Organizing in every area

Recently I’ve been forced to organize things in our company. For this long, I and Lauri have shared the responsibility of leading our company. Decisions have been made together and the responsibility of making things happen has been equally shared. This has worked for some time, but it has not been really effective. There are important areas of management that neither one of us is responsible for. This needs to be changed – all the responsibilities need to be clarified so that important things get done.

It seems rather silly for two people to make a big list of responsibilities, but I really think it is a good thing to have. A responsibility for something does not mean that it should be done by the responsible, it merely determines the things and who looks after them. I am quite proud of the inner organizing I’ve been doing lately, though it’s far from finished.

This is a time for organizing also in my studies and relationships. Everything seems to change at once, and I don’t see very far right now. Exciting, yet exhausting.

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Pain grows in ignorance

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of planning. I’ve also done a lot of the things I’ve planned. All this planning makes me crazy, but I need to do it more, to accomplish what I’ve started.

For the last four years, one thing has been a big burden for me. My studies. I’ve been concentrating so much on how to make a company work, that I have completely ignored the importance of having enough space for my studies and myself. I’ve experienced a lot of unexplainable pain lately, and I believe it’s been caused by problems that I have not had the courage to fully face. I’ve come to realize that the only for me to actually face the current state is to spend time alone. I did so today, and every time I’ve done that, it has helped. When I spend with others, some subjects are concealed to protect my so-called wellbeing. For everyone else, I make my situation sound like it will be solved almost with no effort. I don’t have the power to face everything at once, nor do I expect to have it. I still need to face everything, bit by bit. Pain grows in ignorance, and the longer I let myself wander in darkness, the more it will hurt at once. I am willing to see the big picture, though it will not be a pretty sight. It’s pretty good, and mostly I am proud, but there are some ugly portions that need to be unveiled. In all this, I’m alone, and I really am the only one who can solve this.

I have done too much work to push my company forward, not caring how it affects everything important, not to mention my own wellbeing. I’ve lived for various relationships and the company, never fully taking the responsibility of myself! This is all very contradictory to realize. I have always considered myself as a person who carries a lot of responsibility. I have taken a lot of responsibilities, but I don’t seem to have realized what is the most important of all responsibilities – the responsibility to take care of oneself.

And now I’m on a mission to take control. It’s not a cruise on the seas of bliss. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.

Just give it up for today

This is what I’ve been telling to myself lately. I’ve kept on pushing to get everything done, and in the end of the day I tend to say to myself that…all remaining work needs to be postponed, again. So I just give up for the day. That might be for the best, but nonetheless, it still feels like too much has been left undone. I doubt that a vacation will do any good, because that will not make anything happen, though it might make me realize that none of this matters. I know that my problems will not weigh anything, if I just measure them in a large enough scale.

Yet I’m struggling to clear off the table. Too many obligations and deadlines – mostly set by myself. I wish I could work in a larger team where my part would not this big. I like to be in control, but I don’t want to make everything happen myself. My co-entrepreneur is getting married, having a child and taking more and more time off the enterprise, so I get to bear more responsibility – again. I wish there would be a super-talented coder reading this, who would be willing to join our company and make her/his dreams come true, in a nice template that we’ve been working on for some years.

There is a way out from every agony, and these are some that I’ve come to think of:
A) Take an indefinite leave to remain
B) Hire a caretaker for personal life obligations
C) Stop whining and do everything, though it might take months.
There always are solutions. I just need to pick and do. If only I had more support in making things happen.

On the bright side I am happy to hear that more and more people are willing to join Juoni, our beloved web medium for the thoughtful. The marketing team is about to form (2-3 persons) and we also have a new content provider (more comics).

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Brain Clutter Removal Tool (BCRT)

I have loads of goals to accomplish, both in business and personal life. The most effective way (for me, for now) to get anything done, is to make a list of the things that need to be
done – be them easy, pleasant or just something that’s been standing on your way for too long. It’s a sort of a wishlist – an action to shatter brain clutter. I list everything, my health concerns, home organizing, art creation needs, traveling/explorations, freetime – whatever needs to be transformed from a thought to reality. I might not have time right now, but I will have time, for example, after 21 months.

A list without deadlines is a job that is difficult to start and gets harder the more you work on it. Slicing this beast to pieces will make the job a lot easier.
But in order to slice the beast, one must know the what it consists of. Take a photograph, make a map – design the battle and fight it. If I’m aware of my schedule and goals, it does not matter where I work or live – as long as I feel OK. All I need is my laptop and two electric plugs. A wireless internet connection, a table and a chair make the job a lot easier, but are not necessities.

In any line of work, it’s essential to know how other people contribute to the common goal. For common scheduling and planning we use a shared web calendar and other documentation tools (yes, you guessed it, Google tools). I need not bother my co-workers when I know they are busy, nor do I need to doubt or ask if they are doing the right things.

Planning. It’s painful to do, but gives a good boost.

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Innovate where nobody has gone before

I really dig the guys at Google (so be warned, this will mostly be a praise post). Google’s doing pretty much everything the right way. Day after day I’m amazed by their innovations – great use of technology for real needs. And just look at the pace – they deliver everything extremely fast. I’ve had some great ideas about web services, and the next day I discover that Google has already done that.

I frequently look for new tools to speed up my job, and often find what I need at Google Labs. As a concept director of Netura I find Google’s collaborative web tools (Documents and Spreadsheets, Calendar) inspiring.

