working – Open Thinkering

“It’s About Time!” Introducing Synechism Ltd.

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Doug Belshaw

I did something this Bank Holiday weekend that I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of years: I registered a Limited Company with myself as sole Director.

Why now?

It’s not that I’m looking to leave my current employers in the short-term, it’s more to do with getting things in place for when I finish my doctoral thesis in July. I want to start working with people on interesting projects and setting up a company helps me do that in a straightforward way.

The new site for my business is at Synechism.com.

What kinds of projects?

The tagline of Synechism Ltd. is making connections, creating meaning. I’ve developed a modified version of the Hierarchy of Understanding developed by Briggs, et al. (2002) upon which I’ll be basing a lot of my work.

I’ve a wealth of experience from Primary and Secondary school level through to Higher Education, so the majority of my projects in the first instance shall be focusing on the education sector. However, through my work with businesses and third sector bodies in the last couple of years, I’ve realised how much they could also benefit from working in partnership.

The wonderful thing about the technologies available to us is that I can just as easily work on a project with someone in a different continent and different timezone as I can with those local to me. For example, a week ago I presented to a conference in Australia from the comfort of my study.

I’m looking for educational institutions, businesses and third sector bodies who are interested in the kinds of things I am – namely:

Models of learning
Digital and New literacies
Knowledge workflows
Productivity 2.0
Mobile learning
Open Educational Resources
Google Apps Education Edition

That doesn’t cover everything, but gives you a flavour of the kinds of connections and meaning-making I’m talking about.

I want to know more!

Great! Head on over to Synechism.com and click on the contact details. 😀

On having a space to myself

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Doug Belshaw

“I’m gonna buy me a caravan” are words I never thought I’d here myself think, never mind say. But that’s exactly what I’m considering doing. Why? It’s all about having a space to myself. :p

The housing market in England, as you may or may not know, is a little crazy at the moment. House prices are at an all-time high and (in my opinion) most houses are vastly overpriced. The chances of Hannah, Ben and I, therefore, getting a 3 bedroomed house with a study in a decent area for the amount we can afford are nigh-on zero.

(click to enlarge)

Which is where the caravan comes in. We’re not talking your common-or-garden caravan here. Oh no. The advert above (found serendipitiously in the magazine of The Guardian, which I hardly ever buy) includes a competition to win an Airstream trailer. This brought back memories of Kathy Sierra’s blog post back in 2006 about productivity and happiness. Within that post, she showed her readers her Airstream and waxed lyrical about how wonderful it was:

Finally, after two years of looking (and saving), I found and bought a vintage 1966 (recently restored) 23-foot Silver Streak trailer. (Silver Streak is a “fork” of the original Airstream.) This is my new baby, with my dog Clover in the doorway:

And it’s perfect. It’s parked exactly two feet away from the side of the house (a house I share with my horse trainer and his wife), and the wifi from the house works beautifully. I haven’t felt this good working in years.

I don’t think I need a 23-footer. We’re unlikely to have the space on the drive of our next house – if we even have a drive – to accommodate such a behemoth. I think they do smaller ones, but even so I’d better get saving…

Whilst I love my family to bits and enjoy very much the time I spend with them, I have to be able to spend time on my own. How else would I be able to churn out these blog posts? 😉