Thursday, 15 May 2008
Enterprise 2.0 on a tiny scale
Having been involved in the creation of an Enterprise 2.0 community in a huge pharmaceutical, I am now embarking on a much different journey. I have just joined a tiny software firm (only 7 people), and I have offered to take to responsibility for setting up our own Enterprise 2.0 suite. At the moment I am going with Mediawiki for the wiki, and intranet homepage, backed up with a Drupal blog site for internal blogging and group discussions. I think it will be an interesting contrast to setting up E2.0 in a large company......
Friday, 18 April 2008
First Post of 2008
WOW It really has been a while since I have blogged!!!
Rest assured its not because I have suddenly gone off blogging, far from it, but I have been a bit busy.
In October, I proposed to my lovely girlfriend, who after an unexpected amount of crying said yes! This was great, but it did pose me with an immediate problem - I was living in deepest darkest Kent, and she was living in London!
After a lot of thinking I decided that the best thing was for me to pack my things and go to the place where the streets were paved with gold!!
So started the job hunting!! I wrote two CVs, one technical, and one leaning on my experience consulting on Enterprise 2 technologies. I decided pretty quickly that whilst I loved Enterprise 2, and have had some of my best working experiences whilst touting the joys of Enterprise 2 at the big P, ultimately my strength was technical, so I focussed my efforts on looking for software developer roles. After a close call with a job I really wanted, I was offered a developer role for a company developing online gambling solutions. This was quite a way out of my field of expertise, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to get into some of the nitty gritty of web development, so I took the job, handed in my notice at the big P, told my house mate that he was going to be homeless, and shipped off to the big smoke!
I have been working up here for 3 months now, and I am writting this blog on my last day at this company. It has been a real learning curve being here, as I have been using technologies that I had never even heard of let alone used, and I have enjoyed the challenge. However it has been a big culture shock from working at the big P. Essentially we are software consultants working to fine tune an existing product, which is cool, and I enjoy the interactions with the customers. However I found that there was no way of being creative in the ways that I am used to, and sadly whilst the company has got a wiki, there is a no buzz of an Enterprise 2.0 community, which stems from the fact that everyone is fully engaged dealing with customers.
It is really for this reason that I haven't been blogging for a while, I just haven't had the inspiration! However, out of the blue I was contacted about a position working for a small (6 person) private company, developing the interface of their online Rich Internet Application. Its sounded quite interesting, and to cut a long story short, I start there on Monday!!I am really excited to get going, because they are doing a complete redesign of their website, and upgrade of their application, and I am going right there in the thick of it, and will hopefully have a influence on the GUI, which is fantastic, as I have developed a real passion for usability. What is more I see a real opportunity to get back into the web2.0/ E2.0 scene, and try and use the experience I got in the big P, and see how it can be put to work in a small company setting!!
Sorry this has been a big post, and well done to anyone who has read this far - I look forward to blogging more often in the future!!!
Rest assured its not because I have suddenly gone off blogging, far from it, but I have been a bit busy.
In October, I proposed to my lovely girlfriend, who after an unexpected amount of crying said yes! This was great, but it did pose me with an immediate problem - I was living in deepest darkest Kent, and she was living in London!
After a lot of thinking I decided that the best thing was for me to pack my things and go to the place where the streets were paved with gold!!
So started the job hunting!! I wrote two CVs, one technical, and one leaning on my experience consulting on Enterprise 2 technologies. I decided pretty quickly that whilst I loved Enterprise 2, and have had some of my best working experiences whilst touting the joys of Enterprise 2 at the big P, ultimately my strength was technical, so I focussed my efforts on looking for software developer roles. After a close call with a job I really wanted, I was offered a developer role for a company developing online gambling solutions. This was quite a way out of my field of expertise, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to get into some of the nitty gritty of web development, so I took the job, handed in my notice at the big P, told my house mate that he was going to be homeless, and shipped off to the big smoke!
I have been working up here for 3 months now, and I am writting this blog on my last day at this company. It has been a real learning curve being here, as I have been using technologies that I had never even heard of let alone used, and I have enjoyed the challenge. However it has been a big culture shock from working at the big P. Essentially we are software consultants working to fine tune an existing product, which is cool, and I enjoy the interactions with the customers. However I found that there was no way of being creative in the ways that I am used to, and sadly whilst the company has got a wiki, there is a no buzz of an Enterprise 2.0 community, which stems from the fact that everyone is fully engaged dealing with customers.
It is really for this reason that I haven't been blogging for a while, I just haven't had the inspiration! However, out of the blue I was contacted about a position working for a small (6 person) private company, developing the interface of their online Rich Internet Application. Its sounded quite interesting, and to cut a long story short, I start there on Monday!!I am really excited to get going, because they are doing a complete redesign of their website, and upgrade of their application, and I am going right there in the thick of it, and will hopefully have a influence on the GUI, which is fantastic, as I have developed a real passion for usability. What is more I see a real opportunity to get back into the web2.0/ E2.0 scene, and try and use the experience I got in the big P, and see how it can be put to work in a small company setting!!
Sorry this has been a big post, and well done to anyone who has read this far - I look forward to blogging more often in the future!!!
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