Google is challenging entrepreneurs to come up with even more innovative ideas, since Google has already done every service that smaller companies would love to charge of. While I, among others, sometimes feel paralyzed by the power of the great G, I am happy to use their slick tools. I can stay focused on content rather than (frictional, poorly designed) systems.

I do appreciate people who create special systems for people with special needs, and those special systems deserve to be paid for. Common web services, such as blogs, web page creation tools, calendars and online document tools can no longer be charged of, they have become commodities. A new standard has been set, and only the ones offering higher standards are eligible for charging for their products.

Google is also pretty well “camouflaged” in a non-commercial outfit. It doesn’t seem like one of the biggest companies in the world.

I am willing to take up the challenge to create higher standards and services that have not been done before. One, in order not to compete with Google, needs to concentrate on special services, something beyond today’s commodity-class service. It’s easy to dominate where nobody has ever fought.

Books related to this post:

• Kehitä kärkituote (in Finnish)
• Sinisen meren strategia (in Finnish)
• The Search by John Battelle
• Amazon.com – Get big fast

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New edition of Juoni.net

This month’s edition of Juoni.net has just been published. Theme for May is beauty.

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Mirable Manager for Firefox

This is still quite a fresh idea, but I dare to say it’s pretty thoughtworthy. Netura’s web content management system currently works as a web-based program, and can be accessed from any browser. While I like this approach because of it’s platform-independency, I’ve began to think that a Firefox extension could be a way more effective interface. Firefox is a true cross-platform browser, so everything we develop for
Firefox, we develop for every major operating system out there.

I use ScribeFire to post to my WordPress blog, and it really is quicker and easier to post this way. So I began to think that why not manage websites this way too? One could sign in easily to multiple accounts, manage web content quickly. Now the CMS software needs to be downloaded every time it is used, but if it was a Firefox extension, it would be downloaded only when updated. This would reduce server strain, not significantly though.

The updating process of Mirable Manager would ease up, as it would not need to be done for every customer at the same time. Customers (users) could update their software when they want to.

Of course this kind of transition would bring up new issues, such as information encryption and the large crowd of Internet Explorer users. The ideal solution would probably to maintain both – the web-based software and the Firefox extension. Though the web-based software, in my current opinion, would be of less importance.

A browser-integrated CMS is still something that has not been done. Probably will not take long before someone does it. Right now I’m pretty convinced that this kind of system is way better than the one we already have (which is very nice too). An integrated CMS would be particularly useful for webstores and humongous sites that need to be updated minutely.

This is still just a thought, but I really believe that this could be the next step in the evolution of content management.

A screenshot of Mirable Manager using the Text Pages module.

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Action versus Ideas

I have tons of great ideas. But none of them matter, if I do nothing to make them real. I might have the world’s greatest idea of how to build a service to the web, but until I can provide at least a demo version of it, it doesn’t make any difference. Everybody has ideas – great ideas. People know how things should be. Some don’t care that much, but I believe that most of us have something to say about the systems and products we use. I hear myself saying “this product would be better if it had this and this feature”, many times a day. I know I’m not the only one complaining and brainstorming.

Recently I’ve started to respect people who make things real. We talk alot about the idea of good life, or what we want to become. Talk, talk, talk. I’ve always been fond of brainstorming and creating systems in my mind and later on paper…but in the long run it’s pretty frustrating to only make plans. Even the least sophisticated version of a system or product, if it is real and functioning, is way more interesting than an idea of a wonderfully great system. I like sci-fi, but the imaginary technology is not here yet. A system that has been brought to life is a tremendous award and a source of pride for the creator.

Everybody uses products and services, and (almost) everybody has an opinion whether the product/service is good, or something they like to use. If people LIKE to use a system that is not perfect by it’s function, then it’s a system that is good enough and does what it’s supposed to. When it exists, it can be improved. If it doesn’t, there are only other ideas to compare it to and it’s pretty difficult to tell which idea is best. Most ideas never get written down. It’s also a lot more difficult to

An idea is also a lot more difficult to get into people’s minds. Something real, be it unfinished or buggy, yet promising, draws the most attention. The first real version of an idea is actually a proposition – the first step in a process that might last forever. I’m a big fan of propositions, since they provide a starting point. I’m also a big fan of those who take the first step without hesitating

Systems for tracking

At Netura we have alot of great systems, but there is still a big lack for some very important systems. For instance, we need to read statistics of every single website we create and thus create a system to automate tracking installation. Everything that can be automated, should be automated.

We have a wonderful content management system, Mirable Manager, but we still need to automate it’s installation process. We are keen to try out Google Analytics as the basic statistics service. It will probably be the best statistics service available. Google has a tendency to create nothing but quality products, so I am going to try Google Analytics as soon as possible. Juoni, our pride and joy, shall be the first test subject.

The world (umm, usually Google) is giving away all these free tools, so we should use them and concentrate on creating something with them instead of competing with Google. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Using my blog to document studies at Team Academy

From now on I will be posting my “essays” here in my blog. They will be more like traditional blog entries instead of essays, but officially they shall be called as essays. The main point is to document my studies, and this feels like the best way to do it. I’ve been trying to find a convenient channel for me to write essays and now I’ve finally found it.

Oh, and if you can read Finnish, I suggest that you check out the coolest Finnish webzine ever made: www.juoni.net