A curious question, you might say, and you’d be right, obviously!

However, seminal business thinker and social philosopher, Charles Handy has said that new ideas, new products, new kinds of associations and institutions, new initiatives, new art and new designs seldom come from established organisations, they come from individuals – what he terms the New Alchemists.

Handy recently said:

My studies of people who have created something out of nothing with their lives – the new alchemists – have proved for me that you can learn anything if you really want to. Passion is what drives these people, passion for their product or their cause.

“Passion for their product or their cause” could certainly be applied to Robert Scoble – why do I think of him specifically? Well, both Robert Scoble and Charles Handy are keynoting the IT@Cork Annual Conference in Cork on November 30th so whenever I see the one I immediately think of the other (I am involved in the organisation of the IT@Cork conference).

It will be fascinating to see these two individuals together in Cork and I can’t wait to see what Charles Handy will make of Robert Scoble and the whole phenomenon of social software.