AutoPopuli

Making technology more human

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:36:00 +0000

I was inspired to create the above image on Polyvore after reading a few tweets and retweets like these from a friend I follow on Twitter, Oscar Berg:

@oscarberg
Social technologies are accelerators of a transformation of work which has been waiting to happen for a long time
8 Sept

@oscarberg
"Social" has become the umbrella term for the adaptation of work & business to the creative economy
8 Sept

@oscarberg
Putting Social Media to Work flpbd.it/4wtS by @billives < +1 integration with daily operations key to adoption #e20 #socbiz
20 Sept

@oscarberg
The recipe for #socbiz / #e20 success is to understand existing culture & what buttons to push to start the transformation
8 Sept

@oscarberg
RT @rickardhansson Many people say they want social tools at work, but when they realize it's about changing habits.. they don't "have the time"
8 Sept

Lately a lot of buzz on Twitter, and increasingly on Google Plus, around Social Business has been about the integration of social tools and platforms into the tasks, workflows and processes inside businesses. The theory is that doing so should lead to greater adoption among workers, eventually leading to cultural change making collaboration and knowledge sharing part of Business As Usual.

But at the moment, Social Business platform vendors are in an ever-escalating arms race for greater sales and vendor lock-in by releasing upgrades ever faster with ever more features, resulting in the oxymoron - complicated Web 2.0 tools. I'll leave Oscar ask the following

Source:
Oscar Berg is an Enterprise Collaboration consultant and a Social Business Expert Blogger. Oscar's pro blog is http://www.thecontenteconomy.com, and he can be followed on Twitter @oscarberg. Find out more about Oscar.

A conversation about sources

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:43:00 +0000

Today is the 14 July, Bastille Day (appropriately enough). Last night I received a tweet from fellow community facilitator, @jamiebillingham.

Taken aback, I couldn't imagine how to respond to Jamie, so ...

... and entreated Jamie to view my Twitter favorites to see my influences, upon which she replied, "our faves lists looks eerily similar :-)"

I also had the good fortune of receiving some tweets from @hrheingold, including:

The conversation ran its course but I was still nagged by Jamie's question, "what are the theories or mental models I base my practice on? Reflective practitioner stuff."

Thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that so much of what is happening today, and our conversations around them, are refractions emanating from a singular beam of light - The Cluetrain Manifesto.

I won't bother comparing the Cluetrain 95 theses to the impact of Luther's 95 Theses - just Google the words Luther AND Cluetrain, and you will see umpteen articles exploring the same ground. Let it suffice to say that the revolutionary changes being felt today in politics, business and society are just as profound as they were in the 16th century.

Wikipedia summarizes the essential message of Cluetrain to be:

"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter, and getting smarter faster than most companies."

The Cluetrain Manifesto - Abridged is a paper from DigEcon Research based on work by Sandra Davey, which distills the 95 Theses into 10 principles:

Markets are human conversations
The internet has made the network the dominant form of organization
People rely on their network not authority
Principles need to replace positions, and be at the centre of the conversation
Loyalty is built on honest two-way communication
Corporations need to belong to a community
The market and the company are not separate - they are one
Marketing is not a mediator between the customer and the company
The customer-centric organization is dead
The revolution is happening.

Companies which ignore the above principles do so at their own peril; their days are numbered.

I would also add that the people I follow on Twitter have had an enormous influence on how I helped people as a community manager.

Source:

For a brief review of Cluetrain, read The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Mark McLaren.

The full Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger is at http://cluetrain.com/.

Tweet this post!

E2.0 / Social Business selected tweets 28 May - 5 June 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:23:00 +0000

My tweet of the week is the blog topic The synaptic fluid of social business by Anne McCrossan. Anne uses a beautiful graphic of neural synapses to illustrate the connectivity derived from the network effect.

C-suite executives are becoming aware of the advantages of increased connectivity between stakeholders, employees and customers. "The action potential contained within committed, visceral and trustworthy human relationships, that’s at the heart of the social connections, has never been more important."

