When your company’s “product” is a software application, you can expect frantic growth, rapid turnover in the sales department, long hours, rumors, worry, and the eventual predictable corporate demise. These all seem to be a part of the cultural cycle; a cycle destined to be repeated.

So when you work in this volatile field, it is not uncommon to run across and recognize familiar faces from previous companies walking among the cubicles in your new, hopeful firm. “Hey, Barry, remember me? Didn’t we both work at XYZ Corp?”

In the 1980s Barry Tavlin started out as a software engineer and then was a software developer. He pioneered the mainframe software company’s usability and human factors efforts, and went on to be a director of research and development with responsibility for a corporate design control group. He was also the firm’s director of Internet technology

Today he is a Business Analyst, and a project manager on various applications for a large Southern California auto manufacturer. His duties include working on a major data center move, various PeopleSoft modules, content management and data warehouse efforts.

“I enjoy software development because it is creative and can be fast-paced. The company Bill and I worked for during the 1980s was very much like the Silicon Valley but considerably down-state from Northern California. While my timing was very good, I felt like a twig on a river. I stepped into my job at a good time, when the work was ramping up and I got sucked in. Still, as I look back, it has been, by and large, rewarding.”

Polymorphic Cyber Potential

During his tenure in that earlier mainframe software firm, Tavlin began to think about extending the latent power of technology to do more than process business transactions and manage the realm of system performance. If it was deployed with some foresight, the computer could be much more helpful to people and make them better at what they were interested in doing.  Incrementally and over time, this germ of an idea became his obsession.

“At some deep level, helping others is the essence of who I am,” Tavlin explains.  “It is part of my heritage and my personal value system. It has been at those times - when I was able to contribute - that I derived the greatest sense of personal fulfillment. Helping to make life better for others is proof that I have lived a worthwhile existence on this earth and it is much more important to me than to take into account the material things I have accumulated. It is a wondrous and abiding reason to be alive.”

The Quandary of Validation

It is easy to measure the accumulation of wealth and worldly possessions. The wealthy who inherited money or made their fortunes through luck, timing or hard work can easily demonstrate their affluence. However, without monetary gain, it is much more difficult to measure the subjective value of how one positively can help others over time.

The philosophical challenge, when one is engaged in a life of helping others, is the question; what is it worth? Does one need some sort of tangible recognition for helping? And at the end of one’s life, what does a compilation of “helping” mean?

We hear from time-to-time that an anonymous donor has bequeathed several million dollars to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (or some similar institution doing heroic work to help our society) to build another research wing. Who was that person and why did he or she do that without being recognized for it?  Would we do the same thing?

We also hear about a similar benevolence in the name of a celebrity.  Of the two, which is more truly a generous gift?  Does being named as a donor on a bronze plaque in the front of a building inspire us to a greater or lesser extent?

We asked Tavlin if he had way to take stock of times he has been able to give back to others. What were these times worth? After a pause to consider his answer, he responds…

“I tend to believe that, giving back is truly selfless. If an accounting is needed, it is best managed on a personal score card. When looking in the mirror, one has to be totally honest about what he or she has done or is engaged in doing.

“I also believe that there are other tangible factors that can come into play such as external feedback from those you help, measurable results, compensation and public recognition. Each of these is important, and each plays a contributing role in helping to tally one’s sense of worth.

“At the end of the day…and carrying forward to the beginning of the next day, in my heart I know that what I am doing matters. I know when my behavior or my efforts are having a positive impact on the lives of others,” Tavlin says. “I feel good about it.”

Planning is one of the project management skills Tavlin calls on in his giving efforts. It gives him a sense of structure as well as a direction. Yet he is still very much aware of the tactical aspect and immediacy of the situation.

“I try to dedicate a portion of my time to how I would like to see things shaping up in the future. At the same time I must ask myself, ‘What am I going to accomplish towards my goals today?’ It is this type of thinking that helps me not only get through my day, it adds to my enjoyment and sense of accomplishment.   Some actions generate immediate results, while others are simply small steps towards a long-term goal. I have learned that with almost all of my ideas, they are 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration!”

Deploying Assistive Technology

Tavlin’s interest in making systems more useful began when he pioneered the human factors department. The department’s mission was to make a technically obtuse software system easier for end users to understand, manage and operate. The success of his first deployed assistive approach began to nudge Tavlin’s entrepreneurial zeal. The figurative light bulb began to illuminate over his head.       

“’Wait a minute!' I said to myself, 'if I can build it for this company, why shouldn’t I be thinking about applying human factors in a much broader context?'

“That epiphany opened a whole new world for me. I soon was learning about cutting edge ideas such as helping people with disabilities and ‘community technology centers.’ I learned about the Digital Divide and related organizations which offer access and training to people in areas that are underserved by computers. I got involved with ‘eGovernment' and participatory software implementations that allow people to publish and take a more active role in their community governance.           

Disabled Freedom

When the Internet began to take off, Tavlin was involved in sponsoring a monthly public seminar series and wrote a newsletter that covered the topic of new ways to apply technology to help people.

He relates an amazing encounter he had with one of the seminar speakers, who at the time was a young man in high school and afflicted with Cerebral Palsy. The young man’s mother had founded the Computer Access Center in Santa Monica (CA) involving the application of computers to assist children with disabilities.

