A journey of possibilities with community at the core

on August 01, 2010 @ 03:13 PM

One of my goals for Mutually Human Software is to create an authentic community. To create a place where everyone feels that this is where they belong at this time in their life. When people feel a sense of belonging they aren’t wishing they were somewhere else, they feel like they belong right where they are. This is one of the possibilities I aspire to realize with MHS.

The question I’ve been struggling with is how do we create that kind of community? There’s a lot of conventional business wisdom about how to build, run, and lead a business. Unfortunately, a lot of it what’s there is at odds with what I view as essential for building an authentic community. My sights are much higher then simply having a profitable company or a good company. I want an exceptional one. I believe an authentic community is critical to realize this possibility.

A few years ago I focused on the culture of a company being key to whether or not they were a great company and whether or not I wanted to emulate them. Recently it hit me that culture is merely an indicator of a deeper and more meaningful metric—the health and shared values of the community. Culture is a by-product of the community, not a means to achieve it.

Another way I think about culture is that it is a reflection of the community. This has been intriguing to think about because it exposes that you can’t copy culture. You can attempt to emulate it, but likely that emulation will fail to create the culture you want because culture is an outcome of community, not a thing in and of itself.

This is a lesson I’ve learned over the past few years. I wanted to emulate companies I thought were great and while some things worked for a short period of time, nothing created the kind of relationships, cohesion, or sense of belonging that we had the possibility to achieve.

Before I looked at the results of a great company’s community, but now I am paying close attention to the shared- values, goals, and disciplines of those companies and their communities. My focus is not to take what I see and put policies in place at MHS. That would not be authentic. Rather my focus is bringing what I see and allowing others to bring what they see and to allow the community to grow and evolve—allowing people to have a hand in creating the very thing that defines us and ultimately results in a culture we all are proud of.

Today is another step towards the realization of being an exceptional company and an exceptional community. I find the possibilities and the journey so inspiring!

Daniel Parker accident

on May 17, 2010 @ 01:54 AM

Daniel Parker, a colleague, friend, and coworker of mine passed away this evening. Daniel was competing in a triathlon on Friday night when he got into a biking accident. Daniel was airlifted to the University of Michigan hospital and underwent two surgeries between Friday night and Saturday, but during the second surgery they stopped because it wasn’t helping Daniel’s condition.

You may know his name if you’re a developer, because so was Daniel. You may know him from his work with Quickbooks and Ruby or maybe his GMail rubygem or one of his many other projects that he authored or contributed to.

You may know him as a Christian, because so was Daniel. While he wrote code because it was fun and he was quite good at it, he first and fore-most lived for the Lord.

You may know Daniel as a fervent competitor with a kind heart and a powerfully analytical mind. You may know Daniel for a number of other reasons, and if you didn’t know Daniel then I assure you, if you did, he would have left nothing but an impact of an honest, energetic, intelligent, warm hearted, analytical, yet loving person.

I knew Daniel because of his work in the Ruby community and in the Ruby community in the midwest and specifically Michigan. Last fall I attended GRGivecamp with Daniel. Four months ago, Daniel came and began working with me at Mutually Human Software. Daniel and I worked closely together for about 30 hours a week every week. Every day we’d pair program (or party as Daniel would call it). Almost every day we’d eat lunch together and talk – sometimes about work and sometimes about everything else in life. I never imagined that four months of my life with someone could have such an impact. That’s also the kind of person Daniel was – impactful in all the best ways.

Before I had ever met Daniel personally, my colleague John Hwang had told me that he was the kind of person we wanted to work with, not just the type of developer, but the kind of person. At first I was skeptical, but after I met and began workingw ith Daniel I knew John was right. Daniel was more then just a developer—he was human. He was the kind of spirit and person who anyone would want to build a team around. He was an amazing developer, but even more-so he was an exceptional person. It’s hard to believe that Daniel was only 23 years old.

I will miss you Daniel, as a friend, as a colleague, as a human. May your life go on to impact countless lives. I know you have impacted mine.

P.S. – when you get to heaven be sure to teach everyone Rook, they’ll love it just as much as you did when I introduced it to you. That will forever be a cherished night in my life.

Long time, no see

on January 06, 2009 @ 09:13 AM

It’s been a long while since I’ve written. It’s been more due to time constraints than anything. Last spring I joined Mutually Human Software full-time, then in the early summer spoke at RailsConf, and then in the late summer started working on the RSpec Book. 2008 was a very busy year all the while spearheading a project for the state of Nebraska.

