You probably thought I would actually get busy writing another blog post where I would be summarising 2007 or sharing my views on some predictions for 2008, as we are coming closer to the end of another incredibly exciting year. Yet, I am going to save you the trouble of having to read about such things here, as I am sure there are plenty of other places out there, where you could have some exposure to some really good insights on various different topics. Instead, I am just going to take the liberty to wish all of you, who I have been in contact with through whatever the social software tool, as well as face to face, a Happy New Year and, much more importantly, a very very Prosperous & Healthy 2008!!!

Yes, that is going to be my wish for the New Year we are about to get started with. Lots of prosperity and good health, specially for the latter, because, without it, there isn’t anything we can do. Sometimes we take for granted the little things, those that keep us going day in day out. Health is one of them. We always take it for granted and yet we couldn’t survive without it. So instead of wishing all sorts of cool things to happen all over the place and to all those folks out there I’ve been in touch with, I am just going to keep things simple. Stay healthy, be healthy, and the rest will just come along nicely!

That is right! As simple as it would get. Lots of good health for the New Year and hope that everyone gets to fulfil whatever their dreams may well be. Mine is going to be to try to stay healthy, too, so that I can enjoy being in touch with those I love and care for, those who have given me another incredible year without asking for anything in return. Those who care enough to be themselves and allow me to be part of their lives. And, of course, wishing to stay healthy so that I can keep enjoying this wonderful place I live in.

Here you have got some pictures I took yesterday from one of my favourite places in Gran Canaria: Roque Bentaiga. If you have taken a look in the past to the ones I have shared already in my Flickr account, this particular series is a special one, since I got to visit the monolith and climb it as far as it is possible. Quite an incredible experience, I tell you! Here you have got some pictures and hope to share some more later on. And, yes, the place is as mystical as you could have ever imagined!! And quite humbling, too!

¡¡¡Feliz Año 2008!!!

Tags: Feliz Año, Happy New Year, 2008, Happy 2008, Prosperity, Health, Wishes, Dreams, Gran Canaria, Roque Bentaiga, Mystical, Humbling, Flickr, Photography, Photos, Nokia, Nokia N95

Over the last few days I have been having one of those technology withdrawal moments that will indicate a before and an after in how I get to experience it from here onwards. I am sure very shortly you’ll be able to find all of the different details on why I have come to that situation. However, that is another story. For today though, I just wanted to create a short blog post where I could share with you those special wishes we all get to exchange at this time of the year. I know that quite a few of you would be in full celebration mode by now and to all of you let me take this opportunity, if you are celebrating, to wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas!!! I bet that by now you are all engaged into preparing everything for a lovely evening with your loved ones and just wanted to share some of that spirit sharing with you some pictures I took last weekend from what’s starting to become a custom, and a tradition, for myself.

Yes, I am talking about the "Belén de arena" that every year takes place in Las Canteras beach, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and which this year is just as spectacular as ever. So in the spirit of keeping things short, so that you folks can continue further with the various different preparations, and, like I said before, a Merry Christmas to everyone out there who may be reading this and to everyone else I have crossed paths this year!!! It surely has been an exhilarating experience, as always! And look forward to an incredibly exciting 2008!

And here you have got some of the pictures I took last weekend with my Nokia N95. The rest of the series you can always find them at my Flickr account:

¡¡¡Feliz Navidad!!!

Tags: Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Christmas, Merry Christmas, Spain, Las Palmas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Playa Las Canteras, Belen, Nativity Scene, Christmas Tree, Sun, Sunshine, Belen, Flickr, Pictures, Life

Over the last couple of days my head has been buzzing around with what promises to be quite an adventure, for sure. Yes, indeed, I am talking about the "Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event - In Spring 2008?", which I blogged about a couple of days ago. Since that blog post, and after various conversations in Twitter, a number of different ideas and conversations have started to come together and by the looks of it, it sounds like the thought of a face to face event here in Gran Canaria is gaining more and more momentum by the minute. I am in the process now of checking a number of different things and how they could work together, which, for those of you familiar with hosting these kind of events I am sure you can relate to a great extent.

At this point in time, I cannot confirm anything at the moment, since I am just getting started with various different conversations trying to find out how we could make it happen, but the fact that we have got about 40 people interested thus far (And more coming up, I am sure) is a good enough start for us, I would think. I have been thinking that having an event with about 200 for the first edition may well be an interesting beginning and already having 20% of that target audience is a good enough motivation to keep moving things further. Or, at least, try to.

