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Past, present and future: Difference between revisions
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There are about to be some changes to the [[JC]] so I thought you lovely hardy band of readers might like to know what’s about to happen and why. | There are about to be some changes to the [[JC]] so I thought you lovely hardy band of readers might like to know what’s about to happen and why. | ||
Unlike [[This is Spinal Tap|the ’Tap]] this will ''not'' be some bold new direction: there is no interfering Yoko and the lead guitarist has not departed in a funk of creative differences: he's just got a bit older and more partial to country & western. And the cricket bat? An affectation. | Unlike [[This is Spinal Tap|the ’Tap]] this will ''not'' be some bold new direction: there is no interfering Yoko and the lead guitarist has not departed in a funk of creative differences: he's just got a bit older and more partial to country & western. And the cricket bat? An affectation, of course. | ||
Instead, the JC is going to double down on his current direction since, after a decade pulling and pushing at it, he is fairly confident he now knows what it is. | Instead, the JC is going to double down on his current direction since, after a decade pulling and pushing at it, he is fairly confident he now knows what it is. | ||
In essence, the plan is to “turn it up to 11”, create a premium “ninja” tier for | In essence, the plan is to “turn it up to 11”, create a premium “ninja” tier for legal eagles wanting specialist analysis, and see what happens. | ||
You should therefore expect to see this rider popping up a bit more: 👇 | You should therefore expect to see this rider popping up a bit more: 👇 | ||
{{Subscriberrider}} | {{Subscriberrider}} | ||
Tally ho. | |||
===How will it work=== | ===How will it work=== | ||
There will be two JCs: the regular blue one, and a new | There will be two JCs: the regular blue one, and a new ninja green one. The green one will contain all the regular information, plus additional specialist material for [[ninja]]s. That ninja content will gradually move off the regular site and onto the new one over coming months. | ||
===Emma Chisit=== | ===Emma Chisit=== | ||
The “blue” [[JC]] will remain free: no ads, no login required, no scraping and selling your personal data. | The regular “blue” [[JC]] will remain free: no ads, no login required, no scraping and selling your personal data. | ||
Individual access to the | Individual access to the new ninja green one — designed for specialist contract negotiators, students, market practitioners and those needing knowhow management in their actual line of work — will require login, for which there will be an annual subscription working out at the princely sum of £1.91 per week. Half a pint of beer. Also, no ads, and no monetising personal data. | ||
I haven’t yet figured out how to price corporate packages or group deals, but it would be a nice problem to have, so [mailto:enquiries@jollycontrarian.com email me if you are interested in having me work it out]. | |||
===How it started=== | ===How it started=== | ||
The JC has been running in one form or another now for nearly fifteen years. It started out as one fellow trying to nut out the close out mechanics of the {{isdama}} and then put it somewhere where he wouldn’t lose it. The bits he couldn’t nut out, he decided to make fun of. | The JC has been running in one form or another now for nearly fifteen years. It started out as one fellow trying to nut out the close out mechanics of the {{isdama}} and then put it somewhere where he wouldn’t lose it. The bits he couldn’t nut out, he decided to make fun of. | ||
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The focus has always been analysing, explaining, simplifying, demystifying and ''contextualising'' — the commercial context the most important of all since that is the aspect most often lost on newcomers (and, frankly, old hands) in these highly specialised products. | The focus has always been analysing, explaining, simplifying, demystifying and ''contextualising'' — the commercial context the most important of all since that is the aspect most often lost on newcomers (and, frankly, old hands) in these highly specialised products. | ||
The tone is | The tone is defiantly non-corporate. It will stay that way. From the start, creating the JC had to be not just easy, but ''fun'': there was no way I could have stuck at it if it was a drag. It turned out to be quite the outlet for the frustrated writer. | ||
And, Lord only knows, there is much that is absurd about our modern corporate life and the people who populate the landscape of the financial markets which asks for satire, and precious few who are inclined publicly to provide it, so the JC found a niche. | And, Lord only knows, there is much that is absurd about our modern corporate life and the people who populate the landscape of the financial markets which asks for satire, and precious few who are inclined publicly to provide it, so the JC found a niche. | ||
All of this with a day-job. Mind you, the JC has largely been how I have managed to ''do'' a day job since I started it — lawyers gravely undervalue [[knowledge management]], even though it should be the most important thing they do. Nevertheless, I owe a debt of gratitude to a sequence of employers over the last decade and a half for letting me carry on with it. | All of this with a day-job. Mind you, the JC has largely been how I have managed to ''do'' a day job since I started it — lawyers gravely undervalue [[knowledge management]], even though it should be the most important thing they do. Nevertheless, I owe a debt of gratitude to a sequence of employers over the last decade and a half for letting me carry on with it. In our mutual interests of plausible deniability I will not mention them by name, but they know who they are. Thank you all. | ||
