Here we go again. Another week gone by and ready to share with you folks some of the most popular conversations that I have been having over at elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog in the course of last week. As you would be able to see from the links and descriptions below there seems to be still an additional interest in collaboration and new emerging technologies to help out on that same aspects of knowledge sharing and working with others. So without any further delay, here you have got the links to the Top 5 most popular weblog posts from last week in elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog:

1. How Is Your Email Etiquette?: Here are some thoughts on a recent weblog article I bumped into around the subject of e-mail etiquette and how some of the different questions shared in that resource actually reflect some of my own experience with e-mail etiquette. Yes, it is a tough world out there, but there are always good things / tips you can follow and here are my two cents worth of comments on the subject

2.  Why People Don’t Collaborate: Here is a weblog post that tries to elaborate some more on the thought as to why knowledge workers may not be collaborating as much and as often as you would have expected within the enterprise. There are certainly a number of different issues put together by S. Ann Earon, from Collaboration Loop, and this is my take on what could be done to fix them. At least, what would be one good approach to try and see how it would develop further

3. 5 Reasons Why RSS Feeds Are not Popular - Avoiding Comparing Pears with Apples: It looks like this particular weblog post still keeps coming up for the second week running and to me it is just a clear indication that shows how much people are interested in the subject of web syndication and why, despite the initial hurdles, RSS feeds are, indeed, here to stay, no matter what other folks would think / say. Good stuff!

4. Introducing Collaboration Technologies to the Enterprise Is a Challenge and How a Critical Mass of Early Adopters Can Help: This is a weblog post where I shared some of my experiences on the adoption of social software within the enterprise and how there are a number of different techniques to make it easier on everyone to start making use of those different tools. And a good step towards getting things going is through the usage of a critical mass of early adopters, amongst tips.

5. Networking Is a Process … Take Your Time: Whoever thought that social networking was all about instant gratification and immediate "rewards" should probably have a look and read further from this weblog post that references another one with the title "Networking is a process … take your time" by Tara Alexandra Kachaturoff. It certainly takes a whole lot more effort, involvement and commitment to be able to engage successfully with social networks. And here is why…

And that was it, folks, for this week. Next week I shall bring over here some further thoughts that I have been putting together over at elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog in different weblog posts and that the audience over there, which I happen to know is substantially different to the group of folks who get to read from elsua.net, have been finding them an interesting and engaging read. Hope you enjoy them, too.

Tags: elsua, ITtoolbox, E-mail, Etiquette, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, RSS, Syndication, Social Software, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Early Adopters, Critical Mass

As you well know, there are a number of different IBM weblogs that I follow on a regular basis, as I have mentioned in the recent weblog post I created around IBM’s Weblog Directory, and while I am still currently updating the actual blogroll from this weblog, I thought I would point out to you one recent article that was put together by Irwin Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President of Technical Strategy and Innovation at IBM, and which I am sure you are going to find quite an interesting read: Skills for the 21st Century - Engineering Systems Solutions to Real World Challenges.

This is a weblog post that you are going to enjoy if you would want to know what IBM is currently doing with regards to driving innovation inside and outside of the corporation in order to help knowledge workers collaborate and share knowledge with others in a world that is now more distributed than ever before, with nearly 40% of IBM’s population working mobile. You would actually get to read some interesting insights from Irwin about a number of different ideas that IBM has been working on in order to help boost that innovation. So instead of getting to read about some of the traditional stuff IBM has been doing with regards to some of its products you would be able to read some more about some other refreshing initiatives that are going on at the moment.

For instance, you would get to hear about the On Demand WorkPlace offering, which is basically IBM’s Intranet with some incredible capabilities to find both information and knowledge, and the experts behind them, or ThinkPlace (The online space IBM is using to bring forward ideas and innovation in a collaborative environment for every single employee), or Blog Central (IBM’s internal platform for weblogs) etc. etc. Excellent stuff !

