GoodGNUs

Having had to miss Oekonux, for family commitments – and miss other events due to lack of time, or not being able to be in two places at once, I’m musing on outsourcing.

There’s been a bit of talk about outsourcing lately, especially amongst those who’ve read The 4-hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich. A book (& website) that takes personal outsourcing to its logical extreme.

But what to outsource? Tim Ferriss, the 4-hour Work Week author, has even outsourced dating – but most of us want to live our lives, just with more time for the bits that we like best.

Time crunch

Why mention this here? Well, in a busy couple of weeks I failed to find time to write on any of what kept me busy here. Not good, when I’m busy writing a workshop session on productivity, efficiency, & effectiveness (it’s called Keeping the Activist Active, if you’re interested, and I’m looking at delivering it at any third sector conference, barcamp, or unconference that will have me). No, it’s time to look at outsourcing.

I already have all of the code writing (and much of the systems architecture) from my current projects placed with people far better than me. Bits of sys admin are being examined. Writing? Well, I’m not sure how appropriate a ghost written blog is, so I’ll stick with it for now, and revieew the situation again in a year or so.

What does that leave that takes so much of my time? Networking.

A lot of time is spent by the average social entrepreneur (or any entrepreneur) on networking events, and social networking. Business breakfasts, Open Coffee, Speed networking, Co-working days, unconferences, you name it, there are a thousand opportunities to swap business cards, look someone in the eye, and contemplate a business opportunity in a new relationship.

Social Media

Online we have LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Identi.ca, FriendFeed, ThirdSectorForums, Ning, IM, IRQ, Groups, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, good old-fashioned e-mail groups, hours of time at the screen and keyboard building and refining a network of contacts that we hope will enable us to change the world, or at least bring in a small contract to help to pay the bills.

Given the amount of time spent in networking, enjoyable though it is, little wonder that one looks for a way to free some of the time to get actual work done (unless you work in PR or sales, in which case managing your network of contacts is most of your day’s work). Can it be outsourced? I’ve tried it, after a fashion. At previous businesses we’ve divided the conference schedule, and reported back on the contacts that we’ve made – it can work if you’re systematic, and report well – but that’s no use for a one man band, or someone in a small company without colleagues enough to deputise to the role.

Ghost writer

When it comes to social media, there’s a real possibility – get a concierge firm to write your Tweets and blogs to guidelines that you produce, and to reply to comments and tweets for you. It’s easy to review their work, and get reports; it can work – so why doesn’t it feel right? Because Social Media is about personal insight into what contacts are up to. Not gory details, but little snippets of a contact’s life that show you they’re a human being, not a company automaton. You can outsource your information channels, but how much personality can the contractor provide, and can it show any of the authentic you?

Hmm, an overlong post. If I can outsource something else, I’ll get more time to shorten posts. I’d be interested to hear what you’d like to outsource in your life, and what is stopping you from doing it?

Earlier today I spoke to Andy Dearden about my contributions to the forthcoming PRADSA (Practical Design for Social Action) event, New Understandings, New Communities, New Practices, on 16 March, at NAVCA in London.

Little GTD

I’m doing a poster (if I can get one out on time), but it was the workshop that needed discussion, as I have two I’m developing that I wanted to try out. Option one is a workshop idea that I’ve had brewing for a while: “Keeping the Activist active: Organisation for hopeless procrastinators, and people who can’t see their desks”. This stems from my re-discovered passion for all things GTD and zero inbox, as well as the de-cluttering ideas that feature so prominently in Tim Ferriss’ works.

The idea is how to declutter your mind, and concentrate on Getting Things Done using various simple techniques. Specific tools are mentioned, but these will be personal preferences for most people, so the emphasis is on techniques and where to go for more information and help with such ways of working.

Keeping active?

The need for such a workshop? I’ve noted that I’m not the only activist who suffers from perennial procrastination, accumulating to-do piles, and information overload. I’ve been working hard on dealing with this over recent months and:

1. Want to share what I’ve learned
2. Want to gain from others’ productivity tips that may be shared in workshops

Meanwhile I note the continuing rise of GTD on mostly word-of-mouth, and take that as some confirmation that it really works for a lot of people.

And what works enables us to segué seemlessly to the other option, based on my forthcoming Social Cafe, Small Steps to Sustainability, at FACT’s Climate for Change exhibition. This uses the 20:20 format - 20 slides each given 15 or 20 seconds of commentary to introduce a topic without boring to distraction on areas of no interest to the audience. Leeds GeekUp often features two or three 20:20s, and recently O’Reilly’s first Ignite to be held in England was held in Leeds with 18 such talks.

Social Café

I sugested to FACT a “Small Steps to Sustainability” exhibition, highlighting 11 areas linking technology and environmentalism, over the 11 weeks of their Climate for Change exhibition, in an “11:20″ format, and highlighting one area in each week to showcase with other activists. They took the idea and ran with it until it became an after-work Social Café with beer at 6pm on what I non-alliteratively refer to as Sustainability Wednesdays. If you’re in Liverpool come along - more on this nearer the time.

Meanwhile, PRADSA: A workshop slot at New Understandings, New Communities, New Practices, suggested an opportunity to rehearse this workshop and, ideal for PRADSA’s aims, to discuss the 20:20 format, and other technology-driven trends in presentations.

Will talk for beer

So, two workshops in progress, one of which will be developed and delivered throughout spring. The question: does anyone want to book one of them for any third sector events? We also have the ever-eager Speak to a Geek panel looking for opportunities to help at such events, with answers to a volley of IT, web & social media enquiries. Call us ;-)