes easier –
because of people like salesforce, and accenture

can’t do it alone – looking to find
other organisations, who share the same vision

medecins san frontiers – links into
darfur, to see the horror happening there..

always draws in graph – x axis –
measureable impact

y-axis number of people you can impact

some very different examples, and
interesting ideas..

extension from chair – connecting to
theme of chain reaction – gathered in this building are hundreds of
people with ideas, for local level – how do we scale that up??

using tech we have, across different
countries, and different people, how do we scale up?

Use of technology, lessons learnt,
impact on your organisation.. questions opened up to audience..

Relates to simon – shifting from
explorer to execution mode…

finished pilot – huge success, but
finding challenge about going from explorer to execution, how to grow
the organisation in order to make it sustainable…

grant funded – from wellcome trust -
very few organisations that are grant funded find it hard to scale
up, can be quite hard, and expensive. Cheapest way to do it, is to
have members on board with the expertise already on board.

Gemini foundation, was grant fudned,
and had to move into a social enterprise model – suggestion start
with a business plan, be very focussed, and single aim

Director of Just Change –
experiencing similar challenge.. over 6 years, been using volunteers
to import and distribute tea.. setting up a location in luton – to
set up an office – but can’t go from small organisation to a
financially sustainable one that grows.

Chainreaction08 – scaling from a
grant funded organisation, to one that grows.. growing challenge

unltd – cliff – pilot project..

not yet – hope it will surface on the
crowdvine, or else try the connect desk, once you get here :)

salesforce – entrepreneur development
program – vision spring, organisation in india, sell quality eye
glasses at low cost

Tricia’s point – most business
schools, have programs with mba’s who place teams with third sector
- prime time, people who’ve retired from business.

As an organisation looking for
temporary funding – can also use loans, or

thepoint.com

zopa.com

pledgeback.com

Health launch, launchpad provides
funding, and intensive support, on business building side and of
building effective demand. Commissioners, can usualy make a 15,000
grant, without referring it up.

Response to going from volunteer
sector, funding from venture capital funds

Demand side has been discussed –
what’s available on the supply side, to meet that demand

question for grace or henry – helps
out with project in south west uganda, witth e-learning, and

salesforce – have a microfinance
template, attract relationships with banks, and

Grace, iinfrastructure, electricity
isn’t there, connection to internet is on and off.. first thing,
nurses using paper based training, using cd’s. In training centres,
expanded from 37 to 105 computers.. – best options, for rural areas,
using different media, that will last regardless of the
infrastructure, nurses council of kenya

seems I’ve been typing away too much…
on the laptop – looks like I’m going to have to do more twittering
from the mobile..

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Given that’s it’s a packed and intense two days during Chain Reaction 08, and that the WiFi connection is sporadic, and non-responsive at times, it means that the social reporting, and real time updates from the event are a little more challenging to get out.

For now – I’m going to just share my unabridged notes, from the sessions that I attended, to give you a “flavour” – and I use the term very very loosely, of what’s been happening at the event..

I’ll be sure to revise this posting to a more detailed write up, after the event, once I get a bit more time, but for now – I just want to share what’s come out of the sessions so far..

So to start off, after some excellent ice-breakers, and welcomes to the room, and after an inspiring keynote from Jeremy Gilley, we broke off into different rooms.

I really wanted to sit in on the Collaboration for Social Change session, which was chaired by Stephen Howard from Business In The Community.

Here’s my notes, taken,in realtime, as the session took place – and I hope they give you a glimpse into some of the conversations that were happening, please ask any questions, or share your insights in the comments below.. For now, I can only apologise for the roughness of these next few blogposts..

Collaborating for Social Change

Steve Howard chaired session.

