Tags: Jay Cross, Mark Cuban, Mac, MacBook Pro, MBP, Apple, Vyew, Web Conferencing, E-Meetings, Virtual Conferences, Virtual Meetings, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Lenovo, Lenovo 3000, Windows, Productivity Tools, Knowledge Tools, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Knowledge Tools, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management

As I continue to read how some of the folks out there on the blogosphere start making their transition successfully from their Windows to a Mac based machine, I continue to enjoy the experience myself very much so with my  own MacBook Pro. So much so that over the last few days I have been consolidating all of the different work-related tools that I use on a regular basis and I am in the process of creating another blog post where I am detailing what those different tools are. However, today I just wanted to mention briefly one of those tools that will become essential to my on the Mac from here onwards.

It is actually a Web 2.0 offering that I have been using already in the past, although perhaps not as heavily as you would have expected. But now that I am on the Mac I can see how I will get busier and busier with it from here onwards. If you have been off my ITtoolbox blog you actually know about it already, but just in case here you have a couple of weblog posts that detail some more the initial experiences I have had with this particular Web application:  Vyew 2.0 - Free Web Conferencing and Always-On Collaboration and Vyew 2.0 - Free Web Collaboration.

Yes, I am talking about Vyew, perhaps one of the most solid and competent e-meeting tools available out there at the moment, and, best of all, free of charge. In a world semi-dominated by Windows based virtual meetings applications, it has always been refreshing to actually find another offering that is not only browser independent, but also operating system independent. That is what Vyew is all about.

A couple of days ago I was actually attending a live demo with a lovely slide deck of some of the new functionalities from this particular offering, and at the time while we were going through them, I was actually making use of my Windows Lenovo 3000 N100 machine to attend the session. Making use of Flock, of course. While we were being explained why Vyew is one of those essential tools for any knowledge worker out there wanting to conduct effective virtual meetings, I decided to be brave and try out whether it would work in my Mac machine.

Well, it did! Yes, indeed, it worked beautifully! I was actually having two sessions, one from my Windows machine and the other from Mac, using Flock in both of them, and getting the most out of it. Performance was incredibly fast and reliable, despite the fact that there were a whole bunch of folks in it. We didn’t notice a single glitch and while I was making use of it on the Mac machine I noticed how I was getting an even much better experience. The Mac experience. I am sure those of you who are Mac users would understand what I mean. If not check out this quote from Jay Cross on something that I can certainly identify with him big time:

"[…] today the action has moved from the desktop to the web. web connectivity may flake out, but it’s not going to disappear forever as did my PC’s hard drive. relationships (the web) trump nodes (the desktop).

I plan to buy a mac to use as a terminal and to make the web my primary platform."

Yes, that is right. The Web user experience is way way different and if you give yourself a chance and try it out with Vyew, both on a Windows and on a Mac computer you would be able to see what I mean.

I was looking for an e-meeting tool that I could use in order to conduct ad-hoc e-meetings on the fly. Without hassle. Without hassle to install extra software. Just sharing a single URL address and off it goes. From your favourite browser! How cool is that?

Well, my search for an e-meeting tool, something that I use on a very regular basis, is now over. I have found my ideal productivity tool to conduct those virtual meetings effectively. Vyew is the word. Vyew is the application and if you haven’t tried out I strongly encourage you all to go through the set of features put together for the current version 2.5 and enjoy the ride. Because I am sure you would.

There are lots and lots of things I could say about Vyew and why I like it so much. Instead, I am just going to sum them up with a couple of words: Free, easy to use, instant access and works beautifully on the Mac. Need to say more?

Tags: Facebook, Social Networks, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Communities, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Stephen Collins, Acidlabs, Workplace, IBM, Learning, Relationships, Connections, Conversations, Traditional Media, New Media, Social Media, Balance

Remember the blog post I created a couple of days ago debating whether social networking tools would be costing businesses dear or not, based on a specific news article from mainstream media? Well, it looks like things may be improving a bit in this respect or, at least, in the perception from traditional media on how social media is impacting the workplace. I am not sure if you have read a follow up weblog post or not from Stephen Collins on the subject, but if you haven’t, I strongly encourage you all to have a look into Something in the water …

In that particular weblog post you would be able to see how Stephen references another traditional news media article, from News.com.au Business this time around, where social networks, and Facebook, in particular, are evaluated in a much fairer perspective as to how they are impacting the corporate world. In a positive way. And, of course, I had to read it. More than anything else to see how fair it really was.

