E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Social Bookmarking in the Enterprise – IBM’s Internal Tagging Tool – Dogear as a Weblog Engine

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

Cynefin Hong Kong Program Cognitive Edge: Making Sense of Complexity – March 2006

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]

QumanaXP – Fixing Up Some Issues but Not There Just Yet

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