IBM

Microfinance infrastructure

kuda India – 100,000 microfinancing clients

collaborating internally – created opensource software for managing micro-financing organisations, working with grameen bank

royalmail

coming years, business might step backwards

– key theme, asking staff what they want to do, having staff express what they wanted to do

– people love engaging with community, unlocks talent, people have more contact with customers

– in offices where people are engaged, and doing more volunteer work, other metrics and scores are better

– royal mail support barnardos – aligns with values of staff, and what matters to them

– questions from audience – hiten shah – partnership working is difficult and mostly fails, would like to know key elements for success and pitfalls for failure

– partnerships take longer than expected – require a few years to properly be able to work together

– IBM – moved from “big things” to helping staff take small local action -

– RoyalMail did the same, focus on what people want to do locally, not national large corporate led strategies

– remove barriers, to make it easier for people to engage and participate in the programs

– homeless project, involved providing work for homeless – over 16hrs work, meant homeless lost their free housing

being open, with frank dialogue, with staff, not trying to control process, but empowering staff

– boss from Big Issue, sharing social entrepreneur model – challenging corporates to invest CSR budget in Big Issue Invest

– outsourcing CSR spend – to organisations that are more effective, prove return on investment, and show profit

chainreactiion08 – commercial organisation with a social purpose – the Royal Mail

– do we have shared interests? Having different positions? Should work together, where there are common aims

people with money want to give their money in a way that provides visible returns, leads to direct results

– leadership development in the “Third Sector”, what do we need to prepare the next generation to work across the sectors

– IBM-programs exist where leadership can be developed, and second staff to government

– RoyalMail – most organisations have secondment programs, had staff leave to join organisations and programs

-companies starting to bring in an external person into corporate trainings, so they can benefit

– royalmail – business learns from the experience too. Hugely benefits staff to be exposed to the environment

– question – salesforce gives 1% of time, what do corporates do?

– ideas and hours are logged internally, and IBM supports financially accordingly

– how do we take this idea to the other employers, to smaller businesses? Value of community contribution

– video message from allan gillespie, from goldman sachs – video stopped working

– allan gillespie – talks about social action – microsoft, building foundation years ago, burdened on africa poverty issues

– power of immunity, and immunisation – most poor communities only 25-35% get vaccines – people dying from preventable diseases

– prevent children suffering from diseases, kids can be educated, mothers can support family

– millenium development goals, monterey, california, creation by UN – 2000

chainreacction08 – goal 5 – reduction in preventable child deaths

– MS, gates, invested 1.5 billion – uk, and other european govts stepped up and also added to funds

france spain, italy, south africa, sweden, norway – funding secured over many years

– promise of funding used to secure loans to be paid off, across the program

– problems like refrigeration of vaccines with solar refrigerators, motorbikes, resources to make vaccines available

– 10 years – estimated 500 million children will be vaccinated, at least 10, 20 million children saved from death

– gates, un, gleneagles, uk, bank of england, city of london – chain of ripple to make change

– join leadership, government, politics, for sustainable success

– prof david grayson – chair of csr @ Cranfield Business School

– proposal asking businesses to see if a sustainable model for a new immunisation program might work

– fortuitious accident, that proposal landed on desk of banker at goldman sachs, who was looking for csr programs to engage with

– council for social action – need new ways of making change, collaborating

-key characteristics in paper which highlight what works in collaboration-pdf on council of social action website

these will not always be the right approach, takes great deal of time and energy to make programs work

requires significant investment from govt, business, and third sector

must have shared purpose, build deep relationships over time, for commitment to succeed

need for a common vocabulary, between business, govt and 3^rd sector

need capacity to engage with whats on offer, and to properly commit to the cause

extend collaboration common to business to partner with other organisations, new forms off collaboration

capacity for organisations to work with different types of

launch of a consulation – what are the determining critical factors?

-can you share what you’ve seen work? Different scales, different size?

– have the critical success factors been correctly identified?

– have key requirements that will lead to this success been identified?

– looking forward to getting more feedback on these ideas.

invitation to connect with BASAC that’s developing program for supporting community co-operation and participation

suggestion to connect the dots, connecting people together who are already doing amazing things

– unlocking talent, business response, how do we create a web based talent map of what’s already there??

– how do we take this challenge and make it simpler and easier for businesses to connect and collaborate

– ibm evangelists will offer advice, suggestions, find and ask for advice

royal mail – move away from evangelising, and making local connection

– learn across sectors, ripe environment of people who know how to use social networks

– simple actions, why so complicated?

