Tags: Wikis, Weblogs, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Socialtext, Ross Mayfield, Robert Scoble, PodTech, Conversations, Informal Learning, Jay Cross, Wikipedia, Andrew McAfee, Enterprise 2.0, Trust

My IBM fellow colleague Steve Castledine has already been weblogging about it earlier on today, but I thought this it is just far too good to miss out on it. So here I am creating a weblog post around one of the most interesting interviews ever done around the subject of wikis, social computing and social software in general. Yes, indeed, check out the recent video interview that Robert Scoble conducted where he gets to interview Ross Mayfield, CEO and co-founder of Socialtext. You would be able to find a reference to it over at Ross’ weblog as well. Yes, I realise that it is a bit over one hour (I think that 30 to 45 minutes would have been sufficient though), but still worth while watching all the way till the end.

In that particular video interview Ross gets to detail a whole bunch of really interesting, educational and enlightening bits and pieces around the worlds of wikis. Yes, he gets to talk a bit about Socialtext so you will get to hear what they are up to, too. However, in that video piece you would be able to see how Ross gets to differentiate, quite effectively, weblogs vs. wikis: "Blogs are about individual voice, collective sense making, a lot better than e-mail". According to him (And I agree 100% with it) weblogs are great as they encourage communication "one to many" and "get some dialogue going". Yes, exactly, what plenty of us have been saying all along: conversations, conversations, conversations.

Wikis on the other hand are all about "group voice". Wikis would be all about a "sense of group memory", which is perhaps what makes them such a great tool for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

From there onwards Ross gets to discuss a bit of Intranet and Internet weblogs. Very much thought-provoking comments and perhaps a subject for another weblog post at some point. I feel that behind the firewall weblogs can be just as exciting as external ones, if you know what to weblog about and how to share that passion across. But again, subject for another entry later on.

I really enjoyed his concept of wikis as another social software tool that tries to help out very much walk away from other traditional collaborative tools, like e-mail. That concept of moving from an isolated inbox to a shared one with lots of "different breadcrumbs of attention that help things bubble up" is just so spot on!

I also enjoyed his differentiation between "blog people" and "wiki people". I guess I would be a hybrid of some kind since I get to use both of them quite extensively, but I can imagine how there may be knowledge workers out there more into weblogs than wikis and vice versa. You have got to check out as well his comments on what differentiates a wiki from a weblog. Priceless!

However, what I really found incredibly interesting and educational was his concept of how to build further up around a wiki. According to Ross the strength of a wiki is that "it starts with a blank page" and then you have to figure out what you are going to do with it. Poke around a bit and realise that you can do lots of interesting things, including lots of informal learning (Insert here a quick very very accurate quotation about some of the work that Jay Cross has been doing around informal learning and which I have discussed over here not long ago, where 80% of all learning in the workplace actually takes place socially and wikis would be great for that, too!).

From here onwards you would get to hear from Ross how he gets to describe the success of Wikipedia; how traditional enterprise systems differentiate from the current social computing movement and to make things even more interesting he gets to detail a very brief history of collaboration where you get to find out about some interesting tidbits on where it all started and where we are. Really nice!

Towards the end of the interview you get to hear from Ross how important trust is for the well being of any wiki and how wiki platforms would now need to do some serious work around the world of standardisation if they would want to succeed in the enterprise world.

And talking about Enterprise 2.0, he also mentioned Andrew McAfee’s definition of that same concept, that although I am sure you are already familiar with it I am just going to place it here for those out there who may not have heard about it just yet: Enterprise 2.0 is "Free form social software adopted by organisations".

Finally, you would get to hear a bit about the (in)famous Web 2.0 bubble and what might actually be happening in the end, including how different we are starting to consider knowledge sharing and collaborating with others with the help of social computing by focusing on rewarding more those who share as opposed to those who hoard knowledge. Quite an interesting thought and something that I would agree with all along. KM is about knowledge sharing and collaborating with others and not about knowledge hoarding, despite what some other folks may well say.

