Separating work and pleasure (blogs)

Thanks to those of you who voted on the poll regarding whether I should separate out my postings on work and my home life.

Photo credit to wageslaves

The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of creating a work blog [thank you, 2 voters!], and therefore I have done so, here. I have also put a note underneath the blog header, just in case anyone doesn't see this post...

I will continue to post here about the divergent and the unexpected. I was going to say the posts would be less frequent, but I'm not sure that's possible! ;-D

Technorati Tags: business,common sense,enjoyable,experiment,technology,ideas,what's next,web 2.0,social media

(Un)Funny Tummy update

At the top of this piece, I'd like to say that I'm writing these posts because I believe others may benefits from knowing about this sort of stuff.
I'm essentially following on from the post I wrote about Angela Beecroft. I'm still taking the bio bacteria, but now I have discussed the results of the test with Angela.
It turns out that I have a nasty little fella called Dientamoeba fragilis in my tummy.
Wikipedia says that this can cause Dientamoebiasis: "[...] symptoms reported have included:

1. Weight loss
2. Fatigue
3. Nausea and vomiting
4. Fever
5. Uritcaria (skin rash)
6. Pruritis (itchiness)
7. Biliary infection"

[I don't think I've had all this, but it gives you an idea what can happen]
At present, I'm taking some anti-microbial tablets recommended by Angela.
Although they cause mild heartburn at times, in conjunction with the bio bacteria, I'm not feeling so exhausted all the time. In fact, I'm sometimes waking up feeling almost raring to go!
Anyway, there's still a few weeks of pills to go, so hopefully my system will sort itself out. It will be interesting to see what happens. I've got the sense that my tummy is more sorted, so that's good.

Technorati Tags: amoeba,infection,stomach,treatment,hopeful,anti-microbial

Business and Personal posts in the same blog?

Folks, I need some advice please.

Up ‘til now I’ve been using Wellbanked as a personal equivalent of Speakers' Corner.

Given that I have left Fujitsu, it’s natural that I should use this blog to publicise the new direction in my working life.

The downside to this is the confusion created by having posts about personal issues cheek-by-jowl with work ones – prospective Customers / Employers might be put off by this!

So, I am looking for feedback on my thoughts so far:

• Leave my blog as it is – i.e. keep posting on various topics
• Try and separate out work and personal posts through the use of metadata or tags in some way
• Set up a separate blog for work issues and cross-link etc.
• Port to another platform – e.g. Wordpress
• Set up a website and embed this blog into it

If I was to start a work blog, I need help cooking up a name – the domain I bought appears to be too close to an existing Company. Doh!

I’ve done a quick Google search, but although the answer may be obvious, I’m a bit stumped, and need a bit of crowdsourcing love.

Hopefully you should find a poll running alongside this post – please also leave a comment if you can bear it!

Technorati Tags: blogger,wordpress,wellbanked,business,personal,advice,feedback

… "one can't believe impossible things."

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland.

Lovely quote sent to me by lovely Kay Cooke.

Props to The Victorian Web

Technorati Tags: imagination,literature,psychology

Zingthing - facilitation tool

Yesterday I went to a demo of Zingthing, a tool to help workshop facilitators bring together the input from workshop participants.

Carol and Catherine - good people from CPCR - gave Kate & Caroline (from The Bridge Club), and myself a keyboard each and we were able to test-drive it.

"The Zingthing 3.0 software is a specialised meeting system to support organisation-wide knowledge creation, fast implementation of new expert decision or learning processes, cultural change and accelerated innovation." - Max Dumais.

Max gives an excellent intro, so I won't re-hash a description here.

Apparently it is good for brainstorming, and also collecting the input from multiple break-out groups.

In our view, it would be great to help participants feel really involved in proceedings, and also allow shy folk get their voice heard.