For those businesses which ban Facebook, Twitter and networking in general, Anne describes this as "a very modern form of disenfranchisement; being denied a networked identity, may become the ultimate social sanction of this century." The old power structures, with their utilitarian emphasis on profits and processes, are inimical to an open business culture.

Also, implementng a social intranet without a commensurate change in culture towards inclusion, co-creation and knowledge sharing will result in the struggle and ultimate failure of businesses to benefit from the network effects derived from true openness and transparency.

An open business culture is one which values human relationships. As Anne says, "Trust is the synaptic fluid of social business".

The purpose of creating a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources about Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business; being a curator for the onslaught of new content generated daily. Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with clarity and to the point.

You have new and existing social customers

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:46:00 +0000

The advantage of having an excellent peer network on Twitter is that I get to see what's trending in the Sodial Media and Social Business spaces at any given time.

One particular trend I have noted in the last few weeks is the growing opinion that Social Media Marketing (SMM), as it is being practiced by many companies today, is ineffectual at best and turning customers totally off at worst. Don't take my word for it, take a look for yourself:

The primary reason for SMM's failings is that Social Media strategy has been hijacked by Marketing for the purpose of new customer acquisitions only. What many existing customers are finding is that there isn't a strategy for customer retention; no social media feedback mechanisms in place for Customer Experience and Customer Service to act upon.

This approach is one which is focused on short term profits from the social space. It is also a recipe for SM failure and severe damage to a brand's reputation.

A sensible SM strategy is one which focuses equally on new customers and the retention of existing customers. A Social Business is one which is customer and employee led. By networking your employees with social tools, you can better scale to support and deliver an effective Social Media strategy. How effective is your Social Media strategy and what are you going to do about it?

See: Video and presentation: How to Scale Your Social Business Program and Achieve Escape Velocity (Keynote) by @jowyang at Altimeter.

The Twylah difference

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Mon, 30 May 2011 08:49:00 +0000

Twylah is a web app which helps you to get the most out of your tweetstream, and also gives you the opportunity to enhance your influence and online reputation.

Twylah offers the following features:

Aggregates your tweets into separate subject matter (keyword) twitter streams
Presents your tweets in a beautiful and dynamic magazine style webpage
Allows your follows to subscribe to each subject matter (keyword) twitter stream
Delivers the relevant twitter streams to your followers email
Encourages you followers to consume and engage with your tweets on your Twylah webpage
Allows you to clearly see if your tweets are relevant to your industry
Allows others to see your expertise
Allows you to better determine who to follow

Twylah’s analytics will determine

The best times and days to tweet.
Which followers to engage
The success of each of your tweets
The success of each subject matter (keyword)

But what has sold me most about Twylah has been the human touch - as is evident in the above video with Robert Scoble. Eric Kim, the founder and CEO, has been friendly and generous with me on emails, chats (video & text) and tweets. Eric is a model CEO for all businesses to emulate because of the intimate, hands-on approach he has with his customers and brand advocates.

Though he may be swamped with the demands of running a growing start-up, Eric and his wife Kelly always make time to talk with people. They realize that the online space today is about networking with authentic relationships; in this regard Twylah leads by example. If you haven't tried Twylah yet, sign up for the beta. You'll be glad you did.

Source:
Improve your Twitter Influence and Reputation with Twylah (Video Review) by @terrycrosby

Note: There is a glitch with the service I usually use to compile my weekly fav'd tweets, so there won't be a Selected Tweets post this week.

Be careful what you ask for

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:47:00 +0000

When rolling out an internal community at work, you may find a very vocal minority will use Social Media as a platform for advancing their own agenda above all else, the 'what's in it for me' people. They are less interested in how they can improve their team or the business, and more intent on broadcasting what they are all about. What they have to contribute has limited value in terms of what the business as a whole can gain from them - they have a very small area of impact.

For the rest of us, collaborative working is like it says on the tin: all of us (teams, departments, business units and those with shared interests) working together and getting things done for the good of each other and the business. No more, no less.