Overall, and agreeing with Stephen on this one as well once more, I enjoyed the article itself (Is Facebook good for the workplace?) as it provides a good and comprehensive overview of the kind of impact that social software is having within the business world. Even better when it shows a number of different examples from companies that have successfully been able to utilise to the best of their abilities how they are making use of social computing to help knowledge workers improve their knowledge sharing and collaboration skills, at the same time they would connect with others.

Of great interest I thought as well how well presented it was the fact that a successful adoption of social software tools depends very much on a balanced approach towards it all. That is, there is no need to try all of the different tools out there or to spend hours and hours on them all experiencing how they operate. That is right, the keyword here and throughout the whole article is balance. Without it, it is not going to happen and it is probably going to fail at some point in time. Yes, I know that sometimes we take this for granted, but better bring it up again to keep things under perspective, don’t you think?

Another item that caught my eye while reading the article was a particular policy that I myself have been exposed to it for over 10 years and some times I underestimate the impact it’s had in IBM for all of those years. To quote:

"IBM Australia’s internet policy doesn’t specifically mention Facebook, but says “IBM encourages its employees to explore responsibly – indeed, to further the development of – new spaces of relationship-building, learning and collaboration”. (Emphasis mine)

Exactly, how are we supposed to explore and discover new spaces for relationship-building, learning and collaboration if we do not have a direct and immediate exposure to social computing? How can we say whether it is going to help us improve the way we interact with other knowledge workers and customers, if we first do not try the tools for ourselves and see if they would meet our needs or not? I am not sure about you, but to me it just makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Overall, the news article is a good read and one that clearly shows the potential of social computing to change the way we share our knowledge and collaborate with other knowledge workers in our corporate world, and beyond, and the best part of it is how through that very same balanced approach, and with that energy and strong determination to explore the new media, we would all be able to extend our working relationships with others, not just from our immediate team mates, learn along the way so much more and do what we all do best, collaborate effectively.

(You would agree with me that we would need more news articles like that one, right?)

Tags: Internetnews, Susan Kuchinskas, Office 2.0, Stephen Collins, Acidlabs, Knowledge Worker 2.0, Knowledge Worker, Burtyness, Busyness, Communities, Online Communities, Virtual Communities, Social Software, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Culture Clash, Culture Change, Community Building, Community Builders, Online Facilitation

Late last week I actually bumped into an interesting news article on Internetnews by Susan Kuchinskas titled Culture Clash in Office 2.0 that certainly grabbed my attention as you may have guessed. In that particular piece of news Susan gets to comment on how most of the social software tools available out there are finding their way very slowly, probably too slow at times, into the corporate world and how these tools in the end are going to provoke a "culture clash". One step at a time.

Over there you would be able see how she quotes Stephen Collins‘ work (From Acidlabs) on Knowledge Worker 2.0, and recently presented at the Office 2.0 conference, making the distinction between bursty and busy workers:

"Bursty workers are not clock-punchers. They are highly creative, connected and innovative. They may be on Facebook or down at the café, but they’re still highly productive. Busy workers, on the other hand, may take a 40-hour week to do the same amount of work a bursty worker does in 30."

And how she is trying to make a connection for a potential conflict between both types of the workforce:

"Nevertheless, the concept of busy work has been established as not a good thing, and few employees would feel good about this characterization. Those "busy-workers" may resent bursty employees and view the copious amounts of time they spend connecting online as wasting time"

which, to me, doesn’t sound realistic at all, specially when she herself puts together the solution to the potential conflict at the end of that very same article. That is right, there may be a potential conflict, I am probably not going to deny it, but the thing is that as soon as one of the key components from the social computing world kicks in that conflict ceases to exist. And like I said, she talks about it. I am referring, of course, to the creation of a Communities program throughout the organisation.

Through those communities you would be able to see how those initial potential conflicts that may come out will eventually iron themselves out, because the sense of belonging and trusting the group, i.e. the community, is going to be far more engaging and overwhelming than just a single conflict. It just won’t show up for long enough.

Pretty much one of the things that Susan mentions over the course of the article is how communities and, specially, their usage of social software, is influencing the way knowledge workers get the job done much more effectively, connecting with those who may have the knowledge and re-sharing the new information back into the community space(s).

Whether businesses would get to build their own community building programmes or not, the interesting thing is that social software is provoking that culture change by which knowledge workers get together in online spaces to share what they know with others, making use of social computing, as opposed to work in an isolated mode, where they realise they are not gaining anything, not even perhaps getting the job done much more efficiently and effectively.

