Just this morning, and while checking my RSS Newsfeeds, I have bumped into a particularly interesting weblog post by Ted Demopoulos over at Blogging for Business around the subject on 10 Tips for Becoming a Great Corporate Blogger and which references another superb article from Scout on this very same subject. A pretty good and must-read post for everyone who may want to get started not just with their own corporate weblog but with weblogging in general.

Indeed, I feel that most of the different tips that are mentioned over at 10 Tips for Becoming a Great Corporate Blogger would be applicable to weblogging in general, whether it is done on a personal level or on a business / corporate like levels. In fact, I have been weblogging in my Intranet weblog for over two years now and every now and then I still get questions from people who would want to know how to make it as a successful corporate weblogger. And this particular article just seems to fit in the profile so nicely that I decided to weblog about it in my Intranet weblog earlier on this morning.

However, I thought that this time around, while I do realise that this is, yet again, another metablogging post in elsua, I decided to create a cross link over here but instead of just reference it I will try to add a brief commentary on each of the tips to share with your folks my two cents worth of comments in order to be able to add further into the conversation.

To get us started and positioned into the right mood here is a superb quote that I am sure would demonstrate the value of weblogging showing that in most cases it is not about being the best writer, nor the most prolific, but:

“Being a successful blogger is about creating a connection with an audience by providing relevant content, nurturing that relationship with comments and links and keeping the dialogue flowing. Here are ten tips to get you started.” (Emphasis mine)

With that introduction, and as a teaser including my commentary, here you have got a little taste of what the article is all about:

1. Understanding the fundamentals of Blogger Relations: I never thought about it this way but the article has got a point. If you want to get out there and connect with others you would need to work on your Blogger Relations, indeed, perhaps at the same level if not more (Because of the remoteness) than the traditional PR. And perhaps being shy may not help a lot.
2. Create value: Indeed, this is one of the reasons why I primarily created all of my weblogs. To be able to add further into the conversation(s) my two cents worth of comments on the topics that I have got a passion for, because after all, it is all down to how passionate you are about the topics you want to discuss in order to be able to create that sustainable value.
3. Grow and sustain your audience by providing real analysis: Spot on! Otherwise why would you want to reference on something if you are going to be able to read in the original resource. What is the point? We can all read the original article by ourselves. In my case, I just want to know people’s opinions about that piece of news. For the rest I can get the details myself. That is where I think the power of weblogging is; in augmenting the original conversation(s).
4. Report on community opinion: This is a very powerful option since it would allow to build further up on that sense of belonging to the group or the community with which you can start creating multiple connections at multiple levels and make it all a very worth while discussion where everyone provides their share on establishing the connection.
5. Respond with comments to build relationships and traffic: This is one of those tips that I cannot but stress how important it is. I am one of those lucky folks whose Internet weblog is not very popular. Yes, to me, that is a good thing ! It has got a good share of readers who get to comment every now and then and I am just very delighted that I can dedicate the time to respond to them the way they deserve for coming back over and over again and sharing their thoughts. That is, to me, what differentiates a good weblogger from a mediocre one just looking to have their traffic increased so that they rank higher. Waste of time.
6. Track your conversations: This is also another tip that I have been employing from the very beginning since I started weblogging away. I have even weblogged myself about it elsewhere when I provided an overview about coComment and how I am currently using myself BlinkList  to keep track of all of the comments I share out there in the Blogosphere. Yes, indeed, it is all about the conversations so you might as well go ahead and keep track of them.
7. Don’t be afraid of criticism: No, indeed, don’t be afraid of it because that is actually what is going to give character to your weblog and what will make people stick together with you. Believe it or not, you will be able to attract some more traffic through that criticism than just talking to yourself. It is just so much more entertaining and engaging, specially if you would want to be part of the conversations.
8. Conduct interviews to generate content and ideas: Great tip ! Something I haven’t exploited myself yet for any of my weblogs I maintain but perhaps something that I may be able to use some time in the future. Does anybody out there from you folks fancy doing an interview to talk about KM, Communities of Practice, Social Networking and the like? Let me know
9. Promote your weblog: Yes, in principle, I agree with giving some more promotion to your own weblogs, like I have mentioned elsewhere in another weblog posts, but I have also indicated that you should probably not overdo it in detriment of providing that value that is mentioned above. I think they could both walk hand in hand to provide some good balance. Sometimes it is not about getting the word out and about all over the place, but getting the right word out and about. That is, to me, what really matters. The rest is circumstantial. Check this other weblog post from Steve Rubel on the subject and its subsequent commentary (I will talk about it more in detail at a later time, not to worry; one metablog post at a time) for some additional reading on the topic.
10. Monitor the web for brand names and references: As far as I can see anybody who may not have been doing this for quite some time now, even if you do not have a weblog, I feel that they just do not want to be part of the conversations taking place out there and therefore become an integral part of them. Thus, if you haven’t done so yet, get involved ! We will all be much better off if you do so.

