Digital Common Sense

I noted recently that I was taking a break. The past couple of months have been a period of introspection. I’ve been evaluating how I spend a lot of my time. I invest a great deal of time in online work, unified communications work, security work, and exploring new technologies. It’s been a while since I set the stage and rethought what I’m doing, so this is that effort, done in the open with readers.

Many of you whom I’ve met have my personal business card. It says I am Speaker - Writer - Analyst. All those are true to some extent, but none of those is how I make my living. Those are side interests for me. And while I did operate my own private consulting practice for quite some time (off and on at different levels since 1980), that isn’t how I make my living today. I don’t talk much about my real job here, because it isn’t relevant here. People who need to know do. People who don’t need to know don’t. It’s quite simple. I’ve chosen, for good reason, to not expose that online here. I invite you to just accept that at face value.

I’m often introduced as a consultant, yet I have no clients. Not active ones. I haven’t accepted a consulting opportunity in almost three years. I don’t expect to any time soon. It’s not what I do these days, and I refer those opportunities to trusted colleagues as they arise (emphasis on trusted).

I’ve spoken at, and been fairly visible at a number of conferences. When I do so, it’s at my own expense, without expectation that I’ll “win business” there. That’s not my role. So one area I’ve been rethinking is what my future participation in those conferences might be. In the unified communications universe, I will certainly be a fixture a the O’Reilly ETel event. It hits the closest to my core interests of any conference in the unified communications space. I’ll very likely be a fixture and the TMCnet ITExpo West every year, perhaps their Developer’s Conference too. And I’ll be more than happy to speak or contribute at any of those events. Certainly I’ll be doing pictures, videos and podcast interviews. Beyond those, my personal interests will likely take me to Etech next year, and perhaps some other conferences outside the core unified communications space, like Freedom2Connect. And my actual job will have me involved in a number of security conferences from time to time, but I don’t really write about those here.

I am a Speaker - Writer - Analyst by choice, by nature, by circumstance. When I accept a speaking engagement, it is uncompensated. Much of my writing work, all of it here, is uncompensated. Yes I get royalty checks every now and again from McGraw-Hill. I’m finishing my third technology book now, an e-book. I don’t have plans to write another technology book any time soon, although I may at some point be induced to collaborate with a trusted colleague or friend down the road. That might be fun. Analyst is simply a title I gave myself because I do a lot of technical industry analysis work in the unified communications sector, again uncompensated. I advise many tech sector innovators. I do this out of passion and interest in the sector, not to make a living. Not at this point in life.

I also use those “titles” because I make no claim of being a journalist. Bloggers too often claim they’re journalists. That’s a claim I’ve never made, and unless I work employed as a journalist, I just won’t claim to be one. That’s not to say I don’t do a graet deal of journalistic work. Citizen journalist? Perhaps, but at least until now, very focused in some niche areas of the tech sector. I do interviews, podcasts, investigative reports of a form. I suppose. Am I a reporter? Not by my claim. Blogger is a new descriptor, but when I look at that broad group, that doesn’t define me in any way.

I’ve been facilitating and writing on the Realtime Unified Communications Community since 2005. I helped Realtimepublishers.com establish that community effort. They now have several other communities online that I’m not directly involved with. Each has a Resident Editor focused on the specific technical specialities. My role has remained in the original community that evolved from a pure VoIP focus to the broader realm of unified communications. I plan on continuing that effort, at the very least through the end of 2007. After that, I don’t know at the moment. I’ll reassess as time goes by. Putting the current book manuscript behind me will surely give me back some time and influence my choices.

Storyteller? That seems a reasonable fit. I find people who have interesting stories, if only interesting to me, and then help them tell their story, often in a podcast or series of podcasts. It’s proven to be a role I enjoy. So perhaps my business card will evolve accordingly. In part, Shel Israel’s business card, which reads Writer/Speaker/Nice Guy. Thanks Shel for making me think about this. And to the rest of you, he truly is a nice guy. One of the nicest any of us might hope to meet.

Were I to receive an incredible job offer, I’m at a point in life I’d give it serious consideration. But nobody’s banging on my door. That’s ok too, because I’m not open to relocation, and given that SeaTac is over an hour away, I’m not especially keen on constant travel either. An offer would have to be a very tight fit. And my role in my current real job is a very good fit with my skills and interests. It’s just sometimes less that challenging, less that rewarding, less than fulfilling. Sometimes it wears on me a bit more than I like.

I’m not unhappy. I’m not dissatisfied. I’m certainly not retiring. But I am working on refocusing my energies. There’s no way I’ll step away from here, but what I do here may change in focus ever so slightly as I make ongoing course corrections to follow not just my interests, but my passions.

We now return to whatever passes for our regularly scheduled programming here. I’ve at least taken a day or two to think about what course corrections I’m making.

Filed by Ken at 1:28 pm under Lifeblog, Technology, Unified Communications