Cheers!

I owe everyone an explanation for the radio silence from my corner in the last few months. My deepest apologies to friends and readers out there who have been pinging me without avail. I wasn’t ignoring you. Well, yes, I was, in fact, ignoring you but in my itty-bitty defense, it was because I had agreed not to discuss the all-consuming negotiations of my separation from inRESONANCE that had been underway.

A couple of months after this blog was launched last year, I started the process of leaving inRESONANCE, the FileMaker-heavy company that I co-founded and the home to some of the most impressive thinkers and doers I have had the privilege to work with.

To say the least, leaving iR was a profoundly difficult decision, though, for me, it was a necessary one. I was partly influenced by some big changes happening in my personal life in the same year–I was engaged, getting married in November and had moved to Florida in anticipation of that. I know, who would have thought, right? Trust me, I have never been happier, and I am learning to coexist with Florida. In short, it was time to take a hard look at what I wanted to do. For me, the grand calculus around the question of work had become reduced to two simple questions, what kind of life I wanted to have and what would I have more fun doing?

I had not anticipated this separation to be as arduous a journey as it was. Two months became four, four dragged out to six. Finally, on Dec 28, 2006, it was all over, and I officially stopped checking my iR email. The worst part of the entire affair was the self-imposed isolation in the interest of respecting the sensitivity of the matter and honoring the confidentiality of the negotiations.

Today is a new day. I feel good and excited for the next chapter in life. Steve Ritchie (former CFO and partner at iR) and I have launched new a outfit called The Proof Group LLC ("Proof"). There is not much up on the website right now but that’s because we’ll be paying attention to paying gigs first. We are also hiring or otherwise looking to establish professional connections as Proof. Check us out and drop us a line.

To my clients and former colleagues and the many professionals who have made the last seven years at iR such a blast, I thank you all for the tremendous privilege and pleasure of your company. I hope you’ll forgive my reticence around the separation and I look forward to our re-acquaintance.

Ernest has been the primary contributer to the blog but he too has been absent. His excuse, and a pretty lame one if you ask me, is lack of Internet connectivity while on his honeymoon in the Mediterranean.

Mr. Blackwell can’t be faulted either – he gives generously of his time and expertise on multiple lists and forums. That leaves me with a free Friday night while the family is away and a few things on my mind. Hopefully I can get them all down before the inevitable call for slumber.

If anyone has a copy of Corn’s post and manages to recover it, please email me?

[ANN] New content on datatude.network

Hello to all –

Among the various forums on the datatude.network bulletin board at  http://network.datatude.net is a group of topics under the purview of "The FileMaker Collective" (TFC), a group of privately-selected top notch FileMaker Pro experts who have been invited to blog and to post what we hope will evolve into one of the most complete and accurate repositories for technical knowledge and suggested Best Practices.

I recently let all of my "collective" domain names expire since they
were serving no greater purpose than facilitating the transfer of a few
dollars from my credit card into the coffers of GoDaddy.com. I
suggested Ernest use "fmcollective.com" becuase it was liberalish
sounding which I knew would encourage the esteemed Reverend Blackwell
to contribute some of his thoughts to this forum. It appears Ilyse was on the same wavelength as we were, even as far as choosing the same name.

The question now is how to reconcile the two competing uses of the name. Unfortunately she’s a friend of mine so I can’t sue her and while she didn’t select me as one of her "group of privately-selected top notch FileMaker Pro experts" I’ll have to forgive her the slight. Perhaps we can hold a brownie bake-off with the winner exercising rights to the name.

I’m open to suggestions. Does one of us need to abandon the name or is there room for two FileMaker Collectives?

Corn Walker

I have finally taken the plunge to get this blog up at Steven Blackwell’s gentle nudging.

What is the FileMaker Collective?
The "collective" has two meanings. It is a blog about FileMaker Pro that is dedicated to advancing ideas and practices related to all things FileMaker. It also refers to the group of developers and and thinkers who contribute to it.

The "collective" operates under the following principles:

1. The goal is to advance good ideas and practices.
2. The way is through good writings and discourse
3. Debates are a good thing:
   1. Debates at the collective are not destructive processes
   2. It is not about "winning" or "losing", it is about the collective reach for "better"
4. Be fair and courteous; ad hominem attacks are bad
5. Seek first to understand before to be understood
6. Don’t take one’s self too seriously

How do I join the FM collective?
With few exceptions comments on articles are open to all readers.

Membership to the collective is by invitation. First you get invited or sponsored by another member. Then, there is the very scary initiation process not dissimilar to those of tree-house clubs. Members are made up of Junior Authors and Guest Authors. Junior Authors can write stuff but their drafts require approval by me, the Benevolent Owner of Blog (BoB). Guest Authors are members who get to write and post to the collective without BoB approval.

Collective Membership Rights, Rules & Responsibilities

1. Articles written by Junior Authors (JA) will require approval by the BoB
2. Guest Authors (GA) can post articles with BoB approval
3. Guest Authors shall make themselves available as editors and reviewers for fellow Guest Authors
4. All members shall abide by the Principles of the collective (see above)
5. Guest Authors can sponsor new members to the collective
6. New Membership is approved by majority vote  by the membership committee (MC)
   1. The BoB heads the membership committee and gets one vote plus any tie-breaking vote
   2. All members of the MC get one vote
   3. Members serve in the MC until they don’t want to anymore
   4. Current MC members are:
      1. Ernest Koe, BoB
      2. Corn Walker, Chief Instigator

Who named this blog?
The credit for the name, "FM Collective", goes to Corn Walker.

Cheers,

Ernest Y. Koe
Benevolent Owner of Blog (BoB)