As most of you folks know already, I have been blogging for nearly five years externally, and for seven years internally, and even today I still think comments on blog posts are essential to the overall experience of blogging. I have always been thinking that a blog without comments is just another Web site. There is no interaction. No dialogue. No conversation. No reaction. No nothing. You just basically consume the content… and move on. Just like you would do with a regular (1.0) Web site.

However, think for a minute, the kind of impact you would be provoking if you open up for comments in your blog. You are opening your front door for other knowledge workers interested about what you may have got to say to share their ¢2 with you. To help improve the original ideas through conversation, through open dialogue, through constructive feedback; with as little barriers of engagement as possible. Yet, the outcome being tremendously much more powerful, since a good bunch of those comments are bound to improve the original blog entry. Beyond measure!

Who wouldn’t want to have that? Who wouldn’t want to open up the door towards a more open, and rampant!, innovation by brainstorming online in some really good ideas that may have been coming afloat during that fruitful exchange? Here is an example: check out this really inspiring blog post put together by my good friend, the always insightful and KM extraordinaire , Jack Vinson, under the title "Helping the Experts and Stopping the Email Chatter". Over there you can see how over the last couple of days we have been having a rather interesting discussion on sharing your knowledge, collaborating and re-finding the content shared. Specially when talking about experts engaging in Q&A sessions.

And best part of it, which is why I am still so fond of blogs, is the opportunity to keep the conversation going forever or to come back and re-pick it up again where it was left off and continue further as if nothing happened. Yes, you may not have comments to your blog posts just yet, or you may have a few them but because of whatever the circumstance you may not have had a chance to respond back, but that’s the beauty of it all: the door is still open for you to leave comments, whenever you would want to, or whenever you feel ready for it.

That’s why I am enjoying quite a bit that soft transformation of the new @elsua into a new blogging style, because while I was readying to embark into it I have also decided to do something I have been neglecting for a while now: taking an extra minute and enjoying, once again, the little pleasures of leaving comments behind the already existing ones that folks may have left behind the original blog entry I shared.

Indeed, for far too long I have been neglecting coming back to those blog posts and share a comment or two on the already existing discussions, but since I have decided a long time ago that my blog will always have commenting enable, I guess it’s time for me to return home, enter through the door and keep the conversations going. So, over the last few days I have been commenting back on previous blog posts and I am hoping to do that with each and everyone of them. Hang in there, if I haven’t gotten through all of them just yet. I guess we have got all of the time of the world to keep the dialogue going, right? I mean, it’s just like a good friend having embarked on a long long trip for a few months, then returns home, you get together to share a drink or two and carry on with the conversations you had before they left, as if nothing happened in between. Only to find out that the conversations are now richer and much more fulfilling…

That’s what commenting on blogs would do for me; that’s the kind of value they bring into my thinking and know-how; that’s why I treasure them much more than the original ideas shared across. More than anything, because they will always improve the overall quality of the original thought behind that post. Oh, and that’s why I am not so keen either on having a very popular blog. I want to enjoy that drink as it fully deserves. Time and time again!

Tags: WebWorkerDaily, Blogging, Metablogging, Blogs, Comments, Commenting, Ideas, Brainstorm, Quality, Jack Vinson, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity

However, I am not going to start telling you all sorts of various different details on how IBM has been adopting social software tools over the last few years, starting probably on that landmark date of late 2003, when a blogging platform called BlogCentral  first became available through the Technology Adoption Program (a.k.a. TAP). No, I am not going to do that. Mainly, because I am not very fond of re-inventing the wheel myself, and, secondly, because there is a stunning online resource out there that has done a wonderful job in describing very thoroughly how everything got started and where we are now.

Check out the article put together by Casey Hibbard, over at Social Media Examiner, under the title: "How IBM Uses Social Media to Spur Employee Innovation". Casey has been working with my fellow IBM colleague, and good friend, Adam Christensen, putting together, perhaps, one of the most tremendously comprehensive and thorough articles / reports, available out there that clearly describes in very simple, effective and helpful terms what IBM’s Social Media strategy is at the moment, and how it all got started a few years back.