===Where it’s at=== | ===Where it’s at=== | ||
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It shouldn’t need to be said but, let’s say it: this is an information resource and [[Disclaimer|not specific legal advice]]. Any reader uses it at {{sex|her}} own risk. These are strong opinions weakly held: they are personal, idiosyncratic, impatient, polemical and, surprise surprise, ''contrarian''. A good portion of them are probably ''wrong''. Like its author’s mind, it is also prone to impulsive change, without warning or notice. Like life, everything is provisional. | It shouldn’t need to be said but, let’s say it: this is an information resource and [[Disclaimer|not specific legal advice]]. Any reader uses it at {{sex|her}} own risk. These are strong opinions weakly held: they are personal, idiosyncratic, impatient, polemical and, surprise surprise, ''contrarian''. A good portion of them are probably ''wrong''. Like its author’s mind, it is also prone to impulsive change, without warning or notice. Like life, everything is provisional. | ||
This material is, in other words, for discussion between peers. It is no tablet from Mount Sinai. It is meant for people who are engaged in specialist negotiation and advisory capacities, who will already have a | This material is, in other words, for discussion between peers. It is no tablet from Mount Sinai. It is meant for people who are engaged in specialist negotiation and advisory capacities, who will already have a technical grounding in these disciplines and who are experienced and sceptical enough to know when the JC is talking through his hat. The [[JC]] makes no apologies for sticking two fingers up at conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom is welcome to stick two fingers right back up at the JC, and often does. | ||
Besides the explaining, that is meant to be the JC’s key virtue: offering a different perspective, tweaking the nose of the hive mind, apple-pieing the bed of perfectly reasonable preconceptions. Being nobly wrong does no harm: ''[[Friedrich Nietzsche|was Mich nicht umbringt, macht Mich stärker]]''. The JC is not perfect. But, as the [[financial disasters roll of honour]] ably demonstrates, ''neither is anyone else''. There are fakers, dilettantes, confidence players and claptrap artistes everywhere. The JC just admits to being one, is all. | |||
===Where it’s going === | ===Where it’s going === | ||
There are a host of “push” resources out there: [[client briefing]]s, newsletters, Twitter feeds and so on, shunting discrete and unconnected “timely” information at you. There are comparatively few “pull” resources — deep, interconnected, nonlinear resources where the reader comes to the material, rather than having it shoved in the reader’s face. This is because building a pull resource is a big job. You can’t do it overnight, and it usually takes a lot of people and coordination. | There are a host of “push” resources out there: [[client briefing]]s, newsletters, Twitter feeds and so on, shunting discrete and unconnected “timely” information at you. There are comparatively few “pull” resources — deep, interconnected, nonlinear resources where the reader comes to the material, rather than having it shoved in the reader’s face. This is because building a pull resource is a big job. You can’t do it overnight, and it usually takes a lot of people and coordination. | ||
Rather by accident, the JC has become one such resource. It gets a fairly regular flow of about 10,000 unique visitors per month. Beyond rough geographic data, which suggests the JC is popular in places where people negotiate {{isdama}}s, | Rather by accident, the JC has become one such resource. It gets a fairly regular flow of about 10,000 unique visitors per month. Beyond rough geographic data, which suggests the JC is popular in places where people negotiate {{isdama}}s, I don’t know much about its readership, other than that they too are interested in whether [[Africa|Kilimanjaro really rises above the Serengeti]]. (It’s the JC’s all-time top search). | ||
Lovely premium subscribers will help fund technological improvements the site needs to grow, and to build out its content: better documentation of and a tidy-up to the coding to manage the technical back-end, which should make the whole thing more consistent. | |||
I would also like to commission some help to build out premium content, making the site more comprehensive. There are some far-off, dreamy plans to create a customised offering for smallee firms and in-house teams, but that is a bit further off in the future. | |||
In any case I hope premium subscribers will influence ''where'' to should focus content build out. | |||
=== [[Georgia’s Fund]]?=== | === [[Georgia’s Fund]]?=== | ||
Yup, | Yup, the JC still supports that, and will continue to do so. | ||
===What's with the constantly using the third person?=== | ===What's with the constantly using the third person?=== | ||
Dread Pirate Roberts. Say no more. | Dread Pirate Roberts. Say no more. | ||
<span class="plainlinks">[https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollybuxton/ Olly Buxton] </span><br>The Jالی Contrarian | <span class="plainlinks">[https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollybuxton/ Olly Buxton] </span><br>The Jالی Contrarian | ||