Thus instead of opposing the creation of those different communities, as I am sure some of you may have gotten exposed to, why don’t businesses just go ahead and embrace them? Give them the support, leadership, funds, sponsors, etc. etc. they need in order to get the most out of the community membership itself. For many years it has been proved how empowering belonging to a community really is, to the point where plenty of business have survived thanks to their work behind the scenes. So imagine the potential if, instead of getting all that work done behind those very same scenes, they actually do it out in the open, knowing their efforts are supported, adopting different social software tools they know would help them tremendously and help get the job done as if it were business as usual, and not just another task to get done our of people’s private, and free time.

Wouldn’t that be just great? Not sure about you, but articles like that one of Susan clearly prove the point that we are witnessing exciting and interesting times for communities and their usage of social software, and, specially, how they themselves, without much help, to be honest, are helping provoke that culture change we have all dreamt about for a while. Will you be ready? Will you be supporting within your business a Communities program? I surely hope so, because otherwise you are just missing the boat. Big time.

Tags: Mac, MacBook Pro, MBP, Apple, KISS, RSS, Atom, Feed Readers, Windows, Omea Pro, Mac, endo, NetNewsWire, Shrook, Google Reader, NewsFire, BlogBridge, Simplicity, Ease of Use, Productivity Tools, Vienna, Freeware, Knowledge Snippets, Knowledge Tools, Information Tools

One of the things that I have been very conscious about this time around over the last few weeks, while I am putting things together to make my MacBook Pro my default work machine vs. the Windows notebook, is to actually apply the K.I.S.S. principle. Something that perhaps I should have done a long while ago, but that I didn’t. This time though I am learning my lessons and throughout the entire process I am keeping up with that minimalist flavour to get the most out of the Mac without having to clutter it right away.

And when I put myself to the test I knew that things were not going to be easy in certain areas. One of those being using a competent RSS / Atom feed reader client, one of the various essential tools that I couldn’t live without nowadays. On my Windows machine, and over the course of the last few years, I have probably tried out for a number of weeks / months several RSS / Atom feed clients. Most of the times running concurrently to test them out and see which one would make the winner.

For the last few months, this winner has been, still is, Omea Pro. To me, it is one of the best feed readers for offline reading available out there! No doubt! I would recommend it any time to anyone who may want to get things going. Still do. However, on the Mac things are different.

To start with, there is no Omea Pro for the Mac, so I had to dig in quite a bit and try out a number of different feed reader clients that I have been getting through recommendations, performing several searches or just by bumping into their Web sites and decided to try them, just in case. That is how I got to try out endo, NetNewsWire, Shrook, Google Reader, NewsFire, BlogBridge, etc. etc. The list goes on and on and on.

Overall, most of those readers do a pretty decent job. However, none of them cut it for me for one reason or another. Surprisingly for something so relatively simple as basic functionality. Perhaps at some point in time I will detail why each of those feed readers fails to meet my needs at the moment. And this is where Vienna comes into place, because after having played around with for a few days I can share with you all that it has now become my default RSS / Atom feed reader for the Mac.

You may be wondering why, right? Well, because apart from being freeware, which we all know is an attractive option for us all on its own, it also applies the K.I.S.S. principle very nicely: subscribe to the feed, get the subscriptions / articles, read them, flag those you want to keep and delete the others. Believe or not, this is where most of the other feed readers I have tried failed to come up front with what I would call some key basic functionality: delete what you don’t need and keep what you just need.

It may be pretty simple, but you would be amazed as to how many of those readers would not allow you to delete items you are not interested in. You would expect that the tools would allow you to keep things clean and tidy, but alas, it is not going to happen with most of them. On the other hand, Vienna does this job beautifully with just a single key stroke, which for filtering and quickly scanning through feeds is just … ideal!

So much so that I have been using it for the last week or so and it has become one of those tools I cannot live without in my Mac. Just brilliant, how can such a piece of simple software can get the job done without the hassle, the clutter, or complicated features that most of us are not going to make use of. Yes, I knew I was right when I decided to go minimalist on the Mac, and so far the software I have put together to be as productive as ever, if not more, has been working out like a charm. Vienna has got all you ever wanted to have in an RSS / Atom feed reader client and before you pay some $$$ for some piece of software I can certainly recommend you give it a try. I bet you will stop your search there. Just like I did. For good.

Vienna, simplicity at its best on the Mac!

