Progressing a career is entirely dependent on:

• what you know,
• who you know,
• and how you utilise (in an ethical way!) , your knowledge/skill and your network/circles - this involves multi-directional communications, friendliness within community, truth/honesty and charity/relief

This week I will be exploring my business options and enhancing my skills in several technical and professional aspects, in order to help my fellow human and in order to continue to perfect myself.

As some of you may know, I have been looking for new career opportunities (for the past few weeks now), and not much has appeared yet, I have had some interest but nothing concrete so far. This is quite unfortunate really, my knowledge and my skill are ready and waiting to be snapped up by whoever wants to utilise them. So what is going wrong, perhaps it is the unfortunate state of the current economic playing field, perhaps I’m doing something wrong in my search for my next career steps, perhaps I’m not ethically utilising my knowledge/kill and my network/circles in the correct manner, perhaps I need to broaden my search space.

Please do send me a email, just to reaffirm our connection, and maybe we can explore potential avenues, or maybe we can just have a short conversation. My LinkedIn Profile has lots of detail about my skills, knowledge and experience, so please do have a look.

• My email address is: danieljohnlewis [at] gmail [dot] com
• My LinkedIn account is at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljohnlewis (please do feel free to request a connection)
• My skype is: daniel.lewis

So since December 2011 I’ve been working as a Developer (PHP+MySQL+XHTML+jQuery + a whole load of other stuff!) for a Bristol-based company called Helastel. It has been my full-time employment since, and I’m finding it quite challenging but quite rewarding.

In the background I’ve kept my self-employment going - I’ve been writing some articles for a bit of pocket money, and have also been volunteering my services as a web developer/master to a certain political party, and some other groups.

But my personal and career development has far from reached its summit, there is still a long way to go, in fact, it is definitely a life-long journey. There is so much I want to learn, so much I want to experience, so much more skill to attain and wisdom to seek.

“Know Thyself” is a teaching which I try to get to understand. I want to know myself, I struggle with it at times. The question I ask myself is not “why am I here and what is my purpose?”, but “what are my strengths and how can it change other peoples lives?”

“Onward, Christian Pilgrims” is a different song, but quite similar to “Onward, Christian Soldiers” which I believe is called St Gertrude. The term “Pilgrim” speaks to me a lot louder and clearer than the word “Soldier”, and in general I prefer the “Onward, Christian Pilgrims” hymn. I am a “seeker” - I seek the wisdom that can be found in humanity and in nature, I believe that it can guide us in life. This seeking is a pilgrimage.

On a pilgrimage we take a good direction and sometimes take a wrong direction, it all depends on our orientation skills at the time. I’ve made some good career and life decisions, but I’ve also made some bad ones. We learn from the bad ones in order to not make them again, and we rejoice in the good decisions. The road is tough, and long - but the goal drives us, and we can rejoice in that goal.

These aren’t things which are Christian specific - in fact, these are things which are applicable to everyone - including atheists, agnostics and people of all faiths and cultures. Life is interconnected and intermingled - careers/business, education, lifestyle choices, lifestyle non-choices, cultures, government, religion/spirituality/belief/disbelief. Everything influences our decisions.

Some interesting thoughts for a Wednesday morning. I would be interested to see any comments people may have on this subject.

Daniel

To all my readers,

Many of you know that I’ve been working with/for OpenLink Software for a while now as a Professional Services Consultant in the realm of Linked Data and particularly in the UK and Europe. Well, I would like to announce the launch of two commercial/business orientated seminars that I will be running for OpenLink Software which will be running in late November 2011 in London (England):

• “Linked Data - Commercial Perspective for Strategic Decision Makers and Executives” is an exciting new seminar for Strategic Decision Makers, Executives, Investors, Directors, Management, CxOs etc. It will cover, in non-technical fashion, how Linked Data is simple, its rich and mature history, its business opportunities, its business challenges and its societal implications.
  • Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/event/2069248177 to register your interest in the “Linked Data - Commercial Perspective for Strategic Decision Makers and Executives” seminar. Late November 2011 in London.
• “Linked Data - Commercial Perspective for Technologists” is also an exciting seminar, which is specifically tailored for technologists of any level (Technical Directors, Senior or Junior Programmers, Analysts, Knowledge Engineers, Knowledge Managers, Information Architects, Web Developers). It will be introductory in style, and will cover the technical areas of the rich historic tapestry of Linked Data, it will cover some of the more technical issues that Linked Data solves and it also covers the simplicity of implementing Linked Data.
  • Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/event/2405888076 to register your interest in the “Linked Data - Commercial Perspective for Technologists” seminar. Late November 2011 in London.