– worldeka, more information, more networks

– suggestion of many ideas, diversity in nature, thriving on diversity

– royal mail – overarching aim is to make it easier and more accessible for businesses to participate, and engage

– not targetted at single solutions, or one solution, but many different solutions, and many different responses

– suggestion that firms make visible a choice to work because of csr, and make that visible

– talk about issues, not necessarily business

– choosing partners based on common values

– building brand and reputation, recruiting the best staff

– IBM actions were based on the values expressed through their staff jams

– tangible evidence from Legal and general research showing companies that implemented these values to outperform

– procurement from ethical suppliers, royal mail, constantly asked about what they’re doing on sustainability and social action

– companies genuinely interested in working with like minded organisations

– grad recruitment – if you’re not talking about work life, environment, you dont’ stand a chance

requires big change in mindset from organisations in civil society, and preparedness to work across sectors in new challenging ways

jeffery sachs – us against a common problem – not us and them anymore

how do we prevent stifling of ideas, increase cross-fertilisation of ideas

subject is more important than ever – need is greater than ever – feels too big to deal with alone

– individually we can help, collaboratively we can help even more

– stephen howard – ceo – business in the community – what can we take away? What difference can I make?

– the urgency has never been greater..

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Today (Monday 17th November 2008) marked the inauguration of Chain Reaction 08, a two day conference in London which “will bring together social leaders, community activists, policy makers, business leaders, young people and people like you from around the globe to share learning and to generate new ideas for social change, locally, nationally and globally.”

Today also marches the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week “the first worldwide celebration of enterprise, which aims to unleash young people’s enterprising ideas and address some of society’s biggest issues, from poverty reduction through to climate change.”

As the day ends in London, and all the delegates wind down, and finish up for the day, later, half way across the other side of the world, in San Francisco, there is another conversation about to begin, at The Global Summit where the question will be asked – “What will it take to build a sustainable future?”.  The Global Summit(TM) a world-wide partnership for a sustainable future, is laying the foundation for annual Summits across the globe. The Global Summit(TM) begins with a two-day symposium and culturally rich welcome reception. Outcomes include guiding principals for a sustainable world across six key social and economic sectors, a blue print for the world’s first global citizen voter platform and an online collaboration system that maximizes our collective impact. Learn more about this event by either reading this press release, or by visiting the website of the Empowerment works – the organisation responsible for putting on the event.

It seems like this week could truly mark the beginning of a significant changing tide in the world we live in today.. I’ll be personally attending Chain Reaction 08, where I’ll be socially reporting on the event, via twitter, and blogging, as best I can.  At the same time two dear friends, fellow facilitators of the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, and former colleagues from The Pachamama Alliance where I volunteered for 9 months will be attending The Global Summit in San Francisco.  We’re planning to organise a conference call, after both events, to find out about each others experiences of what was shared, and to find out threads between the two events, that we might be able to start weaving together, between the two gatherings, half a world away from each other..

I don’t know about how much virtual engagement will occur at The Global Summit, but we’ll have plenty of resources to engage people online, coming out of the conference, so please do connect into the conversations in whatever way you feel would work best!!

Whilst clarifiying a few details for The Global Summit, I’ve discovered a few more relevant happenings this week..

This week the following related events are also happening, or did already happen:

Governor’s Global Climate Summit, Nov 18th and 19th, 2008, in Beverly Hills, California,
convened by Governor Schwarzenegger

The G-20 Global Economic Summit, on Nov 15th and 16th, 2008, in DC, organised by President Bush.
You can also read the Full G-20 Declaration.

The first pan-European Town Meeting on Climate Change, 15th Nov, 2008, simultaneously in Florence, (Italy), Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain) and Poitiers (France), in the context of the IDEAL-EU project, one of the ongoing Preparatory Actions on eParticipation funded by the European Commission.

So it’ll be interesting to see with all this flurry of activity, what long term sustainable social change could come out of these programs? and what actually ends up coming out of all these meetings…

If you’d like to engage with Chain Reaction 08 – we’re deliberately including an online social element to the community interactions, and so would like to extend the invitation to everyone to join in, participate, and collaborate.

You can start by tagging everything you generate with the official tag of chainreaction08 – so everytime you blog, tweet, post a photo on flickr, or just generally include anything that you would like to include in the conversation, be sure to include that tag (except if you’re replying to something that’s been said in twitter, in which case the fact you’re replying will mean that the earlier part of the conversation, as well as your response will appear in the results :)  This applies to all people who are at the event, and watching from their homes too :)

On twitter, to search for a keyword, you can use http://search.twitter.com and put in the keyword terms for Chain Reaction 08.

