Jim Grisanzio

If American politicians can travel around with portable podiums and high tech teleprompters then I suppose Japanese pols can just put the whole damn stage on a truck, right? Works for me.

I see planning for BarCamp Tokyo 2010 is coming along rapidly. The event will be held on Saturday May 29th. I’ll go for sure. I bet the turn out will be huge this year. In 2009 I participated at two BarCamps — Tokyo and Yokohama. What I like best about BarCamp is that no one is special — everyone organizes, everyone talks, everyone contributes. It’s community. Simple.

I track BarCamp stuff at this tag here: http://jimgrisanzio.com/tag/barcamp/

A few shots from the Tokyo OpenSolaris Study Group earlier today. About 40 people came by on a nice spring Saturday for the six sessions (three for administrators and three for developers).

All of my images of the Japan OpenSolaris Community | Michael and Kato at the nomikai.

Here’s a quiet and rather unsettling interview between Bill Moyers and Andrew Bacevich on Afghanistan.
Part I here. Part II here.

Two bits most disturbing to me: (1) the U.S. military says there is no military solution in Afghanistan, and (2) we Americans are getting used to constant war. Here’s the most sobering quote from Bacevich: “And we do find ourselves in this circumstance where permanent war now seems to have become the norm.” Permanent war. Norm. That can’t end well for anyone, especially and obviously for the people being killed.

Perhaps we should pull out the troops and send in the construction companies to build infrastructure in Afghanistan (using local labor, of course, so there is direct ownership). Too simplistic? Probably. And that’s certainly not the goal, I realize. But even more interesting is Bacevich’s larger historical views about how American policy makers — heck, all of us — simply lack self awareness and a sense of global history and culture. We just can’t accept that others think differently and define the world differently than we do. That’s certainly not unique to Americans, of course, but it’s a tad more dangerous when it’s backed up with an ever-increasing military budget. Really good stuff that fits well with my construction reference above. And finally, Bacevich seems unusually non-partisan, too, which is the only reason I value his position. His conclusion? Get out.

Things can get pretty tight in Tokyo. See Japan’s capsule hotels now coffin-sized homes. Things can get even tighter in Beijing. See Beijing ‘capsule room’ has first tenant (link via my friend Shaoting). I wonder how many Americans would understand such density of population? I can think of a few cities in the U.S where it gets a bit cramped but nothing compared to some parts of Asia.

Sakie Fukushima becomes Bridgestone Corporation’s first female board member. Cool. These corporate gender stories are probably a big deal when reported in the West because Japan is so freaking far behind the gender times it’s utterly beyond pathetic. So, good for you, Fukushima-san. And good on Bridgestone for breaking out like this. Japanese girls (a massively wasted pool of talent in Japan) now have another role model to look up to. Personally, I wouldn’t want my little girl growing up to be an executive in a gigantic international corporation, but hey that’s just me. Perhaps she’ll be an astronaut like Naoko Yamazaki. Who knows.

I do find it interesting, though, that Fukushima-san worked her way up the corporate ladder over the years via an American company. I think that’s a critical part of this story. She had to go out, then up, then over. She had to route around, in other words. Smart. But probably pretty exhausting. However, now that she’s at Bridgestone her very presence at that level sets an example for other Japanese companies to enable women to advance within the Japanese corporate system — hopefully changing it along the way. With India and China emerging economically in Asia and globally, you’d think that Japan would be a tad concerned about all this new competition in the neighborhood, right? Well, whether the country is concerned or not, I think Japan has a hidden treasure and secret weapon: the imagination locked inside of the girls. Liberate that energy and this country can compete. Keep it locked away and Japan won’t be able to keep up economically. And I seriously doubt I’m wrong on this.

Very interesting report here from AlJazeeraEnglish about some communities rebuilding themselves from near total collapse. How? By directly putting people back to work in innovative worker-owner arrangements. The “ownership” bit is key. Investments for these deals come from local banks, city governments, charities, foundations, and a tiny amount from various U.S. federal government financial stimulus packages. Basically, pennies given the size of the free-flowing bailouts of billions popular among today’s politicians and capitalists. Rebuilding the communities in the United States will take decades. And leadership for that construction will not come from the top. There are no leaders at the top anymore, so you have to look for leadership at the bottom (and in the mirror). That’s where people actually do things. Besides, all buildings are built from the bottom up. A community is no different. It’s good that these worker-owner operations are starting up again. You should own what you do for a living. I can’t think of anything more American than that. Can you?

