Innovation That Matters, easy to say, not so easy to define… What matters in life is deeply subjective and context dependent. How about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the list below as a starting point?
The written word is an amazing invention — it literally (!) allows me to transmit the thoughts in my head across space and time, and into your head. Can you imagine a more powerful force for advancing civilzation?
Continue reading “Literacy and Engineering”
Today Accord Project released Concerto v2.1.0 adding support for converting Concerto models to OData v4.0.1.
Continue reading “Platform Independent Data Models”Discovered recently that the Accord Project PDF to HTML transformation is powering Open Terms Archive — a service that monitors the T&Cs of online services and notifies you when they change.
AP “markdown-transform”, which handles document format conversion (MD, DOCX, HTML, PDF…) was twice as fast as a competing library and had fewer dependencies.
Applications are now open for the Accord Project Summer of Code — a paid Open Source coding program, inspired by Google Summer of Code, and sponsored by DocuSign and beNEXT.
Project ideas are quite open, but centred around the challenges of digitising legal contracts. Successful applicants will be mentored by experienced enterprise software developers and Open Source maintainers and contributors.
Please submit your applications using this web form, and forward to potential candidates.
Business is more similar to rugby than you might think. No, I’m not referring to scrums, shared showers and alcohol abuse! In this series of posts I’ll use lessons from 20 years of playing and coaching rugby to make you a better CTO.
I’m a long-time subscriber (and fan) of Dan Cottrell who has a great article on 7 things that make a great coach. I shan’t paraphrase that here — it’s a short article, go read it!
In addition to the points that Dan Cottrell raises above, which are a great foundation, I’d also encourage you to think about your role, breaking it down into three major areas:
Continue reading “Role of the Coach”
Business is more similar to rugby than you might think. No, I’m not referring to scrums, shared showers and alcohol abuse! In this series of posts I’ll use lessons from 20 years of playing and coaching rugby to make you a better CTO.
Well functioning teams are continually making decisions about what is most important, where to position team members, and weighing different risks and options.
In rugby we see this at hyperspeed; within an 80 minute game the players are collectively making thousands of decisions about how to position themselves on the pitch, adjusting their running lines, continually evaluating attacking and defensive options.
Continue reading “Decision Making”
Business is more similar to rugby than you might think. No, I’m not referring to scrums, shared showers and alcohol abuse! In this series of posts I’ll use lessons from 20 years of playing and coaching rugby to make you a better CTO.
In a well-functioning team every team member knows what they should do in most situations, has the requisite skills, and can excel with minimal communication. Having a defined, yet dynamic, system of roles and responsibilities, along with trust between team members, ensures the team can quickly make tactical decisions and execute them while on the field.
Continue reading “Roles and Responsibilities”In this series of posts I will use lessons from 20+ years of playing and coaching rugby to make you a better business leader.
Business is more similar to rugby than you might think. No, I’m not referring to scrums, communal showers and alcohol abuse! In this series of posts I will use lessons from 20+ years of playing and coaching rugby to make you a better CTO and business leader.
Rugby is a team sport. I’d say it is the best team sport, but that’s an argument for another day. In a team TRUST between teammates plays a huge role in a good overall performance. In a team where players trust each other, players have a role and trust each other to perform it well. The team reacts very quickly to complex new situations, because very little explicit process or oversight is required.
Continue reading “Trust your Teamates”For the past several months my mental state seems to be more Schrödinger than Newton, resisting serious observation, and oscillating wildly between euphoria, guilt, outrage, depression, anxiety, frustration, and all states in-between. The most palpable side-effect has been loss of concentration; with the incessant drip, drip, drip of 24-hour news and social media causing my brain to fizz from one emotion to the next, almost at random.
Continue reading “Strength through Adversity”
Innovation That Matters 