A comprehensive query, that includes all related variations can be found by visiting http://tinyurl.com/5pu375 – this will provide you with a complete list of all posts on twitter relating to the London Chain Reaction 08 event. (The RSS Feed for this query can be found here).

For photos, everyone’s been asked to post them on flickr, and to use the keyword tag of chainreaction08 to make sure that they are visible to everyone who is looking for images from the event.  If you’d like to see the latest photos that have been uploaded, just visit here.  If you happen to attend the Chain Reaction 08 event, and have pictures that you’d like to share with the other participants, then I’d like to invite you to create your very own free flickr account, and post the photos you’ve taken during the course of the two days onto flickr, making sure that you tag all your photos with “chainreaction08” (without the quotes, of course!)

You can also find relevant blog posts, that will help weave a connection between the participants of Chain Reaction 08.  Again, if you want to have your blog appear to other people, make sure that when you post your blog, you include the tag chainreaction08, so that other people can find it, when they are looking for related content..

Fortunately, Google has integrated it’s video search into a single interface, that comes from multiple sources, so you can also find all videos from the event, that are shared on youtube and google video using the chainreaction08 tag.

There is also content being video’d and streamed directly online, throughout the event courtesy of David Wilcox, and Qik…

Then, most importantly, we also have an active online community at http://chain-reaction.crowdvine.com/ so if you don’t happen to have been able to join the event, live, or want to join in from a distance, the online community will undoubtedly be a rich resource, that connects people together long after chain reaction 08 is over, and perhaps by chain reaction 09, there’ll be an international dimension occurring simultaneously at the same time.

If I happen to have missed any resources, please add them into the comments section below, and I’ll be sure to update this page, to properly reflect all the resources, and references relating to ChainReaction08, so that everyone can benefit from knowing where to find everything related and relevant to a matter dear to our hearts.

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LinkedIn has recently made the move from being just a network tool, to adding applications to the platform.  Much akin to the Applications, now a mainstay of the Facebook platform, and long seen as a way for developers to infiltrate the existing trust networks that exist on the inside of Online Social Networks, LinkedIn, has made good on it’s promise of working with OpenSocial, and launched it’s first set of apps.

In that lucky grouping are Huddle, a London based startup, that leads the way, with being the first European startup to be represented in LinkedIn.  With over 30 million professionals using LinkedIn, Huddle are strategically positioning themselves well ahead of 37 Signals, with their BaseCamp offering.

In fact, when it comes to online project management, Huddle have probably beaten everyone else in the web space, given that most of the 30 million professionals on LinkedIn, probably haven’t gone deliberately looking for services that would offer such tools..

I know recently I discovered the Action Method, approach to tasking and project management, but only since I took an active interest in finding better tools to get this job done… Now it’ll be interesting to see what sort of an impact the OpenSocial integration is going to have with other services that equally integrate with OpenSocial, and will start to be offered through existing online social networks, such as LinkedIn and Plaxo..  Let’s just hope that what happens is that only the best tools rise to the top!

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Just discovered g2i – gateway2investment, which is an investment readiness programme for London based companies looking for equity investment, to assist with rapid growth.

As an entrepreneur, with a company in London, looking for investment, if you’re innovative, and looking to grow the company with an equity investment, then g2i might be able to help.  I happened to discover it when reading the comments in an article that talked about Huddle, and how they were a part of a group who went out to Silicon Valley, called Web Mission 08.  The g2i appears to offer training, advice, support and mentoring, aimed at helping companies develop their pitches, their propositions, and their teams, in order to become “investor ready”.  They only target specific sectors, so before you go off all chirpy, make sure that you’re at least in one of the following industries:

• Design & Creative
• Life Sciences
• Emerging Technologies
• Energy & Environment
• ICT
• Food & Drink
• Value Added Manufacturing
• Retail

It actually looks like a pretty broad range, so hopefully you’ll be able to find a way to fit into one of those categories.  I guess, aside from getting you ready for investors, the real benefit with g2i, is their network of investors, VC’s and business angels, which means they’ll be able to help you brush up on your pitch, and then help you walk through the door to the folks with money most suited to what you’re offering.