When people connect and work together their activities can positively affect learning, workflows, processes and innovation. The area of impact or potential value to the business grows exponentially. And it's not about numbers either; one or two people can affect change that alters the direction of a business, and can make the difference between stagnation and success.

That's why it's important when defining an internal social strategy and its outcomes that the focus is not on employees asking, "What's in it for me?", but instead, "What can we do for the business by collaborating and sharing knowledge together?" It's about pulling together to make the business a better place to work, do it and it will come to pass.

The natural result of employees participating in workplace collaboration is that they end up building a reputation for knowledge and expertise often beyond that for which they were hired in the first place. This may open doors in their careers they may have only dreamed about in the past. But this is as a consequence of sharing, not the motive for it in the first place.

For some this will be a very hard pill to swallow, but for others it will be seen as an opportunity for unleashing unused talents, for making new workplace relationships, and for actually becoming passionate about being at work. The above is from my experience of internal community management. If your viewpoint is similar or different, please feel free to comment.

E2.0 / Social Business selected tweets 14-20 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Chris Lake, Director of Innovation at @Econsultancy, rightly raises the issue that most businesses participating in Social Media are only interested in acquiring new customers and sales. Their existing customers are ignored and left to use outdated and inefficient channels to raise problems and dissatisfactions.

Existing customers aren't stupid. They are aware of that focus, and that little or no attention is paid to their ongoing needs. Over time, they become inured to flashy SM campaigns of brands which aren't interested in the customer relationship. Poor customer service is a brand reputation killer.

This tweet of the week highlights how customer services needs to join the conversation with customers on social channels as part of a strategy to RETAIN them.

The winners will be those organizations which best monitor existing customers' POVs. Satisfied customers become brand advocates through word of mouth. Customer services teams and other social employees can potentially deliver significant value to the business.

But this is basic Social Business 101 - organizations must have an integrated internal AND external social strategy to succeed in the new social world. Sorry folks, an external-only strategy will get you nowhere.

The purpose of creating a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources about Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business; being a curator for the onslaught of new content generated daily. Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with clarity and to the point.

My Twitter favorites for the week of the 8-13 May have been collected with the use of the Keepstream service:

Sources:

20 reasons why customer service is broken by Chris Lake, @lakey

Organizing for social business: The issues by Dion Hinchcliffe, @dhinchcliffe

How resilient is your business?

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:41:00 +0000

Anyone who is in a position to be concerned about their organization's strategy, both for today and for the foreseeable future, must watch this video from Cognitive Edge.

The ability to foresee and plan for specific situations is becoming more and more problematic because of the interconnectedness of events and the added complexity that brings. Dave Snowden highlights:

"the strategic importance for organisations to refocus on the creation of resilient systems. Whereas robust systems try to avoid failure, and become crippled in the event of it, resilient systems accept that failure is inevitable and move from focusing on prevention to focusing on early detection of events and fast recovery from them."

This adaptive agility is a feature of properly implemented Social Business initiatives. Organizations become structurally flatter and more distributed through the networking and collaboration of their employees, their partners and their customers.

This results in a highly resilient ecosystem where unforeseen events can be identified in real-time and acted upon with speed. The kind of resilience discussed in this video.

So, if you are wondering why a competitor seems to be responding better than your organization to new trends, with resulting improved market share, then revisit your strategy and see how it is designed to be failsafe and robust. You might want to go back to the drawing board and design for resilience instead.

Sources:
Moving from robustness to resilience by CognitiveEdge
Social Business Design by DachisGroup

Business are you listening?

