Daily Mass

Twilight Zone

adonai — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:31:00 GMT

Can I get a witness?

I'm saving this spot for an epic journey into sight and sound with tons of irony and giggles.

Check back when the world and worm turns.

"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you left you without a dope beat to step too, step too..."

adonai — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:55:00 GMT

kudgel wrote:

To be totally honest, I did not like the turn this project took so I kinda quit. Plus, I wanted to focus on school and work, so as I knew I couldn't work on this project as much as I would have wanted, I decided it would be better to just follow the process from a curious point of view rather than a developer one.

I believe this is the meat and potatoes of Top Secret to date.

This is all that we have achieved.

I believe over 34 thousand members have this quote as their bumper sticker as they speed away to less toxic pastures.

Sure making a game, working hard at anything is tough, but I believe the issue here is not "bums on seats" or willingness but that TS as is = rotten.

How can we all stand by as this travesty continually turns dreamers into sleepers?

Whats more is no one seems to give a shit.

The current "winners" of TS are secure in the knowledge that the prize pool and high 5 posse have no legitmate competition or pressure to consistently perform.

Its all about lets "get along" rather than fighting hard to promote an ever expanding and personally empowered community.

Its about passive status via politics, not ensuring we have the best, attitudes and all, bleeding for a new day for Top Secret.

Does DP and Acclaim really want sheep to envision a new dawn in community created content?

Okay I'm probably guilty, if not more guilty than most.

I've made a real effort to not rock the boat or not care too much as so much crap covers our potential, that I don't even recognize how far we have come, where we are going or most importantly what we could have done.

Well fuck that.

We that remain have one fading hope to make something good, something that when you look upon that work will make you proud, and allow you to tell your friends and family

"I did that, we made that!"

Its time for some spit, piss and vinegar and of course lipstick.

I'm personally accountable for options in Top Secret, I'm sending notice to the little general that this violation will no longer stand, and the time for honouring yourself is at an end.

Who wants some?

Congrats to our New HR Manager!

adonai — Sat, 26 May 2007 05:28:00 GMT

So first up I'm going to be busy for this week, hardstop, so AnjelusX is going to deal with the day to day CM need so please hit him up with all your concerns.

The NEW and IMPROVED HR Manager is Naereus, so please welcome and support him in his new role.

Nik is basically calling the ball in all things HR related from this point on, his account is being upgraded to give him the necessary tools on this platform and expect to see him flesh out his new hotness in the near future.

If you guys have a passion for HR please see him regarding your role in our evolution.

CM rumbles on!

Still breathing!

adonai — Thu, 24 May 2007 09:07:00 GMT

holla gang, still about, just working hard.

I'm going to annouce today the couple of mangers positions we have people for, so keep em peeled on that front and congratulate them on their new workload. They will obviously need your great support in the coming weeks so please offer them as much assistance as you can.

Also make sure if you see a role you like, or can suggest a role we need, make sure to hit me or them up.

On the Basecamp spam, we are going to go forward with no spam for commentary, but that means its incumbent upon you guys to check in and see whats going on.

You should still get meaningful alerts around deadlines and important annoucements, but the one liner subscriptions to our witty insights should stop.

I'm going to work with kiamori on moving our alerts to massdev, but the project management will be in place for awhile yet, I just think its more trouble than its worth to bring to this platform.

On the Rusel and DP fronts things are developing but I'm not going to jump the gun until we get confirmation on what actually will spin out vs whats talk.

The good news is CM is high on there list based on your exceptional contributions, so everyone pat each other on the back, and keep the quality of your subs to the max, you are being noticed which is magic for those of you with job aspirations.

I'm going to colour more of elk's drawings, it is great therapy, and I will talk to you all later today.

Break the PM cycle...

adonai — Sat, 19 May 2007 21:17:00 GMT

Holla gang, just a quick request about private messages and getting work done behind the scenes.

Previously this was how it was handled, pm chains and facilitation to get the job to the artists with enough time for them to deliver the output.

We can move away from this now.

If you have a request, stick it on a work order.

Artists someone pm's you for work, push back on them and ask them to submit a work order.

We all have people and concepts we like to work with, sometimes its effective communication or goto people that haven't let you down before.

But one of the issues with continuing these relationships is we lose transparency in our bigger picture, which is empowering every individual creatively with our talent pool.

