Intro

[Artur F. Silva]

Dear list participants:

I have been in this list for more than one year, only reading the posts
from time to time. As I would like to participate in some of the
threats now in discussion (in discussion some days ago, I mean), I think
it is time to present myself.

I am Portuguese, 50 years old. English is not my first language, nor
even the second. In these last years I rarely write or speak in English;
please forgive any "language problems".

I have worked for IBM during 18 years, first as a Systems Engineer;
In the last years with IBM I was responsible for "Information Systems
Planning" (ISP, for short) and for planning and running Executive Customer
Seminars in Portugal.

I left IBM in 1989 (my decision!) to create a small consulting firm
Working in ISP and ISM, with a lot more independence than before...

Even when I was a SE, I concluded that developing IS applications was not
my real job; my real job was to do "organisational change" through IS,
hopefully changing for the better... As an ISP consultant my job
is "to help customers develop better organisations through IS planning and
management".

That is the reason why I became interested, some 20 years ago, in general
management questions, and especially in organisation development and
learning.
Learning Organisations, Information and Knowledge Management, and the
relations
between Management, Ethics, and Social Evolution are some of my current
interests.

In this last 3 years I have also worked as Invited Professor, at the
"Department
of Informatics Engineering" of the University of Coimbra, where, apart from
ISP,
I have been teaching subjects like "Management processes", "Business
management"
and "Society, Profession and Ethics". A report on the way I have taught
Management,
treating the class as a LO, has been explained in a mail to the lo-list.

I am also interested in OS and similar techniques but until now I had not
the opportunity to practice them (I have used metaplan some years ago). So
my Knowledge from them is mainly from books and the Web, combined with
my experience with other types of planning activities.

But I am very interested in beginning using them; and if it can be in Africa
or Latin America, even better...

I hope to have the time to participate more regularly at least about topics
(like
KM) that I have already used. And to continue learning about OS and,
hopefully,
have the possibility to practice

Regards

Artur

>From  Thu Oct 14 05:35:19 1999
Message-Id: <THU.14.OCT.1999.053519.0000.>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 05:35:19 +0000
Reply-To: ml at martinleith.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Martin Leith <ml at martinleith.com>
Organization: martinleith.com
Subject: Re: Intro
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi Artur.

Thank you for telling your story.

Your English is impeccable.

Very Best wishes,

Martin Leith

http://www.martinleith.com/