I have a lot of rough draft articles I’d like to clean up and push out, as well as finish Annex—the soon-to-be 1.0 release of ar-extensions. In the meantime I am going to be pushing some things out to MHS’s blog like the recent post on Using custom ActiveRecord events/callbacks .

We’ve also just wrapped up the year with finishing a project for one our clients. If you need assistance with an existing project, or are looking to get a new project off the ground, or are interested in training/consulting we do that over at Mutually Human. Our specialty is web applications. Be sure to drop us a line at zdennis at mutuallyhuman dot com.

Stay tuned, this is going to be an eventful Spring both at continuousthinking and MHS,

H.R. 5353 - I called, have you?

on May 05, 2008 @ 09:58 AM

I just got off the phone with my state representative Peter Hoekstra’s office to urge him to support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act os 2008—H.R. 5353

For more information on the issue or to determine who to call and what to say, please see www.savetheinternet.com

Net Neutrality - Save The Internet

on May 03, 2008 @ 12:44 AM

If you haven’t heard of Net Neutrality before, wikipedia describes it as:

”... a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.”

Unfortunately there are corporations out there which want to control access, speeds and content available to those connecting to the Internet through their services. Below is an informative 10 minute video (I found it at http://www.matthewgood.org/2008/05/net-neutrality/). If you have the time please hit play.

If this issue concerns checkout www.savetheinternet.com . I urge you to spread awareness of the issue and contact your congressman.

Food Service and Craftsmanship

on November 15, 2007 @ 12:51 PM

I wonder if restaurants and fast food places could learn from the craftsmanship model. Today at lunch I went to KFC and they screwed up my order. I’m somewhat of a regular at the local KFC by the office and the person who took my order I believe is new.

It hit me that this happens all of the time, regardless of it being a fast food place or a normal sit down restaurant. I’m a rather picky eater and have been dubbed “Sally” from How Harry Met Sally. Sally and I both share the “picky” part of our eating habits.

My thought is that people who are new on the job in the restaurant world often screw up orders. And after seeing Waiting I’m even inclined to think that my orders get jacked up on purpose.

But keeping my hopes and dreams in mind (no sprinkled parsley on my mashed potatoes please) as it pertains to servers wanting to do a good job and take price in their work I think they should put more emphasis on the craftsmanship model. No junior servers or order takers w/o a senior standing by.

At least perhaps then I’ll get what I ordered.

So I Got A Mac

on February 20, 2007 @ 05:49 AM

So I got Mac. A second-tier Mac Book Pro actually. After the past few years of being a dedicated linux enthusiast, it appears to be the best bet out there for a dual business/development box.

(I’ll still run Kubuntu for my desktop box at home and Ubuntu server for my server, but as of right now I’m not having any second guesses about the Mac. )

The built-in webcam and the iChat video support immediately made it worth it. I got Emacs working in just a few minutes and firefox is downloaded and installed.

I spent a few hours today installing/compiling a bunch of packages from MacPorts, but so far it’s been well worth it.

I am digging the magnetic power adapter as well. Thanks to Brandon, John and Craig for letting me pick their brains about OSX throughout the day!

Moving On

on February 14, 2007 @ 06:04 AM

Well it’s over.

After nearly six years of working with my current employer developing custom software I have decided to pursue a new direction.

My passion for developing better software has gotten the best of me. I 100% agree with the Agile Manifesto and that’s why tonight I became a signatory and part of the reason why I felt it was time for me to pursue a new direction. To iterate the four main points of the Agile Manifesto:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Individually as a developer and a team member I wake up and do the following every day I go to work:

• As a software developer I take pride in the software that I create and that others may have to maintain.
• As a tester I take pride in proving that my software works so it can be changed with confidence to satisfy evolving business needs, even if that change is not going to be made by me.
• As project member I take pride in communicating and collaborating to those I work with to give the project it’s best possible chance of success and of also solving the right business problem.
• As a person I take pride in respectfully and genuinely treating those I encounter through work and every day life.

I wish my previous employer the best of luck.

To those who read this post, I hope you will either be positively affected in someway by the software that I have or will help create or that you will positively affected by working with me directly for software that will solve your business needs.

Olivia Dennis, Tuesday evening...

on November 14, 2006 @ 11:11 PM

Another slow day here. Olivia practiced sitting up for a while, and we read her book again but, most importantly, Olivia is getting all kinds of rest. The doc stopped in this morning to let us know that she’ll have another ultrasound of her kidney tomorrow morning. This ultrasound will be sent to the specialist in Ann Arbor. He’ll use this to determine if we can wait to see him until he comes back to Kalamazoo (Bronson Hospital) or if we need to be seen right away in Ann Arbor. He will be back in Kzoo the first week of December. Our doctor told us that we should have that situated by the end of the week.