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:03:00 +0000

Every now and then a blog post hits you square between the eyes. This is what I felt when I clicked on the link in this tweet by @thisisjohnny:

This is a message from Everyman saying that the world is not the same any more. Things that no longer matter to us are:

We could care less about the traditional corporate structure
It doesn’t really matter what your title says
It doesn’t matter how old you are, or where you come from, or even where you went to school
We don’t want someone who sits at a bigger desk to tell us what to do
We don’t want to just go through life checking boxes

And the things that do matter to us are:

We care about what value you bring to the table
We care about what we do and how we do it
We want facebook and twitter
We want to be mobile
We care just as much about giving information away as we care about consuming it
We don’t think that we can have an impact on the world - we know that we can
We want to work on what we want to work on, and it’s because — on some level — we have an attachment to it. We’re passionate beings, and we like to express and explore that passion
What we really care about most is actually being heard

So, if you're a business who thinks you understand concepts like talent management, human capital, social learning and collaborative working, then you may have a shot at people like this.

If you think you can keep on with business as usual, forget it. The real creative, innovative and dynamic people will steer far away from your organization. Read it and weep.

John Scardino is

"a 20-something just out of college with some big ideas about: the world of business, how you manage work, how to take care of people, and where i see things going next in the world of information technology services."

Source: don’t box me in: enterprise 2.0 employees working in an enterprise 1.0 world by John Scardino on his blog business as i see it.

E2.0 / Social Business selected tweets 8-13 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:58:00 +0000

As someone who is a keen facilitator of collaboration in the workplace, I am always looking to share the best posts/videos/articles related to Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business. For those of you interested in the ongoing debate about which is the more appropriate term to use, read this Quora discussion, If "Enterprise 2.0" and "Social Business" are the same concept, why did we need to create the phrase "Social Business"?

The way most organizations are structured and how they make their employees work no longer makes sense in a digital world where their customers and partners expect rapid change with genuine interactions. The social tools now available enable companies to become more human places to work, and allow them to reap more fully the knowledge and passion of their employees, empowering people to be core to a business - something which has been lost in conventional organizations.

These and other topics are explored in this year's Aspen Institute Roundtable:

The purpose of creating a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources; being a curator for the onslaught of new content generated daily. Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with clarity and to the point.

My Twitter favorites for the week of the 8-13 May have been collected with the use of the Keepstream service:

The open seas of social

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:33:00 +0000

First, some figures: over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old (year old numbers). Of these, 96% have used social media tools. And, increasingly, older demographics are also making use of social tools and taking part in social networks.

What impact does this have for business? Huge. The majority of any business's customers are social, and they expect to be able to interact more and more with the brands they buy.

The majority of employees of any given business are also keen to communicate through the internet, and to be able to make use of their devices for work at work.

Those businesses which leverage their employees' social skills, both internally and externally, will be able to quickly respond to change, satisfy customers, and be more innovative than their rivals.

A sea change

To use a nautical metaphor, it's as if everyone's livelihood is now at sea, while most businesses are either in dry dock or are fearful to venture beyond sight of land (SM marketing only). Those businesses which embrace the open and transparent nature of true Social Business will be able to control their own destinies in the open seas of social.

Sources:
From Social Media to Social Business: The Missing ‘Social’ Link by Thierry de Baillon
Learn more from: IBM Social Business Jam
Download Jam Summary

E2.0 / Social Business favs 1-7 May 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 07 May 2011 12:15:00 +0000

As someone who is a passionate facilitator of collaboration in the workplace, I am always looking for the best posts/videos/articles related to Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business. Those of you interested in the ongoing debate about which is the more appropriate term to use, look at this Quora discussion, If "Enterprise 2.0" and "Social Business" are the same concept, why did we need to create the phrase "Social Business"?

Companies which only take part in social media marketing barely scratch the tip of the iceberg when it comes to acquiring the benefits from real Social Business. Successful Social Business is about welcoming disruption and embracing transparency within an organization. One business which does have a sound grasp of Social Business is IBM:

The purpose of making a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources; being a curator for the onslaught of new content created daily. Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with clarity and to the point.

My Twitter favorites for the week of the 1-7 May have been collected through the use of the Keepstream service:

Something new under the sun

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:47:00 +0000

The game of snooker is a popular sport played throughout the British Commonwealth nations, and increasingly throughout the Far East, especially China. It is played on a 12 by 6 foot table on a fine baize cloth. You can read more about the game on Wikipedia.