Seems like a win win situation to me!  They have a great summary of the g2i journey, graphically depicting the different stages, and what’s on offer..

You can also read more about the g2i team, which is comprised of Grant Thornton UK LLP, Library House, E-Synergy, The Innovatory, Quotec, and Pembrige Partners LLP.

Altogether, g2i looks like a great outfit to go through, to help shape up the business, and get things rolling, especially if you’re during the growth phase of your company, and need the equity injection to help grow the business.

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So, this is the second time in a row, that our SBS Windows Server has caused trouble.. It decided to just die, over the weekend, and upon returning to the office this morning, and after doing much troubleshooting, and checking, I decided the fact that I couldn’t reach the firewall, because of IPNat.sys and that I could get an internet connection, from the server, that I could reach all the machines on our network, but that I couldn’t reach the server from other computers, then it just had to be something to do with either the firewall settings, or some sort of routing, or permissions settings..

The last time we had a problem like this, where the server could connect out, but nothing could connect in, I had discovered some trouble on the internet with IPNat.sys, and since it was this troublesome file that was stopping me from reaching the firewall settings, I thought it might be related… so on the prowl, after googling IPNat.sys, and looking for any possible help with disabling this file again, I discovered the instructions to:

“Go to Device Manager, choose Show Hidden Devices, and open “Non-Plug and Play Drivers”. Open “IP Network Address Translator” and go to the details page. You can start ot stop it and change the startup type to disabled, which I have done.

Source: Windows IT Pro Forums [as at 27th Oct 2008]

To my joy, after doing this, things seemed to just “work”!! Not being an SBS Windows Server Pro, not professing to be, nor wanting to be, it was just another crazy day in the office, where with no-one else able to fix it, I was left with the responsibility of fixing the broken tech again…

Perhaps one of these days, I’ll get to actually do what I love, which is advocating, and consulting people on how to use technology, and then helping people get to grips with the tools they have.. as well as being able to consult with people, and have a tech team to call upon… perhaps once I get my own startup bootstrapped, and off the ground, I might have something of substance to work with.. Till then, I’ll keep on enjoying the challenges of working where I am, and look forward to moving onto something a little bigger, more structured, and better organised in the near future :)  (All suggestions, are most welcome!)

At least for now, having blogged this, should this problem happen again, I’ll have a reference I can turn to, to avoid having to start from scratch next time!

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Bootlaw, presented by @danversbaillieu and @bazv rocks!!

I was meant to be interviewing a serial entpreneur this evening, who happened to cancel, and so I ended up checking to see what was happening tonight, and picked up, out of the twitterverse, the BootLaw event.  Mainly cos Redditnation was going to be recorded there this evening, and I happened to pick that up in the twitters in my stream.. Glad I’m following @joshuamarch and @jstrides and picked up a few more people to follow along the way!!

So in brief, we learnt about Shareholders Agreements, and to love our Articles of Associataion!!

I met Matt Collins, and Ben Godfrey, two regulars of the tech scene I frequent.. I think I met them both at Social Media Camp, just a short while ago!

Also, met Sophie Cox, doing amazingly well! Sugested I make some time and follow up with interviews of all these awesome folks!  Everyone deserves to be mentioned.. More coming over the next week or so.. If I can keep up!!  Thoroughly recommend the next one, if you’re anywhere near it!!

Tags: web+2.0, bootlaw, tech+startup, legal

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So I attended the SeedCamp Interview Day yesterday, and I have to say it was a real eye-opener…

I managed to arrive at the right building, in time, and found that the interviews were running a little late.  That bought me a bit of extra time to get to know some of the folks that were there before me, and also to find out a bit about Michael Orland, one of the hosts of SeedCamp.

Calm, mentally prepared, and ready to pitch BillionInAYear.com I stepped into the room full of all the Investors from the SeedCamp Selection Panel, and got thrown a little by the fact that my presentation hadn’t been received.. Though I was sure I had sent it, and I’d gotten an acknowledgement from one of the Seedcamp folks, I’d foolishly not put the presentation on a memory stick, and was invited to start, whilst Reshma frantically tried to find the presentation slides, and get them onto the screen.  Ironic really, that the start to my presentation was a perfect example of how BillionInAYear.com was a solution to the problem that had just occurred.  Of an email, being sent, and received, and not being readily visible, in the information streams, of the intended recipient.  How often do you get an email from someone, that’s important to your work at that moment, and it gets lost in the stream of email flows coming at you?

