John Barben

I was born in the 60’s – went to school in the 70’s – grew up in the 80’s – built a CV in the 90’s – and I’m now growing a family and a business in the Noughties. The business is called exsto and we do communities of practice, social software implementations, transitions, project management and software vendor selection.

I've been involved in application software almost all my professional life - designing, implementing, marketing, strategising, managing, supporting - I think I've done every job outside Finance in a software house.

Project / Portfolio Management - Service Management - Knowledge Management - they're all areas in which I've held influential positions and they are now consolidating by incorporating common capabilities – collaboration, mail interfaces, portals, XML, knowledge bases – they all fit into all of the above categories.

The biggest professional kick I get is from seeing business lives change by applying software – not replacing a manual job with a mechanical device, but by making things possible that weren’t possible without a computer and the Internet. That’s where SiteScape comes in – we’re putting technology and people together and really addressing the social elements… why should I share information? … what will I look like online?... is anybody interested in what I have to say?

I like the idea of building and maintaining networks of people – that’s the really creative bit in life – and being able to find the right person at the right time is professionally valuable.

Good reads: “Zen and the art of….” and the follow up “Lila – an enquiry into morals” – anything by Charles Handy – particularly “The Elephant and the Flea” – William Gibson – Negroponte. Fit them all together and you break out of existing technology patterns and existing social structures, but retain your community.