Last month, I was watching the World Championships on television. There were the same old faces and same old playing styles, and then out stepped a skinny kid to totally blow everyone away. This is the impact young Judd Trump has had on the snooker world after his tornado of a performance as runner up in the 2011 World Championship.

The 21 year old from Bristol, England with the Woodstock quiff impressed even the old timers with the power and accuracy of his play. Despite his slight frame, he generates spin and control seldom ever seen. Impossibly angled pots along the cushion or at the farthest ends of the table are dispatched with ease. Long time commentator and former world champion Denis Taylor described Trump as the best potter he has ever seen.

The above video of the final against John Higgins gives a sample of his ability, but his match against China's Ding Junhui was one of the best semi finals ever seen at the Crucible.

His poise and composure at difficult times was also quite remarkable. Even at the worst moments he would make a funny grimace or give a rueful smile at the uncooperative balls.

Unfortunately, the audacious genius occasionally lost position from sheer bad luck, as if the fates decreed that he should wait one more year to hone his tactics. Trump lost to four times world champion, John Higgins, 15-18 in the final.

Many commentators say this young man is a breath of fresh air to the world of snooker, and yes, something new under the sun.

Source: Wikipedia on Judd Trump (@judd147t)

Be relevant

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Within most businesses today, the organization chart is displayed in a descending order of relevance. The most relevant people populate the boardroom. The magnitude of relevance diminishes as we go through the levels of management and on down to the workers. The overwhelming majority end up accepting near anonymity. The feature of this mindset is passive acceptance.

I'm not describing the Politburo or other types of totalitarian regimes, though you could be forgiven for thinking so, but what we have all accepted as the status quo within large modern organizations.

Considering business has always been a social activity, the way it is being practiced in Taylorist, hierarchical businesses today is indicative of a sick paradigm. People are depreciated by processes and arbitrary status. The outcome of this is low productivity through chronic low morale, an increase in sick leave and high turnover.

What the use of social tools in the enterprise does is make opportunities for relevance-building among even the lowliest worker. Someone who is but a blip on an org chart can be recognized for their eloquence as a blogger or as an expert to ask about technical problems. Sharing knowledge and collaborating with others helps to build a reputation.

By developing your personal brand and reputation, the end result is you become increasingly relevant. This is authentic and real relevance derived from creating business value and recognition by your peers. The attitudes of relevant employees are curiosity, eagerness, loyalty and generosity.

Reveal your people

The Social Business Jam, hosted by IBM From February 8-10, 2011, was an online conversation (Jam) bringing together over 2700 participants from all over the world to discuss social business and the ways in which it can redefine how we work in the years ahead. Excerpts from the report includes:

"Employees have their own personal brands that exist both inside and outside the business, and that it does not own these brands but merely 'rents' them while employees are at work. Personal brands need to be measured and rewarded based on how they help your company throughout the social network."

"The wall between employee and customer is crumbling. Employees are becoming more connected to customers through social media and now develop social worth for the company. But what happens when that employee leaves? "Now, in a single tweet, all eyes can shift from one company to another, simply because the focus is on the individual," one Jammer said. "This social status might well become the new negotiating stock of our next-generation knowledge workers." I also call this relevance!

Smart businesses will flatten their hierarchies, be open, and empower their employees to be relevant. The ones who don't will go to that great corporate graveyard of the intransigent and unenlightened.

When employees aren't given recognition, then an organization is unable to relate to customers with any authenticity. Social Business only heightens that perception because the basis of it is that your company is the people who work for it.

Your customers, partners and your competition are all participating in Social Business, what are you doing to make your people relevant?

Source: The Social Business Jam from IBM

E2.0 / Social Business favs 24-30 April 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:56:00 +0000

As someone who is a passionate facilitator of collaboration in the workplace, I am always looking for the best posts/videos/articles related to Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business. For those interested in the ongoing debate about which is the more appropriate name to use, look at the Quora discussion, If "Enterprise 2.0" and "Social Business" are the same concept, why did we need to create the phrase "Social Business"?
The purpose of making a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources; being a curator for the onslaught of new content created daily.
Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with clarity and to the point.
My Twitter favorites for the week of the 24-30 April have been collected through the use of the Keepstream service.

