I have to admit that I feel uneasy about "consortiums" or web groups ( I mean, surely the primal web group is a load of flies stuck and unable to move) however I am allowing my belief in what is happening here to overcome my scepticism of the process. Apologies if this statement has trodden on any sensitive toes but I always try to write honestly and besides a doubt overcome is far preferrable to a doubt always hidden. My purpose in joining Open Managements consortium is bedded in a recognition of similar values and the need to move my own project, Human Rights TV, onto a much stronger and more viable management structure.

Structure is something I have been studying for quite a few years now, not just any type of structure but the structure of mythic form. I admit it, I was and still am inspired by Joseph Campbell and have based my analysis of most things on his observations about the four prospects of myth. When his views really bit me was with the first book I read in 1991, it was titled Primitive Mythology and on opening it I thought he was more than ambitious with chapters such as 'The Mythology of the Paeleolithic'. But the last paragraph of this book changed the way I looked at almost everything and the measure of that impact is that today, 17 years later, I can still quote most of those words. I wont bore you with that but will give you the first four words, "Mythology; and therefore civilisation...". That blew me away and over the following three years I read all of his books, and I do mean read and I do mean all, because I wanted to know how anyone could claim that mythology and civilisation were analogous. perhaps the most tangible consequence of that search is the existence of Human Rights TV.

In the evolution of this project i began to work on what I thought were ground breaking principles of management based on a sound mythic structure. You see for me the work at Human Rights TV is about more than creating an archive or building a service, it is about creating something people can believe in and want to share in (obviously with all possible cautions regarding any form of cult developing). So toiling away in my front room in London I have been piecing the elements of not just management but a whole structural approach to a sound mythic structure which has the possibility of durability long after I am gone. And, as I have said, I thought I was being ground breaking when dealing with the constituent of management and business elements in the sociological and global prospects of the mythic form. Unfortunately I found you guys and realised that actually not only was I not alone in this area but I certainly was turning up late in the day.

I say unfortunately but that is not true, I am sure you all know what it is like to work in isolation and whilst it is a path that requires focus, dedication and self belief, the discovery that you are not alone brings immense satisfaction. My intention from here on in is to try and express the whole of the structure I have been building and share some of the insights my research has given over the last 17 years. I am hoping that this will be of interest to the community and I am certainly looking forward to learning more about Open Mangement and how it fits in and compliments my own ideas.

So here I leave you and feel that I have to wonder, have I flown into a web or cut myself free from one of my own making. Best Wishes, Jack.