In a way, the article itself is a lovely trip down the memory lane on how things got started, not only from the perspective of what social tools there are out there available to us, from back then till today, but also how something so important as IBM’s own Social Computing Guidelines came about and how IBM made a conscious decision to not just have a single corporate social media voice, but instead have thousands of voices! making them all become *the* brand. I know that this may surprise a few folks, but if there would be a single word that I could use to describe it I would probably stick around with effective.

Another interesting part from the article itself that both Casey and Adam talked about is the section on "No Policing", which I am sure it is going to come about as a shocker, specially for those businesses out there that still live in a command-and-control world. Well, here is an interesting, and very relevant, quote from Adam on what IBM means with that "No Policing":

"We don’t police. The community’s largely self-regulating, and so there hasn’t really been a need to have someone go about and circuit these boards and blogs" Christensen said. "Employees sort of do that themselves… And that’s worked wonderfully well"

Indeed, again thanks, for the most part, to those Social Computing Guidelines I mentioned above. Thus, as you will see, it’s not unrealistic to have such policy. Yes, I am sure you would be thinking by now there is a lot to risk involved, but then again, there is plenty more to gain. And having had those guidelines for nearly five years now, and living by them quite dearly, I can assure you that the advantages have been much more numerous than the disadvantages. But you can read more about it on the article itself…

Finally, you will be able to see a couple of other very interesting, and revealing, sections around the subject of the key role from Jams in helping mature those efforts of social software adoption as well as how social media plays that paramount role within the Smarter Planet initiative. Rather fascinating read!

Before I let you go though, as I am wrapping up this blog post, I will tell you what’s my favourite part of the entire article; one that has always been in people’s minds with regards to their own social software adoption efforts (And initiatives): proving the business value of social software. Yes, the good old dilemma of figuring out the ROI of social networking. Now, if you have been reading this blog for a while already, you know what my ¢2 of the conversation are. So I’m going to finish this article with Adam’s take on it (Which, by the way, I wholeheartedly agree with 100%!!):

""I think if you d ask any senior executive at IBM, How important is it for our employees to be smarter? , inherently they understand that these tools can play in helping with that, Christensen said. "I don’t see myself rarely or ever having that hard conversation on the value of engaging employees in these spaces.""

Spot on, don’t you think? All the way coming down from the top! It’s all about how smart and productive you would want to be with these social tools as a knowledge worker. And next time that someone asks me what IBM is doing in this space of Social Computing or what my thoughts are on proving the business value of social software, I guess you folks know where I will be pointing people to, right? …

Exactly!

Tags: Social Media Strategy, BlogCentral, Technology Adoption Program, TAP, Casey Hibbard, Social Media Examiner, Adam Christensen, Social Computing Guidelines, Guidelines, Policy, Brands, Branding, Voices, Jams, Smarter Planet, Business Value, ROI, Return On Investment, Leadership, Smart Work, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, IBM, Social Networks

Over at my Flickr account you would be able to see the weekly progress reports for weeks #49 and #50. However, for week #51 I am going to share it over here, so you can get a quick glimpse of what the last three weeks have been like put together in combination. So here you have it:

As you would be able to see things are looking amazingly good, since, during the course of those three weeks, I received a total number of 44 emails, with an average of 14 per week! Yes, 14 emails received per week! Not sure what you would think, but I am feeling incredibly excited that what started as 30 to 40 emails a day (Nearly two years ago), it’s now turned to 14 emails a week! Huge achievement, if you ask me, and well on target for that follow up challenge that I set up at the beginning of the year of receiving 20, or less, emails a week. Yes, I know … double w00t!!!

If you notice, you will see there has been a steady decrease in the number of emails received over the last few weeks, yet that doesn’t mean that virtual online interactions have not been taking place. Actually, quite the opposite. I can certainly share with you folks how the number of those online interactions through social software tools have tripled during that time. Specially, for my second most frequently used social software tool while at work: Lotus Connections (Lotus Sametime is still number #1, by the way).