I am sure that, when the time comes, I will be probably asking for some additional help and advice on a number of different topics, but for the time being I thought I would bring up to you folks what I have been thinking as far as the title of the conference is concerned, so that you would have the opportunity to chime in and share your thoughts on it. I know that quite a few of you have already engaged on a superb conversation on a previous blog post I put together (Which I will be chiming in sharing some more thoughts on the topics discussed thus far) and somehow I have the feeling that you will like the title of the conference I’ve been thinking about: "Knowledge Management 0.0 2008 - Bridging the Gap" (Or "Back to Basics"). In short, "KM 0.0 Bridging the Gap".

How did I come up with such title? Well, like it happens in most cases. Through a serendipitous knowledge discovery. I was going through the superb Knowledge (News)Letter that David Gurteen gets to send around every now and then on some really hot topics related to Knowledge Management. In it I found a short reference to one of my favourite KM bloggers from quite some time now: Dave Pollard, where David pointed to, what to me, is one of the best definitions on what Knowledge Management is all about. And you all know how I feel on trying to define KM. Never have done it, and not sure I am going to start now!

But one thing for sure is that if you are into Knowledge Management, whether it is traditional KM or KM 2.0 (More on this later, by the way), I strongly suggest you have a look into one of the most impressive blog posts that Dave Pollard has put together on the subject for a little while now: KM 0.0 - Simply Enabling Trusted Context-rich Conversations among Communities that Care. I read the blog post a couple of weeks ago and had it in my drafts for a potential upcoming blog entry on the subject, but all of a sudden I had one of these ah-ha! moments when re-reading it that I just couldn’t help bringing it forward…

Dave just put together the very exact purpose of the conference I would love to make happen in 2008 in Gran Canaria. And all of that because of this particular definition on Knowledge Management:

"KM is simply the art enabling trusted, context-rich conversations among the appropriate members of communities about things these communities are passionate about"

Whoooaaahhh! Never thought I would feel so identified with a KM definition like that one. And one that clearly represents the spirit of the conference event I would love to host, if everything works out all right.

I know I still haven’t written down the blurb for what the main description of the conference event would look like, but after reading that quote and after reading Dave’s post, you know where I will be heading. Pay particular attention to the table he has put together on that entry on KM 1.0: All about Content & Collection and KM 0.0: (PKM): all about context and connection.

This is exactly why I am more than happy to call it KM 0.0 2008; back to the roots of how Knowledge Management was first envisioned a few years ago, as Dave has nicely indicated in this particular paragraph:

"At the request of several readers, I’ve pulled this all together in the table above into a framework for what some have called KM 2.0, but which I prefer to call KM 0.0, because it’s getting back to the roots of why and how people share what they know. It could also be called PKM — Personal Knowledge Management — because it’s about self-managed content and peer-to-peer connectivity."

I tell you, that blog post is just so spot on with the spirit of what I have envisioned for the conference event, based on the various different conversations taking all over the place and my own thoughts as well. So much so that I have contacted Dave on the subject and he is game for us to make use of Knowledge Management 0.0, a.k.a. KM 0.0, which is something that I am hoping to be re-using more and more over here, as, like I said, I am feeling incredibly identified with it.

Thus what do you think? Nothing concrete, of course. I know how touchy the selection of a title for a conference event is going to be like, but this is what is in my mind at the moment. And would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, ideas, suggestions, etc. etc. on the topic. Would KM 0.0 2008 work for you? Go ahead and share your thoughts over here, or contact me offline or carry on further the conversations with me in Twitter. After all, this is not just my conference, but our conference. And now it is your turn to weigh in your two cents

Tags: Twitter, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Learning 2.0, KM 1.0, KM 2.0, KM 0.0, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, eLearning, Corporate Learning, Conference Events, Live Events, Events, Communities, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Virtual Collaboration, Gran Canaria, Spain, 2008, KM Basics, Knowledge Letter, David Gurteen, Dave Pollard, How To Save The World, Trust, Context, Conversations, Passionate, Passion, Knowledge Management 0.0, KM0.0-08

While still trying to digest some of the fantastic, overwhelming and exciting reactions to the initial blog post on Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event - In Spring 2008? and while I am still trying to figure out a couple of things before I comment further back into that particular blog entry on further steps, I thought I would go ahead and do some light blogging on a topic that I seem to have been tagged from a couple of folks already, who I read on a regular basis and who have been participating in a couple of different memes on a very similar topic: Seven things you didn’t know about me by Martin Koser and Gullible about Work / Blog Balance by Reasonable Robinson.

Yes, that is right. It is another meme where the rules seem to be pretty straight forward:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.

2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself.

3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names.

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

And although Martin’s meme post seems to be slightly different I thought about combining both of them since the overall outcome seems to be pretty similar. So here we go with the meme post and here you have eight random facts about myself that you may not have heard / read elsewhere:

1. I was born and raised in a very small village in León, which is where I have spent a good chunk of my life. Another good chunk is spread around The Netherlands (Where I lived 7 years) and, finally, Gran Canaria, where I have been living for nearly four years now.

