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January, 2012:

Busy busy…

Jan 23rd, 2012
by Jim Millen.
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Typically after committing to blog more, work’s turned into a bit of a whirlwind. Still, the train ride to London does give a brief opportunity for blogging!

Although busy – and at times a little panicked – it’s exciting times.  Specifics-free background; around 18 months ago we launched an internal social collaboration platform.  I’ve been working with lots of people to explain why social collaboration matters to them, and helping to set up & run effective social communities.  Usage hasn’t exploded but is rising at a satisfactory rate, helped by our CEO becoming a keen user and frequently posting updates about how we’re doing – this gets a lot of attention!

Anyway, why am I so excited at the moment?  Well, it really feels like we’re crossing a watershed in terms of how accepted and acknowledged “all this social stuff” is.  Two current events in particular show how far we’ve come…

First of all, we’re embedding social discussion into the company’s quarterly extended leadership team meeting.  We’re going to use the social platform to record the discussions happening around tables in the meeting.  We’re hoping this benefits both the participants – as they’ll also be able to see and contribute to other tables’ discussion – but also provides a way for the whole business to join the conversation.

When suggesting this idea to our leadership team we were a little nervous. Maybe they wouldn’t want to share their discussion openly in public? (Within the company, at least.)  Maybe they’d be dubious about the technology?

Much to our surprise – and delight! – everybody seemed enthusiastic about the concept; proof of how much we’ve changed in recent times.

Then our second event running across the next couple of weeks is an company-wide engagement & discussion session, focused on our improvement programme.  I won’t go into too much detail here but there’s lots of activity planned including themed discussion, opportunity for anyone to suggest improvements – and vote for their favourite suggestions – and live microblog conversations with some of our executives.

This will be the third such event we’ve run so people are generally familiar with the concept now. The most encouraging part for me though has been our pre-event communications. In the past, essentially, we sent lots of emails!

Now?

Well, we’ve not got away from email completely – there’s still a few going out – but we’ve used internal microblogging far more to spread the word – dare I say it – virally.  It’s been really encouraging to see how people are happy to pass on the news of what’s happening.  We’re hoping this interest and activity builds up to make this the most successful event yet!

So – lots to feel positive about, but plenty more work to ensure it’s all a success.  Still, can’t help feeling good about the progress we’re making.

Check back in a couple of weeks for an update on how it all went, and the lessons we’ve learned from it…

Recent Reading: The Hunger Games Trilogy

Jan 19th, 2012
by Jim Millen.
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Yep, more recent reading. Can you tell I’ve got some catching up to do?

Today my thoughts on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy. This has been one of the hottest YA series of recent years, and a movie adaptation of the first book, The Hunger Games, is out this year.

This trilogy is all about Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl resident in a dystopian medium-future North America which following climate change and civil war is now ruled by a brutal dictatorial Capitol. The Hunger Games themselves are the prime example of this brutality, as each district must provide two teenagers every year to compete in a televised fight to the death. Hmmm, wonder where our Katniss will end up?

I had mixed feelings about these books. They’re certainly gripping enough, and led to a couple of late nights reading. Katniss is an interesting character, and her ingenuity in dealing with the various challenges she faces is fun to read. I think it’s also laudable how the books challenge many modern assumptions concerning appearance, image and popularity.

None the less, there were problems with the narrative I couldn’t ignore. Book one is definitely better than the second and third installments, in which the plot rushes way past willing suspension of disbelief. There’s just too much going on that makes no sense, even within the world as it’s presented.

The romantic angle to Katniss’ story was also more angst-ridden and predictable than suited me.

My biggest criticism though was in Mockingjay – and it does deserve spoiler formatting – highlight to read…

Katniss’ overwhelming drive throughout all 3 books is to protect her younger sister; it’s why she volunteered for the Hunger Games in the first place. So to have Primrose die violently in the last few chapters – and for Katniss to live, if not happily at least adequately, ever after – jarred horribly.  Not sure what sort of emotional climax to the trilogy the author was going for with this, but for me at least, it failed badly.

None the less, despite some bad flaws I did enjoy the trilogy – it’s definitely better than a lot of what’s out there.  Curious to see what they make of it in the movie adaptation too…

Recent Reading: Ben Aaronovitch

Jan 18th, 2012
by Jim Millen.
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Killing time on the train so time for a recent reading post. Forgive any typos, will proof the thing properly later!

Anyway, onto the books. Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London and Moon over Soho begin the story of one Peter Grant, Constable of the Metropolitan Police – and much to his surprise, magician. Turns out the Met has a resident detective for magical matters, DI Nightingale, who following a nasty murder takes Peter on as his apprentice. Much action ensues…

I really enjoyed these books. Very refreshing to have an adult protagonist – OK, so Peter is young and naive, but it’s something different to the tired old “Boy prophesied to save the world!” cliche.  It doesn’t hurt that he’s well portrayed as a character – he felt very familiar even after a few pages.