As I said a worth while read if you are interested in trying out not just corporate weblogging but also for your own personal weblogging efforts and not just because of the hype or because everyone is doing it but more because you feel it may well the right medium for you to get out, connect, share and collaborate with others. Good read, indeed !

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You would remember how in the past I have been weblogging a number of different times about what my experience with QumanaXP has been all along ever since it went into a public beta. Initially there were some issues that were addressed and fixed in the second beta release, but not all of them. In fact, there was a single one that prevented me from moving away from everything else and then get to use QumanaXP extensively, which was the inability to talk to my Intranet Roller Weblogger weblog. Well, folks, that is about to change.

I am not sure what has happened or who may have been doing some fixing up at what end, but the thing is that earlier on this afternoon I went and gave a good try to QumanaXP and see if I could configure it with my Roller weblog and not only have I been able to configure it successfully I am even capable of selecting multiple categories to post to and when doing a test weblog entry it all went really well and it posted it successfully the way I wanted using the MetaWeblog API.

Only thing that didn’t seem to be working was the couple of trackbacks I set up to see if those would work. And, like w.bloggar, it seems to have some kind of hiccup with that weblogging feature because it didn’t seem to be working. But that is fine with me, because, pretty much like I got used to doing that with w.bloggar, I can certainly continue doing it with QumanaXP. The good news is that it all seems to be working just fine and I quite delighted to indicate that from now on my default weblogging tool for all of my different weblogs is QumanaXP.

Certainly, a lot more user friendly than w.bloggar. Performancing for FireFox does not seem to be working for Flock 0.5.12, now my default web browser, and Flock’s weblogging component is something that I will still use every now and then, specially for that lovely integration with Flickr. But for the time being, I am quite content with QumanaXP and will probably stick with it for a little while now, since all of my weblogs are working quite all right with it. It is good to finally have one weblogging tool out there that doesn’t feel to me like I need to focus on the technical aspects of the weblogging environment but more just focus on the content itself. Quite an achievement !

Tags: Metablogging, QumanaXP, w.bloggar, Performancing, Flock, Roller

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I am sure that you would agree with me that there are times where we could all do with some unwinding from everything else that is currently happening around us so that we could go back and look at things into perspective and fix whatever issues that may be at hand and that would need some taking care of. Call it striking that work / life balance. Call it a break from work, from our busy lives, from everything around us that we need to think but just fail to come across loud and clear. You name it. Where would you go ? What would you do ?

Well, to me I have got the perfect opportunity discovering locations in Gran Canaria, the place where I currently live. This time around I have been sharing a number of pictures in my Flickr account from a place I went to not long ago. It is called La Fortaleza - The Fortress, and supposingly it was one of the latest strongholds from the local Guanches while fighting the Godos a few centuries back. I am sure that after checking out the pictures I have included below you will figure out why it was one of the last strongholds in the island.

Today though it is one of the most remarkable places from Gran Canaria where you can find lots of peace and quiet to do some serious thinking while contemplating some stunning landscapes all over the place through its many viewpoints. Something very distinct from the typical image the island has endured for the last few decades. Thus here you go with the pictures. Hope you enjoy them just as much as I did taking them.

 

 

 

Oh, and before I get to post this weblog post, I would like to bring to your attention a superb little application that you could use to help populate your Windows desktop with pictures from your Flickr account (Or from a particular folder in your computer) on a more or less regular basis (Hourly, daily, etc.) and displaying them to cover the entire desktop. The tool itself is called John’s Background Switcher and it is just so cool that I have been using it ever since I discovered it a couple of weeks back. So now I am getting all the different pictures from my Flickr account directly into my desktop and without any effort. You gotta love going through your favourite pictures every now and then to give you that little extra break from everything else. Worth while installing it for sure. Highly recommended.

 Tags: Gran Canaria, La Fortaleza, The Fortress

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Yesterday, Bill Ives created another interesting weblog post where he provided some further detailed information on one of beta tools that IBM is making use of for social bookmarking: Dogear. He briefly mentioned as well how he recently attended an IBM media event on the same subject, and which I have weblogged about myself not too long ago, and finally referenced the main article that describes how Dogear actually works.

In this last weblog post on the topic he provides a very good overview of some of the most relevant features from the application itself and since I have been using it myself internally for quite some time I thought I would also share one other feature that may have gone unnoticed by many but which it still provides a very powerful capability. And that is the fact that Dogear can also be used as a weblogging engine. Yes, indeed, it can be used as your own personal and independent weblog. How ? You may be asking yourself, right? Very easily. Let me explain.

For anybody out there who may have been weblogging for some time now you would agree that one of the commonest practices from us all is to basically share our two cents worth of comments from different web links that we find out there: news items, useful tools links, reviews, books and a long etc. are some of the topical areas we use for our weblog(s). Yes, perhaps what you could classify that as Linkblogs. Well, Dogear in itself has got that weblogging lookalike user interface that allows you not only to annotate those web links like you could do with other social bookmarking tools but people who bump into your links could also add comments and engage in some sort of conversation similar to what you get with standard weblogs.