2. I first got exposed to the world of computers in high school (Yes, I was one of the folks who owned an Amstrad CPC 464!) and back then my marks on computer lessons were really bad, which gave me the impression I would never, ever, work with computers. Fast forward to today … Already 10 years in the IT world and still going strong!

3. After I graduated from University, I spent one year working in Thale, Germany, where I got to experience one of the most severe winters in my life thus far with up to -30C. for several days!! But I must say I loved the overall experience quite a bit!!

4. First time I came to Gran Canaria was in 1996 (For a very short period of time) and back then I knew I would be coming back at some point. It took me only 8 years to make that happen

5. I actually got my job at IBM while I was spending a two week holiday in The Netherlands in 1997. Probably the longest two weeks I’ve ever known!! (Already heading for my 11th year in the company!)

6. While working for IBM, I spent another year of my life in Dublin, Ireland, where there is very little I would need to explain, if you ever have been there. Yes, I know, I need to get back there for a short visit and catch up some time soon!

7. I was first exposed to Knowledge Management by the end of 1999 and during that time I already sensed it was going to be the field / discipline I would be developing my skills & expertise over the course of the years. Two years later I was working, full time, in a Knowledge Management team. Till today. (And, yes, still going strong, in case you are wondering…)

8. And, finally, I initially got started with my blogging experience back in 2003, as a way to prove to myself how I could work smarter, not necessarily harder, relying on the community and my social networks to get the job done versus having to do the job myself re-inventing the wheel over and over again. Four years later, and just a couple of days after the 10th year anniversary of the word "Weblog", I still feel the same way. Blogs, and plenty of the various different social networks where I hang out, still make me work smarter. Much smarter! Not harder.

And that would be it. Next on this blog post is to actually tag another 8 people who would be willing, hopefully, to take the challenge and share with us 8 factoids about themselves that we may not have heard elsewhere. So here is my list of folks I would love to hear some more from on this particular topic. In random order: Jasmin Tragas (a.k.a. Jazzydee), Thomas van der Wal (a.k.a. wanderwal), David Stephenson (a.k.a. DavidStephenson), Susan Scrupski (a.k.a. ITSinsider), Dennis McDonald (a.k.a. ddmcd), Stuart Henshall (a.k.a. stuarthenshall), Andy Piper (a.k.a. andypiper) and Jon Husband (a.k.a. jonhusband).

I am sure that I could have included a whole bunch of the folks I get to interact with on a daily basis, so feel tagged as well if you would want to chime in a well. Why not, right?

Either way, I am sure that with this particular blog post you actually got to find out about stuff on me that you probably haven’t seen / read elsewhere. Hope you have found it just as entertaining as it was for me to put it up going through that trip down the memory lane.

Now time to go ahead and digest some of the wonderful discussions going on Next Generation Knowledge Sharing & Learning Online Conference Event - In Spring 2008? and see where it would take us all… Fancy joining us on that wild ride, too?

Tags: Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Blogging, Metablogging, Blogs, Meme, Things, Martin Koser, Reasonable Robinson, Tagging, Leon, Spain, Gran Canaria, Amstrad CPC 464, Thale, Germany, IBM, The Netherlands, Dublin, Ireland, Blogiversary, Weblog Anniversary, Work Smarter, Jasmin Tragas, Wonderwebby, Thomas van der Wal, David Stephenson, Susan Scrupski, ITSinsider, Dennis McDonald, Stuart Henshall, Andy Piper, Jon Husband, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0

While I am just about to finish editing the audio recording (And fine tune the slide deck that will go with it) from my pitch on Social Computing @ IBM at the recent IBM iForum event in Zürich, and while trying to wrap up everything at work since tomorrow is my last working day for the remaining of the year, earlier on today in Twitter a crazy thought came up from James Dellow after I mentioned in one of my twitterings how one of my abstracts for a conference event, taking place next year, on the state of social computing, was rejected. From there onwards, Dennis McDonald also jumped in, along with Steve Collins, Kelly Drahzal (a.k.a. Kellypuffs), Mark Masterson, Nancy White, LittleLaura, Ryan Boyles, Thomas van der Wal, Ryan Lanham and Jasmin Tragas so far. And before we knew it we had a whole bunch of folks in Twitter interested in the overall event (Plus those who contacted me already offline!).

Look at that!?!?! Who would have thought that Twitter would have such a huge and immediate impact where a bunch of folks passionate on a particular topic, i.e. social computing, will be gathering together into participating on an online conference event around the subject of Knowledge Sharing and Learning and the impact social software is having in both of them? Pretty amazing, don’t you think?