Phew ! And that was it, folks. Those are some of the different highlights from that particular interview of Robert Scoble with Ross Mayfield. Yes, there was a whole lot more said during that hour, but I am just going to leave that to you to go and check it out. As I said, a worth while watch, for sure ! Fantastic stuff, guys ! Thanks for sharing and for enlightening us all a bit more!

Tags: elsua, ITtoolbox, Software, Knowledge Management, KM, KM Barriers, IBM TV, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Enterprise Blogs, Instant Messaging, IM, KM Strategy, Vyew, BlinkList, Social Bookmarking, Learning

Oh dear, I actually thought that I had shared a weblog post last week where I was sharing the weekly glimpse of elsua’s (The Knowledge Management Blog) for week 47, like I have been doing for the last few weeks already, to then only find out just now that it didn’t get posted after all. It just went into my draft weblog entries and it has been sitting there ever since ! Hummm, I guess I will have to go ahead and re-write what I put together back then and try to combine it with the weekly glimpse from the following week. So that is what I will do. However, I will try to keep the weblog post as short as possible and therefore just share the details of the different weblog entries without duplicating content. Let’s see. Here you have got the most popular weblog posts for the last two weeks from elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog ranked by page hits:

1. 15 Ways to Use Software to Improve Your Knowledge Management: If you ever wondered what would be some of the major components that a successful Knowledge Management programme should have, if you are in the actual process of reviewing your current Knowledge Management programme I would encourage you all to check Techsoup’s article on "15 Ways to Use Software to Improve Your Knowledge Management" where you would find plenty of different tips put together by combining the best of both worlds, both the traditional KM and the new emerging KM based on social computing. Worth while a read and here is a preview of what you would be able to find over there.

2. Taking Down Knowledge Management Barriers: Ever wonder why Knowledge Management didn’t take off within the enterprise in the way it was first envisioned? Ever thought what were the main KM barriers that prevented that massive adoption of KM programs? Want to find out how things are changing nowadays with the inclusion of social software into the whole picture? Here is a weblog post that touches on some of the issues of the past and also a look into the brilliant present and most promising future.

3. IBM TV - Keeping an Eye on IBM Happenings: Ever wanted to keep up to date with whatever is happening over at IBM around the world of Knowledge and Information Management, Collaboration, Communities, Emerging Technologies, Social Software and Web 2.0? Ever wanted to know how IBM is trying to combine the best of both worlds and merging quite successfully both traditional groupware tools with the latest on social software tools? Then you may be interested in this particular weblog post where I am sharing a link to the IBM TV Web site where you can find some good resources to get you going in this area. So read on further for some more recommendations on what to check first.

4. Tips for Successful Corporate Blogs: Ever wanted to find out what corporate weblogging is all about? Thought you have seen it all when talking about corporate / enterprise weblogging? Ever thought you have had enough of all those studies and surveys? Well, here is a weblog post I created where I referenced another weblog post by Roland Piquepaille that gets to comment on a very worth while survey and study performed around the subject of corporate weblogs and which I am sure you are going to enjoy. This time around, this one is coming from Northeastern University, MA., and Backbone Media Inc.

5. Instant Messaging As a Powerful Vehicle for Instant Communications with the Enterprise: Here is a weblog post where I am sharing some of the annotations that I have taken from a recent e-meeting I have attended, through the replay, from Osterman Research Inc. around the subject of Enterprise IM and how Instant Messaging is making its way rather quick into the enterprise world as perhaps one of the most powerful collaborative tools for real-time interactions. Long gone are the days where IM was just meant for teenagers …

6. IBM’s Knowledge Management Strategy: This is also bound to be one of the most popular weblog posts for the whole month, because on the statistics it is actually showing up on the Top 5 for three consecutive weeks. So I guess it is interesting for folks out there to find out what IBM is currently doing around its KM strategy. And I guess that over here, in this weblog, you would be able to hear some more about it, specially now that I have got the IBM category up and running. Thus stay tuned for plenty more to come.

