4/5: Building a business

This is the fourth of five parts in a personal learning log review of 2007. It might be of  help to you, might not be. Bear with me, and normal service will be resumed...

This year I made, for me, a big decision: to become self-employed.

February 8th, I discovered that Hugh thought I was a global microbrand, yet by April 10th I realised that having "new technologies" written in your job description actually means you do less new stuff than anyone else. I was unhappy, frustrated and not in a position to do any half-decent work. Innovation units don't work, innovation throughout the organisation does, and when my boss saw this post he agreed.

This was where I started to realise something had to give if I was going to be able to get my head around what I really wanted to research. Writing for the Guardian's Comment is Free was just such a thing, and by May 15th I had made my first post, managing to get foul language in by line two for good measure.

I took Hugh at his word after an inspiring meetup with Steve Moore, Euan Semple and Dave Winer at Reboot9 on May 31st, where I decided to become self-employed. The confirmation papers of my new status came through the week Catriona was born. I've never looked back.

It's involved some serious travel, but since June 6th Dopplr helped me and my pals keep track of each other, and meet up for the occasional serendipitous pint and wife and bub have been able to come with me to New Zealand, Holland and London on a few occasions already. The six week Catriona already had silver membership of the Star Alliance Diamond Club.

Deciding to work part of the week for myself has meant, ironically, more innovation and research for Learning and Teaching Scotland, and avenues down which I maybe would have chosen not to follow before, the links so tenuous to what we would call 'traditional education innovation' channels, at first glance. It's meant that the worlds of big business, mainstream media, social media, television, internet and transmedia, public sector and private PLCs, small and medium enterprises have all blended to provide interesting alternatives to the ways things would 'normally be done'.

For the moment, at least, I'm still for hire... ;-)

Related posts:
1/5: Hit or miss? Spotting innovation that's worth spotting
2/5: The changing ways of the public sector
3/5: eduBuzz: East Lothian online publishing increases 5000% 
5/5: Having a bash - social media gets social

Comments

[Paul Harrington]

Change must be in the air as we turn into 2008, there are a number of colleagues ( only ever met virtually!) around the globe looking to change their roles - I noticed from Jeff Utecht's post recently that he is another one :-). I myself leave teaching ( after 19 years - the last 2 in online terms being the most productive I have ever had in the whole of my career to date) for the world of Online Workshops with the International Bacc in January.... do you think that the mere fact that we use our social networking links vigorously, and have a voracious appetite for global conversations despite our actual job titles, is driving us to actually play out Karl Fisch's predictions for an unknown future?( weird that it is the educators as well as the students who don't know what their future will be !!!)
Good Luck in the future to the Global Brand 'Ewan McIntosh':-)