We are funny beings at times in thinking about my recent conversation with my friend and ex-colleague Jonny Coombs and how I need to respond to his very excellent feedback I realize that I have made a mistake I've made many times before. I so wish it was possible to always learn by one's mistakes, but (at least for me) that just doesn't seem possible. Anyway, this particular mistake I've made is one where I've assumed that other people can read my mind. In other words, I push forward with the false assumption that my premise is already understood by my audience.

Of course, when your premise is not understood then all sorts of confusion can rule. Jonny said to me "What is your site about?" to which I answered, why it is about making you a success! I've put together the best content management site imaginable so that both the skilled and the novice can be part of a community that encourages individualism. The GATE Trust System is ubiquitous, but not the sole or necessarily even the best reason to join.

My entire career in computer science has been one of success enablement. I enjoy myself best when I create environments (systems, applications) that allow other people to succeed. I worked in the Information Technology section of the comp sci for better than a decade, tuning computer servers, networks, and applications to allow the users of them to do their work to the best of their ability. There is very little glory in IT but a great deal of job satisfaction.

I take that same philosophy with me to business, my business plans have always taken into account my colleagues' and the corporate business plans. Sometimes that works very well, particularly with relatively small groups; when the plans are meshed together you have the best chance of meeting or even exceeding all your corporate goals That approach starts to fail, however, when there are competing plans.

All businesses have a similarity, but once a business gets to a certain size it starts to behave not as a single entity but as a number of distinct business units (BU). These BUs often compete against each other and have little concern for the others' success (the individual compensation packages often reward behaviour that is good for a BU but not necessarily the best thing for the corporation!) but I digress...

My point is that my own satisfaction is maximized by making things better for other people -- I'm not altrusistic at all, quite selfish in that regard really, it just happens that my selfishness helps other people!

I created GATE Village so that other people can shine and I can get rewarded for helping other people succeed. Yes, the GATE Trust System is vital to the Village philosophy and is ubiquitous, it can be thought of as a very good additional tool to all the other tools required to do business. But I knew from the start that Trust alone is not sufficient and so the Village is literally packed with value suitable for the novice and the expert to share and enjoy.

It has solid value for individuals wanting to display their individuality or just have some real control over their online experience. It brings affordable big-business technology to the small and medium business with integrated ECM and WCM. The Village is a full ecommerce site allowing the integrated sale and promotion of virtually anything; downloadable digital objects like books, high-quality images, MP3s and videos; products requiring shipping (with integrated shipping quotes); or just a place to promate and sell consultancy services.

GATE Village provides a fully integrated suite capable of all the ecommerce above along with fulfilling the requirements of an Intranet (brining secure collaboration to a defined set of users). With security foremost in mind, GATE Village makes it easy to share content with just the people you want to.

Beauty, Brains, Form, & Function -- all integrated within an Environment of Trust.

My problem (as it revolves around the Village at any rate) is to devise a method to explain the full value in that pithy, succinct marketing way people have come to expect ... not exactly my forte as this (and virtually everything else I've ever written) can attest to.