“What I witnessed at first was a disabled young man who was limited to getting around in a battery powered wheelchair. He had very limited control over his motor functions and was not able to speak understandably. My initial impression was that he was mentally as well as physically disabled. I was concerned about what was going on because I did not know what to expect. The obvious and unsettling physical challenges limited my perception and kept me from seeing his abilities.  I could not have been more wrong.

“He slowly rolled in and motored up to the front of the room. He manipulated a mouse that had been adapted to work inside his mouth by clicking his teeth. The clicking started a synthesized voice playback program on his PC that, in turn, delivered a speech he had written by using that specialized mouse on the computer. He deployed an electronic device to play back his message. Through it, he spoke movingly and compellingly about how a computer helped him to be independent and accomplish things using brilliantly deployed technology.”

Tavlin reports that the young man has since gone on to earn a degree in graphic arts from Cal Arts. The experience triggered an even deeper commitment on Tavlin’s part to work with people and make a difference in their lives. 

After a decade of being involved in various efforts that lent themselves to integrating technology with societal needs, Tavlin asked himself this question; Based on what I know, my mental database of accumulated technical knowledge, what can I do that could make a really big difference in my world?   The question unleashed a storm.

Idea Storm

“It was in January 2006 that ideas began to emerge…It was as if my brain was on drugs, but I certainly was not taking any. Hundreds of ideas began to explode. These ideas would often pour out at all times night and day. Often ideas popped into my head when I would take walks on one particular street in my neighborhood.

“I would rush back home and write down these ideas as fast as I could. I began to wake up friends at all hours and share these ideas. My friends must have thought I’d lost my mind. I would scribble notes as fast as I could write and still the ideas kept coming at a frenetic pace. It was an amazing phenomenon.

“At times it was also frustrating because these ideas were exciting and I wanted to begin implementing them all at once. There were a number of times that I would wake up at 3 a.m. and put in time documenting brand new concepts before I went to work.

What came to Tavlin during his walks and early morning epiphanies were the beginnings of the connections that would eventually link enabling technologies to his struggle to matter when he worked to assist others.

“I had been asking myself the often troubling life-purpose questions; ‘Do I matter?’ ‘Does my life really make a difference?’ And then repositioning my questions within the context of the immediate present, I was also asking, ‘Do I make a difference now?’ Why then do I feel like I am not doing enough now and that I should be doing more?’”

For a methodology planner like Tavlin, it can be demoralizing and frustrating when one can conceptualize a strategic objective, but not be able to identify the critical steps and key players that will be needed so that a project can be put in motion and eventually completed.

“What makes me feel as if I matter is the positive and sometimes negative feedback I get from people acknowledging that I make a difference to them. Then I realize that, if my energies have positively influenced, a dozen people and these people, in turn, take their respective energies forward and each of them has influenced another dozen people, the compounded energies and changes truly matter in a much larger sense.”

“My small contributions have made an impact on others and, in fact, potentially thousands of people have already or will eventually benefit from what I have done. If I could trace the inspiration web to them, it would be measurable. If I could bring the Butterfly Effect into reality, what would benefit me would also benefit many other people who are asking the same questions about their lives mattering.”

Social networking sites (also known as Web 2.0), such as MySpace, Facebook, Linked In, etc. were still in their infancy at the time. Tavlin’s 2006 ideas about a bonding network had a common foundation but a radically different premise.

“This ‘network’ I was conceiving of would be an exponential number of people who are less focused on expanding one’s social interfaces and much more attuned to connecting us by recognizing our sources of inspiration multiplied by a thousand or more. It is about manifesting the positive influences we all have in our world: In essence it is a visible framework for the energy and effort, rather than indirect and, in some cases unrecognized good will. Through the network, we bring all that to life, and then we share it to inspire others.”

The Inspiration Project

Tavlin conceptualized how a network might operate.  He engaged a firm to work with him as he coded the engine that would operate via an Internet website. That brand new Website is now live:  www.inspirationproject.org.

“My goal was to have something that would not be entirely secular or religious. The Inspiration Project is not affiliated with any religious movement or organization. Having said that, I feel that we all emanate from the same incredible source. So the project  celebrates that binding nexus as well as our shared bond with one another. If you look closely, there is an unmistakable spiritual dimension to it.

Tavlin wants to reach large, heterogeneous groups of participants who can use the site to their particular advantage and benefit.

“My hope is for big numbers of people to find the site. These include the (baby) ‘boomers’ who now feel the need to share a perspective of who they are in the world with their children and grandchildren. I’d like to see people use the site who may have experienced difficult times or are going through health issues,” Tavlin gathers his thoughts and adds, “…It could be anyone who has or is going through a challenge in their lives.”

Tavlin wants to also reach community organizations, spiritual seekers, students of personal growth, assistive technology advocates, social change activists, and other individuals, businesses or organizations that are involved in recognizing the good work of others. The hope is for the site to gather popularity and continue to add new people who make it their own, build their networks and derive benefit from it. The stories and inspiration will be passed on to others.

“Where ‘YouTube’ shares millions of videos of all types, our hope is that the Inspiration Project Website will share true stories from real people about being transformed and change the fabric of our culture in a positive way.”

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Editor’s Note: Please take a moment to click on the link to the Inspiration Project and support Barry Tavlin’s efforts. Link>>