If you are interested in attending then please do register your interest on the eventbrite pages listed above. Once you have registered interest you will receive updates about the date, time, location and the cost of the seminars. Please note that as commercially-orientated seminars, these seminars will cost - registering interest however does not cost and will not commit you to purchasing a standard ticket.

If you would like to get in touch with me directly about these seminars, or any of my work with OpenLink Software, then please do so by email: dlewis@openlinksw.com

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the course, and I hope to see some of you at my seminars in the future.

Daniel Lewis

• Professional Services Consultant for OpenLink Software
• Email: dlewis@openlinksw.com

This is a continuation from my first blog post on “Business, Politics, Technology and Religion”. Please note that much of these two articles comes from my previous research and my current conceptualisations, it also comes out of my head exactly as you see it. When I write blog posts I try not to edit it too much, and therefore I apologise for any fragmented and disjointed flow to the articles.

Last time I highlighted the Guild system, and highlighted some of its contemporary counterparts. Notably Livery Companies, Guild Socialist groups, Co-operatives and Friendly Societies. I also noted that the Guild-style groups share some kind of connection with political ideology, yet they have supporters and enemies from the whole of the political spectrum. My attempt in this part is to try to reach some kind of personal conclusion.

With Guilds and guild-style systems there seems to be some kind of connection with business, or at least the way to personally run a business. As I mentioned before, Guilds themselves were made out of self-employed members, and Co-operatives these days are also a form of “shared independence” (either as an entity employing people, or as a collective of self-employed people).

We can also see some kind of connection between co-operatives and political parties. In the United Kingdom, for example, there is a “Co-operative Party” which is strongly allied to the Labour Party (you’ll often see some MPs as belonging to the Labour Co-Operative Party). However, Co-Operatives in general do try to maintain political-party independence, and will do their best to promote the co-operative way of working to all political parties. Co-Operatives have a following from many people, and the Liberal Democrats of the United Kingdom have a informal group dedicated to Co-Operatives being a good Liberal and Democratic technique for business.

Livery Companies seem to have a strong interest in helping individuals do the best that they can for the progression of their industry. This is through schemes such as the Journeyman Scheme (as mentioned in Part 1), or through Charity (in the form of University/Research bursaries, or funding community initiatives). From what I’ve read so far, they don’t seem to provide any kind of way that a business should work, although in many cases they can act as professional bodies and provide professional advice. Livery Companies do, however, have some ceremonial hand in the politics of the “City of London Corporation”, as they provide the construct for a man or woman to become a Freeman or a Liveryman of the City of London (which I understand to have certain privileges relating to the election of the Lord Mayor).

I’ve not said much about how technology hooks in with all of this. Technology, in particular the world wide web, provides a platform for the ability to work across all localities, states and countries. Merchants of yesteryear used to sail the seas and traverse the lands in order to trade, nowadays a lot of trade happens on the world-wide-web. Many businesses and many self-employed people now have their own website, their own portal to their work - this is new merchantry. This means that the freelancers of today, myself included, that work primarily on the web (Thomas W. Malone, whom I am drawing from some of his ideas, would call us e-Lancers [1]), are new merchants. But we lack a professional basis, granted that there are professional bodies such as the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), but they are often “too professional” for the grassroots style of the web. There are also a handful of co-operatives which have started up to provide software and web development services (one such service can be found in my home area of the South West of England and are called the “Software Co-Operative”, an organisation that I would highly recommend), but I am not sure if I am ready to commit myself to working within a co-operative just quite yet (but I shan’t rule it out for the future). I believe that “e-Lancers” could probably do with being part of a Guild, something that can act a bit like a professional body, at the same time as providing some kind of co-opertition, with some “friendliness” (possibly in the friendly-society meaning).