And before you know it you have got yourself an audience that follows up not only the original link you are sharing but also your thoughts on it, and where applicable (To them, that is) they will engage with you in a conversation where everybody has got the opportunity to get to interact with you and others. And by clicking on the tags of those links and also with the graphical reference on the number of people who may have bookmarked that web link as well as the RSS Newsfeeds before you know it you have got your own weblogging platform alive and kicking and all of that thanks to sharing your bookmarks with others. Just brilliant !

That is another way how people are making use of Dogear inside IBM and how a traditionally identified as a social bookmarking tool could also be adapted to becoming a powerful weblogging platform for people -and for communities of practice- to leverage not only their web links but also what they think about each of them and share it with others. Collaborative web at its best.

Tags: IBM, Dogear, Social Bookmarking, Metablogging

Although yesterday I didn’t have much time to create a weblog post here in elsua since I took half day off here we go again today with a few minutes to share with you an e-mail that I got earlier on this morning:

The following provides brief details of and web links to our March 2006 Hong Kong program, for your consideration.

Program: Cognitive Edge: Making Sense of Complexity (A Cynefin Centre approved program)

On: 28 and 29 March 2006 At: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Our working and living environments are increasingly complex, and some critical challenges and issues seem to be intractable and unresolvable. Many of the existing range of tools and techniques available assume a level of predictability and order not evident in complex systems; and are therefore less than effective in their application.

The Cynefin Centre, drawing on diverse disciplines including complexity science, cognitive psychology and anthropology, has developed and applied tools and processes designed to enable groups of people to make sense of their complex issues before determining the most effective intervention. Cynefin is a perspective or sense making approach, supporting people involved in the issues to make more effective decisions about their own issues. Cynefin focuses on making sense of systems, with meaning constructed by those in the system, rather than external experts.

Dave Snowden founder of The Cynefin Centre, supported by Australian Certified Cynefin practitioners, will be conducting the program. SOLA, as an education, research and training partner of The Cynefin Centre is organising the workshop.

The Cynefin Centre (www.cynefin.net) is an open source consulting network enabling the use any of the tools and methods in the program or on the website.

After completing the workshop, you will be able to

Use narrative techniques to capture multiple and diverse perspectives

Enable groups to make sense of complex and intractable issues

Map complex issues

Apply complexity principles and Cynefin methods to applications including:- Strategy Development; Scoping new projects; Knowledge capture; Capturing learning; Innovation

The workshop will also show how applications can be supported by The Cynefin Sense Making software, which is currently in final testing.

Investment - The investment is $HKD 5,800 ($AUD1,000). There are a number of possibilities for discounts; please refer to the brochure for details.

Venue-Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Information and Registration - Full details and secure on line registration are available under the Event listing at - www.cynefin.net/events.php

We would appreciate you forwarding this information to any colleague that may be interested, and apologise if you have received more than one notification.

This is certainly one event that I wouldn’t have minded attending and participating from. I am sure that it would be as good as the brochure mentions and on top of that I am sure I would have been able to meet up with some folks who I have been working in the past or other fellow colleagues from Asia Pacific that will eventually making. So here I am, sending this notice out to everyone who may be reading it and also making it into the event so that they could provide us with an overview of how it went since I am afraid I will not be able to make it. Perhaps some other time. Thus if there is anybody out there reading this particular weblog post who will be making it into the event please do share with us all how it went. I am sure I am not the only one who would be interested in knowing how it went. Thus share it with us !

[tags]Knowledge Management, KM, Cynefin, Sense Making, Complexity[/tags]

If you would remember, in the past I have been weblogging a couple of times about the beta release from Qumana that would allow you to post content in multiple weblogs in a seamless and very user friendly manner. Indeed, QumanaXP has done some really great work so far by releasing a new beta client, version 2, that has improved a few things even better, including one of the error messages I was getting when trying to publish my Internet weblog.

Arieanna provides all the different details over at QumanaXP’s official weblog and you can read some more about it over there. However, there is still one issue that is currently bugging me quite a bit regarding the usage of this particular weblogging tool. And that is the fact that it is almost impossible to set it up to talk to Roller Weblogger, like I have mentioned elsewhere. Even more, with this second beta release, I just cannot even pass through the initial setup windows as can be seen on the following screen shot (URL address has been removed to show the picture with just the error message). And that is just so frustrating !

I have been using this beta release from QumanaXP ever since it was made publicly available and so far, as I have mentioned already a couple of times, I do love the experience. However, it would be even much nicer if I could also get it working for my Intranet weblog, which uses Roller. But it looks like that would have to wait for another release because so far it seems we have gone a bit backwards on this one. I have been in contact with the development folks to try to figure out what is going on but so far I am still stuck with it.

Let’s see what will be happening over the next few weeks because I would hate having to move away from such a fine release of this weblogging tool that makes knowledge sharing and collaborating a true delight. I am sure that those who may have tried out the tool already would agree with that. Thus I am keeping my fingers crossed that one of these days I would be able to configure QumanaXP successfully to make it work for all of my weblogs.

Tags: Metablogging, QumanaXP, Roller Weblogger, Roller