From there onwards, we were all thinking about a potential title and theme for the conference. Nancy White came up with some really good comments on a potential direction: "I have been struggling with "what it is" And it is not just personal. It is organizational. KS, knowledge creation and application. And yes, some management" and so did LittleLaura: "like the idea of KM and IM and info architecture, importance often gets forgotten with all the hype of modern media these days!", along with Kapil Gupta with some really good suggestions: "I only saw part of your conversation about nextgen KM conf, but sounds like you need is something like a barcamp for KM -in SL maybe?"

And in just a matter of minutes things are starting to pave out quite nicely. No, we haven’t finalised a title yet, nor a theme for the overall conference event. So far we have agreed it would be best to host an online event, pretty much like the rather impressive and superb eLearning Technology - Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations that Tony Karrer, and a few other folks, helped put together not long ago and which I will also blog about in the near future (Catching up with the recordings and blog posts at this moment in time).

But before we move forward on to figuring out the next thing (Establish the final title of the conference, overall logistics, online venue, themes and speaker sessions, etc. etc.) and seeing how not many of the folks who get to read this blog or James Dellow’s ChiefTech are actually hanging out in Twitter, I thought I would poll you folks over here on whether there would be any people out there interested in having such event taking place, some time during the course of 2008, perhaps in the spring. Still to be decided, indeed.

What do you think? We haven’t figured out just yet either how long it would be taking, but I am sure that we could come up with some suggestions in here on the overall length of the conference, and the final format. For now, just querying the folks who get to read blogs on social computing, knowledge sharing and learning topics, plus anyone else interested in the subject. What do you think? Feel you would be able to find some time during spring next year to participate in such an event? Rather as a speaker in whatever the three fields (Or, whatever other you would feel would be relevant for the current trend of discussions held thus far), or as an active participant? Either way would work for us.

Well, here is your chance to weigh in. Share with us below, as a comment, or contact me offline, whether you would want that event to take place or not, whether you would want to participate as an speaker or not, whether you may be able to help volunteer some time to help out with the logistics and whatever else. Like I said, this initial blog post is a little bit to touch base on exploring the potential of hosting such online event to help shape how social computing is impacting Knowledge Sharing / Knowledge Management and Learning in the corporate world.

Thus go ahead and share those comments with us! A simple Yes / No would do as well. No need to elaborate much more right now, if you wish to. Just getting a sense on whether it would be worth while pursuing or not… What do you feel? Fancy joining us altogether to shape the way we are embracing social software within the corporate world to dramatically change the way we share our knowledge, learn and collaborate with other knowledge workers?

Then let’s do it! Let’s make it happen!

Tags: Twitter, James Dellow, ChiefTech, Dennis McDonald, Steve Collins, AcidLabs, Kelly Drahzal, Kellypuffs, Mark Masterson, Nancy White, LittleLaura, Ryan Boyles, Thomas van der Wal, Ryan Lanham, Jasmin Tragas, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Learning 2.0, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Kapil Gupta, eLearning, Corporate Learning, Tony Karrer, Conference Events, Online Conference Events, Events, Virtual Worlds, Barcamp, Online Barcamp, Communities, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Virtual Collaboration

I must admit that one of the most impressive presentations I attended during the course of the IBM iForum event in Zürich a few days ago was that one provided by Charles Woodward from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland around the topic of Augmented Reality. Indeed, one of those experiences were you just go WOW! after WOW! after WOW! for the entire time, which is what happened to a few folks from the audience, including myself. For quite some time now I have been incredibly fascinated by the role that virtual worlds, like Second Life, are actually playing in the area of knowledge sharing and collaboration, along with learning. Well, after seeing Charles presentation I think that my fascination is going to be extended beyond the virtual worlds and into the augmented reality. Because after watching his presentation and the whole bunch of videos they have put together and made available at the VTT site I must confess that the potential is just tremendous.

I was so excited to see how the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is driving innovation in the AR space into a new level that I took the opportunity of taking a whole bunch of pictures with my Nokia N95. Now the quality may not be that outstanding as you would have expected, but I would include over here as well a good number of the pictures I took. And for the rest you would have to head over to my Flickr account, where I have put them all together.

But for now, I am just going to point you to the presentation materials which I have already uploaded into Slideshare and which you can find the direct link to them over here, so that you can just sit down, relax, and enjoy the trip down the Augmented Reality that Charles took us through over the course of one hour. Just fantastic! And, if not, judge for yourself:

You would have to agree with me that it surely is quite an interesting slide deck. Well, don’t forget to check out the section with the different videos so that you can see and get exposed to some of the stuff that these folks have been doing all along in the name of innovation. Some excellent stuff!!

Tags: IBM, iForum, iForum 2007, Innovation Forum, Zurich, Switzerland, Events, Innovation Events, Innovation, Slideshare, Charles Woodward, Learning, Second Life, Virtual Worlds, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, AR, VTT, Finland, Technical Research Centre of Finland, Technical Research Centre, Flickr, Nokia, N95