The Tantramar Commons

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Over the past few years, I have been influenced by some thinkers and innovators who believe that business as usual won’t address our needs for life and work in the next century. The open source software movement, Natural Capitalism, Dave Pollard’s work on the Natural Enterprise, Robert Paterson’s Going Home essay and the creation of the Queen Street Commons have all influenced my thinking and now my actions. I’m glad to say that what was once was only an idea is finally getting closer to reality. That is the creation of a new model for a sustainable community – The Tantramar Commons

After two years of discussion and observation we now have an opportunity to fund the creation of a Commons. We know that any initiative of this sort must be financially sustainable but we also know that our community and world must be environmentally sustainable and that a dynamic culture is essential for growth as a community. Therefore, our Commons, a cooperative endeavour, will be founded on three interdependent pillars: an environmental commons, a cultural commons and a work commons.

The core of the environmental commons will be based on the Atlantic Wildlife Institute. AWI promotes learning and awareness about the direct links between environmental health and human wellness through its work in wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and research. Having recently completed a learning centre in nearby Cookville, at AWI’s 120 acre facility, we are now looking at constructing a new facility in Sackville for our research and networking initiatives. Other environmental organisations have already expressed an interest in joining or participating.

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Photo: AWI Learning Centre

The cultural commons will reinforce organisations such as local galleries and Mount Allison’s faculty of fine arts. It will provide a focal point for artists and artisans with space for demonstrations and education, integrating cultural expression into the fabric of the community. Several local artists have shown a willingness to support this commons.

The work commons will be based on the lessons learnt by the Queen Street Commons, and here is a quote from their website:

Two hundred and fifty years ago, at the dawn of business, everyone worked at home. People found it convenient to spend the day in the close company of others who shared their common interests. One of the first venues was Lloyds Coffee House. Friends aggregated into booths and then into partnerships with each other. Those who wanted to do business with these “syndicates” wandered around the floor. From this simple beginning arose the world’s most effective insurance business.

Today more and more of us also work from home. While the Internet offers us some community, we can feel isolated and we often find the costs of basic infrastructure expensive. In addition, we miss by our social isolation, the synchronicity of opportunity that arises from meeting regularly in person. Many of us also work in sectors, and on ideas, that are still in their infancy. We are therefore vulnerable to the no-sayers and to the mainstream. This type of work needs the protection of social space where we develop amongst ourselves the trust, the community and ultimately the power, to take these ideas into the light of day.

Why do we need a Commons?

We are witnessing a shift in how the world works, as we move out of the Industrial age into the Internet age. Today, the manufacturing sector, our major source of wealth for the last century, is shrinking, much as the agricultural sector shrank 80 years ago. At some point in the future, knowledge workers will outnumber manufacturing employees. However, knowledge workers are different from the salaried employees that we have become used to for the past 80 years.

According to the authors of Nine Shift, knowledge workers:

  • Are paid by their outcomesa and what they produce; not by the time they put in.
  • Knowledge Workers bring something unique to the organisation for which they work.
  • Their value is not in being like other workers, but in being different.
  • Knowledge workers have a marketable set of skills.

In the near future, knowledge worker incomes will be a major source of revenue for many municipalities. Most knowledge workers will be paid by organisations from outside of the area. This income will be a net input of revenue into the community, as opposed to money that just changes hands locally. However, these knowledge workers will have their choice of where to live, and cities and regions will start to compete for them. Therefore, we need to develop our community infrastructure so that it is attractive not just for work, but as a healthy environment that also provides cultural stimulation.

To foster inter-sectoral cooperation, we need some common and neutral ground where we can start to have conversations and develop real understanding. This will be necessary to overcome traditional power relationships, especially for those who feel under-represented in our current political and economic structures.

I think of the Commons as a garden where members can plant and grow what they want, in a fertile environment that also encourages cross-pollination. The Commons will become a diverse community eco-system that will be more sustainable than the traditional factory or business. If one organisation in the Commons fails, it will not bring down the entire structure. Compare that with a mill closing in a similar small town in New Brunswick.

What do we hope to accomplish?