Content curation from your inbox

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:10:00 +0000

There is growing buzz about the social intranet or collaborative work platforms. These allow employees to share what they know, and to work together with people not necessarily within their functional areas.
The intellectual capital of an organization was once organized by and the preserve of the knowledge management department. It is now expected that any and all employees are to contribute intellectual capital. But what is to be shared and how do we share it?

Our own work knowledge base
For most of us, our email represents much of what defines us in a work sense:

the workarounds
the how-tos
business/work intelligence
meeting minutes
process improvements
departmental communications
all our conversations with peers and customers
and attachments - video, presentations, documents

In other words ... intellectual capital.

How to change the email habit

Some people are advocating the end of or a drastic reduction in the use of email. The main reason is that email messages only serve to fully inform the owner of the inbox. The people with whom email is exchanged may have only a part of a thread - this can limit shared knowledge. But your inbox need not be a dead end. It can be the raw ore to be mined for gold.

First, organize it

Create folders based on topics or workflow. Drag messages to contextual containers. This allows you to access content from where it is most relevant. You can use filters to automate the moving of messages into appropriate folders; though doing so manually ensures more accuracy.

Your inbox has now become a knowledge base of what you do and know at work.

Mine your email for gold

If you've started a blog on the intrant/community, you now have a varied repository of source material to draw from. If you are a contributor to a wiki, you also have content for that too. If you see questions arising in forums, you may recall you have answers to some of them in your folders. An attached presentation can be very useful uploaded to a media gallery for other colleagues to access and learn from. If you network with a group of colleagues interested in a particular area of the business, you now have loads of content to share.

Don't throw anything away

You may find that you end up using IM (instant messaging) for throwaway conversations. But most IM clients have an archive feature. With Office Communicator you can archive your conversations into an Outlook folder. So even conversations can be included as part of your knowledge base.

And remember, the folder organization you used for your email can also be applied to your network file share, an additional seam of your personal knowledge base goldmine.

Building a rep

So there you have it, you now have the means for building a corporate reputation for the knowledge and expertise in the work you do. But don't forget the internet. There are limitless resources to be mined on the web, including from among your external peers on Twitter. The potential for intellectual capital being generated by an organization's human capital is huge. Go forth and harness it, now!

Karma at work

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:44:00 +0000

Today on Twitter, I found a retweet by Rob Lavigne of Ray Wang's tweet:

This brings to mind the saying by Earl Hickey from the My Name Is Earl TV series,

"Do good things and good things happen; do bad things and bad things happen."

While an oversimplification of what happens to us both in life and in the workplace, I have found that a positive or a negative attitude does have a powerful affect on how we experience things.

For example, when done right, participating within a company community is karma in action. Helping people because it's the right thing to do is a powerful mechanism for getting work done and for building relationships.

When a business isn't particularly social, the response of the Joy Turners are, "What's in it for me, dummy?"

Once you take an active part within the collaborative workplace, you find it becomes less about 'me' and more about 'us' - and we all get to cross items off our lists and feel good about it too.

To me, how we work should be like Earl's catch phrase for the series,

"I'm just trying to be a better person."

The last episoode of My Name Is Earl aired on May 14, 2009, Here's a reminder of the characters from a funny and thought provoking series.

Sources: My Name Is Earl on Wikipedia. YouTube

Social Business tweetstream 16-23 April 2011

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:57:00 +0000

As someone who is a passionate facilitator of collaboration in the workplace, I am always looking for the best posts/videos/articles related to Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business. For those interested in the ongoing debate about which is the more appropriate name to use, look at the Quora discussion, If "Enterprise 2.0" and "Social Business" are the same concept, why did we need to create the phrase "Social Business"?

