Regular readers of this and my other blog will be aware of the lecture I gave at the University of Bath and more recently at the British Judo Association national performance centre in Dartford. The lecture is on "Coaching Digital Natives" and is all about how as Judo coaches we need to adapt how we coach to match the way young people are using technology to learn.

Well... this year the talk goes international!

I have been invited to deliver the lecture for coaches in Scotland (which trust me is a different country to down here in England... trust me on this).

I have also taken a leap and decided to try delivering the lecture as a webinar on February 4th, 8:30pm (2009). Looking at the traffic statistics for my various Judo websites itis apparent that a large proportion of my visitors are from outside of the UK. So hopefully a webinar will allow me to share the ideas with a wider audience.

The webinar is totally free and you can sign up for one of the remaining 18 spaces by click ing the button below:



If it proves popular I have plans to prepare a number of other topics for delivery in a similar manner.

It is one of the benefits of working for myself that I can with a clear conscience work on projects like this that I could not do as a employee. Of course... the downside is that I am not working on other IT items on my todo list. :-(

Lance

It seems that things come to you that you think about. For a while I have been thinking of organising some sort of geek meetup in Southampton and then all of a sudden someone else goes and does it!

Dan Griffey over at http://slipstreamstudio.com/ is organising Southampton OpenWeb on Feb 12th!

There is a discussin list over at http://groups.google.com/group/openwebsoton too.

So, internet types in Hampshire, come on down!!

Lance

So I work in an office on my own, I run my own business, I run my own websites and blogs...I am a soloist.



What I mean is that I am alone in most endeavors in my life.
This is NOT a bad thing; it is a challenge and something that I am still trying to get to grips with, but it is not a negative.

In effect, not a lot has changed, in my previous employment I basically did my own thing. All IT people do in a way I think.

It did have me thinking over the weekend however about the challenges and opportunities being a geek-soloist create.

For me I struggle with isolation; those who knew me when I lived in Japan will know that it was the isolation that "did my head in"! I need interaction with people, which is weird as I generally love being on my own and preferred having flats on my own in the past.

Of course being a geek-soloist, I have IM, Twitter, FaceBook, podcasts, email etc for company. But it is not the same thing as actually being around people.

So as someone who now works entirely on his own, I think I need to put some effort into ensuring I get out of the office and see some people. And I don't mean clients (although of course they count). I mean fellow geeks, fellow Judoka, etc.

The other huge challenge of being a geek-soloist is ensuring you have discipline. It would be far too easy for me to sit around and watch the rubbish daytime TV. But just "working" is not enough for me, I am finding that I need to segment my day and attacks projects in chunks.

For example, this morning I spent a solid hour and a half writing blog posts for www.envirtua.com so that Ihave posts up to the end of the week and beyond. Later I shall do the same for some of my other sites.

This helps, but I still need to find a way of getting more pressure on myself. Some form of peer pressure to work on important but not urgent tasks. I am considering some of the "entrepreneur" meetups in the area put on by Business link and the like. Thoughts?

My other huge challenge is that I am telephone-phobic in ways. It is not my preferred communication medium, but I need to use it. For example I need to call prospects and introduce myself and my new business to them. I am I confess procrastinating over doing this a lot. It is something I need to work on.

I am curious as to other people's experiences or ideas on coping as a geek-soloist.

For me, for now; the plan is to get out of the office more and visit more fellow geeks socially. Also of course get out of the house and do more Judo. To which end I am off to Bath tonight for some killer randori.

I am also "this close" to committing to fighting the world masters again this year, so that will mean regular training which would be a good thing too.

I shall update as I go along.

Back home in New Zealand, as it is elsewhere Copyright laws are being reviewed and attempts made to alter the way they work. And IMHO to change the way the legal process works.

To snip some text from the www.creativefreedom.org.nz site:

Hi,
I've just become aware about some major proposed changes in NZ law that will have a huge impact on artists, businesses, and general members of the public: basically anyone that uses the internet, and I thought you should know about them.
The proposed Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act assumes Guilt Upon Accusation and forces the termination of internet connections and websites without evidence, without a fair trial, and without punishment for any false accusations of copyright infringement. We should speak out against injustices like Guilt Upon Accusation being done in the name of artists and protecting creativity.
The countdown is on: we have until 28 February 2009 to influence government.
An organisation called the Creative Freedom Foundation has been set up to specifically represent artists voices on these issues. Check out their website: http://www.creativefreedom.org.nz , sign up and help our MPs make an informed decision about S92!
Thanks,

Last weekend I discussed some of these issues with a solicitor here in the UK, not tech savvy I should add. He was shocked at some of the things that I described to him that happen already, without laws like this one being introduced.