7. Vyew 2.0 - Free Web Collaboration: This particular article also came up on the top 5 for week 46 and it clearly shows how much worth while it actually is in order to help virtual and distributed teams and communities collaborate and share knowledge on whatever the topic. And all of that with just something so relatively simple as just having your favourite browser and a URL. Stunning!

8. BlinkList Guide for Educators- Tools and Tagging: Here is a quick weblog post that actually details how you can get the most of your social networking tools experience by making extensive use of an impressive social bookmarking tool like del.icio.us and FireFox 2.0 and how in my own set up I am actually achieving similar results making use of both BlinkList and Flock. BlinkList as my preferred social bookmarking tool which now integrates quite nicely with whatever other social bookmarking tool and Flock, still my default web browser despite the recent releases from IE7 and FireFox 2.

As you would be able to see, plenty of different topics dealing not just with traditional Knowledge Management but also with the next generation of KM, Social Computing, which, as I have been saying all along, is perhaps what KM should have been all about all along: the perfect combination in balance of both explicit and tacit knowledge exchanges. Good stuff!

Tags: Metablogging, Blogging Anniversary, elsua, ITtoolbox, IBM, Intranet Blogs, Corporate Blogging, Enterprise Blogs, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, People, ProBlogger, Dennis McDonald

I think that this post is actually going to be somewhat a bit of an insular weblog entry on its own. Oh, wait, I just linked to Darren’s ProBlogger! I guess it will not be after all. Sigh. Anyway, I just wanted to get together this article in order to share something that although initially it may sound a bit too selfish (Not to worry. I will try to keep in mind being a humble blogger. Goodness ! Here I go again, linking to another article from Darren’s weblog referencing the superb entry "The Honor of Humility"), it is actually quite interesting since earlier on today it forced me to actually ponder about my blogging habits and why I got here in the first place. Yes, that is right, this is another weblog post that touches base on some of the reasons as to why I still keep on weblogging on three different places day in day out. And for the last three years already !

Earlier on today I created a post in my IBM Intranet weblog stating how yesterday it was actually the third anniversary of my internal weblog (Called elesar’s) and right there I mentioned how over the course of those three years I have been able to have some of the most incredible experiences thanks to my involvement with both the IBM and Internet blogosphere by sharing my thoughts around Social Computing and Knowledge Management with others. In the past I have been detailing some of the reasons as to why I have always felt (Still do) that weblogging has been very much worth while for me all along. But I guess, that today, after reaching that third year anniversary milestone I have realised about the main reason why I still keep on weblogging on a daily basis.

Back in December 3rd 2003 I got started with my Intranet weblog and after three years, and two other Internet weblogs (elsua - a KM Blog and elsua - The Knowledge Management Blog), I have now managed to put together 2.610 weblog posts all in all: 1.935  for my Intranet weblog, 458 for elsua.net and 216 for elsua @ ITtoolbox. That is 2.4 weblog posts a day for all of the weblogs I currently maintain. Not too bad, I guess, considering that I only get to do this as some labour of love, like Dennis would say.

The thing is though that while reflecting on all of those statistics as a result of celebrating that third anniversary, I have actually realised that the one thing that keeps me going with all of these weblogs all along, and still going strong,  is actually not talking about different KM tools and technologies, like you have read about a few times already, nor having lengthy weblog posts around different issues related to KM processes. On the contrary. The main reason why I still keep on weblogging after those three years in the blogosphere is nothing more, nothing less (Yes, you guessed it right!) than the people! Yes, that is right. You, folks!

Every which one of you who every day keep on reading some of the stuff I get to write about; who get to comment on a regular basis on some of the different items I have been discussing around the world of Knowledge Management (Sometimes as weblog comments, others as informal conversations through IM or VoIP, or through e-mail, you name it). Despite whatever else you may have been doing all along, I am ever so much grateful that you still keep coming back and dropping by sharing your insights and make all this experience worth while on its own. And big time ! Back when I started three years ago and till today.

