Twelve people on a train

Roger on 24/09/2015

Twelve people on a train. One just standing there, one reading a book, and ten using mobile phones to listen to music, play games, message friends, reply to emails, etc. etc. 

We really are in the midst of the mobile revolution. But mobile isn’t a device, it’s a behaviour. It’s a behaviour where we are connected when we want to, to whatever we want to, whether it’s conversation, information, or entertainment. And it’s not just a consuming behaviour, it’s a contributing behaviour too.  

Mobile puts the power and the choice it the hands of the user, and that’s what makes it a revolution.

Being digital

Roger on 21/09/2015

I recently heard John Docherty from Cancer Research UK talk about how CRUK struggle with the concept of being digital and often instead do things that ‘feel’ digital. The example he gave was having pdf’s available on their website. So, a user searches for information digitally, CRUK deliver the information digitally, but presents the information in a non-digital way, with a fixed layout that implies it should be printed on to paper.

It started me thinking about what it actually means to ‘be’ digital. I thought back to A-Level Computer Science (this was back in the days when computers were big desktop machines and the internet barely existed) and learning that one of the things that made computers so powerful and different to anything that had been before was what they do and how they do it are the same thing. To a computer everything is just 1’s and 0’s. It’s operating system works in the same way as it’s programs, which work in the same way as its files. This approach provides almost unlimited flexibility, as we see without really noticing it when we edit a Word document, install new features in a program or app, or upgrade the operating system. 

This is essentially what ‘being digital’ is all about. It’s about the content we produce being flexible enough to be reformatted, reused, and re-purposed in any way the user wants. It’s about the data we generate being transparent, transferable, and transmittable, so that it can be used in a huge variety of ways. And it’s about working in ways that are fluid, flexible and free of end-state constraints, so that whatever we produce (whether it’s at file, program, or operating system level if we continue the analogy) we leverage the same kind of efficiency and effectiveness that makes computers so successful.

ATBA-UK priorities

Roger on 20/09/2015

I need to focus what little time I have on the project that is going to have the biggest impact on achieving the objective of getting more people into mountainboarding. I’m very clear that the problem is caused by not enough infrastructure in the mountainboarding industry/community, so the question then becomes what should I do to contribute to building sustainable and effective infrastructure. My options range from top-level projects that to get more people to the existing Mountainboard Centres to bottom-level projects that create local infrastructure. 

The options are:

ATBA-UK Marketing

I have offered to help mountainboard centres with marketing before but they don’t seem to want the help. I could try this again. Or I could focus on marketing the UK Championship. I’ve tried that before too. It’s lots of work for very little return. This is more of a top-level project and I don’t think it can achieve the objective. 

ATBA-UK Membership

I could focus on improving and growing Membership as a way to get more people into mountainboarding. This would include getting more people to sign up, delivering value through emails. It could involve special deals from mountainboard centres and shops. It would mean changing what the ATBA-UK email newsletter is about but it isn’t really working as it is anyway. 

ATBA-UK Instructors

I’m part way through rewriting the Instructor Manual and building the Instructor Training programme. The issue is that as there aren’t many mountainboard centres, there isn’t much need for instructors or training. But of course without a robust instructor training programme we’ll never get the instructors that we do have teaching well enough to give those that do go to centres a lessons a good experience. 

Mountainboarding.uk.com

The beginners guide to mountainboarding website is a resource for people looking for information about how to get into mountainboarding. It’s a little out of date, needs a new look and some more articles, but improving it could be done at a slow pace whenever I have the time as it doesn’t have any dependencies. The question is, if no one is looking for information on how to get into mountainboarding then working on the website in isolation could be a waste of time. I can look at Google Analytics to get some idea of traffic and search intentions, and I could do some SEO/marketing work so that the site is easier to find for people that are looking for info. 

Thames Valley Mountainboard Club

TVMC has the best prospects for getting people into mountainboarding by providing equipment to borrow, free lessons and regular meets. The issue I have is whether I have enough time to make it a success. This project fits my assertion that the problem of not enough mountainboarders requires a bottom-level/on-the-ground/grass-roots solution, not a top level national promotion campaign as getting more people to want to have a go at mountainboarding is pointless if there is no where for them to do it. 

I wish I had time to do all of these as they would all compliment each other and help all of the projects to be successful. Unfortunately I don’t have time so I need to decide which I think will have the greatest impact and fit with the time I have available.

Two bosses

Roger on 20/09/2015

I have two bosses. One is fast-paced, a bit gung how and into experimenting, the other is cautious, and into the details. I get the benefits of both these ways of working. I think dual reporting lines is an excellent way of creating a network organisational structure alongside the hierarchical one.

ATBA-UK Marketing, review and reflections

Roger on 12/09/2015

I’ve been heavily involved in marketing and communications for the ATBA-UK over the past five years During that time we’ve used many different platforms, strategies and tactics to try to communicate and engage with the UK mountainboarding community. We started with a website and used email newsletters and facebook posts to drive people to the website. As the email metrics dropped and fewer people visited the website we switched to a ‘Social front and centre’ strategy which included putting the content we wanted people to see in the email newsletters and facebook posts so that the reader didn’t have to click through to read the message. The numbers continued to fall. 

Now, with so few mountainboarders engaging with the ATBA-UK through competitions, instructor training, and membership, and with fewer mountainboard centres doing fewer events, there is so little to talk about. Not having much to say means people stop bothering to read anything, which means it is no longer worth the effort to write facebook posts, send email newsletters, snap instagram pics, or tweet. 

So what to do for the best for the future? That is the question. When things get down to nothing it’s often hard to get them going again. Like a mountainboard getting to the bottom of the run, it eventually runs out of momentum. Do we call it a day, or do we pick it up and go for another run?

Life principles

Roger on 12/09/2015

I wanted to be clear with myself about my life, why I choose to live it the way I do, and to have some kind of guide for myself in the future. I gave it lots of thought and came up with five principles that seem to fit me and my life, and by which I’ll try to live in a more conscious way.  The five principles are: 

Simplicity

For me this means reducing the amount of stuff, focusing on the important things, not getting caught up in other peoples nonsense, and finding solutions that don’t cause too many problems. There are elements of essentialism and minimalism, living light, and being free from attachments. 

Responsibility

Taking ownership, being accountable for my decisions, understanding that everything that happens in my life is a result of my decisions and actions. 

Adaptability

Being adaptable is about accepting change as the nature of life and responding to the changes appropriately. It means having a flexible approach, having a plan but embracing uncertainty. 

Achievement

Facing challenges is how I measure myself and my life. This principle is about being objective-lead, being clear about what I’m trying to achieve and what success looks like, and taking a incremental and iterative approach to improvements and developmental growth.  

Contribution

I want my efforts to have an impact, to help people, to make the world a slightly better place even if only in the smallest way. For me, contributing to something bigger than yourself, something outside of your everyday life is very important.  

Clothes maketh the man

Roger on 01/09/2015

My approach to clothing has changed pretty drastically over the past few years. It used to be that each piece of clothing had to be meaningful in some way, have a story attached to it, and have a particular purpose or context to exist in. I think this stems from my art education and the ideas that art is about meaning making, art is life, and life is art. 

But now, clothes, whilst still part of my identity, are more about fitting into a situation appropriately, a response to an external situation rather than an expression of something internal. Now, all my clothes are useful for as long as they are fit for purpose, and then they are donated to charity and replaced. 

My beloved twenty year old boots are the last of the old way. They survived the transition but are beginning to fall apart. But like I’ve said before, get a good pair of boots; they’ll take you a long way.