It's relatively late on in my career that I've started to focus on bootstrapping. To which end I now have a rather sprawling mindmap. Here's a random sample of aims:

• Gain Prince2 Foundation qualification, even thought Prince2 itself is flawed
• Upgrade old desktop PC, just for the sake of it
• Learn the very basics of Ruby using Hackety Hack (though my install doesn't seem stable)
• Database skills: upgrade Access skills, then hop up to the next level
• Turn some of my random story treatments and scribblings into an interactive fiction.

I may spend the rest of my years doing admin and project management, but that's fine - the above things all plug in to that and anything achieved adds value to that role. But we'll see and I'll remain positive. The bugger of it is that I'm also a new father (and delighted to be). So I may need to add "bend the laws of time and space" to the list!

God, that last post was dull, eh?

In other developments, if I meet you and your job role or business card describes you as a "thinker" I may just shake the stupidity out of you.

A lot of what I currently do is about training placements. Across the diverse sectors my employer works in, there's different interpretations of what work-based training should be. In an ideal world they've got a structure, the trainee gets paid something approaching the going rate for entry level, and there's a damn strong chance of employment at the end. Which is why web, mobile or interactive companies are often my favourite to deal with in those situations. These industries are immature, which causes problems, but generally, they get it, why you need to do this.

But other industries - let's specifically name TV and film - are so overwhelmed by countless waves of people desparate to enter an industry they understand so little of, that over time these businesses expect free labour - imagine presenting that in your business plan. Industries which at the same time bemoan the poor quality of entry-level talent. Admitted, they are privileged industries to work in, but it's still work. Otherwise careers are only open to those who can afford to work unpaid. Which means a homogenous mass of decreasingly interesting programming concieved by a homegenous mass of middle class white people with a shrinking frame of reference where ideas can only cannibalise each other.

This situation isn't sustainable and could contribute to a skills crisis in tv production especially. What I believe it hints at is a cultural and behavioural shift within tv that needs to take place, and is in certain notable places: the need to act a bit more like digital. But no need to panic: you don't need to gain any more weight, or start wearing t-shirts of obscure bands, or nurture a Babylon 5 obsession.

This initial post is to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog: I work for an organisation in an interesting place between the public and private sector, helping develop the media economy in the Northwest of England. My role is really fancy administration: project managing placements and other training initiatives from start to finish. Day to day however, I come across interesting sources of knowledge and areas of discussion. The aim of this blog is to act as the overflow for this excess, and also because the blog function on the company's site doesn't support incoming tagging via my delicious account.

My own interests mainy lie in multiplatform production, as practiced by companies such as this one, that one, and this other one down there. That said, I've rarely found a multiplatform experience that I've found particularly compelling, although that's more down to my own tastes and habits than a criticism of anything already out there. If Alan Moore ever extended his authorship into something other than literature and comics, extending something like Tom Strong, for example, then this would be different.