Friends, from now on there will be no head of digital at the medieval castle (dungeon, moat and all). Due to acute financial circumstances I have been let go, effective immediately.

Hey – Shift happens!

It came as no surprise to me that my [now former] employer, facing the current situation, had to take immediate drastic measures. I may not agree on the measures taken, but that is not of importance and it is not my problem anymore.

I understand. It’s just business. In their position I would more than likely have had to make the same desicions myself. Like Scott McNealy I consider myself a capitalist, and I think he said it better than I could in his recent mail departing from Sun;

[...]I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company[..]

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my former employer for believing in me all these years, for the vast experience I was allowed to gain in their employment, for being given a free hand to develop new business and being fortunate to get to know so many interesting and wonderful people in the course of my service. I wish them all the best for the future and I know they have the potential to come out on top.

To my former customers, I have to say I’m really going to miss you guys. (Albeit, there’s much truth to the old saying that you meet everybody at least twice in life. So stay tuned. Who knows – Maybe we’ll meet again sooner than later.) So long and thanks for all the good times and amazing projects we were able to pull off together. I wish you guys great success – I know you truly deserve it.

Perhaps the guys I’m going to miss the most are my colleagues; the team. Heck, we’ve seen each other more than our families through the years. No matter the challenge, you always came through. I humbly salute you for it; You guys are rock stars! The company needs you more than ever so hang in there. Give’em hell, boys!

I’m incredibly grateful for all the supportive mails and calls from friends, ex-colleagues, former customers, former partners and peers I have been receiving. I truly appreciate your kindness and sincerity. You guys rock my world!

I’d also like to thank the companies that have already expressed an interest – You know who you are. You guys are like magically super-connected to the grapevine. Wow. Thanks! Much appreciated and very humbling. Let’s talk soon. :)

For now, I guess I’m a free agent taking some time to take stock and re-assess my professional life. Like someone much greater than myself that I truly respect and admire was recently quoted (to again paraphrase coarsely), I’m now taking some time to visit old friends, taste the snow and listen to the grass grow (if the darn snow would just go away) for a while.

If you’d like to get in touch, you’ll find a large number of ways to interface on the ‘about’ page. Don’t hesitate to send me a mail, call or connect. I’m accessible.

What’s your take? Have you ever been let go? How did you cope with it? How did it feel? Please do share – As always, I really appreciate your story.

So I finally went to Silicon Valley and visited Google at the Googleplex in Mountain View. If working for Google already sounds attractive to you, chances are it may look even more so upon visiting the mother ship.

As I was in the area, I just had to stop by the legendary Xerox parc in Palo Alto and pay my dues. The home of the GUI and numerous other firsts. Obligatory geek homage.

Though not really an Apple fanboi, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pop by Infinite Loop 1 in Cupertino for a quick pose. On another note, it was also interesting to see the actual offices of the guys and gals I’d been previously only been talking on the phone with from across the Atlantic. (A work thing. Nothing exiting. Don’t ask – I’d have to kill you. ;)

As I wrote yesterday, I attended a DNA Digital workshop held in the 4010 Telekom store in Berlin to discuss how so called digital natives, social media and web2.0 can positively influence and help shape the future of Deutsche Telekom (DTAG). [Big fat disclaimer: I work for a company that does business with DTAG] Here’s  the follow-up as promised.

The goal of the workshop was to select the members of the DNA Digital community that would attend and speak at the next and perhaps more exclusive workshop with DTAG CEO René Obermann.

The workshop itself was more or less organized in the style of a open-space meeting. Any attendee was free to step forward to present a topic that they’d like to discuss and the rest with no topic of their own could chose to join in group discussion of the topics of interest. Topics ranged from “apps development via social media” to “cultural change and credibility”.

I chose to participate in the latter, “cultural change and credibility”, sparked by Lutz Hirsch and Basti Hirsch (if my memory serves me correctly) as it is a topic that highly engages me personally. The number of challenges, ideas and thoughts that were addressed in that discussion is probably symptomatic of the complexity of the subject matter. I will not try to repeat them all here as they have already been posted on the DNA Digital blog (German).

At the workshop I found myself pimping the book Tactical Transparency by Shel Holtz more than one time. I think it’s a good primer on the transparent enterprise – and no, I’m not getting a cut for saying that. ;)

I also promised to post the link to the NewPR Wiki’s comprehensive list of social media policies. NewPR Wiki is worth checking out. They also have a comprehensive list of blogging CEOs.

In conclusion I was positively surprised by the variety of people, opinions, ideas and experiences shared. I was also very pleased to register a high level of authentic personal engagement among the attendees. My cynical suspicion before the workshop – that the whole thing could be an embarrassing play to the Telekom gallery – was definitely put to shame.

Looking forward to see you DNA Digital guys again at the Obermann gig in Bonn on the 17th of June!

Disclaimer: I work for a company that does business with DTAG. However, I'm not getting paid nor am I instructed to write this blog or to participate in the Enterprise2.0 discussion.

[tags]dna_d, dnadigital, digital, dtag, telekom, social, workshop, enterprise2.0, berlin, 4010[/tags]

I’m attending SIGINT 2009 in Cologne this weekend. It’s an event organized by the Chaos Computer Club about civil rights, social issues and hacktivism in the digital age.

The excellent keynote for today was held by Jens Ohlig claiming the politicians and legislators of today are so out of touch with the reality of the Internet, only reading pages printed off the Internet by their secretaries, thinking

Internet is just another medium like TV and newspapers that we can censor and control.

Another highlight of today’s keynote was a performance by Jonathan Mann featuring a creative adaptation of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First they came…” tweaked to decribe our endangered civil rights in this digital age.

Looking forward to be meeting more new and interesting people at SIGINT. Stay tuned to the #sigint09 hashtag here there and everywhere.

[tags]sigint, sigint09, ccc, privacy, yro, civil rights, digital, internet, hacktivism[/tags]

I’m taking some well deserved weeks off in the old country of Norway, trying to stay away from them there internets for most of the duration.

Yes, that’s my NORWAY in the picture, not the Caribbean. Truth. :)

See you again in the middle of August!

[tags]mandal, vacation, blacktar, norway[/tags]

Not sorry for no posts lately. Life and everything caught up to me. So there you know.

Looking forward to be blogging more in the new year. (As if anyone is reading this anyway.. . ;)

Greets from CPH!

First up, I’m back. Secondly, as you may have noticed there are problems subscribing to this blog using RSS. That suxx0rz. Period. This is due to fuddy duddy godaddy not playing nice with the source of this free hosting thing, so I’m moving away from this crappy free solution on to a pay plan. I needed to get rid of that awful leech header banner advertisement thingy, anyway. It’s lame. ETA this week.

OMG LOOK RANDOM LOLKATZ lifted from http://icanhascheezburger.com