  • The Tantramar Commons will be a focal point for the new Wildlife Emergency Response Network, which will bring in visitors, researchers and more like-minded organisations.
  • It will be a home for non-profit organisations where they can concentrate on their programs.
  • The Commons will be a welcome place for innovative start-up businesses.
  • It will be an intersection for dialogue between sectors, such as between local farmers and environmentalists.
  • Working from the Commons will allow the network effect to exponentially increase the power of each member.
  • It will be a showcase for Green technologies at a local level.
  • The Commons will provide more work options for our youth – a place to try out new business models in a supportive environment

I’ll be posting much more about the Tantramar Commons [a working name for now] as we develop the business model and the plan. I appreciate the support of many community organisations and individuals who have helped with this initiative and would like to recognise them, once I have their permission to do so.

Webcast Academy

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Following up on my last post on becoming a Net radio host; perhaps I should go with a lower cost option and join Jeff’s Webcast Academy:

Welcome to The Webcast Academy Open House. The Academy is a hands on, collaborative training center for people interested in learning how to produce and host live, interactive webcasts.

The goals of the Webcast Academy include

  • increasing the number of people who are capable of producing live, interactive webcasts
  • applying the open source community approach to skill development
  • creating a place that formally recognizes proficiency, excellence, and innovation in these new media skills

Sounds like fun :-)

Or, I could turn my blog into a podcast, using Feedburner.

To be, or not to be a Net Radio Host

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Voice America Internet Radio

I never really considered becoming a talk radio host but when the opportunity was presented last week I was quite interested. Perhaps it really appealed to my vanity ;-)

I received a call informing me that my blog was considered to have material that would be appropriate for a radio show. I was asked if I would be interested in hosting a 13 week pilot program of Voice America’s business network. The producer said that a recent post where I had stated that, “my clients are all across Canada and my long-term strategy is to grow my network outside the country”, was what piqued his interest.

I fancied the idea of increasing my reach and trying out a new medium (though I have been involved in several podcasts). My main concerns were the amount of preparation time and the actual delivery of a good quality one-hour show each week. Each show averages about two hours prep time, I was told, so hosting a show would be a significant commitment; but it would be possible to pre-record a couple of shows. Unless I wanted to do all of the talking (boring), then I would also have to find interesting people to interview. Opportunities for co-marketing were discussed too.

I listened to some of the existing Voice America business radio shows and found some mediocre ones, but also good programs like Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends Radio. Anita is quite positive about her Voice America radio hosting, which she does in addition to her Small Business Trends site and newsletter. Anita’s show has attracted sponsorship from Six Disciplines as well.

I couldn’t find out much else about the company, so I considered the pros and cons for a couple of days. About a week later, I was contacted to discuss the business details. During this second conversation, I was made aware of the “production, promotion, training, marketing, internal web-site development, archive hosting, personnel overhead and bandwidth expenses“, and that in order to ensure that hosts will stay committed, an up-front fee is required. This fee equated to the cost of hosting this blog — for twenty years.

In light of this fee-for-service, in addition to what I had already considered to be a significant work effort, I began to lose interest. However, Voice America in total has about seven times more readers than this website does. Therefore, I could have a chance to increase my audience; but how many of these would become paying clients?

What I sell are intangible and usually complex services, with a proposal submitted only after having spent a fair bit of time with my client. Could Voice America radio hosting for 13 weeks help me with this? I’m not sure. Furthermore, my clients are usually referred through my network, and some clients check out my website before contacting me. There are two years of my comments and perspectives on this website. Should I reinforce this archive with audio? Again, I’m not sure. Anyway, I decided to decline this service primarily due to the cost, but also because of an uncertain return on investment.

SEC Filing

Further investigation into Modavox, the parent company, yields this information from the NASDAQ [2006]:

Modavox produces weekly talk radio content programs that are distributed 24/7 on the Internet through its flagship Voice America channel at WWW.VOICEAMERICA.COM. The company derives its revenues through production fees received from hosts featured on the talk radio content programs and recently sponsor fees received from sponsors of certain of these programs. Production fees are generally sold in 13-week segments and are generally prepaid. Sponsor fees are generally split with the host. The company has also developed an e-commerce technology that will now allow host and sponsors to sell products and services on their programs. In future periods the company expects to earn revenues through the use by hosts and sponsors of this e-commerce technology. The company has also recently begun to market its patented Metaphor technology on a platform that will allow business and specialty and affinity groups to communicate live and stored voice and video content to intended audiences over secure internet channels.