The purpose of making a weekly blog topic of curated Twitter tweets is to share a wide variety of topics and resources; being a curator for the onslaught of new content created daily. Anyone can become a content curator. Twitter's 140 character limit forces one to write with discipline and to the point.
My Twitter favorites for the week of the 16-23 April have been collected through the use of the Keepstream service. Enjoy.

Trouble at the server farm

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:17:00 +0000

By mijori on Polyvore

Beauregard, what we have here is a failure to comyoonicate. Just 'cause a little girl wears a name badge with 'man-ih-jer' writ on it, don't mean diddly to me.

Missy, why dont'cha fetch yer boss like a good lil' girl. And dont'cha keep goin' on 'bout some sir-ver farm. I ain't never heard of farmin' sir-vers. Heffers mebbe. But ah never done heard of no sir-vers, no ma'am.

Our dependency on the web, and increasingly on all things social, means that more and more of us will be affected by disruptions to service. For example, see this article from April 21, 2011: Amazon Web Services Experiencing One of the Worst Ever Regional Disruptions by Alex Williams at ReadWriteWeb.

For the ordinary person, there won't have been a risk assessment done with a viable contingency plan to rely on. Even contacting the service host to complain is likely to mean a long wait since millions are likely to be affected. The one silver lining in the cloud is that some major businesses will be customers to the service, so all stops will be pulled to get them back online, with the rest of us soon to follow.

The best that any of us can do is to keep track of status updates - "Hello Twitter!" - wait it out and try to keep laughing. Note to self: What am I going to do when the Fail Whale won't go away?

You are being followed

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:40:00 +0000

By mijori on Polyvore

Researchers have discovered a file called 'consolidated.db' on all iPhones since iOS4. The interesting part is:

"... the iPhone is keeping track of where you go and storing that information in a file that is stored - unencrypted and unprotected - onto any machine with which you synchronize your phone. It is not clear why Apple is collecting this data."

Here are Pete Warden and Alasdair Alan explaining what they found.

It will be interesting to see how Apple explains away this blatant disregard for user privacy or their reasons for having this feature in the first place.

For the time being, I'm going to hold onto my 10 year old Nokia with the satisfaction that only I will know where I am at any given moment. I wonder what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will make of this. What is your view? Does this finding worry you or not?

Read the full article: Your iPhone Is Tracking Your Every Move
By Audrey Watters of ReadWriteWeb

Networking with purpose

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:56:00 +0000

As someone who has never joined Facebook or MySpace, I can honestly say that it has not been the end of the world for me. It is possible to network online without belonging to either of these monolithic social spaces.

Instead of being lulled into the feverish 'me too-ism' of Facebook mania, I have taken a more purposeful approach to networking. I went online when I needed:

a place to upload my CV, and to connect with former colleagues - I joined LinkedIn
a place to upload and share my digital images, and to enjoy those of others - I joined flickr
a place to meet up with others who love art and enjoy being creative - I joined Polyvore
a place to meet people who share similar innovative ideas about the directions business is taking - I joined Twitter
a place to list many of the books I have read, and to share reviews of them - I joined Shelfari

I hesitate to criticize Facebook's purported failings. I prefer to regard it as a wildly successful mechamism for educating the world about the value of online networking. FB has succeeded as Microsoft did before it - transforming mainframes into personal desktop computers to be omnipresent in all offices and homes. That compression process continues from netbooks to tablets to smartphones.

There is now a confluence occurring - highly mobile computing coupled with social networking. This means that we all live in a far more connected world than ever before. People can communicate with anyone, anywhere, any time, including real time. Is your networking limited to Facebook or MySpace? If so, you might want to look at more focused alternative sites.

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 07:27:00 +0000

"If you haven't failed, you haven't lived."

Uploaded to YouTube by KyaniHawaii.
Shared on Twitter by Daniel Hudson @webtechman.

Business from 0 to 60

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:28:00 +0000

In organizations with strictly defined functional boundaries, one department may one day take the lead and euphemistically make a call for 'employee engagement'. An Employee Engagement Manager/Director publishes a lengthy missive; more often than not the subject being the benefits to be had from engaging with employees.

