It all started with a desire to disseminate my PhD research.

I don't think it's really too much to ask that after nine years of research. At this point my thesis has a readership of more than a handful of academics - three of whom were my examiners - and my mother and sisters who at least flipped the pages respectfully.

Anyway, blogging seemed to be the way to get the message out in a digestable form for practitioners .... after all, that was the audience I was always targeting. Being in the IT industry for over 20 years, it did not seem worth doing research simply on theoretical abstractions. I wanted to solve real world problems - and think I have!

The problem with blogging though is that it is just soooo solo .... and being a shy guy, I felt uncomfortable simply being one voice, pumping out this stuff I had already been working on in relative isolation for years. A dialog would be nice .... some feedback with other voices and views on "managing the enterprise" - expecially as the agenda was so broad.

So the idea of a community site was born .... with a selection of feature articles forming a magazine that was supplemented with practitioner blogs, of which I would be but one.

This all seems very self-less I know .... but I held the ultimate hope that this community would actually be an exciting and stimulating web destination that could attract a wider following that I myself could ever command.

Not so self-less .... but an online collaboration of like-minded individuals ? I liked that idea!

And it is crazy and challenging enough that it is at least worth a try - don't you think?