Almost every Livery Company of London is styled as a “Worshipful Company”, this is because they have a Royal Charter from the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. The Monarchy is a religious organisation, it is Protestant Christian - the Queen being seen as the head of the Church of England (Anglicanism) and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterianism) [2]. The Livery Companies therefore have some spiritual basis, but I must state that the companies are open to any man or woman. The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists also have a “Ethical and Spiritual Panel”, which I find quite interesting and will try to find out a bit more about.

I am currently (3:15pm GMT - 23rd March 2011) writing this line of text in a Costa Coffee shop just in front of St Pauls Cathedral in London, drinking a Cinnamon Latte. I am within the City of London area, the very capital of the Livery Companies of London. At 5pm, I am due to have some meetings at the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) - as I have applied to become a Journeyman of the Company. I suspect that I’ll possibly write yet another blog post after I’ve had the meetings, just detailing whats happening and maybe also anything that I may have learnt that is relevant to these two blog posts.

Now lets put this all into a personal context. Many of you will know that I try to promote the act of “building bridges between communities”, and also the act of “knowing thyself” - and hence my stringing together of Business, Technology, Politics and Religion in these two blog posts. You will know that I am a rather Liberal individual, I am happy in the knowledge that other people have different religious and political views to myself, and I accept our differences. I also try to promote equality amongst all peoples (no matter about age, gender, race, cultural background or political views). I condemn those people, organisations and schools of thought that try to destroy freedom and human rights. I promote organisations which try to better society, and try to make things more efficient. I somewhat favour distributist or decentralist political theory. I am a card carrying member of the Liberal Democrats of the United Kingdom (and support the actions of ALDE, ELDR and Liberal International). I try to promote the use of the Alternative Vote (AV) system, and also (preferably) the Proportional Representation (PR) election methodology - for the use in all elections in the United Kingdom [3]. I am a Christian, albeit one with a slightly unorthodox (or heterodox) theology based around mysticism, esotericism, liberalism and progressivism, but I was baptised and confirmed in the Church of England as an Adult by the Bishop of Oxford (John Pritchard). I am also a Freemason (in the Craft under UGLE, and in Royal Arch under the SGC of England), and I am happy to admit that as I believe that Freemasonry has nothing to hide, plus I’m quite open to talk about it and what it means to me (I am also acknowledge all three forms of Freemasonry: Male, Female and “Co” Masonry - as each have their reasons for existence, and I would say that the members of all are my Brothers/Sisters). I am a self-employed Computer Scientist, and a Member of the British Computer Society (BCS). This is how I approach Livery Companies and Guilds, and hence why I believe that the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) may be useful to me, it will hopefully help me to help my clients, through professionalism, cooperation, coopertition and inter-independence.

I believe that knowing myself as I’ve shown above (and this doesn’t mean that I have finished “knowing myself”), I can place myself in the context of life, and try to maximise my efficiency by noticing my flow of ideology in the various spheres. For instance - I have a love of predicate and “semantic” logic, and that permeates my political ideas of human rights, my religious ideas of comparative religion, my technical ideas of software/web development and my business ideas of organisation structure. I’m certainly not saying that everyone should have these exact ideas, because they may not fit for everyone, but the idea that an abstract ideology flows and permeates every aspect of life is certainly an important and universal concept.

