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

A Weekly Glimpse of elsua – The Knowledge Management Blog – Week 43

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

Engineering Systems Solutions to Real World Challenges – Building an Innovation Company for the 21st Century

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

That’s What We All Need: A Hug

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