It looks like, at a much faster pace than last year, fellow colleagues are starting to experience how powerful some of the offered capabilities behind the firewall can well be; specially, for something so trivial, yet so incredibly useful as Lotus Connections Profiles’ Micro-blogging/-sharing component. I will probably be sharing some general statistics on IBM’s internal usage of that Profiles capability, but I can certainly tell you how well used it is at the moment that I am starting to see the effects myself by spending most of the time in there collaborating and sharing knowledge with my peers.

To me, it’s like a nice catching up exercise, because I have been using that functionality from the very first moment that it became available in previous beta versions, and most IBMers are starting to see the main benefits of using such micro-blogging/-sharing component versus using other traditional tools, like email. Yes, it’s plenty of good fun seeing how after these two years, nearly, I am not that crazy weirdo anymore for abandoning email and, instead, using social software tools. Things are catching up rather quickly! Exciting times!

I know at this point in time you may be wondering what kinds of interactions do I have on a regular basis interacting through Profiles Boards, right? Well, not to worry, I am already putting together another draft blog post where I am listing a Top 10 set of activities that I come across rather often when interacting, behind the firewall, on our very own instance of Lotus Connections. However, I will share with you what’s probably the number #1 activity I embarked on through micro-blogging/-sharing behind the firewall…

… Questions and Answers! Indeed, the good old Q&A that every single knowledge worker engages with time and time again during the course of the week and, in most cases, several times a day. As you can imagine, using micro-blogging/-sharing tools for Q&A already provides me with lots of advantages to help me reduce my email clutter even more.

Oh, and I am not the only one feeling the very same thing. Did you have a look into the wonderful blog post that Jeremy Sluyters put together under the title "EMail Is Where Knowledge Goes to Die", where he references that quote I have been using myself for all along from Bill French that clearly describes why I abandoned email a couple of years back? You should read it, if you haven’t done so just yet.

In it, Jeremy gets to share a very compelling use case on how, regardless of the tool, a certain, relatively simple and recurring task, like asking a question and getting an answer, finds its place in using much better and suitable social software tools versus email, providing an opportunity to save time and effort as well as allowing a much easier, and faster!, re-findability of the content originally shared.

Pretty compelling story, I can assure you. One that, once you go through it, will surely help you understand a bit better why living "A World Without Email" has been one of my passions over the last few months and why, as I am about to head into the third consecutive year without using email at work, this is just the beginning. This is just one use case of the kind of impact and business value of using social software tools to collaborate and share your knowledge across the company with your peers. One out of several dozens of them out there. One that has allowed me to reduce my email clutter substantially and that can only be a good thing. But it’s not just the only one. There will be plenty more and I will be looking forward to sharing them all with you in its due course…

For now, an open question for you all out there: are you ready to proclaim and live by our motto on "Email is where knowledge goes to die?"… If not, what’s stopping you? How can we help?

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, Lotus Connections, Connections, Lotus Sametime, Sametime, Instant Messaging, Connections Profiles, Lotus Connections Profiles, Micro-blogging, Micro-sharing, Q&A, Questions and Answers, Help, Jeremy Sluyters, Bill French, Finding Content

Check the latest example; a YouTube video clip that the always inspiring and insightful Harold Jarche shared a few hours ago on this tweet under the title "The Unconsidered Life", where philosopher and author A.C. Grayling comes to talk for a little bit over two minutes on some thought-provoking topics like the "unconsidered life" (That one will WOW you big time, I am sure!); how we move seamlessly from data to knowledge to, finally, understanding (Which reminded me of the blog post I put together not long ago on Nick Milton’s distinction about Data, Information & Knowledge Management and which I think takes knowledge into the next frontier: our understanding of things around us).

Another topic that A.C. Grayling touches base on, and which I thought was rather interesting as well, was that one of Citizen of the World, which I am not going to talk much about it, to be honest, since it touches base on one of the three topics that I decided long long time ago I would never go and discuss online. I am sure that after you watch the video you will understand why. This particular piece is towards the end and you will see what I meant when this is one of those video clips that can surely WOW you to no end for a while!

