Well it's a New Year and as you can see the site has a new look and feel - in part because I had to upgrade from Drupal 5 to 6, and in part because it needed cleaning up. The upgrade process was painful in the extreme, probably because on the Drupal 5 site I used a lot of semi-customised modules. Here the benefit of frequent documenting as you go, doing it yourself, and backing up payed off - I knew how the old site worked. I was also able to refer to website hit logs and determine that most users now use a high-resolution wide screen, so my new theme accommodates this requirement (its best viewed at 1024 pixels wide resolutions or higher). That said I've left it as a fluid theme to accommodate users who still use lower resolutions or "square screens". My irritation with the upgrade was I lost all my tailored views and they have to be rebuilt from scratch because the upgrade path is not seamless. It also resulted in lots of broken links. I've used this as an opportunity to search engine optimise the site. This means almost all the links have changed, although the content is still there. I'm still searching for broken links, but I think I've fixed most - please let me know if you find any. I've also changed the logo but I’m not entirely happy with it. What do you think?

2009 was not a good year for blogging, or any form of personal or business productivity on my behalf. There were many reasons for this not the least of which the contract I have with the Australian Defence Force precludes many activities. Other reasons include exhaustion and writers block. I'm over the first, and time will tell how writer's block goes. I have written quite a bit towards my PhD, which I plan to submit at the end of the year. Bits might also form a few blogs, but I don't want to distract myself too much from the task at hand. One thing I did do in 2009 was a lot of reading so my blogging theme for the next little while will be book reviews – these seem to be popular and get lots of hits in any case. I also did a presentation or two; attended three courses, including a Cognitive Edge accreditation course ; published a paper ; and even wrote a bagpipe tune. Beth’s Inspiration is not my best effort ever (the best is Black Pat ), but I think it’s pretty good and more importantly Beth says she likes it – perhaps she’s just being nice!

There's an old saying - "You don't start a business because you're a good manager. You start a business because you're good at something!" I'm good at network analysis, knowledge management and a few other things, but I'm not so good at growing the business and I'm even worse at seeking business. Fortunately I don't have to seek work - it comes by word of mouth, which is the best sort of work. In fact demand is exceeding supply, so Knowledge Matters™ is recruiting! In recent weeks I've had to turn down have national and international opportunities, including prospects in Canberra, Christchurch and Kathmandu. So are you the person I'm looking for?

In the first instance I'm looking for someone based in Australia to manage and grow the business. You need to be passionate about knowledge management and network analysis, which means you must be personable. I will teach you the necessary skills. You need to be a self-starter who can work with little direction. You must be prepared to back yourself, because your pay will be entirely linked to the work you bring to Knowledge Matters™. I'm even prepared, once you have proven yourself, to transfer part-ownership of Knowledge Matters™ to you. We can agree just what this means and when it will occur up front.

I'm also looking for a pool of people who want periodic work, but don't want the hassle of running their own business and probably don't want to work full-time. Again you must be personable and passionate about knowledge management and network analysis. Of course I will train you, but some conditions will apply.