So for that and so much more that weblogs have been providing me throughout all this time here is an entry where I would want to sincerely thank you all for being there, through thick and thin, and for making of Luis Suarez what he is at the moment: Luis Suarez. (Wish I could include the link to my internal blog in that last sentence!)

Happy anniversary, elesar’s! I hope you get to celebrate another three more years of exciting conversations and that you keep spreading the message around that weblogging is nothing more than about the people!

Tags: IBM, SWG, IBM Software, Lotus Ventura, Ventura, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, IBM 2.0, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Lotusphere2007, Lotusphere, Lotus Sametime 7.5, Sametime 7.5, James Snell, Elias Torres, Andy Piper, Cote, BluePages, Expertise Location, Dogear, Social Bookmarking, Activities, Communities, Roller Weblogger, Roller,  Metablogging, Blog Central, Weblogs

If yesterday I mentioned how I was creating a new category here in this weblog to talk about all things happening inside IBM around the world of Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities and Social Computing, I think that folks are going to be pretty excited about this particular weblog post I am starting up right now. Lots of people have been wondering all along what is IBM’s take towards social software adoption within the enterprise. Quite a few still think that IBM’s software division is all about Lotus Notes and everything else related to Lotus products, and although certainly Lotus Notes is still going rather strong (Watch out for the Lotusphere event in 2007!) there is no denying that things are about to change and big time!

Not only with the already available Lotus Sametime 7.5, next generation of both IM and VoIP for the enterprise, but with something else that a few of my IBM colleagues have been mentioning already and something that I am really excited about: Lotus Ventura. Yes, indeed, yesterday it was uncovered over at Cote’s weblog post IBM SWG: Lotus "Ventura" and right away it has been picking up some more steam with James Snell, Elias Torres and Andy Piper.

Lotus Ventura is supposed to be IBM’s adventure (Pun intended ;-)) into the social computing world for the enterprise. Yes, once again, that IBM 2.0 thing. And as you may have been able to read already over at Cote’s weblog post Ventura would be an application that will integrate a number of different social software tools that, as James mentioned, some of us, inside of IBM, have been using for years now!:

1. IBM’s BluePages (a.k.a. IBM’s employee directory): So that expertise location within the enterprise can be easier than ever having access not only to knowledge workers but also to the information behind those same knowledge workers. That is, their information.
2. Dogear: IBM’s social bookmarking application: and which I have talked about over here a few times already.
3. Activities: Of which you would be able to read some more about on the presentation I shared yesterday over here from Mike Roche (Slides 6, 23, 46 and 49) and of which I will talk about some time later on.
4. Communities: Given my role as a community builder and knowledge manager, this is actually one of the components that I will be really looking forward to and that, as time goes by, I will be able to share some further details on it.
5. Roller: Or, as we all know, weblogging; yes, that is right. Ventura will have a component that would connect knowledge workers with the world of weblogs using the Roller weblogging engine, which is basically what we have been using as well inside IBM with Blog Central. I have been keeping my Intranet weblog over there for nearly three years and it would be an incredible experience to be able to see it integrate nicely into Ventura’s other components. Nifty!
6. Integration with other components: Like search or Lotus Sametime 7.5, amongst others. Actually with the inclusion of that integration with Sametime 7.5 we would be getting the best out of both worlds, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. And all that available from a single point of entry. Can it get better than this ? Hummm. I don’t think so.

Anyway, there you go. A quick and brief description of how IBM will be entering the space of social computing within the enterprise and how IBM will try to make sense of the so-called Enterprise 2.0 with something as cool as Lotus Ventura (Yes, watch out for Lotusphere 2007!!). Exciting times ahead for all of us who feel strongly about social computing within the enterprise as the next big thing to help improve knowledge sharing and collaboration and try to bring some more sense into an unbalanced environment where explicit knowledge has been on top for far too long.

But more to come later on, I am sure.