I think that this medium, live Internet radio, has advantages for certain types of businesses, especially those selling a product/service mix or for someone who has a good sponsor that matches the program. As an open source evangelist and a provider of technology evaluation services, I try to be vendor-neutral. This makes sponsorship a difficult issue, because I cannot endorse any single product to the exclusion of others. Perhaps sponsors would flock to my door, but I doubt it.

• Did you find this post useful? Check out the perpetual beta series

Skills for the New Workplace

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Skills needed by the current generation of students when they enter the workforce:

Because at the end of the day, the future belongs to those who can tell a great story, demonstrate passionate interest combined with the ability to problem solve and ‘figure it out’ on the fly, and who have the audacious ability to care enough to ‘go after it.’

Are we helping them prepare?

From Christian Long, Think:Lab – who hasn’t stopped blogging yet ;-)

How does an unknown student get published?

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Mr. McNamar, a teacher with a blog – The Daily Grind, has just read an excellent essay from one of his students and thinks that it is of a quality to be published, but he doesn’t know who to contact. Can you help him?

“I read an essay, the likes of which I have never read in a Pre-College class. This essay has a future, should it find its way into the right hands. It is an essay that, when I finished reading, I felt like I had just finished reading an essay in a respected magazine or anthology. I once had a professor tell me a sermon I wrote for a Homiletics class could be published, but he never helped me. I want to help this kid. If you know of a way to get work published, please let me know. Here are some excerpts:”

Black community–grammatical error, or bad combination of words?

“Imagine taking a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle nearing its completion, and wiping it clear off the table, sending the pieces scattering–in other words, imagine the Black community. A group of people who once shared, participated, and had fellowship, now kill the memebers of their own communit at extreme rates–the Black community is imploding. Once a group that would fight against all odds, they now will fight anyone who doesn’t wear their colors. During the Slavery Era, these traits could breathe, create beautiful music, and throw a knockout punch; it acted as a true community.”

With the Web and blogs, this student has a better chance of getting exposure than in the days of mass media control of the electronic medium. That’s a good thing :-)

Changing Platforms – Reality Check

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Just about a month ago I changed from Drupal to WordPress; partially at the request of my service provider and partially as a result of all of the spam that was getting through. So far I like WordPress but it doesn’t give me all of the extras on formatting and presentation that Drupal did. The move has greatly reduced what I thought was my readership though.

I used to think that all of those lists of subscribers in Bloglines and other aggregators were people who actually read my blog. It seems that most readers haven’t noticed that there have been no new posts on the old RSS feed since I announced the move to WP. The old RSS feeds do not work, but almost nobody noticed. Oh well, I’ll just keep posting for myself and using my blog as a personal knowledge management system – its main purpose. I do appreciate the comments from the few who do read my “new & improved blog” though – thanks.

BTW – the new feeds for this blog are: https://jarche.com/?feed=rss2 and https://jarche.com/?feed=atom

Let workers manage themselves

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The Future of Work [link broken] refers to a CBS TV report on how people work in this 24/7 world, with computers, cell phones, and all those other gadgets. Jim Ware states that:

A world of “any time/any place” work may be wonderful for those of us doing the work, but it’s sure as heck going to complicate the world of management (final point: in spite of those complications, I think it’s well worth it).

I would go a step further and say that in a ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate world, we need less management, not more. If organisations become more transparent in their requirements, such as clear deliverables or outputs, then less management is required.

My advice – give workers a job worth doing, the tools to do it, recognition of a job well done and then let them manage themselves.

On Naked Conversations

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Jay Cross recently sent everyone in his Informl Unworkshop (thanks, Jay) a copy of Naked Conversations – how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. I didn’t find a lot that was new, but this is the kind of book to pass on to others who want to know more about this “blogging thing”. The authors are evangelists but they give a fairly balanced point of view.

