I started writing this from Upstate New York, literally nestled in the mountains of Delaware County, where I'm borrowing ISP service from my friend Russ and Cara's country home which we are now calling MacValley's Edge clicking away on our Mac's while waiting for the bacon to finish sizzling - hmmmmm, bacon.
Cara is an ATT guru who spends 100% of her time teleworking and I love talking geek with her - Russ is my best friend who I have known since my high school days and I'd rather he not talk too much about my "Fidel Castro" look back in the day especially when playing Tennis or my lousy backhand and dish washing skills.
Last week ended with a rather high note in that we participated in a "mini tech" conference sponsored by our Annapolis friends the US Navy Alumni Association. I love these guys / gals - I really do. They have such a sense of team and family that is hard to find in the tech industry and something I strive for and am drawn to.
Besides our platforms and similar software infrastructure where we have commonality is our struggles to impart what we do as technologist to those we support who don't always "get" or comprehend how the tech can help them not only do their jobs, but do it better.
This concept came up several times and during my 30 min presentation when I was being my animated self - I am after all part Italian, if you tied up my hands I most likely would stop talking - I was explaining how over the past two years IT had partnered with the Communications Web team in educating the organization and the steps we had taken to get to a point of acceptance with the use of Web 2.0 tools yet continued to see resistance or rather a struggle to connect in seeing how these tools can benefit CBF.
It was at this point I got tagged by Skid Hayworth the VP of Communications with the Navy Alumni as to why I was leading the presentation about how social networking was being implemented at CBF and not someone from the Communications team. Evidently I had stepped into what was a sensitive internal struggle and I honestly stated as the head technologist it was my job to not only test the waters but find the right solutions to work. Luckily I was not alone in this assessment as my partner in crime Maria Shook, who was also present, immediatly chimed in about our partnership and the team approach we have taken - plus Maria is less animated!
I relayed to Skid that while it's Communications job to shout from the mountain top I had to make sure they were using the right sized bull horn. At which point my fellow IT dwellers also chimed in and relayed how the role of IT is to not only engage and educate our clients on technology but to also inspire them to use these tools.
After a hearty lunch with Skid and more conversations with the various members of the conference the effort must have worked because by the end of the day I had a new Facebook Friend request . . . from Skid.
So along with many rounds of thanks from those at the session we also managed to hook up with the CEO of FreeCause Matt Adkisson making the session a rousing success. I can't wait to see what happens with FreeCause as the CBF roadmap continues to evolve and given the integration available along with their product and our infrastructure, this could be something very exciting - perhaps the next Lil Green Crab?
It's not about keeping up with the Jones it's about knowing where the Jones are, evaluting what is out there, and just in case we need to hop on board and climb the mountain we know the route and what to use to get there. Has anybody seen my GPS? I may need to change the gender or perhaps the accent, it keeps yelling at me to make a U-Turn.
Specialization without integration is fragmentation - Peter Forbes
Michael Sola for the past 9 years is Director of IT at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - his comments observations and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of CBF. Your comments are most welcomed.
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