London obviously isn’t short of character, and in both books Aaronovitch does a good job of bringing this to life, and working real places and history in with the mythology he’s creating.  I’m not enough of a Londoner to fact-check all the details, but it certainly feels authentic.

At times there’s a nasty edge to the narrative and some pretty gruesome deeds.  It stays clear of real horror, but a few scenes did linger unpleasantly in the mind. No bad thing IMO, but perhaps worth a warning if you’re not a fan of that sort of thing…

Offsetting the nasty stuff is some really great humour, particularly between Peter and Nightingale. There were a few laugh out loud moments but mostly Peter’s first person narration delivered a dry, sarcastic wit I enjoyed a lot.

I’d definitely recommend these, and look forward to future installments.

Recent Reading: A Discworld marathon

Jan 6th, 2012
by Jim Millen.
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Across November & December last year I went back to re-read the entirety of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

Why would I do such a crazy thing?  Well, the 39th Discworld book, Snuff, was out, and I’ve never actually read Discworld in any kind of order.  It’s always been a case of what I’ve noticed in the library or picked up at the bookshop.  As each novel stands alone as a story that’s never bothered me too much, but none the less I couldn’t help feeling I was missing out on something.

So, 39 books, across 8 or 9 weeks.  Good job none of them are too lengthy!

I couldn’t possibly talk about each book in detail (Phew, I hear you say…) – this is much more about the overall impressions I was left with.

The first overwhelming thought is what a marvellous series Discworld is.  I’m not aware of any other series with this combination of humour, characterisation, wit and sheer storytelling virtuosity.  Really, if you’ve not already read any of the Discworld books, what are you waiting for!

That does bring me to an interesting point though… Where to start?  I enjoyed re-reading The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic a great deal, but I’m not convinced they would be the best starting point.  The books change an awful lot as they progress – I go on about this more in a moment.  Maybe Equal Rites?  Guards, Guards?  Or possibly even one of the Tiffany Aching books?  Hmmm.  Really not sure…

Talking more about how the books change; I never really appreciated this before the re-read.  There’s a huge, huge difference.  The earlier stories were far more affectionate mockery of well-known Fantasy tropes and, indeed, specific works within the genre.  It doesn’t take long though before Pratchett has worn these out and seeks instead to use Discworld as a mirror to reflect and explore many of the issues in our own world.

The experience of reading changes dramatically throughout the books too.  The earlier stories are light-hearted, absurd fun.  As you progress to later stories, the plotting becomes more intricate, the themes a little more complex, the morality more ambiguous…  Don’t get me wrong, there’s never going to be a Discworld equivalent of War and Peace (I hope!) – but none the less, this is a series that grows and develops.  I guess, to fulfil 39 books – and counting – it really had to.

One thing that hasn’t changed much is the characterisation.  A great strength of Discworld has always been the ease with which Pratchett connects the reader with the characters, and aren’t there some memorable characters in there: Death, of course, Sam Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, Rincewind…  This isn’t just through long familiarity either; you normally only have to read the first few lines about a character and you’re getting a pretty clear idea what they’re about.

Of course the books aren’t without flaws.  Does the series continuity wander around a little lost at times?  Are the plots sometimes a little trivial?  Do you ever really doubt the “good guys” will prevail in the end?  Of course not!  But none the less, the sheer enjoyment Discworld provides far, far outweighs any small negatives.

My personal favourite?  Hmmm, that’s tough.  In the end though I think I’ll have to stick with Night Watch, and as for why, here’s what I wrote in an earlier post:

There’s rarely a Pratchett book you could call bad, nor stupid – he often uses Discworld as an intriguing mirror to our world – but Night Watch reaches true greatness and had far more emotional impact on me than any of his other works.  Of course, all the humour is still there, but allied to a fascinating, driven narrative exploring the origins of Sam Vimes’ character.  Discworld books have often made me cry with laughter before – this is the first and only episode which had me shedding the odd tear otherwise.

I honestly don’t think there’s a book I’d call a least favourite… I enjoyed all of them!  And given there were 39 of them – well, that’s pretty amazing, really.

I’m still not sure where I’d recommend a complete Pratchett newbie start, though.  What do you think?

Ooops, am I a little late?

Jan 6th, 2012
by Jim Millen.
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None the less – Happy New Year to any readers that might be lurking out there.

Out of sheer embarrassment I’m not going to go back and count how many times I’ve said this before, but I do want to blog more in 2012.  So I’ll be making a real effort to get at least a few posts up every week.  Stay tuned!