If the purpose of the video was to make you think critically at things happening around you to make some sense out of it all and understand them accordingly, I think it’s been incredibly successful. At least, it’s managed to confirm something that was there before in the back of my mind, but that perhaps didn’t feel strong enough to progress further. Well, it certainly has now and after you watch the video I am sure it will have a similar effect for you. Yes, it’s that powerful and compelling…

What do you think? Has your understanding evolved somewhat now you have watched it through? I bet it has, at least, to some degree, don’t you think?

(A big thanks to Harold himself for sharing this great find with us all in Twitter and for bringing it into our attention… Excellent stuff!)

Tags: Serendipity, Knowledge Discoveries, Twitter, Social Networks, Harold Jarche, YouTube, Videos, A.C. Grayling, Unconsidered Life, Nick Milton, Data Management, Information Management, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Data, Knowledge, Understanding, Think, Citizen of the World, Inspiring, WOW Factor, Social Software, Scoial Networking, Social Computing

• How has the Web changed your life?
• How has the Web changed business and society?
• What do you think the Web will look like in 20 years?

So, since it’s been quite a while that I have last embarked on chiming in on one of those blogging memes I thought it would be a good time to do that over the course of the weekend and the actual blog post is up and running already. Over at my Posterous site under the same title: "The Web in Twenty", which will give me, by the way, a nice opportunity to kick things off again over there after the holidays, the business travelling and catching up from last week. Regular blogging activities will resume there as well with the same spirit as before, starting off with that entry I have just shared.

I wonder though whether the folks I tagged (Rick Ladd, Paula Thornton, John Tropea, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche and Stephen Downes) will dive in as well and share their insights with us …

What do you think? Do you reckon they will chime in?

Tags: Internet, Web, Future, 2030, Memes, Internet Memes, Metablogging, Blogging, Predictions, Rick Ladd, Paula Thornton, John Tropea, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Stephen Downes, Aneel Lakhani, Tagging

I bet that in most cases you may have found two or three different generations working together in the same project, being part of the same team or belonging to the same communities. So how do they get along well with one another then? How are they managed? Not sure what you would think, but I *do* believe there is such distinction of how various generations get to collaborate and share knowledge across with their peers in the same working environment.

That’s also the incredibly provocative phenomenon that this YouTube video titled "How Will You Manage?" (Put together by Kronos) tries to cover over the course of nearly 5 minutes. If you are an skeptic on the concept of the generational divide I would strongly encourage you all to have a look and watch it. It may, or may not, change your perspective on things, specially around those folks working closer with you. However, one thing I can certainly assure you is that it would make you think twice about the whole subject and I am certain you won’t be looking at your peers in the same fashion as before any longer. And if not, judge for yourselves…

What I have found really interesting about this YouTube video is how having multiple generations at work (Here inside IBM I got colleagues I work rather closely with who would cover up to four different generations working together! So you can imagine some scenarios sometimes…) will surely present new challenges for one specific part of the workforce: managers.

That’s right! Somehow it looks like the current corporate environment (And, definitely, the future workplace) will probably require a new breed of leaders that would hopefully be able to manage those generations (Working mostly in a distributed virtual world across the globe) in much more meaningful ways than ever before, perhaps even leaving behind that traditional flavour of command-and-control and, instead, take on much more of that leadership role that perhaps managers of the future should be having as one of their primary and fundamental skills.

Definitely, the kind of new leadership that Jemima Gibbons describes quite nicely in her recent book "Monkeys with Typewriters" (Book that I can certainly highly recommend everyone to read, if you would want to see how social computing is changing not just the way we do business, but also who we are as social knowledge workers) when describing the kind of leadership role that Gina Poole (IBM’s VP, Social Software Programs & Enablement (BlueIQ), SWG Web Marketing & Sales), amongst several other leaders, defines for herself with her own team:

"More pure leadership than command and control…in the old management era, knowledge was power. Now in the social era you want to unleash the knowledge. The powerful person is the one who can lead by influence. You don’t need a big budget and lots of direct reports. I can lead more effectively by influencing others, getting them excited and having them join my movement. It feels like you’re managing more of a matrix. Listening is very important"

The main challenge though remains as to whether traditional management, and all businesses for that matter, would be willing to let go that command-and-control attitude and, instead, allow their own employees to become those new leaders of today’s interconnected, distributed corporate world. I am sure most folks, at this point in time, would probably be thinking about the risks involved and how to managed them. Me, instead, would be thinking about the huge potential of how social computing is helping define the future of the workplace by co-sharing plenty of that leadership responsibility with people, who were hired for being, and acting, as professionals in the first place. I think it’s time for the corporate world to grow up and start treating their various generations at work as who they really are: people. The Social Web.

