This isn't really my thing. It has been so long since I last blogged here, I think my last entry pre-dates the archive. Possibly the web also. When sites go live, others do the press releases and perhaps also the blog thing. Others are better at it.

Today, however, the gears of an internal project are finally getting in motion. If I do not blog about it, no-one will. I even think its quite cool.

Basically, I have been wanting to set up what I call "Working Groups" for some time now. At Chameleon we like to think of ourselves as a fairly creative, cutting edge bunch. We like to play with new technology. We like to keep an eye on the trends on the web. Its just what we do. When we were a smaller, it did not take a great deal of effort to integrate this into our day to day work, nor to spread ideas around the company.

Now we are bigger. Our self image is much the same. We still like to play with and keep an eye on the same things. However, as one grows, what is agility in a small company can become anarchy in a larger one. Processes for managing more people on teams for larger projects makes it harder for that grassroots innovation to bubble up from the most junior developer to the most senior, or even from the developers to to the sales team. Increased specialisation either across technologies or in internal processes makes it tougher to contribute across boundaries at a timely point in the project process.

Fortunately, this is not yet a major problem for us. Within client projects we deal with this in a number of ways and continually look to safe-guard this aspect of our company culture: Innovation is what we do. It is what we, all of us, wish to continue to do. Only left alone will it become a problem.

So this is where "working groups" comes in: outside the realm of client projects. Here I don't just mean the non-billable realm where thumbs twiddle and FaceBook get the majority of their hits. Such time is rare anyway - unless a company has other problems. Despite wider economic events, we are doing ok.