The people who end up responding usually want to be seen saying the right thing, while the majority have a look then ignore the rest of it as so much hot air. It is perceived as an irrelevance to the rest of the employees. The engagement sought after is water spilt on infertile land.

The rigid structures that reinforce hierarchies are also what prevents the people who work within them from contributing more fully to the success of the business. A softening or dissolving of these barriers needs to occur through a perceived shift in culture towards openness and transparency.

The holy grail of workplace communities is, in the main, employee participation and active collaboration. The advice often given for building communities is to start small and measure, measure, measure. Surely, but you also need to have an understanding of what makes your community members tick.

One model for understanding members is to take the metaphor of movement: from the passivity and relative non-impact of inactive members to those people who make things happen and affect real change inside and outside the business: the content creators and group owners.

1st gear members are those who have no intention of messing with what they perceive as Marketing's territory - Web 2.0. They may visit the community site out of curiosity. They may check who else has joined, read some blog posts or wikis, but then decide it has no bearing upon their daily workload, and see it as a fad which will soon disappear.

2nd gear members tend to be interested, but may be shy about participating. They create a one-line description of their job in their profile, and friend-up with a few colleagues, and even join a group or two, but will, by and large, continue to be quiet.

3rd gear members are those who do all the actions of 2nd gear members, but who have taken the extra step of responding to blog posts or forum topics, maybe rating the occasional media upload. Again, it's a lack of confidence which prevents them from finding their own voice and creating content; they feel uncertain that what they know is worth sharing with the rest of the business.

4th gear members do not have the reserve of those in 2nd or 3rd gear. They understand that the ideas and knowledge about their work/skills/the business is of considerable value. They see the opportunity to network within the workplace across teams, departments, regions, even business units, gives them opportunities to affect change and improvements that just wasn't possible before the community's existence.

5th gear members are the group owners: those who step forward to create communities of interest and who actively seek out the bloggers, the Twitter users, those who are active within LinkedIn and Facebook, and empower them to create content within their group and moderate - offer assistance and encouragement to those members who are nervous about contributing too. Group owners are the real movers in a collaborative workplace.

And the Community Manager? S/He's simply a group owner among group owners, calling out to people to get more out of their work than a mere paycheque. The organizations which can harness the passion and the knowledge of their people will be best placed to initiate change rather than be a victim of it.

How has been your experience of internal networking: has it felt artificial and lacked direction; or did you feel excited to be connecting with like-minded people, and felt what you had to say was respected and made a difference?

Changing gears

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:53:00 +0000

by mjori on Polyvore

Sometimes you just have to strap up, turn on the ignition and put your foot to the floor. That's what I'm going to do with this blog now that I know the direction I'm going. Since the tail end of 2005, this blog has been a place for me to muse and ruminate about this and that, particularly the funny things that make us all human. Now I mean business.

Moving from contract to contract, either on projects or within a support capacity, the many companies I have worked for were all pretty much identical with their security, structures and processes.

That which made each period of employment unique and interesting were the people I had the good fortune to work and laugh with. And laughter, to anyone who knows me, is an integral part of the package when a business hires me.

From 2008 to 2011, I had the pleasure of working as an internal community manager at a large global enterprise. I ceased blogging here to devote my energies to publishing two blogs: a personal one and a community blog.

The many posts I wrote will remain behind the firewall. From now on I will resume my blogging here to share what I have learned and experienced as an internal community practitioner. Many of the people I follow on Twitter have taught me much about putting people first in business, and that's what I will help achieve for those companies I work for in future.

AutoPopuli is just another way of reminding those who may occasionally forget - life and business is all about people.

BTW: I'm available as an internal community manager from 16 May 2011. Contact me at: mijori23 (at) gmail (dot) com.

London Waterloo Station

noreply@blogger.com (mijori23) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:22:00 +0000

Uploaded by
Filmed during the rush hour at the London Waterloo train station. Music track is Couleurs by M83