Tags: Management, Leadership, Leaders, Generations, Generational Divide, Kronos, Jemima Gibbons, Monkeys with Typewriters, Gina Poole, IBM, Social Software, Social Computing, Social Networking, Enterprise 2.0, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Transfer, Social Web, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, Learning, Innovation

Yesterday afternoon my good friend Jack Vinson shared the following tweet across with me:

"@elsua I know I have mentioned this before, but consider getting an editor "

Of course, he was referring to this, my personal business, blog and my own blogging style, which some times tends to meander in and out quite a bit and become perhaps too verbose, making it almost impossible to go straight to the point at times and get people confused in the process.

Check! Guilty as charged! If you have been reading this blog for a while now, you would reckon it’s been one of those on-going challenges I have been wanting to address and fix, specially for those folks out there who can’t afford to spend lots of time reading through lengthier blog posts to then have difficulties finding out where the golden nuggets are. Yet, it’s been such a complex challenge to fix that Jack suggested, for the second time, I should look for an editor to help tame that storytelling flavour my blog posts seem to be permeating from all along.

Well, this is it, folks, this is a new beginning for yours truly, Luis Suarez (a.k.a. @elsua), as I am about to make one extra effort in order to accommodate that potential audience out there wanting to read and grasp those knowledge nuggets in the shortest time possible and move on. Not sure how it is going to pave out in the end; it will be, I guess, another on-going learning experience, but, if it helps, I’m surely willing to give it a try and then see how it may conflict with my usual self.

Earlier on this morning I had one of those wonderful and rather educational Skype calls with another good friend of mine, David Tebbutt , who saw my Twitter exchange with Jack yesterday and who kindly offered, during our conversation, some tips on what I could do to change some of the flavours that may be coming from those blog entries. I do know I just cannot pretend to be someone else I am not; I do know I am someone who isn’t too preoccupied with getting thousands of reads per article published.

I do know, however, I am someone who cares a great deal for those folks out there who may be following this blog (Or bump into it by pure chance) and who candidly provide lots of constructive feedback as a token of gratitude to help improve the overall content from this blog. So I decided enough with the meandering in and out, let’s cut to the chase, go straight to the point with what I would want to do, or say, because, after all, that’s what constructive feedback from folks you care about is all about: a continuous learning experience that helps you become better at what you do, i.e. that helps you become better at who you are!

So hello and welcome to the new @elsua! Feel free to drop by, say "Hi!" and leave a comment if you would want to improve that overall learning experience from yours truly. It will be very much appreciated… And a big thanks to both Jack & David for triggering something I should have done a while ago. Hopefully, it won’t be too late

Tags: Blogging, Metablogging, Renewal, Blogging Style, Blogs, @elsua, Feedback, Learning Experiences, Jack Vinson, David Tebbutt

You may be wondering by now why did I choose that specific title, in Spanish, for this particular blog post, right? And, more specifically, why am I making such connection between the title itself for this entry and Bill’s, rather revealing, speech, right? Well, for a good number of reasons, but I would just stick with one of them.

If you have been following this blog for a little while now you would remember how, about nearly 6 years ago, I made, probably, one of the most important decisions that I can remember in a long while. Indeed, I decided to take back control of a situation that was not helping me at all, to the point where I eventually started noticing some of its consequences on my own health. I know that this may sound a bit too personal, so I will spare you with the rest of the various different details. Perhaps we can catch up at some point in time whenever we would meet face-to-face and over a drink or two. For now though, the end result was that back in 2004 I decided to move back to my home country.

