If you found this article useful or valuable, subscribe (in the top-right corner of this page) and share. Let's spread the word and inspire more people to become passionate about OSS. Ryan is Passionate About OSS and has dedicated the last two decades to sharing his passion for OSS with the world. He is a founder, author, blogger, Engineer, connector and inquisitive learner about OSS and managing networks. To find out a little about his back-story and why he's so Passionate About OSS, click on the About Page. To connect with Ryan and the PAOSS team, click on the Contact page.
“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” John C. Maxwell If you work on an OctopOSS of any significant size, you will get whacked by an unexpected tentacle at some point in time. Do you and your team have a […]
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” Albert Einstein There are many things that spawn my passion for OSS, but the strongest reason is brilliantly encapsulated in Einstein’s quote above. There are a loooooong list of difficulties with OSS in their current form: They have many layers of complexity They are time consuming to implement They […]
“The fun stuff comes when someone is not so strict on sticking to the script. You’re allowed the spontaneity, and great moments can happen.” Jennifer Aniston A continual improvement exponent will tell you to “Repeat the script for things that work well. Re-write the script for things that don’t.” Sage advice in many situations and […]
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” Albert Einstein As Einstein stated, compound interest is a powerful force. I’m also a big believer that learning also compounds. The more you learn, the more you’re able expand that learning and the […]
“One man’s transparency is another’s humiliation.” Gerry Adams Social media gives everyone’s voice a loud-speaker. Sites like Wikileaks take the exposition of secrets to a new level. There is almost nowhere left to hide. But why hide? Transparency and honesty make customers and employees more comfortable and trusting in what you have to offer. The […]
“Screw it, let’s do it” Richard Branson Whether you’re representing a CSP, a vendor or an enterprise organisation, your OSS probably has some flaws that need to be beaten into shape. Or maybe you have a particular module that needs to be added or heavily modified. Many companies have tried to implement change in their […]
“I’ve concluded a great message at its essence packs four complementary purposes into one powerful whole: It connects with other people based on their values (C), rewards (R) them with a benefit they seek, asks for a specific action (A) to get that benefit, and sticks with us in a memorable (M) way.” Katya Andresen […]
“There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work well together.” Margaret J. Wheatley An entrepreneur can have a level of greed – the desire to bring a new product to market and see it used by as many customers as possible, without being exploitative. There is […]
“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” H. G. Wells The theory of evolution states not survival of the strongest, but survival of the most adaptable, like the crocodile. Most broad-featured OSS products are highly adaptable/customisable straight out of their shrink-wrapping. A CSP must be careful not to implement highly specialised customisations […]
“The person who knows how will always have job. The person who knows why will always be his boss” Alanis Morissette The world of an OSS has many compartments. If you know how (ie you become proficient) in one of those compartments, you probably have a niche that not many people will share, reducing competition […]
“The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.” John Scully Many recent runaway success stories have built upon the co-creation model and the associated network effect. Organisations such as Twitter, Facebook, Ebay, Wikipedia and many others have not built the content, but have built platforms on which many people can contribute […]
“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” Peter Drucker. Whether working for the OSS vendor, the CSP or the enterprise, the best OSS consultants share many commonalities with innovators. In The Innovator’s DNA, five “discovery skills” are identified that distinguished innovators from non-innovators. These same five traits […]
“Employees are a company’s greatest asset – they’re your competitive advantage. You want to attract and retain the best; provide them with encouragement, stimulus, and make them feel that they are an integral part of the company’s mission..” Anne M. Mulcahy. All great employees are effectively free because they add more value than what they […]
“I love the unknown. I love the discovery of what will be happening and just kind of sitting back and not knowing.” Jennifer Aniston Okay, I must start by admitting that the quote above is used partly because it came from Jennifer Aniston, but don’t let that detract from the point. 🙂 Part of the […]
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away” The Beatles I was discussing PassionateAboutOSS with a colleague this week when he said something to make me really prick up my ears. Telecommunications is an increasingly commoditised business model. With that, profit margins are diminishing and with that salaries in the industries are likely to also […]
“As a result of epochal shift of power in the marketplace from seller to buyer, the customer is now in charge. We now live in the age of customer capitalism. Making money and corporate survival now depend not merely on pushing products at customers but rather on delighting them so that they want to keep […]
“The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.” Samuel Smiles One of the mistakes most CSPs make when implementing a new OctopOSS is underestimating the time it takes for their operators to come up to speed with their new tools, particularly if they’ve never had an OSS before. […]
“Are these guys really Robin Hood and his Merry Men as they claim, or Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes?” Robert Miller The concept of swarm engineering, using many capable but cheaper resources to swarm onto discrete pieces of a complex, lengthy task and deliver a faster, cheaper outcome has its merits. There are many […]
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” Daniel J. Boorstin Auto-discovery is a tool of great power in the OSS tool-kit. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when planning this part of your OctopOSS: You don’t want auto-discovery to auto-populate your OSS database. […]
“I don’t believe you outsource your convictions and principles to people.” Jeb Bush When there are under-developed countries generating hundreds of thousands of highly educated engineers, developers, analysts, etc each year who will deliver at a fraction of the labour rates of the developed world. This provides a massive shift of opportunity for CSPs and […]