I’m writing a new article called Building Communities based on multiple posts and presentations I’ve done in the past. It’s not nearly finished, but it’s a pretty good start at this point. I’ll evolve the piece on its own page since it will be long, and I’ll also build out a comprehensive resources section as I trip across good links. It’s just a way for me to casually collect some bits over time about interesting community building techniques based on my own experiences or other community builders I study. It’s just a hobby. And I’m not focusing on any one community specifically or even any one industry, actually. Instead, I’m more interested in exploring the underlying concepts of community building — who, what, where, when, why, how — and what results from all those activities. History documents a massive number and variety of communities throughout the ages, so I’ll be looking into this for a while. Comments welcome.

It’s a shame when issues boil over in communities. It all takes place in public and gets ugly fast. I suppose it occurs in all communities from time to time but the infighting is upsetting for those who take community building to heart. It also wastes time and energy, which are valuable resources. In other words, it’s expensive. In some cases some community members send hostile email to forums questioning the integrity of fellow community members. Others post blogs with harsh language about other communities or entire companies. And even some in so-called leadership positions get themselves in the media and make demands of others.

I suppose this is human nature to a certain degree and results when any open organization is under stress. But it’s counterproductive. It distracts those who are working on projects and pushes new people away who may be thinking of getting involved. Would you want to join a hostile community? I wouldn’t. In fact, I regularly leave communities where I am not treated with respect, or I unsubscribe from mailing lists in a given community and choose to participate elsewhere in the community. Communities are made up of volunteers and leaving is easy. So, I don’t blame people for walking away from hostile communities, and I certainly don’t blame people for not joining them in the first place. To me the best way to honor a healthy community is for the vast majority of members to treat each other with respect and for everyone to welcome new people with open arms. That’s a community with a shot at surviving. Now, that doesn’t mean everyone always agrees on everything, and it doesn’t mean there is never overt conflict. However, it does mean that there are standards for professionalism and people generally focus their passion in a positive direction. At least then there is a basis for resolving conflict.

But if you do find yourself stuck in a situation where your community is flaming around you, a good way to manage within the mess is to get working on projects and actually produce something real (whatever your work happens to be: code, documents, artwork, testing, presentations, events, etc). Nothing cuts through the noise more effectively than work because work speaks louder than words. It sounds simple but it’s true. And I see it all the time. While I watch some people escalate confusion and contribute to flames, I also watch others digging down and working on projects, offering contributions, or just helping others get their work done. The distinction is stark. The people getting things done are not posting stressful messages or even responding to those flaming threads. Instead, their communications are quite normal and specifically focused on the business of the day. True, these guys may be difficult to find due to all the noise, but if you look for them you will see them quite clearly. I don’t care what their titles are, I don’t care where they live, I don’t care what their skill levels are, and I don’t care what their positions are in the community. They are the leaders because they are demonstrating their leadership via their actions.

A few images from the Tokyo Linux User Group last night …

More images of Linux and FOSS. Tokyo Linux User Group.

Last nite I went to the OpenSolaris Night Seminar in Tokyo, which is conveniently held just a few floors above my office. Project Crossbow was the main topic of conversation from engineers Mami Sueki and Junko Yoshida, who also received certificates as new OpenSolaris Evangelists (yes, you have to earn your way around here) from Akira Ohsone and Shoji Haraguchi. The talks were streamed live and Shoji recorded everything so check his YouTube page in a few days for the video.

Over a thousand images from the OpenSolaris community in Japan.

Incremental releases. Getting them right. Making them consistent. Being predictable. That’s the key for Ubuntu, according to Jason Hiner in One big thing Microsoft, Apple, and all CTOs can learn from Ubuntu. I don’t disagree. When managing any project in any field a critical element from which to build is momentum. It’s necessary. Generate it early. Even if small, that’s ok. Just move. Take a step. Release something. Pick up the pace. Repeat. Without momentum all projects fail. The only thing I’d add regarding Ubuntu getting things right is they are passionate in their desire to create culture and community. They stand for something. In my mind that’s just as important as getting the technology and release processes right. People get involved because they can belong to something greater than themselves. That bit is so basic. I’m surprised so many projects miss it.

No One Is to Blame for Anything: “We live in a culture where accountability and responsibility are forgotten values. When ‘mistakes are made’ they are always made by someone else.” — Frank Rich, New York Times. Nice column. It outlines the obvious lack of leadership demonstrated by our so-called leaders. The only way this ends well is if we stop following others and start doing for ourselves. See Grace Lee Boggs on that last point. Other than that, we have the best leadership money can buy.

“Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda. Still my favorite after all these years.

Some shots from the Tokyo Linux User Group meeting earlier this evening …