The week just gone was my last as a paid contributor to the Mozilla Foundation. I wrote about that here. It’s been a while coming — I set up Dynamic Skillset on 23rd December last year and had set myself the target of becoming fully independent by this September. In terms of planning, my brain still works in terms of academic years…
Happily, a couple of organisations almost bit my arm off when I approached them about doing some consultancy work. I’ve chosen to work with City & Guilds for five months (in the first instance) helping them with various things— including Open Badges. I’m really looking forward to catalysing meaningful change within organisations.
Although it’s perhaps not appropriate to name here all the people who have helped me over the past few months, you know who you are. I definitely couldn’t have taken this step without them. From encouragement before Christmas when I was considering a change, to practical advice on setting up as a limited company, I feel extremely fortunate to be connected to such a generous network. Thank you all.
As ever, I’ll be working as openly as possible and pushing others to do likewise. I’ve never been particularly driven by financial gain: it’s doing interesting and important stuff with awesome people that’s important to me. Life’s too short to spend doing things just for the sake of money.
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
— Thomas Edison
Please do get in touch if you think I can help your organisation. I’m particularly interested in stuff around digital/web/new literacies, Open Badges, alternative accreditation, open education — you know the kind of things I do.
Remember: I’ve only got so much capacity, especially until September, so let me know sooner rather than later!
TL;DR: I’m leaving Mozilla as a paid contributor because, as of next week, I’ll be a full-time consultant! I’ll write about that in a separate blog post.
Around four years ago, I stumbled across a project that the Mozilla Foundation was running with P2PU. It was called ‘Open Badges’ and it really piqued my interest. I was working in Higher Education at the time and finishing off my doctoral thesis. The prospect of being able to change education by offering a different approach to credentialing really intrigued me.
I started investigating further, blogging about it, and started getting more people interested in the Open Badges project. A few months later, the people behind MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning (DML) programme asked me to be a judge for the badges-focused DML Competition. While I was in San Francisco for the judging process I met Erin Knight, then Director of Learning at Mozilla, in person. She asked if I was interested in working on her team. I jumped at the chance!
During my time at Mozilla I’ve worked on Open Badges, speaking and running keynotes at almost as many events as there are weeks in the year. I’ve helped bring a Web Literacy Map (originally ‘Standard’) into existence, and I’ve worked on various projects and with people who have changed my outlook on life. I’ve never come across a community with such a can-do attitude.
This June would have marked three years as a paid contributor to the Mozilla project. It was time to move on so as not to let the grass grow under my feet. Happily, because Mozilla is a global non-profit with a strong community that works openly, I’ll still be a volunteer contributor. And because of the wonders of the internet, I’ll still have a strong connection to the network I built up over the last few years.
I plan to write more about the things I learned and the things I did at Mozilla over the coming weeks. For now, I just want to thank all of the people I worked with over the past few years, and wish them all the best for the future. As of next week I’ll be a full-time consultant. More about that in an upcoming post!
I’ve mentioned in passing in a couple of posts so far this year that I’m launching an ‘artisanal’ consultancy in 2015. Dynamic Skillset Ltd. is already registered with Companies House, so (understandably) I’ve had many questions from friends, colleagues, readers and followers about what I’m planning to do with it.
To help answer these, I put together a short FAQ. Around 50 people have signed up for updates at dynamicskillset.com, so as part of Issue #1 of Dynamic Skillset’s monthly newsletter, I answered the following questions:
Why ‘Dynamic Skillset’?
It’s not enough these days to be merely ‘good’ in one field. To remain competitive, to integrate innovative techniques into your personal workflow or organisation’s system, a ‘dynamic skillset’ is required. Hence the name.
When do you launch?
We’ll be launching over the course of 2015 with a few select clients across the public, private and third sectors.
What relationship does Dynamic Skillset have to Mozilla?
While Doug will continue in a full-time capacity for Mozilla, there is no formal relationship or affiliation between Dynamic Skillset and the Mozilla Foundation. Doug will be working with clients at times outside the hours he is contracted with Mozilla.
What’s the best way to make an enquiry?
It all starts with a no-obligation email. You can hit reply to this first newsletter, or you can compose an email and send it to [email protected]. More detail is better than less, but at a minimum it would be good to know:
- Location
- Organisation
- Type of work
- Timeframe
How much do you charge?
This is something we can work on that once you get in touch. Part of this being an ‘artisanal’ consultancy is that it is entirely bespoke to the organisation and context.
Note: for UK-based work (or that which doesn’t require travel) that Dynamic Skillset won’t charge for expenses such as travel and accommodation. There are also incentives for booking three or more days. This is to encourage meaningful individual/organisational change.
More questions?
Just ask! Again, hit reply to this email or compose one to [email protected].
In the next issue of the Dynamic Skillset newsletter I’m planning to link to research, interesting articles, etc. around open education and organisational change. Feel free to sign up on the Dynamic Skillset website.
Questions? Please do shoot me an email or simply add a comment to this post!
