The most apt quote to describe what I have be up to for the past 20 years might be “always beginning, never finished.”
I have become a widely known writer and analyst, in recent years through blogging (see
http://www.stoweboyd.com/message, /Message), but prior to that through more traditional channels. I am flattered to be considered a leading authority on social tools and their impact on business and society, and in that guise for the past ten years I have worked as a consultant and advisor for dozens of high-tech start-ups and many of the largest software companies in the world, including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and others. Although I have principally acted as a consultant since 1994, I have taken a few full-time roles, most notably as president of the social media publisher, Corante (2004-2005), various roles at the instant messaging tech start-up, Ikimbo (2000-2002), and executive roles with consulting companies Modus Operandi (1999) and Knowledge Capital Group (2000). However, my first love is working with companies at the innovative edge. So, more than anything else I enjoy consulting with start-ups or working with established companies on future-looking product and market strategy. I coined the term "Advisory Capital" in early 2006 to describe what I do at A Working Model, my consulting firm (see this
http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2006/02/advisory_capita.htm... at /Message for more information).
On the media side, I have been a regular contributor to many mainstream publications, including Darwin, Enterprise Reengineering, Lotus Developer Journal, Knowledge Management Magazine, and others. I wrote a for-fee newsletter, Business Process Strategies, for over six years: originally published by Cutter, and then by John Wiley & Sons. I have consulted with many media companies particularly regarding blogging, including Medialive, BusinessWeek, and CIO. Steven Baker of BusinessWeek once credited me with teaching the bloggers there “all they know about blogging,” but that overstates the case.
Prior to 1994, I spent a decade working in the software tools world, originally as a researcher and programmer, and then as a software executive. I earned a masters degree in Computer Science from Boston University in 1984, and taught computer science as adjunct faculty for 10 years, at BU and University of California, Irvine. I published numerous papers on programming environments and software tools, language design, and software design, becoming a National Lecturer for the Association of Computing Machinery in 1987. After several years working with various software and consulting firms in the Boston area, I took a job with a small startup in Irvine California, Meridian Software Systems, in 1988. Following an odd series of events that still perplex me, I assumed the role of president, and led that company through a VC round and eventual purchase by our largest public competitor, Verdix. After the merger, I assumed the new role of EVP of Engineering, and moved to Washington DC. In that role, I led the due diligence leading to Verdix merging with Rational Machines to form Rational Software in 1994. I left Rational to pursue my interests in collaboration and social technologies outside the programming world, and have never really looked back.