Tags: IBM, Roo Reynolds, Meta Evangelist, Virtual Worlds, 3D Internet, Second Life, Metaverse, Serious Virtual Worlds 2007, Coventry, Dennis Howlett, Flickr, Last.fm, IBM Rocks, Darren Shaw, Daz, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social Capital, Social Computing, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities

During the course of yesterday, one of my fellow IBM colleagues, and very good friend, Roo Reynolds (One of the two Meta-evangelists at IBM), shared over at his blog a very interesting post, where he has gone ahead and shared the slide deck, with audio, that he has put together for the Serious Virtual Worlds 2007 conference event in Conventry, UK.

The title of his pitch was Virtual worlds for corporate collaboration and you would be able to read a whole lot more about it over at his above mentioned blog post. Dennis Howlett also makes a good mention of the slide deck. And I thought I would go ahead and share a link to it over here as well, if you would want to find out some more what social computing is all about and how it is impacting, big time!, the corporate world. For good.

In that presentation you would be able to see how Roo gets to mention a number of different Web 2.0 offerings and the kind of impact they are having in the business world, and, much more importantly, how you can get the most out of it by helping others embrace the tools you get to use on a daily basis. To start with, his entire presentation is reusing pictures from Flickr (Not a single bullet throughout!) bringing strong messages as to why social networking matters for our daily interactions as knowledge workers.

He gets to talk as well about Last.fm (A social software offering I am just about to re-acquaint myself with, specially now that I am starting to use the Mac much more heavily), IBM Rocks (A superb Last.fm mashup put together by one other colleague, Darren Shaw, a.k.a. Daz), Twitter  Facebook (Of course!), as perhaps some of the most powerful social software tools there are out there to help improve your social capital skills, by getting to know what people are busy with, at the same time you get to nurture the different social interactions, something that I have been mentioning over here as well, as one of the crucial aspects for a healthy collaborative experience within the workplace.

From there onwards Roo gets to detail some more on the stuff he is doing around the virtual worlds space, including Second Life and Metaverse, IBM’s own internal dive into the 3D Internet. What is great about the whole presentation from Roo is that he gets to detail how how he has adopted a number of different social computing tools to help him work smarter, not necessarily harder, and connect with those folks who he would closely collaborate very often. And he uses social software to get the job done. Just brilliant!

The Slideshare presentation, which, like I said, contains audio as well, lasts for about 29 minutes and I can certainly recommend it to everyone who is new to the subject of social software and social computing as a very nice intro to the overall topic of how social networking tools are changing the corporate landscape. And for all of the good reasons.

Thus if you haven’t checked it out just yet, by all means, go and have a look into the audio and slide deck or just start watching it through from the embedded link I have included below:

(Great show, Roo! Thanks much for sharing it with us and for showing us that social software is not as difficult, nor complicated, as some people seem to think!)

Very few times in my whole life have I gotten too upset about any sports event, but this time around, and with the occasion of the Eurobasket 2007 finals , it had to be the next one. After having played some serious ball during the entire course of the tournament, and perhaps too exhausted, both physically and mentally, after yesterday’s epic victory against Greece, Spain is not going to have the Crown of Europe this time around, as Russia went ahead this time around.

Yes, I know, probably one of the worst matches I have seen played by Spain. I know at any other given point in time the victory would have been more than possible, but in a time where things didn’t seem to go right, and after some tough luck, I guess it had to be Russia’s turn after what happened earlier on today when Spain beat Russia in volleyball back in Moscow. Funny thing, eh?

I guess we are even this time around, folks, although I would have wished to win the gold medal in basketball instead, because what are the chances of being the world and European champions once again? Probably very slim.

Either way, I am extremely happy that we are European champions of volleyball for the first time in history for Spain, and silver medal (For the sixth time ever!) in basketball. I know that we all wanted to have plenty more, but when you come to think about it, that is just such a huge achievement!

You bet we will be back again! This great generation of talented players, who play like a real team and who demonstrate game after game what teamwork is all about, is not going to give up just like that. It just won’t happen. They are all truly remarkable and this has just been one match. They are still my team. Now and the next time, and the next. And the next. Forever.

Congrats to Russia for taking away from us that Crown of Europe that I think we all thought was going to stay home. Perhaps next time…

Tags: Europe, Crown of Europe, Spain, Russia, European Championships, Finals, Volleyball, Madrid, Moscow, Basketball, Champions, Eurobasket, Eurobasket2007