ChangeThePresent.org versus HelpMatch?
cr...@craigcody.com
HelpMatch Google Group would be the next best place to post some of my
rambling thoughts to Ruth's posting at
http://www.ruthmalan.com/Journal/JournalCurrent.htm#ChangingThePresent.org.
I don't think that the two concepts are mutually exclusive. There's a
case to be made that they are complementary.
I'm feeling conflicted (after all, I'm a native of Minnesota ;-).
Part of me wants to "keep it simple". Build for the most important
pieces now. Deliver something. We'll "iterate" to the remaining
stuff on the next round.
The other part of me thinks that we need to be bold. The more we
think about HelpMatch, the more we see other organizations that cover
a particular niche or take a particular approach. None seem to cover
it all.
Out of the entire post, this part:
"We could only justify the additional complexity if we firmly, in good-
conscience, believed that being the de facto place to go to give/
receive help is compelling not to our egos but to our value
proposition."
... spoke the most to me.
I fear that if we only focus on keeping things simple, we might blend
in with all of the other fine organizations. Don't we want to stand
out? Don't we want to be bold? We could. We could be the mortar
that binds them all together (could a "foundation" metaphor be far
behind?).
I propose that tactically, we build it simple and iterate towards the
end goal. Strategically, we design, plan, sell, and expect to be the
"go to" place. Being bold should always be in the forefront of our
plans.
Well, at least that's my vote tonight. I reserve the right to get
smarter.
Ruth
like, and architect for the big possibility, creating an open
architecture that would allow sub-teams to grab hold of some piece of
the bigger help-puzzle and build it out. Then, the first staging
questions get at what foundation do we need to put in place, to allow
the rest of the pieces to be added without being as constrained by
sequencing considerations...
Frankly, the .net (as in HelpMatch.net) side of this interests me
almost as much as the .org side, because it provides a place for us to
learn/share lessons and have open discussions as a community. All the
work in our day-jobs is hush-hush, and doesn't allow for the community
learning that this will keep open and discussable!
Part of the slate of lessons here will around be scoping and staging,
and, as I mentioned, all our painful lessons will be learned publicly.
"When Edison invented the light bulb it took thousands of attempts. He
saw each one as increasing his understanding of what didn't work. He
didn't see them as failures." So, let's attempt on, dudes.
Happy fool's day everyone! :)
Best regards,
Ruth
PS: Now, who has that baseball bat?
On Mar 31, 11:23 pm, c...@craigcody.com wrote:
> Not seeing how to post to the HelpMatch blog, I thought that the
> HelpMatch Google Group would be the next best place to post some of my
> rambling thoughts to Ruth's posting athttp://www.ruthmalan.com/Journal/JournalCurrent.htm#ChangingThePresen....