Tags: IBM, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Communtiies, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, IBM 2.0, Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarks, Lotus Sametime 7.5, Sametime 7.5, Activities

A couple of days ago I mentioned how I was also involved in the process of creating a new category here in elsua.net based on the good amount of feedback that I have been getting through comments, e-mails, instant messages, phone calls, etc. etc. that I just couldn’t ignore, nor neglect. Well, after having given it some further thought, and based on what quite a few of you have been saying all along, I am now happy to announce the creation and availability (With this first post, of course) of a new category over here under the title "IBM".

Yes, that is right, folks! From now on you would be able to get every now and then complete weblog entries dedicated to IBM and IBM happenings, pretty much like what John Patrick has been doing all along over at his weblog. However, most of it is going to be related to what IBM has been doing lately around the world of Knowledge Management, Communities, Collaboration, both Knowledge and Collaboration Tools and Social Computing. Exactly! The same stuff I get to talk over here on a regular basis but in this case touching base on some of the stuff that IBM is doing in that space, which is a lot, actually. But let’s go one step at a time.

I am really excited about doing something like this not only from the perspective of helping folks understand what is going on in the IBM world with its own KM and Collaboration strategy, but also from the point of view that it would give me a chance to share with you some of the work that I have been involved with the time I have been working over here. Thus stay tuned because it is going to be a fun ride!

I must say that there have been plenty of folks who have been very inspiring in my getting started with this new category, but if there is one person who has been a great influencer in taking this initiative further it is actually Tomoaki Sawada-san, who, for the last few weeks, has been sharing a number of incredibly useful and informative links to materials that IBM has been publishing around the area of KM, Collaboration and Social Computing (Thanks much, Sawada-san!).

I am not sure if you have been following up on all of the different comments over here, in this weblog, but I thought that to get things started and relate some of the stuff that IBM has been involved with in the area of KM, Collaboration and Social Computing, I would point you to a presentation that one of my fellow IBM colleagues put together and which Sawada-san has been sharing over here already a couple of times.

It is a presentation put together by Mike Roche and it is titled Bringing People and Processes Together. You can go ahead and download it from here and although it may not be very recent (Trying to get my hands on a more recent one that I will share as soon as I can) it still puts together a very compelling case that shows what IBM has been doing in the area of KM lately. This is one of those presentations that would be rather interesting for folks who would want to know how IBM has been evolving from the traditional KM strategy, where the focus was more on the explicit knowledge exchange (Yes, indeed, that focus, once again, on tools, technology and processes alone), towards reaching for that particular balance of both tacit and explicit knowledge exchanges  with a next generation KM based on social computing, by placing the focus on not only the technology and the processes but also on the people.

Yes, this is one of those presentations where you would be able to see where IBM is heading as far as KM, Collaboration and Social Computing are concerned. That is right. In this presentation you would be able to hear about current IBM technologies related to KM and collaboration; also a number of things on processes and, finally, perhaps the most interesting part how IBM is embracing social software within the enterprise with a number of different Web 2.0 related tools that would give you an idea of where we may be heading. Stuff like weblogs, social bookmarks, wikis, Sametime 7.5 (Including both IM and VoIP components, amongst others), activities, social networks, etc. are all starting to become part of the equation. And about time, I should add.

And because there is just so much information contained in those slides, including some of the different IBM knowledge, collaboration and social software tools that IBM is currently  making use of, I think I am just going to stop here for now and suggest you take a look at the slides themselves. Then, as we move forward, I am sure that I would be returning back to this weblog post to refer you folks to a number of the different slides since they all contain a good number of key points and messages as to how IBM is planning to take on board social software within the enterprise. Yes, I know what you are going to say now, what some people would call IBM 2.0, but we shall see if that would be accurate enough or not. Time will tell

Feel free to append a comment over here if you would have any question or comment related to the presentation itself and I will try to answer it best I can. So from here onwards I just wanted to close off this weblog entry for now by thanking Sawada-san for that inspiration to get things started and let’s get the ball rolling!

(I was going to share this weblog post yesterday, but, unfortunately, my ISP decided to take a break for a few hours and knocked me out completely for the remaining of the day. For the third time in a row in just a few days! Sigh. So here it goes today)