But instead of going to mainland Spain, which is where I come from originally, I decided to go to the place where I had spent the last five years of my holidays: Gran Canaria. I know that for most people that may sound a bit too weird. I mean, why would someone like me, who’s always been living in big cities for the last few years, all of a sudden would want to move to such a tiny island, right? Not the usual thing that you expect, I can imagine. Yet I went ahead with it; it’s been nearly 6 years now since I made that decision and I haven’t regretted it just yet one single bit!

And this is now where the title of this blog post kicks in, because, while most people think that Gran Canaria is that perfect holiday island, with plenty of sunshine and beaches, the truth is that there’s just so much more about it that I couldn’t let this opportunity go, just like that.

Earlier on this week, a good friend of mine shared with me a couple of YouTube videos that I just couldn’t help sharing them over here. Actually, it is the same video; a longer version (Nearly 7 minutes) and a shorter one (A bit over 2 minutes). The title of the video is something like "Choose a Great Destination, Gran Canaria" and it basically tells a story; the same story that I can relate to myself on why I fell in love with this island right from the start back then (And still going strong!). The same story that details very nicely how sometimes, it is good to sit back, rethink about your priorities, straighten things up and focus on those little precious moments that really matter.

I am sure that after you watch the video you will have a pretty clear picture of why I decided to come and live over here and, even more, you would understand as well the connection that I made to Bill’s TED presentation mentioned above on how important "geo-medicine" could well be for us all. So, next time you hear the words "Gran Canaria" don’t just think about the sun and the beaches. Think about choosing a great destination; one that can certainly help improve your perspective on things and life, in general … just like Gran Canaria itself has done for me throughout the years…

The shorter version

The longer version

(And it is probably a good time now for me to share with you folks a little bit of a disclaimer; that good friend I mentioned above who shared these videos across with me is actually the grandfather of the youngest kid that is featured in the story itself. Oh, those little precious moments that we need to remind ourselves and treasure every now and then … What would we do without each and everyone of them?)

Tags: Bill Davenhall, TED, TED Talks, Inspiration, Inspiring, Health, Healthy, Fit, Life, Work, Balance, Life Work Balance, Life Work Integration, Geo-medicine, Gran Canaria, Sunshine, Sun, Beaches, Holidays, Vacation, Destinations, Priorities, Things That Matter, Treasuring Moments, YouTube, Videos, Turismo de Gran Canaria

Remember that blog post that I put together a few months ago that talked about one of the highlights of the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston? Yes, the one about the lack of a decent, and accessible!, wi-fi connection throughout the conference? Well, that very same thing happened most of the week last week. Again! So that’s why you didn’t see any blog posts coming through from yours truly, and why my twittering was very much like the Guadiana river!

Ouch!! Once again, Lotusphere couldn’t cope with the demand of its thousands of attendees to provide a decent, and reliable!, Internet connection while the event took place during the course of the week. So those of us who came from abroad were left out in limbo land. Once again! Very disappointing!

I know the demand for this year’s event has been huge, tremendous, probably too much, if you ask me (45,000 connections to the various access points on a single moment at the beginning of the conference?!?! WOW!), but I’m wondering whether it is the right time for that "Proposal for DIA (Decent Internet Access)". I mean, maybe it’s time to rethink how we put together the overall online experience for these kinds of technical conference events altogether, right? Who knows… The important thing is that we just can’t stop right there and "do nothing". Year after year.

I know it is not an easy solution, but folks like Eric Norlin (From Defrag) and the EventoBlog organisers have proved that you can actually put together a conference event and still keep the wi-fi up and running steadily and throughout the entire event. So why can’t the others follow those steps? Yes, like I said, it’s a tough job to do it right, but, in my opinion, totally worth it! I mean, can you imagine what Lotusphere’s Opening General Session would have been like if we would all have had a good and reliable Internet connection throughout? I am sure that, instead of the 4000 tweets that got registered, as mentioned during the event, we would have had several thousand more! But, alas, that wasn’t the case…

That is why you didn’t see much of me online, since, out of sheer frustration, I got rather de-motivated and, instead of letting it grow in me (Like it has happened at other events in the past), I decided to take a much more pro-active approach and, instead of doing online social networking, focus all of my efforts and energy on the physical, face-to-face, social networking interactions. Perhaps, that’s what conference events are all about: place the focus back on the real life social networking activities and forget about being online. I am sure we would all feel much better than having to raise our eyebrows, once again, because things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to in the first place.

