Here’s what I said. in that first post.. WHAT I SAID

How have I done?

Who really knows…

I do know that I have become a newspaper humor columnist during that time, redirecting much of my giggly stuff to the unprepared members of my local community. I do know that I have a lot of readers here and lots at home. I do know that more of you read than comment. I do know I have had fun. I believe many of you have had fun too. So, that is success.

Blogging is a strange blend of narcissism and vainglory on one hand, excitement and enthusiasm on the other. I have tried to balance these two extremes, even to the point of refocusing my blog to “only that stuff that relates directly to IT,” redirecting my posts on Pu Erh tea, drywall repair, and old car mythology to my non-Gartner channels. This has not been easy. I hate building walls. But, life is a collection of walls. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. At least I make my walls clear and give you URLs to the other parts of my output.

I hope you like this stuff… this ephemera.

I hope I do too…

Another year lies before us…

Thanks for your readership!

David McCoy

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Now the real reason for this visit with Narcissus. I just loaded Microsoft Live Writer and I wanted to test it.  There is no simpler test than a content-free post and a smiling JPEG.  I think it works.

Blog Goals:

1. Social - Have fun, meet new people, and share and learn new ideas.  I want your readership and your comments. I want to learn from you.  Feel free to share your thoughts, support me, contradict me, disagree with me, etc.  If your comments are intellectually stimulating and articulate, all the better.  There is a rumor floating around that analyst blogs scare people away from commenting.  Well, dismiss that thought right now.  Comments are encouraged.
2. Educational - Advance the understanding of important topics and concepts though the use of simplifying constructs (metaphor, analogy, story, etc).  Ever since the 6th grade (Emily Bernstein – are you still teaching?), I have had this burning desire – and perhaps, ability – to take a complex topic and strip it down to bare metal and rebuild it on (and with) my terms.  I want to transform the complex into the understandable.  I will need your help on that (see Goal 1).
3. Philosophical – Examine the “flesh-and-blood” standing behind many of our technological activities.  We are still the masters to our machines, but sometimes it does not feel that way. I want to remind us of who is in charge; to put technology in the proper light as a servant and not as the primary reason for living.  This kind of perspective-making has tinged my Gartner research for years.  I plan to bring it here too.

My Preferred Topics:

1. Business Process Management (BPM) - Long ago, I started Gartner’s BPM research tradition, building on our great history in the workflow market.  Now, BPM has become a vast topic with a strong Gartner analyst base.  I will blog about various aspects of BPM such as process methods and standards, business rule management and of course, agility.  I want to pay special attention to the reality of doing BPM in a world where many feel threatened by an automated overlord still dripping wet with blood from the savage days of BPR.  My returned-to-the-Gartner-fold, buddy, Jim Sinur, who is also part of this new blogging network, will be another source for BPM postings. Between the two of us, we should keep you entertained and informed.  We expect you to do the same for us.
2. Academic Goings-On - You will find that I am a perpetual academic. I serve on the Georgia Tech College of Computing Advisory Board and the San Jose State Computer Engineering Department Advisory Board.  Guest lecturing is one of my favorite hobbies (Wow, are undergrads different today than when I taught in the late ’80s).  I even ran Gartner’s Academic Roundtable a few years ago: a skunk works effort to blend Gartner research and academic research into something beautiful.  Let’s see what we can do here along the same line.
3. Ephemera – I love this catch-all term and it will describe some of the more eclectic blogging that I plan to do.  Music, guitars, tube amplifiers, theology, short stories, poetry, etc.  This category is 100% open and free-form. I might even post a picture of a cat now and then (if I can find someone who has a cat…).

Disclaimer:

While I am hosted on a gartner.com site (thanks Gene Hall!), this is a personal blog.  Andrew Spender, our PR guru, has just given an excellent interview that answers many of the questions about how we will operate.  I don’t plan to contradict Gartner research – heck, I probably signed-off on most of the BPM research you are reading today – but I do have a range of motion here that is refreshing.  So, to be very clear, the opinions expressed in this blog, whether on BPM or guitar tubes, on rule engines or theology, are mine, all mine.  And to add that last little bit of clarity to another rumor afloat… We are blogging because we love/want/need to, not because of a job description.

Reason 1: I am a writer, ergo I need a reader.  Calling oneself a writer is the ultimate form of narcissism, isn’t it?  It is also dangerous, inviting all kinds of, “Oh! He’s some writer!” sniping when a comma goes awry (Holden Caulfield has strong words for those who think good writing is all about punctuation).  Being a writer also announces that one has a self-declared calling; one that must be foisted upon anyone willing to listen.  Well, those of us who are poisoned with morpheme-tainted blood have no alternative.  We must write and we want readers.  The blog is just a manifestation of that sickness.  There are even support groups for such literary scalawags.  I am on the board of one fine organization, The Atlanta Writers Club, which has been around since 1914, serving those who run to pen and paper at the spark of an idea worth noting or a story worth telling.  You are my reader.  I plan to respect you and reward you for your precious time.  I know you could be over at the Cat blogs right now, laughing at kittens dressed like sailors and muttering to yourself, ”I can has cheezburger?”

Reason 2: I am a storyteller.  Oh, the curse of being a storyteller!  The “story” is the brash, wild sister of the written word.  She interrupts meetings, haunts the grocery store, and dances in the arms of old men and women who wait impatiently for her smile and laughter.  She plays with her hair while she goes on and on about a new barn door, a broken toe, or a mid-day encounter with the mayor’s cousin.  She talks and talks and talks.  And she entrances all who listen to her, dance with her, and watch her weave her tales.  I love her antics.  I spend most of my spare time telling stories, dancing with this wild child until the wee hours tire us both.  I have found that any complex topic can be simplified through story, metaphor, analogy and parable.  You, my readers, will never be given a dry well.  I will engulf you with stories so you too can dance and laugh as you learn. 

Reason 3: I am mortal. Mortals smell death at every corner.  We know we will not be around forever, so we try to leave footprints.  We want the world to know we were once here and that we had something to say.  I have been leaving footprints for years: the semi-famous Renaissance Man column (2003 – 2006, now defunct) for EAI Journal / Business Integration Journal, the Gartner Fellows Unconventional Thinking blog (now archived) which I hosted in an era when Gartner blogs won a Webby, and now the Gartner Business Process Improvement (BPI) blog (client access required).  Blogs are surely ephemeral, but they are another chance to leave footprints – good, clean, deep footprints. My readers will be given my best. I don’t plan to use the blog as a pedestal for semiconscious ramblings.  If my postings come out that way, it will be a problem with execution, not intent.

These are my three reasons for starting this personal blogging effort.  In the next posting, I will share my expectations for the blog.  Feel free to post a comment with your views on why we (a collective, world-wide, “we”) blog.  I am especially interested in why you blog, or – if you are still silent - why you have not yet started to dance and laugh in public?