Footnotes

1. For instance see the book The Future of Work: How the New Order of Business Will Shape Your Organization, Your Management Style and Your Life by Thomas W. Malone. Also see a rather interesting book called “The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
   “, which also details how software development is similar to (or at least should be similar to) the guild system.
2. Interestingly the Queen, in Scotland, is the head of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland - which is different to the Anglican Organisation in Scotland which is called the Scottish Episcopal Church. I don’t believe that this causes any arguments, and generally the Anglicans/Episcopalians, Presbyterians/United-Reformed-Church and Methodists get on well with each other in England, Wales and Scotland.
3. No doubt, this demands another blog post, but I’ll try not to get too political on my technical-orientated blog *wink*

I have recently started to become interested in the Livery companies of London (most notably the “Worshipful Company of Information Technologists” (WCIT)), and how they evolved from the Guilds of yesteryear. The livery companies seem to do a great deal, not only for London and the rest of the UK but worldwide too, primarily through charitable doings. The more practical/vocational livery companies, such as the WCIT, not only do charity, but seem to further develop their industry through schemes such as the Journeyman Scheme (i.e. pairing up a new member with a full member (aka “Freeman”) who has plenty of industry experience).

Now, one of the bigger differences between Guilds and Livery Companies, is that Guilds were primarily made up of self-employed members. Livery companies on the other hand have an intake of employed and self-employed members, and often work in cooperation with companies. So we could see the Guilds of yesteryear a little bit like loose (and pre-socialist) co-operatives.

In the early 1900s, when socialism in the United Kingdom and Europe started to boom, there seems to have been a few socialists who were also fans of the old Guilds. These notable socialists included: Arthur Penty, G. D. H. Cole and S. G. Hobson. The early 1900s saw the birth of what was called “Guild Socialism”, which although similar seems to be distinct from the (pre and post- socialist) “Co-operatives” and the socialist “Trade Unions”. [1]

This is where business hooks into politics. There are references out there which state that both Adam Smith (of Capitalism fame) and Karl Marx (of Marxist Communism/Socialism fame) were very strongly against the creation of Guilds, however, supporters of all political camps (Conservatives, Liberals, Socialists, Greens, etc) can be seen as supporters of Guilds, Livery Companies, Co-operatives and Friendly Societies [2]. This also happens to be the case with Freemasonry, which some say derived from the Medieval Stonemasons Guilds [3] - various people of all political camps are against it, and various other people of all political camps are for it [4]. Guilds are therefore non-political, yet political theorists have taken Guild ideas and applied their ideologies to them.

This ends part one of two posts on “Business, Technology, Politics and Religion”. This post has focused primarily on business and politics, and my next post shall focus more on technology and religion - and will bring everything together (hopefully coherently).

Footnotes

1. One thing that I have not yet found out is whether the early theorists of “Guild Socialism” were members of any of the Livery Companies (or any existing Guilds) - or, indeed, what they thought of it. If anyone reading this has any idea then please do let me know, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
2. Yes, Friendly Societies do appear too. Many Friendly Societies were born out of industries, as mutual benefit societies to help their members. Somewhat similar to Guild ideology don’t you think?
3. I don’t necessarily believe that Freemasonry came from Stonemasons Guilds, although many people do believe this to be the case - However, it is certainly the case that the old Guilds put on “Mystery Plays” which were related to their industry - and these Mystery Plays may have inspired modern Freemasonry. Other people also believe that Freemasonry came from Rosicrucianism and/or the Knights Templar. The history is vague, and I haven’t made my mind up on it yet, it is quite possible that it was inspired from all three (Stonemasons Guilds, Rosicrucianism and Knights Templar)
4. Politics is not allowed to be spoken in English Masonic lodges (i.e. UGLE based/related lodges) as it can cause disharmony in the order. However, many early English Speculative Freemasons were in favour of a protestant government and monarchy. Many Speculative Freemasons took part in the American and French revolutions. But one must note that English Freemasonry itself is not a political organisation, and the noted revolutions aren’t themselves a product of Freemasonry.

Comments

Please do comment on this post. Maybe you can answer any or some of these questions:

1. What do you think about Guilds, Livery Companies, Guild Socialism, Co-operatives, Trade Unions and Friendly Societies?
2. Do you think that any of the above societies/groups have a place in contemporary society?
3. Research question: Were the early Guild Socialists involved with any Livery Companies (see Footnote 1 above).
4. Is there anything that you would like to see in the next part to this post? Or would you like me to mention anything that I may have missed?
5. Do you have any other thoughts/feelings/suggestions/comments in addition to this article?

[UPDATE]

Part two on £Business, Technology, Politics and Religion” is now available.