Back at the Enterprise 2.0, I created an article where I was actively asking for that DIA proposal; I am still waiting… That’s why, next time around, I will be looking into things differently and come up with plan B (and perhaps plan C, too!). In fact, just as I was on my way to catch the plane to Orlando, my plan B arrived in the mail. I wish I would have had much more time to play with it, but since I didn’t, I didn’t put it into practice. However, I’m surely going to do it next time around. I will not comment on what it is, but suffice to say that it is going to change the way I enjoy conference events in the near future. So stay tuned for more updates to come through and you will see what I mean …

So, having said all that, you may be wondering whether I will be putting together a couple of blog posts on some of the major highlights of what the event was all about, right? Obviously, there won’t be any live blogging, but I will be writing down some further thoughts on what the event was like, specially now that all of the presentation materials are available for download (Thanks much, Volker, for putting together such stunning piece of work!). Thus I will be talking, very shortly, about the various different speaker sessions I attended, as well as what happened at the various Labs, networking events that I attended, Tweet Ups, etc. etc.

As a starting point, and to give you folks a little bit of a taster, have a look into this YouTube video clip from DJ Steve Porter, who did an inspiring remix of the event itself in under three minutes. Worth while watching it through:

Oh, but talking about Twitter, I didn’t get much of a chance to keep playing with my experiment on splitting personalities, so I hardly used my IBM related account (@elsua_b) to share with folks out there some other live tweeting that I would have wished I could have done. Okay, I will be addressing that one as well and deal with it by sharing some tweets from here onwards into that account trying to share some of the magic that we experienced during the event itself.

Thus stay tuned, because more belated blog posts and tweets will be coming through shortly, with links and everything. For me though there is one thing very clear in my mind; maybe a lesson learned, who knows. From now onwards I will definitely not have any single expectation that Internet connection will be available at conference events; if it is still there after the first 15 minutes, I will go ahead and use it. If not, I will stop complaining and whining about it, as well as I will stop getting stressed, frustrated, annoyed, exasperated, disappointed, etc. and, instead, go for that plan B I have just mentioned above… Life is just too short, don’t you think? Yes, I know… Intriguing, eh?

(Not to worry, in a follow-up post, I will be sharing some further insights on what that plan B will be like, especially, once I get a chance to play with what came in the mail the day before I left for Orlando and which, surely, is going to make my life *so* much easier… And not just for conference events!)

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, Highlights, Lotus Knows, Lotus-Knows, LotusKnows, #ls10, Twitter, Micro-blogging, Micro-sharing, Live Blogging, Live Con-blogging, DIA, Decent Internet Access, Events, Conference Events, Wi-Fi, Internet, Connectivity, Eric Norlin, Defrag, EventoBlog, Opening General Session, Volker Weber, DJ Steve Porter, Steve Porter, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Connections, Productivity, Orlando

In my case, it is not so much of a new idea, not even a resolution for the new year, but something that I have been pondering about for the last few months already. Something that over the recent Christmas holidays I had an opportunity to think plenty more about it and take it into action as I returned back to work nearly a week ago.

No, not to worry, it hasn’t got to do anything email this time around (I think living "A World Without Email" is more than enough at this point in time, don’t you think?). However, it does relate to one of the social software tools that I have enjoyed the most in the nearly three years that I have been using it. Indeed, Twitter!

If you remember, last year I created a blog post where I was sharing some insights as to how disappointed I have been as of late with a number of social software tools outside of the firewall that I surely didn’t think would be turning around like they did, i.e. not respecting basic data ownership principles from their end-users based on their rather aggressive Terms of Service. Yes, I am talking about social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn & Slideshare, amongst several others.

I am still planning on coming back to that blog entry I shared a little while ago with a follow up one for 2010, since there have been some very interesting follow up comments from a couple of folks, but for now I thought I would share with you folks some more details on that new experiment as the result of me not using none of those three from here onwards (At least, till they change their ToS accordingly).

