A new day, a new blog
Welcome to “The ICT optimist” Blog!
At the end of last year I ended my most recent professional adventure, being the CTO of Nortel, where I had been working since mid-2006 to restore the neglected R&D culture of a 100+ year icon in the telecom space. We made significant progress on that front and I had the opportunity to work with some extremely intelligent, talented and passionate people, including many world-recognized technology experts.The company realized, however, that to get the flexibility and agility it needed in a very challenging market, it needed to move to a decentralized model of operations, which meant the global CTO role was no longer needed and it was time for me to move onto the next chapter.
One of the aspects I most enjoyed at Nortel was my public blog and the opportunity to share my thoughts about the industry and its events with a broad global audience. Now as an independent entity, I am once again entering the blogosphere to dialog about my thoughts on industry events, trends, technologies, people, companies and other items of interest. One of the reasons I am very much looking forward to doing this blog is because it is not tied to a publicly traded company, which means I am free to talk about what I want without having to clear anything through legal or marketing or division presidents or product line mangers or a host of other ”interested parties”. Don’t get me wrong, I loved doing the blog at Nortel but you would have to be in my shoes to fully understand how complex it can be to do your own public blog while you’re an officer in a publicly traded corporation.
So what will this blog focus on? Well, first, it will not focus on Nortel. If you are interested in Nortel, I point you towards the official Nortel site at nortel.com. Also, this blog is not about the past. While it’s important to recognize the past and the activities that shaped the present – and I will be doing that occasionally - dwelling on the past is an activity that serves little purpose. This blog will focus on what lies in front of us. This is also not a news blog, although I may provide my perspective on news. If you want exceptional news and timely updates about the industry, try GigaOM or the Register.co.uk. Om is one of the best bloggers I have met and his blog is a fantastic forum for broad industry discussion. The Register is a bit more “British” and has a tongue-in-cheek tone but I find it a great source of information.
What will be in scope? Well to understand the industry it is important to look at all elements of it. With that in mind, in-scope topics are new technologies, market events, companies and people who are helping create the future. In my prior blog, I was described as having “meaty” posts. This is code for the fact that I like to provide some context and a deeper dialog than some blogs do. I find that my value in this forum is in providing a well-reasoned opinion and set of observations that allow participants to have something to chew on, argue about, or enhance.
With that in mind, I expect to post longer, more substantive posts rather than frequent dialog starters. That’s just my style, so I hope you find it valuable and informative. As for comments and participation, I believe that blogs are enhanced with constructive participation but I have also seen what happens when a blog becomes a forum for anger, vitriol and misinformation. Because of that I will be moderating comments in order to keep this blog civilized and respectful. Please do not be put off by this approach because the intent is not to prevent ideas from being shared and conflicting views presented. Quite the opposite! I love a good conversation and even an argument and as such I want to hear your views.
There’s an exciting future in front of this industry if you are an optimist and are willing to take the long-term view of things. I am glad to be back blogging and am looking forward to our dialogue!