It's early days yet with regard this revision in our process, we have new tools, we have immediate deadlines, but the sooner we start using this platform and process, the more holistic benefit we will gain.

Feedback as always appreciated, enjoy your weekend cats.

Slideshows and You

adonai — Fri, 18 May 2007 01:37:00 GMT

I want us to start thinking about how we can leverage our tools to impact our creative output.

One of the areas I have been thinking about is how to best employ the galleries beyond showcasing our work after the fact.

Imagine a gallery centered around a Taskgroup, which showed initially concept sketches that could evolve the creative dialogue.

Each member of the Taskgroup could look at these Taskgroup Galleries for reference, and write down what the picture evokes in them, and have this dialogue shape the collaboration.

By unifying the process with a visual cue, we establish a format for revision, which ultimately refines our output.

Let me know what you think, how to make it better, how to make it necessary.

The Grand Hypothetical Plan

adonai — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:21:00 GMT

With the reveal of DeMaria's "new" taskgroup proposal I can start to paint in some of the broad strokes on what this means to Crtical Mass going forward and more importantly how this platform potentially features.

First its important to point out that Critical Mass is a Taskgroup, the prototype if you like.

How we move forward as Critical Mass in this "new" offical structure is entirely up to you, but later today I will detail 2 options that are immediately viable.

Now lets create a fantasy magic kingdom future state with regard Top Secret and Critical Mass.

The process and platform we are developing is another prototype.

I want you to "make believe" everyone in Top Secret using this process and platform to facilitate primarily Taskgroup function.

Every Taskgroup having its own collaborative space with a common tool suite and pooled administration.

Today we are building a process and platform that can empower Critical Mass members as we continue to deliver on Top Secret tasks and goals.

Tomorrow that process and platform can scale to empower every Top Secret member to deliver on Top Secret tasks and goals.

Anyway think about that, and btw, we might need a wee bit longer than 24 hrs, you know creeping scope...

What is Daily Mass?

adonai — Thu, 17 May 2007 23:15:00 GMT

Going to keep this short and sweet, since I have a ton of updates and content to create today.

Daily Mass is a trailhead, that hopefully keeps Critical Mass appraised on whats going on with regards our developing process.

It belongs to all of us, and to that end, if you want to talk about something specific, pm me with requests if you feel you can't express yourself or the issue adequately on your own blogs.

Work Orders and You...

adonai — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:28:00 GMT

Work Orders are the foundation of our collaboration.

Previously all this has been done via back channel facilitation and Assets coming forward and volunteering their considerable services.

As Critical Mass grows we need to establish methods and practices that communicate demand and supply.

This foundation will enable us going forward to understand which Assets are snowed under or those that are looking deseperately for work.

Initially I will create 3 forums, the first of which contains the Work Order, or demand.

The Work Order details the demand, the Asset required and the timeline.

Initially this is an invitation to treat, which will enable the Asset to decide whether they are interested in the Work Order and can complete the Work Order within the timeframe.

Critically our Assets in this phase are still responsible for managing their resource, so regardless of Work Order request, if the asset cannot complete, due to timeline, existing workload or simply lack of interest, they must not accept the Work Order.

Once an Asset accepts the Work Order and communicates the completion date, the Work Order is moved to Pending, the second forum.

Finally once the Asset completes the Work Order, the thread is moved to the final forum Complete.

It is important to focus each Work Order so that individual Assets aren't constantly working on massive requests, but when prudent and based on the Assets acceptance, please streamline the process as much as possible.

A single Work Order should not list different types of Assets, which leads me nicely into Unions...

Avatars and the Social CollaboMap

adonai — Wed, 16 May 2007 10:47:00 GMT

So you may have noticed thanks to our resident "tag" expert kiamori, a couple of tools for us to mess around with, featuring Avatars and Signature creation.

I'd had some chats awhile back about the foundation for a basic social map, so we could start to create some tools around community building and identifying skillsets.

So let me run this by you, can you tell what it is yet?

Basically I would like to create a template for avatars for the Top Secret, and if this is possible, be able to run some kind of meta search off the avatars.

Primarily this is a visual cue, which enables the active and lurkers alike to immediately determine relevance with regard informed individual viewpoints.

In each thread, an at a glance "who's who" is created, allowing contributors to immediately locate not only relevant skillsets, but most importantly interested skillsets.

The pie in the sky extension of this is to have the avatar be an actual searchable string, that would enable us to extend this social map into something really powerful.

