Saturday, September 13, 2008

An unusual week

This week back from Los Angeles, award in hand, has been very unusual. The award got written up on a UK intranet piece and then circulated in an old school mail shot that seems to reach a whole lot more people that maybe have not seen all the cool things going on.
I got lots of emails from some of the very cool people I have worked with and for in the past saying congratulations and well done on the impact I and we have had on virtual worlds.
It has also led to a greater than average number of hits on my linkedin pages by people with IBM at part of their descriptor (its quite anonymous but shows a trend). There are also a fair few other industries coming to have a look too.
I have not checked the webstats of the actual CV. It is always interesting to try an understand interest in a personal brand like epredator represents. Of course volume is far less important than the right people seeing and valuing something.
I also got some more media coverage because of the metaverse evangelist job title a piece in the finance section. Ok so it was having a little bit of a dig at having a crazy job title, but the title starts the conversations, explains what I do and also gets some media attention.
It was suggested that I change to Metaverse Oracle as a few things I had set the seeds of a while back have now sprung back into life. However having Oracle as a title at IBM just gets confusing.
As I often remind people I dont just make this Sh*t up, just make it look like I am sometimes.
Midweek saw a bit of a tradgedy in losing my entire laptop in a hardware failure. yes I have backups, but not for the past month. So the most recent, most important code, docs, ppt and archived emails look like they have passed on. I am not sure how long before I get a new machine or fixed machine, but it will mean the massive re-install. Not just working on one thing, or in one environment or even in one job means a whole load of things will need rebuilding.
I wont get much time next week as atleast 2 days are blocked out to talk to some major CIO's and press and academics visiting Hursley for the 50th celebrations. The presenters are a few IBM distinguished engineers, lab director, the country general manager and me.
I am also supposed to be documenting my past 2 years of everything I have done, every customer, conference, engagement etc to show the value of what I have been doing. Its a pity things like the award from the industry dont just count as that job done. Still a refelctive look back will just add to the ego and help me know my true value to the industry.
Mind you, if you are reading this and I have done something that made you think better of IBM, buy something or push forward with something then feel free to either comment, email me or preferably join the load of people who very kindly recommended me on linkedin over the past 2 years feel free to connect of course.