At the beginning of the year Lewes Werks started.  I’m now busy running it on a day to day basis and decided that Lewes Werks would be my main and only focus with coworking.  This means the other lovely coworking spaces are down to the lovely people that run them, not me, it was stretching me too far.  Our goal as a family was to be locally based (ie in Lewes) and to do most our day to day activities within the town.

As a result I haven’t had the chance to be in Brighton much this year. Between Lewes Werks, school runs (made a commitment to spend more time with my boys and not hire help in) and my work there isn’t really much left.  Besides Lewes is lovely

After spending a lot of time too much time doing things for ‘whuffie’ I had to get serious and start earning some real dosh.  At the moment this involves an increasing amount of web coaching – ie helping people practically get the best out of the web. Social media/web marketing (as much as I hate the term, it is what people understand). Using Wordpress for (all) the websites we are creating. Community Building and Engagement consultancy.  And of course working with our network of peeps to deliver these projects.

The Software Testing Club is also increasingly becoming a bigger part of my working life.  Every week and month it seems to get more exciting. More ideas. More people getting involved and helping it go further.  In the immediate pipeline we are focusing on the Software Testing Club Magazine, The Exchange, Tester Types ebook, membership services and Crowd Sourced Testing services.  I am embracing the whole idea of collaboration and working with several other people to help make this happen.  It is fun, exciting and challenging.

And of course the fun of Lewes Werks continues.  The vibe that is growing here is lovely and inspiring.

One day I will learn to slow down, and I am learning to.  Problem is I have the nagging feeling to get a couple new projects off the ground. One day perhaps.

When I saw the opportunity to create a StackOverflow for Software Testing I did a li’l of jump for joy.  It was something that had been talked about previously on the Software Testing Club.  The idea of the exchange is to be able to ask specific questions rather than to raise discussion.  The Software Testing Club discussion area is very lively and hopefully the Exchange will compliment this nicely.

Thought I would share mine   They revolve around my interests which include: coworking, communities, softwaretesting, Brighton, Lewes, education…

I actually really like the lists.  It has allowed me to trim down some of the people I am following whilst still being able to keep up to date with them via lists.  If I’m not following you it doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.

Of course, it’s not just Twitter, but other social networks too (e.g. Facebook…)

Wondering why the **** am I doing this? Why do I bother? There must be an easier way?

From the outside everyone says positive stuff and you feel like you have to put on a brave face and say everything is fine. On the inside it feels positive, but far from ideal, a step in the right direction but still far from the goal posts.

When I look at myself, it often feels like I’m holding a magnifying glass.  Focusing on the small things. Failing to see the bigger picture, which is probably much better than the little buggly bears.

It sure is a hard (fun) slog at times, but it’s nice to read about other people writing about similar experiences here and here.

Maybe it’s not so lonely or hard afterall

What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when I say ‘Software Testing’?

I’m interested in hearing from Testers as well as non-testers….

Apart from it feeling weird (like walking into a different dimension), it soon came apparent it wouldn’t be a place I’d want to work or even visit if I could help it.  An argument broke out between an ‘employee’ and a ‘client’.  It was all very disrespectful from both ends.  Then when I was seen to I found it quite frustrating (even rude) at how fidgety and unwilling to help they were.  All because I had a few questions and we weren’t speeding along as fast as they would have liked.

It got me thinking that they are a monopoly.  They were the only people I could go to get the job done.  The experience was naff.  If this were a proper company people would not go back. When monopolies exist it makes them less inclined to provide a better service because they know they can get away with naff-ness.

It could have been worse. I came away with what I needed, but I left feeling unhappy. That doesn’t feel right.

If only places like this could be more modern and open to the world of plain, simple and good customer service. I can’t see it happening, would be nice though.

"What's gonna happen to Apple if something happens with Steve Jobs? That's why it needs to be about a movement, not about a person or even a specific company."

It could be risky when things rely on people for success. Coworking is a good example of a movement that is a success and is unlikely to fail because it doesn't rely on one single person to be pushing the concept.

Are there any other good example?