Birmingham Word Camp Impressions
One of the goals of this blog is to include useful tools or bits of technology that I run across – as much for my records as anything, but hopefully also may help someone else. Shortly after I was introduced to the idea of starting a blog, I discovered that a WordCamp was taking place close to where I live. Not knowing squat about WordPress, I took the opportunity to check out the user community and see what sorts of things you could do with this tool.
The community:
Wow. I was impressed by the diverse and enthusiastic group of folks. There seemed to be about 120 (my guess) people floating around and this represented folks from every age group and every background. Like you would expect, I got to meet some “coming back” to IT, some poking around to see “what’s up”, and some folks right out of school. The thing that surprised me was the number of people that were not originally from a techie background but instead came from marketing or business backgrounds simply looking for easier ways to get their material online without having to get a programming degree. Some of these non-tech background folks are now even designing WP sites for others professionally. That alone speaks volumes for WP’s ease of use. I think a big component of the excitement behind the WordCamp and WordPress community in general is that it elegantly solves a person’s biggest issues with getting a website going. It makes our life a little easier. Also, being open source, there is a mechanism for anyone to influence the direction the software heads, so you don’t have to worry as much that you’ll come to depend on WP and then the next release will head off in an odd direction leaving you looking for another solution.
The things you can do:
I expected a blogging tool. What I saw was a content management system that makes creating a dynamic, living website a snap. Obviously the more complicated the site you’re trying to produce, the more you have to get into the details, but you’re able to ease into it – like slowly getting into the pool instead of jumping into the deep end. I especially appreciated the fact that a web designer could easily redo an entire web site using WP easier than updating it (with a non-trivial update). For a client, you can assign roles so they can have control over the content of the site without accesses areas that would kill the site.
I plan on posting a listing of some of these tools in a future post.
Overall:
Obviously, I was very impressed. I know there are a bunch of other CMS tools out there and other blogging tools, but for me WP seems to have a better complete package when you add the community, features, and ease of use together. Throw in an active open source crew and I’m hooked.
Sample analysis using someone else's experience
This is the final post of the 3 in the initial series. Here we’re going to look at someone else in class. Often it is easier to see opportunities for other than for ourselves. It may even be easier to see some else’s passion than our own.
For this person, let’s start with some information about their experience and hobbies. From there, we’ll examine some ideas for income. I will refer to this person using female pronouns to distinguish them from me. He or she may or may not actually be female.
Their experience:
This person works in IT as a project manager in health care. She is also responsible for survivability of services in event of emergency events. For example, even though the power may be down or the IT systems offline, patient care must continue at the same high standard as with support services up. When asked what is a big issue she has at work, she responded that she has issues getting data backed up and available as quickly as she would like in an emergency situation. She also enjoys gardening and the challenges of growing plants in her shady yard and has spent years researching this.
When asked what she really enjoys, she said the survivability work and gardening.
I’m sure you can easily see opportunities there. If she wanted to be entrepreneurial, she could consult for other companies on survivability; she could write a manual on how to be survivable and sell it; she could develop a system with metrics and teach / consult it; she could write a book on gardening in the shade; she could teach gardening; etc. For employment situations, she could work at a gardening center or she could look into transitioning more of her current job over to survivability efforts, which is what she actually chose to do.
Again, none of these are difficult to see for someone else. Did you catch the opportunity for you there? When asked, she said she had an issue with data storage and availability. If you enjoyed those sorts of things and could develop a solution, then an opportunity may be found there. Certainly, much more questions and thought would have to go into it, but solving a problem is the best way to begin a business.
Find a friend and see what you could do something similar for yourself. At the very least, you may clarify your current work situation. No one really accomplishes anything worthwhile by themselves. Once again, if you’re looking for direction in this area, I would like to shamelessly direct you to the link to AskDrCallahan mentioned earlier. I’m sure you can also find other programs similar in nature out there. I encourage you to look.
My passion to livelyhood – the beginning …
This is the second of the three part series of posts where I discuss passion, turning the passion into a lively hood, and show another example buried in someone’s experience.
From the first post I talked about some of the things I’m passionate about – education, homeschooling, sharing experiences, and speaking to small groups. The original question was – what do you like doing – especially if money were no object? That list was longer, as I’m sure is yours. It contained things like sleeping (parents never get enough), traveling, sailing, etc. Once you boil off the items that amount to “catching up on life’s experiences”, you get to the things you really like.
From that list, write out ways to make money from them. Don’t throw anything out no matter how much or little money it could make or how difficult or crazy it may seem.