Well, fortunately, I recovered from the start, communicated the essence of the idea, answered all the questions that came at me, and before I knew it, the ten minutes were over, and I was invited to step outside..   I guess sometimes, time really does fly when you’re having fun. I just hope all the Selection Panel enjoyed themselves as much as I did.  The body language in the room seemed very closed, and dis-interested to begin with, though that might have been as much to do with trying to hide their true interest, or just a ploy to feign dis-interest.  By contrast, by the time I left the room, I could see some visible indications from some of the audience, of a real interest, and I think I had managed to get some people’s curiosity a little further aroused, but then that could have just been my own imagination!!  I guess once the results of the SeedCamp Interview Day are published, with the finalists for SeedCamp week being announced, then I’ll know just how much interest there really was.  Fortunately, the whole experience got me thinking a little more pro-actively about how I might go about raising funding, and actually taking the time to review the websites of some of the investment companies, that are involved with SeedCamp.   I guess now I really have to keep pushing outwards, and pursuing potential avenues, and sources of funding, to see if I can finally secure a proper seed development budget to build a prototype of BillionInAYear.com – since I really don’t want to be the one to have to write the code for the system myself (mainly since programming is not my real passion, or strength).  There’s been plenty of people who have made offers of support along the way, perhaps now I need to start bringing those people together, and raising some seed funding through those sources, if I don’t get funding through SeedCamp this year.

Well, after the ten minute interview, I had a real eye-opener, when chatting with fellow attendees at the Interview.  One team, who had applied to SeedCamp, weren’t even on Facebook – another preferred to use Xing instead of Facebook, and I slowly started to realise, how the entire web 2.0 world doesn’t revolve around facebook, and twitter, and blogging, as much as I thought it might have done.  In fact, trying to find an online presence for each of the members of the selection panel made me realise how people use these online tools in diversely different ways.  So much so, that to presume that all of the people in SeedCamp are all in Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter would be a huge mistake.. In fact some of the members of the SeedCamp Selection panel, don’t even have a website, like Mark Esiri, and Venrex.  (At least they don’t have any website that I’ve been able to find as yet.. though I’m still looking!)

I’ve come to realise that whilst there are certain tools and services out there that are more popular in certain countries, and less popular in others, Web technologies, and web2.0 startups can exist completely under the radar, Investment Funds can exist without any visible online presence, and the whole world of Technology Startups, is at a significantly different state of play, compared to the bleeding edge technologies, and early adopters.  The fact that colleagues at each of the last two companies I’ve worked with are all on Facebook, illustrate the widespread mainstream adoption of certain technologies by specific demographics, or cross sections of society.  Why, even my dad has joined Facebook, to stay up-to date with photos, and family happenings, seeing as both my sisters live abroad, and our family is distributed across three continents. But even as tech savvy as he is, he’s still only a small percentage of the people in my family who use Facebook.  Some would argue that Facebook is the way forward, but I would have to argue otherwise.  I think inherently we should only ever see online social networks, for the publishing and storing mediums that they are, allowing, us as individuals to express what we want to through the net, or get our message out, to the people that we want to communicate with.  But to see it as a way of staying in touch with others, or staying informed as to what’s happening in other people’s lives is an assumption.  The assumption being, that others are using the same tools to publish information about their lives.  Except when they’re not.  Then we have to create a new login, start a new profile, and succumb to another login, and another URL. Until such a time comes as we can go to one place, find everything we need, and be able to not be overwhelmed by all the information.  FriendFeed does a great job of helping bring people and their content together, but unfortunately, if you’re friend hasn’t signed up, or is a member, you might not be able to see everything they’re publishing.  And when you find a friend writing a blog and being published elsewhere, you won’t be able to use FriendFeed’s service to add it to your friends profile… I don’t think anyone’s yet that forward thinking apart from BillionInAYear.com  But then I could be mistaken.  I’d love to be proven wrong, if you know otherwise, just let me know through the comments!

So, lesson of the day, most people have email, but not all.  Most people are online, and use a social network, but not all. And Web 2.0 is about using the technology, not necessarily being on all the social networks!!

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