What Irwin is actually doing in Skills for the 21st Century - Engineering Systems Solutions to Real World Challenges is introducing the recent presentation that Linda Sanford (IBM Senior Vice President, Enterprise On Demand Transformation & Information Technology) provided over at the IBM-MIT/ESD Innovation Lecture Series - Engineering Systems Solutions to Real World Challenges in MIT, Cambridge, MA., titled Building an Innovation Company for the 21st Century and which basically talks a great deal on what Innovation is all about and actually what Innovation means to IBM.

As I said, the interesting part about this particular presentation and Irwin’s weblog post is to actually get to check how through the implementation of IBM’s Technology Adoption Program knowledge workers inside of the company have got the opportunity to test out some of the most relevant social software tools out there for people to help them in their collaborative efforts and knowledge sharing in general so that in its due time we may be able to move some of those different offerings into actual IBM products. You can actually get to watch the webcast of the session by going into the following URL: IBM MIT Innovation Lecture Series. And you can download the PDF slide deck over here, too.

And if you didn’t have enough with that to make you go there and check it out then let me point you to the webcast itself and around the 62nd minute (It lasts for about 90 minutes) you would get to watch a videocast I did myself not long ago as to what Innovation @ IBM is all about. It just lasts for a couple of minutes, but with that and Elias Torres‘ introduction before and after the videocast it would make for an interesting listen if you would want to watch my two cents worth of contribution to the overall presentation. Plus you would get a chance to see what I actually look like, just in case you may bump into me at some point and may want to say "Hi!"

Tags: IBM, Technology Adoption Program, TAP, Irwin Wladawsky-Berger, On Demand WorkPlace, ThinkPlace, Blog Central, Social Software, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Linda Sanford, Innovation, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, MIT, Elias Torres, Vodcast

Here is some Friday fun for you, but with a message. Too good to miss out on it, actually. Something that you know that if done more often it would change things big time for everyone out there! Yes, I know, a strong message, actually, and one that would make you think twice next time you go out in the streets. At least, it did for me and perhaps the perfect way to get the weekend started …

Courtesy from Robin Good (Worth while reading his weblog post, too!)

Tags: Life, Hugs, Fun, Balance, Robin Good

In the past, and for a good number of weblog posts, I have been talking over here about the importance of Tacit Knowledge in the coming back of Knowledge Management thanks, amongst other things, to the emergence of social software that helps boost collaboration and knowledge sharing in multiple different scenarios. For a number of years we have been having perhaps a bit too much focus on the Explicit Knowledge exchange where knowledge workers were more than  anything else encouraged to share their best of breed Intellectual Capital in whatever the designated repository without placing too much emphasis on the tacit knowledge exchange.

However, and like I have already mentioned above, with the emergence of social software there seems to be now a more balanced approach where Knowledge Management is finally trying to combine both tacit and explicit knowledge exchanges and get the most out of both of them. And it is perhaps now where there seems to be a bit more focus on the tacit exchange piece since it needs to do some serious catch-up. At least, initially.

One of the most powerful options to try to deliver on that particular know-how of knowledge and information is actually one of my favourite social software concepts that I have been advocating myself for quite some time now. And that is the phenomenon of screencasting. Screencasting, to keep it short, "is a digital recording of computer screen output, often containing audio narration" and if there is a person out there who is an expert on the subject is actually the guy who invented the term a couple of years back in the first place: Jon Udell.

So that is why I was quite excited when a few weeks back he actually created a weblog post titled Screencasting of Tacit Knowledge, where he actually advocated with a concrete example how screencasts can be really helpful tools to deliver much more than just explicit knowledge. That know-how put together at the service of showing someone, with both audio and video, how to perform a particular task and then learn from it right away is perhaps one of the most powerful methods for knowledge sharing, collaboration and learning by doing (Informal Learning). And this is perhaps one of the main reasons why more and more learning activities are getting delivered with the help of screencasts as they can certainly be very beneficial and very handy to deliver very powerful messages.

By now you are probably wondering which one would be my preferred method of producing screencasts, right? And I must say that after having tried out a  number of different tools like Wink or CamStudio (Both of them very good options as well and worth while checking, in case you are looking for more options out there) and reading further on a number of different great reviews my preferred method for creating a screencast is actually Camtasia, which funny enough in the last few days there has been a new major release put together, v 4.0, that comes packed with an incredible set of new features that will make it a delight for everyone to try it out.