I found that the section on culture, comparing blogging in France, Germany and China had some interesting insights. My favourite parts were the anecdotes about specific people blogging, especially in non-Internet fields, like the tailor at English Cut. I’ve been keeping my own list of small business bloggers, but I haven’t come across many new ones lately.

The book is a fast read, which appears to be how it was written and published, and will be a review for any dedicated blogger. You may want to purchase it as a record of where we were in 2005.

The main message I found in this book was that, if hyperlinks subvert hierarchy then blogs subvert corporate business as usual.

RESPECT

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When the sales rep is giving you the specs on the steel pipes or the consulting services, challenge him. Ask hard questions. Figure out what he knows. If it’s worth you having him come over, it’s worth discovering what he knows.

When the sales call is over, tell the truth. Don’t say, “we’ll get back to you,” unless you intend to. If you’re going to meet with your boss on Friday, tell him. If it’s not your decision, tell him.

So says Seth Godin on Going to Meetings. Just like Aretha sang, it’s about RESPECT.

Blogging is about being open, exposed, or naked, and so is any long term business relationship. To keep things open, I’ve used a form, built on the Performance Technologist’s code of ethics and guidelines in Strategic Planning for Success, to try to start business relationships on a common understanding of responsibilities. Sometimes it opens up conversations, other times I get blank stares and am told to stick to the company’s contracting guidelines.

Here they are, and feel free to modify them to your own circumstances.

My Responsibilities, as the consultant

  1. Base recommendations and actions on an objective needs assessment conducted in partnership with the client.
  2. Define, justify empirically, and achieve useful results that can be aligned with both the client organization’s mission,
    objectives, and positive contributions to society.
  3. Focus on results and consequences of the results. Measure performance based on results, not on procedures performed for the client.
  4. Set clear expectations about the systematic process to be followed and about the expected outcomes.
  5. Add value by serving the client organization with integrity, competence, and objectivity.
  6. Respect and contribute to the legitimate and ethical objectives of the client organization.
  7. Help the client organization move to where it needs to be in the future.
  8. Prevent problems from occurring rather than solve problems that could have been predicted and avoided.

The Client’s Responsibilities

  1. Provide adequate expert knowledge on the client organization.
  2. Arrange for direct access to the information, people and resources necessary for the project.
  3. Make no changes to the procedures recommended without taking over responsibility for the results.
  4. Have the final decision on implementation.
  5. Make explicit the turnaround time for approval and/or negotiation of any changes to the project plan.
  6. Not insist on any solution, process, intervention or method when there are no performance data to indicate that these will not measurably add value to what the client organization uses, does, produces and delivers to external clients and stakeholders.
  7. Publish or print all reports regarding the consultant’s work in full, and not omit any parts without the consultant’s consent.
  8. Be willing to terminate the contract with the consultant if there are any deviations from this conduct agreement that the consultant cannot, or will not, remedy.

Sustainable Local Economies

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I believe in local economic sustainability even in a flattened world where your competition may be in Asia. I think that you can have both – locally sustainable economies that are also connected to global networks of partners and customers. That’s why I’m involved with the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, which is developing a regional wildlife emergency response network to ensure good science-based common standards and practices. I’m also a member and supporter of our local Green energy investment cooperative, Renew Co-op.

At the same time, my clients are all across Canada and my long-term strategy is to grow my network outside the country. Most of my work is via the Internet so that my travel/energy footprint is relatively small. All of my revenue comes from outside of the region, so I would say that I add to the local economy, where I purchase most of my goods.

From the Dominion, I just found out that we have a local flour mill in western New Brunswick, one more piece of the economic sustainability puzzle:

The organic grains and cereals produced by Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville New Brunswick are not available outside the Maritimes. Although having more people in British Columbia or Ontario eating food produced in Atlantic Canada might increase Speerville’s profit margin, Grant does not see it a choice the Mill can justify.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from field to table. Almost one third of transport trucks on Canada’s highways are carrying food. Less than one per cent of the Atlantic region’s available cereals and flour are actually produced in the region.

Having a diverse local economy to meet our basic needs, while exporting value-added goods and services seems to be a rational, long-term economic strategy. Any economists have anything to add?