CPCR are offering to bring their kit and expertise to a conference near you, for a fee.

n.b. It's not the same as the Backchannel, as described:

• Here by Roo Reynolds
  
• Here in Wikipedia
  
• This is a tool to help create a backchannel - BackNoise (referenced by Wikipedia article)

Technorati Tags: collaboration,community,useful,tools,meetings,software

My skills as a Business Consultant

A quick bulleted list to give readers an idea of what I have to offer:

Consultancy skills

• Business Change: deep understanding of how to combine people, process, and technology to achieve business outcomes—with the emphasis on people
• Business consultancy: Strategic and technical IT consultancy from a programme viewpoint; business / process analysis and design; report writing and presentation delivery
• Benefits management: Experience of Fujitsu’s Benefits Realisation methodology, which focuses on business outcomes, and creates network of activities to assure delivery of business benefits
• Business networking: active business school Alumnus and business networker (online and face-to-face).
• Project delivery: architecture and design; technology selection; team-worker and leader
• Project management: project planning and basic financials; awareness of PRINCE 2 methodology

Business Understanding

• IT Strategy and Governance; Peer collaboration, Financial Services regulation; Corporate Performance Management.; Virtualisation; Enterprise Application Integration & Web Services, Business Process Management, Virtual Worlds; IT Architecture; J2EE and Application Servers

Technical

• Internet protocols and infrastructure; Collaboration platforms and online communities; Windows Operating Systems (MCSE 1999); Database Systems; Gadgets of all kinds

Grasp of Business and Technology Marketspace

• Through reading The Economist; McKinsey Quarterly, Harvard Business Review; subscription to various Industry Sector and Technology newsletters and blogs

Props to Hugh Macleod

Technorati Tags: business,technology,consulting,skills,benefits,return on investment

Business Consultant for hire

I leave Fujitsu today, i.e. at the end of September. I am striking out on my own, and plan to do contracting work in the North East of England. Hopefully this will be a springboard to more varied projects – reflecting my interests in cutting-edge collaborative tools and virtual worlds etc.

In putting together my leaving note to Fujitsu colleagues (and the associated mailing list), I was able to reflect on all the fantastic people I have worked with, in nearly 10 years with Fujitsu. Also, that I genuinely believe Fujitsu has been an excellent employer and good place to work.

Those ten years have given me a great foundation to help Customers maximise their return on their Technology investments. In practical terms, this means helping them:

• Exploit existing collaboration tools and infrastructure
• Understand impact of consumerization and Web 2.0 on Customers and other stakeholders
• Create a successful blend of infrastructure, using established collaboration / information management tools and leading edge ones
• Understand technology’s impact on People, and create programme of change to manage this impact and maximise Return on Investment
• Make informed decisions about which tools / trends match needs of organisation - don't just go with the flow

I’ve worked for Fujitsu with a number of large Government Departments, and a mixture of Private and Public Sector bodies.

More details at http://www.linkedin.com/in/justinguysouter.


Props to Laughing Squid / Scott Beale, Ariel Waldman and, of course, to Hugh Macleod

Technorati Tags: work,business,success,technology,consultancy,advice,web 2.0,NE England

Angela Beecroft, nutritionalist

A quick follow-up post re Dairy Intolerance.

As a Christmas present, my Mum offered for me to visit Angela Beecroft, a nutrionalist based in North Yorkshire / Teesside.

I was keen to take this up, as Caroline and I thought I might have some other food intolerances and I was thinking Angela could suggest some further tests.

I managed to combine a visit to Angela with one of the “Experiences” from Croft Circuit – as the circuit is close to Stockton, one of Angela’s locations.

It was a pleasant surprise that Angela takes a holistic view to dietary health, and although wanting to do a further test, suggested that a healthy tummy might have further benefits – e.g. less fatigue, sharper thinking etc.

Anyway, I’ve started taken a treatment of powerful Bio bacteria – i.e. stronger versions of the bacteria you find in Bio yoghurts.

The plan is to have a tele-conference on 8th October to review the results from my test and see where to go from there…

Angela doesn’t have a website [although I’ve suggested looking into a blog or similar to her], but she can be contacted via Beecroft4 – at – aol – dot – com.

Useful websites she recommended are:

• www.nutri-linkltd.co.uk [through which I bought the Bio bacteria] and
• www.patrickholford.com

n.b. I’m posting this using a date just after the original DI post, as I’m trying to concentrate on business things at the mo’!

Technorati Tags: health,wellbeing,nutrition,upside,action