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

TLE-2007 Highlights: The Irony of Social Computing

Tags: IBM, TLE, PLTE, TLE-2007, Technical Leadership Exchange, Innovation, IBM Technical Community, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Communities, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, Paris, Social Networks, Connections, Conversations, Networking, Social Capital

As I have just mentioned, this is a follow up weblog post from the previous one I have shared regarding some of the highlights from IBM’s 2007 Technical Leadership Exchange event held in Paris last week. If in the previous entry I mentioned how one of those highlights was the networking opportunities, here is something for you that will show you how some times things are not as easy and straightforward as some people may think.

Yes, the networking opportunities were great, as I have mentioned previously, but sometimes it takes time for them to take off. Here is an anecdote to detail some of that. Throughout the few days the event took place, the organisers of the event actually set up a number of different roundtables for lunch on various topics of interest to help people get together and talk about what they are interested and passionate about. Most of those tables, during the course of the event, were actually packed with people chatting away exchanging experiences and whatever other stories.

All of the tables except one! One that when I saw it in the photocopies I was given I was very excited to attend and hang out with other folks. Yes, indeed, the table on Web 2.0, Collaboration and Social Computing. What? You say. Yes, that is right, all of the other tables were completely packed, except for the one on Social Computing. Jeeezzz, how can that be? I thought. I arrived late for lunch the first day and, while I was waiting on the queue for some food, I spotted the table and just saw one other colleague sitting there (Richard Hopkins – a.k.a. Turner Boehm, who I met at that same table after I got myself some food and who shares plenty of my same interests around the virtual worlds, the metaverse and, of course, Second Life). He was actually sitting there by himself for about 15 to 20 minutes, the time it took me to drop by the table and join him.

How surreal is that? A roundtable for lunch around the subject of Social Computing and nobody, but one person shows up during the first 15 minutes! Goodness! Talking about networking! Anyway, not to worry, it gets better! Wait for this one. Each of the roundtables actually had a leader, someone who would moderate the table and get some of the action started. Well, for the two days that the roundtable was running the leader didn’t show up, even though we knew the person was present at the TLE event! Yes, that is right. You are reading it right. That person didn’t show up at all! Not even to say something while we were all over there waiting. Sigh.

Yes, I guess that shows how some times social computing and Web 2.0 is harder to get than you think and how sometimes you get major massive disappointments like that one! But thank goodness they only last for a few minutes because you only need to put together a table for social computing evangelists to get together and no matter how few there would be around they will come over. And we did.

The two days we had a fantastic set of conversations about how social computing is impacting the corporate world and exchanged lots of stories on funny anecdotes like the one I just mentioned above on how some times the job of a social computing advocate and evangelist is harder than initially thought. But we all love it! It is that energy that sucks us all into wanting much more! Meeting up with other interesting people, getting to know them and their passions for social software, knowledge sharing and collaboration, learn from one another on different experiences and, better yet, build up trustworthy and everlasting relationships that we could all use when going back to our daily jobs.

That is exactly the kind of interactions I have been having with Roo Reynolds (Metaverse evangelist) throughout the whole event, along with a whole bunch of other folks I will be talking about in another follow up entry. I have known Roo for a number of months, perhaps even a couple of years already, and throughout all of that time we have been interacting through our social networks quite a bit, but it was this particular event that gave us the chance to get to know each other face to face. About time!, you may say. And you are right! It was certainly one of the major highlights from the entire event as it gave me the chance to place a face behind all of the interactions we have been having throughout all of these months. And like him, a few others.We talked for hours and hours no end and still felt like a five minute conversation! Nice! Very nice!

In short, no matter how hidden we, social computing evangelists, may well be, in the end, we are going to come out and share with the world how social computing is going to impact them big time! And the best part of it is every chance we get we are going to use it. Those leader-less roundtables we made together gave us the chance to have some incredible conversations and be even more re-energised than ever. So much so that we got a whole bunch of other folks interested and excited about the whole thing, but that would another story for another weblog post. Coming up soon!

(That is what conference events like this one are all about! Not so much on the irony of social computing but more the power of networking!)

TLE-2007 Highlights – The Power of Networking

Tags: IBM, TLE, PLTE, TLE-2007, Technical Leadership Exchange, Innovation, IBM Technical Community, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Collaboration, Communities, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, Paris, Social Networks, Connections, Conversations, Networking, Social Capital

In previous weblog posts I mentioned how it was going to be a bit difficult for me to detail most of the stuff I have been exposed to while I attended last week’s IBM’s Technical Leadership Exchange event in Paris. Given the nature where most of the materials, although not confidential, would be of a sensitive nature for this kind of outside-of-the-firewall audience, I am just going to do my best on detailing what has been the main highlight from the overall event, which I am sure you have guessed already from the title of this weblog entry: The networking opportunities. But let’s start from the beginning.

In last year’s event in Madrid I must confess that the networking opportunities were not as good as I thought they would be. There were very few breaks and too short overall, so when you got quite comfortable with the whole thing you find out that the event is over! This year though things have been quite different. We had plenty of different networking opportunities, with breaks in between keynote and elective sessions of about 45 minutes and plenty of time for lunch, too! And all that without counting the networking events put together after the long day attending different sessions. It looks like the organisers of the event actually acted upon the feedback many of us provided in this respect last year! Great stuff!

Yes, this year they had to put together more sessions under the same name time slot, but I think that was a good thing. I know I have missed out a few presentations I couldn’t make, while I was attending others, but then again that is the whole point of recording them all for later viewing, don’t you think? However, there isn’t a single chance that you can miss out on the opportunity to network with other folks! And specially in this kind of events where you know that such a huge bunch of folks would be coming along.

And that is exactly what I did! I used every single opportunity I was given to hang out with different folks and had a great time throughout. So much so that to me, such opportunities to network in these events are actually much more rewarding, educational, enlightening, thought-provoking and so forth than making it to the elective sessions themselves. Don’t take me wrong, breakout sessions are great and they do provide lots of good content to digest throughout time, but the thing that cuts it for me for any such event as this one is basically hanging out with other people, connect with them, share experiences, knowledge and, collaborate, why not? on the same subjects we are all passionate about. Re-energising is the first word that comes to mind

Does it get any better than that? I doubt it. That is why to me the main highlight from this year’s IBM TLE event has been the opportunity to network with others and help build up new relationships and nurture those that I already had from the past and which I also find equally valuable. The rest was good, but getting to know other people who you have got so much in common is, to me, priceless. And worth while on its own the two days travelling, back and forth. I guess you could say that I am the kind of person who prefers to work and improve his own social capital skills rather than the explicit knowledge skills that I know I can get from elsewhere. Although, check out my next weblog entry around the subject of "The Irony of Social Computing". It would make you have a good laugh and think about things twice, specially if you are involved around the area of social computing within the Enterprise…