For me I had things like build a boat and sell it, write plans for a sailboat, go back to school and get an education degree …
Then we had to pick one to try. I chose 2 items. One was to create this blog. While this is not generating any income, it addresses my desire to share experiences to our mutual betterment. Due to my wife’s health and the higher than average public schools where we live, we’ve employed something of a hybrid homeschool system. The kids have both spent time at home and time in the public system. We have experience in both that others may find valuable. The second is to do something in the homeschool space. I feel strongly that the one on one mentorship homeshooling provides activates a student’s potential like nothing else. Our daughter is leaving the third grade at public school and returning next fall to home. One area she is weak in is basic math skills. My first challenge is going to be to bolster those. I will be looking for aids I’m able to develop that may help others and they are willing to purchase. Of course, that process will be talked about here.
That’s it. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering on the outside or for anyone else. I assure you for me on the inside – it is. I have so many thoughts about how to move forward with this project that sleeping at night is difficult. I don’t have the end of the story for you yet. Please stay tuned…
What about you – what are your ideas? If you’re looking for 4th grade math or homeschooling, what would make your life easier?
What is your Passion?
I’m in the Information Engineering Management class at UAB,which is like a executive MBA with a technical twist. Part of the curriculum is an entrepreneur series. This question was posed to us - What is your Passion? Seems simple enough – easy question – right? Of course not, it is probably the hardest question anyone has asked me in a long time. Some of you may be able to answer that question right off the bat. Good for you – I used to be able to, then, like for so many, life happens. It took some doing for me to get back to my passion, plus it changed as the years have gone on.
Of course, the next questions are – Are you doing the things you love now? If not, why not? Hmmm. The instructor was not asking if you kind of like what you are doing or if you are good at it, but does it excite you to get up in the morning. More Hmmm. The answers to those questions sparked this blog.
I encourage you to consider these questions as well. As a case study, over the first few posts, I’ll discuss my passion (which is what this blog will be about), discuss some ideas to turn my passion into a livelihood, and end the series with some cases from others in class showing opportunities buried in their experiences. From there, I’ll discuss topics as they come up on the journey from passion to vocation.
For me these questions seemed almost unfair because I like so much equally well.
Something I do really feel strongly about is education. Maybe this is bit melodramatic but I really think our Democratic Republic and the freedoms we enjoy are dependent on our ability to think clearly and teach our children the same. There are people who will happily take advantage of us financially and take our freedoms away from us for a number of reasons – personal gain, power, philosophy, or just cause they’re nasty people. I’m not talking about a particular political party or beating the “everyone is out to get us” drum of fear. We live in an information age and need the tools to process and discern good information from bad – faulty arguments from sound. We need to be able to see beyond the facade the media presents and see the underlying motivations and incentives. What does the presenter really mean? In fact, one of the tenets on which public education was promoted is that we need an educated mass to be in a successful democracy. Has public education succeeded as well as we first hoped? Are there other / better ways? Even more Hmmm. Something to discuss later. A great example is the Offshore Check Fraud Scam going around. The presenter says it is safe and that I get something for nothing. Is that true? What are the possible consequences of going with the presenter’s proposal, regardless of what they are saying? Can I see the fallacy in his argument? Am I willing to live with the consequence if it occurs? Seems pretty obvious, but some very smart people (at least in other decisions) lose money each day with this thing. I enjoy examining the education process and trying to improve it. I enjoy sharing things I’ve learned with others as well as gaining from their experiences. I also enjoy speaking to small groups.
As I write this, I do have the advantage in that I’ve already pounded my head on my desk to get to the what do I really want to do with my life. Please consider some head pounding of your own. I truly believe that once the headache subsides, you’ll find it worthwhile. My hope, as this blog develops, is to accomplish a few things – add connections I’ve found to help this journey along for both of us, to start a discussion about education, homeschooling, and a bit of personal entrepreneurship, and to document the bumps in my transition from wage earner to vocation holder.
In the interest of disclosure and to begin to make those connections, let me give credit to Dr. Dale Callahan. He is the instructor (more like mentor) in the IEM program above. If you are in the Birmingham AL area, check out the Information Engineering Mgt link. Dale is also developing a course which will walk you through the whole process of rethinking about what you can accomplish called “Discovering the Entrepreneur in You“. Check the Ask Dr. Callahan link on the side. I get no income from either of these resources, but, via the IEM program, greatly benefit from them.
So, I ask you, what is your passion? Hmmm.