So, from here onwards I won’t be using any of those social tools I mentioned above, which means I will be having plenty of available time and energy to invest elsewhere. And this is where my new experiment for this year will kick in effectively. You may want to have a look and read this Techcrunch article by Vivek Wadhwa, to give you a little bit of background on what I am about to start (Hint: Basically use Twitter as my main social networking tool outside of the firewall, both for personal and business like interactions).

For a good number of months I have been thinking about splitting personalities with my one social software tool of choice outside the firewall (Twitter) and I think it’s now a good time to make it happen. That’s why for the last few days I have now got two many Twitter IDs that I will be using on a regular basis from here onwards. One of them, my usual one, elsua; the one I have been using now for nearly three years and where I try to have conversations around various topics of interest, which happen to be the very same ones as you will find in this blog. To name: Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Social Computing and Social Software Adoption. Basically, the one I will continue to make use of as I have been doing all along.

And the second one, elsua_b, which is the one I have decided to split personalities with from here onwards. Yes, that’s right! For the last few days I have already been using that second Twitter account to continue sharing nuggets about the very same topics as with the other one, but with a slight twist. And, that is, that I will, from here onwards, use this second account for everything that relates to IBM 2.0. Basically, my day job.

That’s right! After a few months of thinking whether it would be worth while splitting personalities and create this separate account for work related stuff it’s time for me to dive in and see how that experiment would go. I know that this may come as a surprise to plenty of folks, but, to be honest, there is a good reason why I wanted to get started with this experiment: and, that is to start sharing with the rest of the world some of the amazing stuff I get exposed to on a daily basis inside the company with regards to KM, CommunityBuilding, Learning and Social Computing. And not just from what I’m getting involved myself, but, mainly, from plenty of the activities that other fellow colleagues have embarked themselves on for a long while now.

Yes, all along I have been keeping "quiet" about this, since I didn’t want to overwhelm folks with far too much tweeting away than what I already do! (Yeah, those folks who already follow me know what it is like hehe); so that filtering is now going away with this new account: elsua_b.

I must say that for the few days that I have been trying it out I have been enjoying it quite a bit; I thought I would find it harder to work with both of them concurrently, but I have been using two of my favourite Twitter tools and that seems to have helped quite a bit. For elsua_b I am using Tweetie for the Mac, while for elsua I am playing, in between, with both Mixero and Nambu (When it doesn’t crash! -Ouchie!).

The interesting thing is that I didn’t know how helpful it would become right away eventually till I started to get everything ready for Lotusphere 2010, because I will be taking the opportunity to share with folks out there, who may be interested, what will be happening at the event, but instead of overwhelming folks with IBM related tweets at elsua I am going to make use of elsua_b instead.

I am sure you may be wondering now which one of the two you may want to follow, if you are using Twitter yourself, right? Well, I am pretty ok with whatever the approach: if you would want to follow the brand elsua keep following that one; if you would rather fancy checking out some of the stuff I get exposed to inside IBM with regards to helping make IBM more like IBM 2.0, then go ahead and follow elsua_b, because that’s where I will be sharing those related IBM tweets (Starting with live tweeting the Lotusphere conference next week!).

Oh, and if you don’t want to follow any of the two, that’s fine, too! Long time ago I learned just like I couldn’t keep up with following everyone, I would no longer get upset if people unfollow or don’t follow at all. Life is just too short to worry about such silly things as following & unfollowing, don’t you think? To me, Twitter is about providing good business value of their time (And mine!) by sharing knowledge nuggets that not only do I benefit about, but so do the network(s) of people who decided to follow me. Hopefully. In short, and that’s what matters, as far as I am concerned: helping you get the value of this split personality, because from my own perspective I’m already getting plenty out of it myself!

Thus stay tuned, because that me continuing to provide value will start next week, like I have just mentioned above, with Lotusphere where I will be live tweeting from that second account as much as I could possibly can, and, of course, depending on the network connectivity and availability. Fingers crossed the wi-fi will hold this year … So far, things are indicating that it may well be as if it will. Let’s hope so!

Tags: Twitter, Micro-blogging, Micro-Sharing, Experiments, Split Personalities, IBM 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Business Value, Value, Live Tweeting, Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, #ls10