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

¡¡¡Feliz Año 2008!!!

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

¡¡¡Feliz Navidad 2007!!!

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

What’s in a Name? – Knowledge Management 0.0 2008 Conference Event

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