Colin Charles Agenda

In may 2012, I went on a little shopping spree on kickstarter. The intention wasn’t to invest in a project but back it. Its clear many people get confused with the concept. Backing a project isn’t like going to a store to buy or pre-order a product either.

Backing a project is rooting for its success. With money, one can only presume that projects execute and whatever was promised gets delivered. It seems however that my kickstarter hit rate is so far a mere 50%.

I backed a project that successfully delivered the goods in September 2012. I was rather thrilled because it clearly made someone’s dreams come true. Another project that I had backed should have delivered on the goals by the end of July.

Sadly, its November and many of the backers haven’t heard back from the project owner. Many comments from concerned backers are posted in the comments section.

Me? I backed what I consider a small amount. In funding, sometimes things fall thru, and in backing projects, sometimes things don’t work out even when the funding goal is reached. Money alone doesn’t make a product!

Is this however a problem? Will someone that has been burnt by a negative backing consider using the Kickstarter platform again? Will it ruin crowdfunding for them?

I don’t have the answers. I will continue perusing the site, backing interesting projects, ensuring people’s dreams can be achieved. Let’s see if my success rate improves over time.

Percona Live London 2012 happens December 3-4 2012. Naturally Oracle has decided to back UKOUG in Birmingham with interesting talks as well, happening December 3-5 2012. This is akin to the recent San Francisco/New York split for MySQL Connect & Percona Live NYC 2012.

Lucky for us, Birmingham’s “MySQL day” seems to be December 5 2012, and by estimates, it takes about 1.5 hours for one to attend both events and see 3 days of MySQL related content.

That aside, I’m hoping this doesn’t happen in 2013. Splitting the community is never a good idea.

I was recently in Japan and picked up in-store a Native Union Authentic Retro POP Phone Handset for Mobile Devices and Tablets. It is a nifty little device that is great when you have to make long calls (think group meetings, conference calls, etc.). It also means I don’t keep my phone to my ear. The audio quality is pretty good as well, and you can hang up on the call from the phone.

It isn’t something I’m carrying when I travel, but it is a welcome addition to the office. Best thing about it? It uses a regular headphone jack, so no worries about it working on my Android, iPhone, or BlackBerry.

Now, would I get away with driving in a car with this? :-)

I had the pleasure to chat with my former CEO, Marten Mickos, at LinuxCon Barcelona on his birthday. Marten is prolific on Twitter (@martenmickos). I’ve always encouraged him to blog, so I’m glad that he now has two blogs: CEO blog at Eucalyptus, as well as another on Wired’s Innovation Insights.

We spoke about many things, but one of them was email. Marten always replies to emails very quickly and it has always impressed me. He told me he felt bad that now he might take up to a week to reply to an email. He jokingly blamed it on age catching up.

It got me thinking about my email backlog. Across all accounts, I am embarrassed to say I have 3,821 messages that I have to process. I’m sure quite a number of those will require replying (even at 10%, that is quite a number).

There is no better time than now to take over my INBOX. I have the next couple of weeks to be home and a little more relaxed, so I’m going to tackle this email backlog. Once I’ve paid off this debt, I plan to answer emails fashionably quick. I mean if Marten, CEO of Eucalyptus, board member at several firms, can do it, so can I.

Thanks Marten for continuing to inspire me to be better.

For additional inspiration, I plan to listen to Believe in Something Bigger Than Yourself. I’m sure it is one of Marten’s better inspirational talks!

Confidence is the honest belief that you’re highly capable of helping others. Arrogance is the honest belief you have nothing more to learn yourself. It’s a fine line, but walk right up to it. (Smugness is arrogance without the talent–these are the people “coaching” others who have never done what they’re coaching.)

Quote from Alan Weiss. Totally read the book: Million Dollar Consulting.

I just read that Coupang, in South Korea, has been fined for using false information by the Korean Fair Trade Commission to sell beef.

What’s amazing is that there was 117 million won (~USD$108,000) worth of beef sold at a 50% discount. The fine for false advertising, which is common in group buying sites as they beef up copywriting, was 8 million won (~USD7360).

Guess they’re big, but everyone’s got to play by fair rules. I wonder how many other trade commissions look into whacky copywriting in other countries.