To him, the idea of something happening BEFORE a trial is completely weird. Section 92 and more generally the way websites for example get taken down at the first sign of a cease & desist letter from a lawyer; is just wrong.

Where was the evidence, the trial, the legal process?

There seems to be a sad trend that people like the Creative Freedom Foundation, EFF and ORG need to fight to try and protect people from things online that would never happen in the real world. You can't be banned from using your car, just because the local garage claims you didn't pay for the last service on the engine. But section 92 (and similar legislation and so forth outside of NZ) will remove you from the internet just because someone accuses you of something!

I can't fathom how law makers can be persuaded that these sorts of propositions have merit, I really can't. Anyway, if you are an MP, then you can vote against the bill. If not, visit www.Creativefreedom.org.nz and sign the petition and consider blogging about the issue. You have 52 days to act before this becomes a law in New Zealand, so please get a move on.

Lance

So here it is, my take on the standard "that was 2008, roll on 2009" blog post. I am writing this one in part to help me crystallize my thinking about what I want to achieve this year and also in part to state my objectives publicly so you can all apply peer pressure.

2008 was a mixed year for me. I had some good moments and some rubbish ones. For example I organized the NZ Judo World Masters team trip to Brussels and had our sponsor pull out at the last moment. So it was a great trip, but cost me personally quite a bit... ouch!
Ditto for the competition itself, it was amazing, but I didn't do as well as I should have. I let myself down in the preparation area. I was not fit enough to compete properly. And again to flip the coin over I did SMASH a frenchman for Ippon!

On the work side, I had a pretty great year. My Perl skills got brushed off for the first half of the year. I wrote from design upwards a full application for a client. This was really rewarding and real learning experience. On the other hand, the project was mismanaged pretty badly from start to finish, so that aspect was a drag.

I continued to work in virtualisation (VMware and Xen, along with Parallels and Quemu) and with Cassatt and OpenQRM. But again it was a brought down by the low priority that was placed upon such things at my (former) employer. Ditto for WAFS, I could comfortably say I/we really knew that area well. I have worked with the Packteer products alot; but the company didn't chase any business in that area... frustrating.

So near the end of 2008, I bit the bullet and left. Enough was enough.
And so I started www.envirtua.com which is slowly taking shape. A few more clients and I'll be happy. I have really enjoyed starting it and getting your first client is a great feeling!

In other areas I have been up and down too. The Judo websites have been popular and hard work. My BSc too has been pleasure and pain.

If I was to summarise 2008 it would probably be best described as "variable".

And onto 2009....

So.... what a year I have ahead of me! I shall graduate my BSc. and finally have that "education" my parents always said I should have. Of course to do so I need to complete a big ol' research project and some course work, ulp!

I intend to visit the USA twice this year on Judo trips. Hopefully one of those will be to attend the World Masters again. Which means I should spend more time in the gym and dojo!

Commercially, it's pretty simple, get more clients, do more chargeable work. I won't spend too much time talking about that here.

Projects for this year, well too many really, so I shall just list some:

* theJudoPodcast.eu, back to weekly/fortnightly format
* Blog(s), weekly posts (minimum)
* RWJL modify to make it possible to follow the IJF players for ranking as part of JudoMetrics.com project.
* Open source Judo management software project
* Continue to help on NoseRub.com project (do more!)
* Organise a geek event in SOuthampton/Hampshire
* Judo ideas, two big secret ones ;-)
* Web project (I have a web project to dedicate some time and energy to)
* SSDC, write regularly for siliconsouls.com
* Deliver more coaching lectures and a practical workshop
* Judo in second life ideas
* .... more ....


As you can see, far too much stuff for a mere 12 month period. Over the last week and the following week I am trying to set proper SMART/SMARTER goals for the year and do some project planning. We shall see how that works out.

So there we are, lots to do and I have to say that like www.christopherhamilton.co.uk I am feeling really positive about 2009!

I should add that pretty much all the projects above (and not listed) I'd welcome help with. So if one of those ideas grabs your interest please let me know.

Lance