Posted by: Soris Lalonda
on Nov 22, 2009
Once more unt
o the breech dear friends .....
Yes, this site was hacked ... even as we were getting it ready for the next step it was brought down ignominiously. To its knees! Virtually a restart!
Showing that even such a modest enterprise as an on-line magazine is worthy of .... I'm embarassed to say ..... good backups.
Ah well, as a friend said - now you will know if you really want to do it. Create a worthwhile community site that tackles some of the real management issues practitioners face in attempting to get businesses run effective? I'm a sucker ... I'm in! Maybe even renewed. Nothing like a challenge ... in Shakespeare's words:
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man, As modest, stillness, and humility, But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard – favour’d rage, Then lend the eye a terrible aspect, Let pry through the portage of the head, Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it .... Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide; Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit To his full height!
Posted by: Louis J. Taborda
on Feb 26, 2009
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?
Posted by: Louis J. Taborda
on Feb 23, 2009
There is something of the Web 2.0 enabled "new media" revolution in the underlying philosophy of the Alinement Network. After all, merely to attempt to create an online magazine site indicates that (I at least think) there is a gap left by the mainstream business, management and technology publications.
The nature of that gap comes down to who is in control of the distribution channels. In newspapers and magazines the business model is to attract advertisers who pay for the privelege of getting their message in front of their key market. So the model requires publishers to do something along these lines:
+ Find a niche market that is not already serviced
+ Gather some information/ content relevant to them
+ Create a product that is appealing
+ Develop a distribution channel
+ Get vendors and consultants to pay for advertising
space (sometime disguised as content)
While I have no problem with the model above or the profit motive that is at its heart, I can see that there are some unpleasant and most likely unintended consequences of the model.
Firstly, it is about dividing up the market, categorizing readers into "types" and then feeding them information (probably just content actually - see the distinction) only relevant to that type. The result of these targetted publications is that they create siloed-thinking at the industry level, where business and technology roles are separated; managers and specialists isolated. Which all goes to make running the "whole" that much more difficult to keep together.
Secondly, the content is written by third-parties who at best had some past experiences in the industry they are writing about. Often the authors are generalists. They may be journalists or simply people who can write well, and their whole experience of the industry (or niche) they are writing about is based upon the interactions they have with the very vendors and consultants who have a barrow to push.
Finally, when the viability of the model is based upon the advertising revenue it is simply impossible to "tell it like it is" even if the writers wanted to do so. The publishers and/or editors are too scared to rock the financial boat because they realize their advertisers will not appreciate having their ads juxtaposed by unfriendly articles discussing implementation problems.
The result of the above three points (and there may be more you can think off) is that we get an extremely narrow and stilted viewpoint from our industry press. There are taboo topics, there are "holy-cows" that are exempt from any critisism and to compensate there are is an abundance of industry jargon and buzz-words that have more to do with marketing hype than any real advances in management thinking. Sometimes the profit motive can have a corrupting effect on things.
Having said all that I would love to get some return from the effort it has taken, and will continue to take, to establish the Alinement Network. Advertising is of course one of the first things that comes to mind as a revenue stream and so there is an ethical trap that is very easy to fall into. At this stage I am hopeful that a balance can be struck and in the end it is a tension between editorial integrity and business outcomes.
The web presents online publications with a few opportunities to tackle this ethical challenge. In summary, and worthy of more discussion (with you the reader) I can see the following opportunities to escape the trap that the profit motive sets for all publishers:
+ The web is a cheap way of publishing so without the need for a lot of infrastructure
the costs can be contained
+ This is particularly true when one utilizes the Web 2.0's User Provided Content model
making the wage bill shrink down to just the core editorial staff
+ User content also means that there is less of an ability to muzzle the press with the
"real story" likely to emerge even if the publisher would prefer it not to
+ Then there are web-ads which are conveniently dumb on the actual content of the
article and only triggered by keywords - whether or not they receive positive treatment.
So there is some hope of a new form of media that comes with the Web 2.0 model which does not destroy financial incentive but rather adapts it so that the business model is targetting the readers (users) rather than the
It is an important power-shift which make possible new business models, creates new opportunities and calls for different skillsets - maybe making knowledge and experience a valuable commodity once again.
It would be good to hear your thoughts on this subject .....
Posted by: Louis J. Taborda
on Feb 18, 2009
I was in the newsagents recently and came across a magazine with a pertinent message - the front cover screamed Magazine 2.0. It was an experiement by the
Anthill Magazine to secure user content and even run a contest to design its front cover based upon user submissions.
How about that! I had to buy the magazine of course as it was a hardcopy version of what the
Alinement Network is attempting to do. There are differences and in a way it is a lot more aggressive to apply the Web 2.0 principles to a traditional magazine publishing model .... but there is no stopping the momentum of User Provided Content.
As in the case of Anthill's experiment, I personally consider some coordination necessary in sifting and sorting the user content in order to provide some value-add that can then sustain the momentum of user contributions. The difference between data and information comes to mind here - content is a whole lot of data but it takes some organizing and shaping to make it more easily accessible and so valuable. Who knows, with some luck you might even be able to create some knowledge.
So that would say that at heart I am a control-freak and, ultimately, not a believer in the self-organizing principles espoused by those with a more agile bent. It's not that I don't believe that amazing things are not possible with simply trust in the "wisdom of the crowd" .... it's more that I fear the probability of success can be too low and don't have the patience (or is it lifespan) to take a simply evolutionary perspective of success.
Posted by: Louis J. Taborda
on Jan 21, 2009
When the Alinement Network becomes the go-to site for the management community it will be interesting to see how it all started ...... and if it dies in the gutter with the whole world of netizens oblivious to our lofty aims ..... then this becomes a cautionary tale of wild hubris.
Either way - it should make for fun reading ..... for my kids, if no one else!
With that, I hereby start blogging the "backstory" to the Alinement Network community site ..... warts and all.