Olivia is in the treatment room right now, getting a new dressing put on her PIC line again. All the hair she has makes it hard for the tape and glue to stick. It’s no fun for her, but I’m sure a new dressing feels so much better when it’s done.

We know for sure that we’ll be here at least through the week. Next Monday we will meet with our case manager to discuss taking Olivia home with the IV and having a nurse visit the condo.

Olivia Dennis, Sunday Noon Update ...posted by mom

on November 12, 2006 @ 11:08 AM

Since Olivia’s sodium and potassium levels are a little off, the doc’s decided to limit how much she eats during the day. They cut her intake quite a bit; she’s allowed less than half of what she normally eats. As you can imagine, she’s not happy. She’s been screaming most of the time she’s awake-she kept Matt up really late last night. The doctors decided to do some blood work to check on her potassium and sodium levels today, rather than tomorrow because she’s so unhappy.. we are waiting for the results on that. Hopefully, her levels have worked themselves out and we won’t have to restrict her eating again today. Over the past three days, Olivia has been awake only a few hours. She’s been through so much and we think it’s all catching up with her. She’s so tired and she needs so much rest so she can keep getting better. Toward the end of next week, Matt & I will decide with the doc’s where Olivia will get the rest of her treatment. Maybe the last two weeks or so of antibiotics will be done at home, by a nurse who visits the condo. This isn’t anything we have to decide right now, just another thing we’re talking about with doc’s…

Bath Time

Grandpa J

Olivia Dennis, Friday Night Update

on November 11, 2006 @ 05:28 AM

Today was a really busy day for little Olivia. She had two blood draws which showed that the sodium level has elevated. The doctor says that this is a reaction to the bacterial meningitis which causes her to retain fluid. We are waiting for the doctor to determine whether her food in-take and IV fluid would need to be reduced.

Olivia got a new dressing on her PIC line today which was extremely painful, time consuming and exhausting, but Olivia and Mom toughed it out together! (see pictures below) Olivia is also waiting on an appointment with a doctor from the DeVos Children’s Hospital or the University of Michigan to determine the next steps for her kidney infection.

Besides the doctors and nurses Olivia spent most of today smiling and chatting with Mom today.

Changes To The Web Site

The black and gray colors weren’t really fitting to a cute little girl like Olivia, so in an effort for the web site to be more fitting to Olivia’s tastes we’re going to be changing the color themes and adding some more fitting imagery.

Olivia Dennis, Thursday Evening Update

on November 10, 2006 @ 04:12 AM

This posting is directly from an email I received from Adrienne today…

“Final word on hearing test is in! Not only can she hear, she can hear great! I guess she was just ignoring us. More blood was taken this morning, they’re doing blood work daily. Doc is still trying to get in touch with U of M doctor. We brought Olivia’s swing and her boppy up here. She’s finally feeing well enough for us to put her down. She takes naps in her swing and watches TV on her boppy. We used to take her for walks around the floor to see the paintings on the wall, but she’s confined to the room now… bummer. She’s happy today and she just drank 8 oz at once!! She’s eating better! She also wanted me to tell everyone thanks for all her new toys, cards, and their prayers!! Talk later! xo“

More Pictures

Here is a link to Adrienne’s yahoo photo album for Olivia: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/ayjay3636/album/576460762335295823

Olivia Dennis, Wednesday Noon Update

on November 08, 2006 @ 04:30 PM

Adrienne and Matt are still waiting to get the results from the Olivia’s last hearing test. The doctor stopped in today, and Olivia’s white blood cell count is down from yesterday, but the doctor still believes the infection to be active. They plan to monitor throughout the rest of the week and go from there.

Olivia Dennis, Monday 2pm Update

on November 06, 2006 @ 07:07 PM

Olivia is having a super day today! The specialist who reviewed the MRI said that it looks good! Adrienne said she slept SO hard last night, and she is super happy and awake today.

The first doctor who did a hearing test today said everything was looking good. There will be a second doctor who will have results sometime Tuesday, but things are looking up.

Please continue to keep Olivia, mom and dad and the doctors in your thoughts and prayers.

Olivia Dennis, Week 1 Hospital Pictures

on November 05, 2006 @ 06:26 PM

Olivia is doing good today. She had some restless sleep last night, but she’s been awake and smiling so far today! Tomorrow should be a pretty busy day. We’ll have the following:

• Olivia will get a hearing test
• Olivia will find out about her MRI from the pediatric radiographer
• Olivia will get some more blood work done

Here are some images from the hospital this last week.