So give me the low down and dirty on this one girls, boys and inbetweenies, Big Pimpin Process Papa Smurf just got the need to be shot down in a blaze of bon jovi glory.

As far as implementation on the actual Avatars, I'm thinking we could set up a creative production line, just using our own network as proof of concept and to show at least a baseline selection.

Then with our templates as guidelines we unleash the creative aspect of it on the individuals themselves, while still maintain that probably impossible searchie taggy bit.

I'd love to help those without the skills when we have some spare bandwidth, but I definetly don't want us to take it all on considering the commitment.

Das Experiment...

adonai — Wed, 16 May 2007 08:46:00 GMT

A few of you might have caught an occasional musing on process here and there from yours truely over the past several weeks on the Top Secret Forums.

Not content to leave well enough alone in the hands of my superiors, I hatched upon a cunning plan which might be crazy enough not only to work, but perchance to dream, work well.

Yes before you ask the plan IS as cunning as a weasel.

One of the issues I see with the process currently is lack of immediacy, although I'm certain the brass have pulled out all the stops juggling those many hats they wear on a day to day basis, to roll out the new conventions.

Unfortunately that urgency deficit just gives our active contributors enough of a reason to tune out and switch off.

One of the things I pitched to R2-D-2-Maria was at our submission foundation this rapid fire drill called "The Storm".

Its got several parts, lipstick, piss, dynamite and vinegar, but it focused specifically on short deadlines and broad allowances for submissions.

Initially Phase 1 was going to bring all the boys to the yard with dat creative milkshake, which was obviously betta than yours, Rusel in a 12 hr period, for the collaborainstorm.

But based on the temporal release of the TS New Hotness, I have made some zany revisions, to my initial pitch.

I'm going to create a forum for each specific 2a Phase we have now been given, which temporarily goes against the plan of empowering a CM member to make the forums ubah.

In each respective 2a Phase forum I will list a thread for each specific task, and then in a very small time interval we together will churn out highly specific content as it relates to the submission format.

How this works in practice is with some advanced warning of "the Storm" we will submit rapid content suggestions around for example 1) Name until the time interval expires.

Perhaps also of value, would be an absentee ballot, to give members that know they cannot be there at the given window of opportunity, the ability to still affect the collaborative outcome.

Really what I'm trying to establish is true collaborative dialogue in an immediate interval.

This could also give way to successive "Storms" which allows respite and refocus on the same given subject matter.

I'm interested in running a Demo of this on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

I'm going to setup the forums now around the current revised task formats and we will see how we go.

I really believe regardless of TS adoption this could be an extremely useful tool for CM.

As always do your Critical thing, and let me know uno Mass time.

"Another Day, just believe..."

adonai — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:34:00 GMT

Well the good news is primary accounts are live and the world is by that achievement a far cooler place to live in.

So come all you CM faithful and fill this platform with your content, so that we might share of its splendor and rejoice.

I'm just learning the in's and out's of our new home, finding all the best hiding places, and by that I obviously mean peep holes and lipstick cameras.

In the next couple of days as you begin to get cosy, please point out what needs doing or what needs doing right.

I'm going to be dishing out functional roles based on who wants it and who can do it, but I want to ensure everyone that wants to be considered has a fair shake.

To that end any CM jobs as they currently are displayed in the forums will be up for a minimum of 24 hrs, so get your answers on a postcard, via pm or my gmail in terms of expressing interest/passion.

In terms of what I'm looking for it doesnt necessarily have to be resumes or CV's really I'm far more interesting in who you see yourself as in the role and what that brings to the table in terms of empowering CM.

Anyway gang welcome aboard, lets own it, lets work it, lets do it right first time.

and so it begins...

adonai — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:23:00 GMT

"Here we are born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe..."

So here we go Critical Mass this is commencement, the begining and end of something.

I'm really proud of how far we have come in such a short span, and our bonds of trust and collaboration have weathered some interesting challenges. We have quickly outgrown our patchwork freebie collaboration tools, and today marks the start of a new foundation, a suite of tools that will allows us to reach another gear entirely.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet, considering I still have a ton of work to do here, but I want to recognize the outstanding generosity of our host kiamori one of the original CM adopters. He's taken our needs to heart and provided this suite of tools and its massively scalable license at zero cost to us.

When you all get a chance and get settled I'd like you to all recognize what that means for Critical Mass going forward.

Thanks for enabling our framework kiamori.