I have now upgraded my v. 3.x license and got my hands on a copy of v.4 (Yes, I know it is not cheap. But you would have to think how much money you would be saving for the different tasks you are planning to use it for. Yes, indeed, it would become a rather cheap license and worth while the money. And big time!). I must say that I impressed. Very impressed. Specially with the good amount of social software related features put together in this particular last major release. They even launched a new service with it called Screencast where you can host your own screencasts at a reasonable cost and then share them with everyone else out there. Pretty an interesting option, for sure, specially if you do not have the means to store them online elsewhere yourself.

I guess I could go on and on and on regarding how good Camtasia actually is, but I guess I will just leave it over there for the time being and encourage you to check out Jon’s weblog post on how tacit knowledge can benefit a huge deal from something so relatively simple as a screencast. As time goes by I will go ahead and share with you a couple of my favourite features thus far and perhaps also create a couple of screencasts and show you by doing how effective they can well be. We shall see how that goes.

Tags: Screencasts, Screencasting, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Informal Learning, Collaboration, Tacit Knowledge, Explicit Knowledge, Camtasia, Wink, CamStudio, Jon  Udell

It looks like my ADSL wireless router has beaten me up once again ! And big time ! For the last five and a half hours, and for no good reason, I have been knocked out completely off the network. I still have to figure out what actually happened in the end. Not even the customer service representative could figure out what happened. The thing is that for the first time this year my ADSL wireless router decided to die on me for a few hours and reminded me of how vulnerable I really am without a live Internet connection. It felt almost like being naked in a …! Yes, that, indeed !

Anyway, the funny thing is that I am not sure why but when I came back from my daily swim a few minutes ago I actually tried it out again and see if it would connect me and voilá this time around it worked ! Go figure ! That is just one of the things that I really like about technology. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And it doesn’t ask for a reason, does it?

Well, now that I come to think about it, did my ADSL wireless router decide to play funny on me so that I would learn the lesson on the same day that I was actually planning to take for a spin the new La Fonera that I just purchased a few days ago and which has finally arrived? Yes, indeed, I am really excited about diving some more into La Fonera and check some more further into FON, the ever growing worldwide social (And free) wireless WiFi community. Wooohooo ! Doesn’t that sound really exciting (And inviting?)? Is that the reason why my router didn’t want to play along with it? And all that just after unpacking the box ! Imagine what would happen when I try to install it further. Hummm, food for some further thoughts… and perhaps a future weblog post on the results.

Now, unfortunately, when everything is back up and running, there is the usual catchup of what have actually may have happened while I have been away. So you would have to bear with me as the regular weblogging will resume from tomorrow onwards.And why not right now? Well, because the life part of the work / life balance dichotomy just kicked in and is demanding my attention in full force. And somehow this time around it seems to be winning. So I shall be back tomorrow (With a live Internet connection, I would hope!) …

Tags: Wireless, Router, ADSL, FON, La Fonera, Work - Life Balance

It looks like Nancy White has done it again ! What a terrific piece of work she has put together over at Slideshare !

Check out Surfing the Second Wave of Online Collaboration where you would be able to see the huge impact that all these new emerging technologies, i.e. social software tools or Web 2.0, are actually having in the world of online collaboration. Yes, I am sure that as you go through the different slides you would be able to read some of the stuff that I have also been talking around over here, but more than just covering online collaboration it would be more down to Knowledge Management in itself. I, too, believe that we are on that same comeback that Nancy mentions for Knowledge Management and Collaboration where thanks to that social software people are re-thinking of new ways of sharing knowledge and collaborating with others.

And her slides are just a good proof of what lies ahead. Some very exciting times ! Here is the Slideshare deck embedded into this weblog post, just in case you may want to check it out right away. See what you think and if you liked the show just head over to the original resource and drop a comment or two ! (I just did myself!)

Tags: Nancy White, Online Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Remote Collaboration, Slideshare, Social Software, Social Networking, Web 2.0