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

Next08 – Highlights from Attended Speaker Sessions

Continuing further with some more highlights from the superb event I attended a couple of weeks back in Hamburg, Next08, I thought I would go ahead and share another blog post where I will not be mentioning much more about the Keynote speakers, since I did that last time, but more with the rest of the breakout sessions that I got to attend for the remaining of the day. One thing that you may have noticed already is how the great folks from Next08 have already provided some preview of what other people attending the event have been blogging and twittering about all along, including plenty of pictures shared all along by a whole bunch of folks. Thus you may want to have a look into that as well.

At the same time you may have noticed how a good number of the recorded videos are starting to become available for everyone to enjoy and in multiple spaces. So what I will do from here is just share a line or two from the breakout sessions I attended and a quick thought on whether it would be worth while for you folks to watch the video replay or not. That way you would be able to keep up accordingly, and at your own pace, with what has been happening. So let’s get the ball rolling…

Being Real-time: Google’s Mobile Strategy by Robert Hamilton (Google Mobile Management)

The video replay is already available on the Next08 and this would be one of those breakout sessions that I attended that would be worth while watching again. More than anything else to watch where Google is going with its Search engine, amongst many other items, within the Mobile 2.0 world. One keyword coming to mind, even after two weeks that the event is now finished: FAST!! Or, even, FASTER!!!

Decaffeinating Tea – Why Enterprise 2.0 isn’t – what it needs to make it happen by Jeremy Ruston (British Telecom)

Although Jeremy’s video replay is not yet readily available for watching, I can certainly recommend that you take a look into it, whenever it makes it. More than anything else because Jeremy engages in a very interesting and thought-provoking presentation (Using TiddlyWiki, by the way. No PPT slides at all! – Loved it!) where he touches on a good number of elements to take into account with regards to the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 that converge in most cases into cultural aspects, and not just technology. Very inspiring session that settles the ground on where the next generation of the workforce is already and how they themselves will be shaping up the future workplace! Truly engaging and remarkable, to say the least. Like I said, it would be interesting for you to watch this one, whenever it would become available.

And perhaps, for now, and to give you a glimpse of what you will find out, check out Fischmarkt’s summary of Jeremy’s session where you can read some more as to what Jeremy is up to in helping shape the workplace of the future, one where the knowledge workers themselves would be the ones in power! Very good, indeed!

Thinking out of the Inbox – More Collaboration through less e-mail by Luis Suarez (Social Computing Evangelist at IBM)

Going to keep things short on this one, since I already blogged about this particular session where yours truly gave a speech on where we are with Enterprise 2.0 from a corporate perspective as well as sharing my own experiences on my new reality of having given up on work related e-mail. The video replay has now been made available, but I will be creating a new blog post on it specifically, as I would want to share with you folks a thing or two I got from listening to the replay once again. Too funny to watch yourself on a computer screen doing such stuff, I tell you. Thus stay tuned for that one to be posted and feel free to leave a comment if it sparks a question or two while going through it.

Things we care about by Ryan Singer (37signals)

This is one other session that I surely enjoyed quite a bit! And even though I am not a designer, nor a developer, I still found it incredibly inspiring and mind-blowing! Why? Well, because Ryan spent a few minutes explaining, through demos, how certain design elements would work out with different Web sites to help enrich the user experience tremendously and although I know that for most of you folks out there this would not be any news to you, I can honestly say that I wish most of the Web 2.0 tools that I use out there would implement a few of these designer enhancements that Ryan explained and covered very nicely, because it is caring about the smaller details when putting those interfaces together that surely have the highest impact. And Ryan was able to transmit that throughout the whole time! Just brilliant and highly recommended!

Oh, and his session is available through the video replay already! Go ahead, watch & educate yourself on what Web design should always be about!

From there onwards there were a couple of other breakout sessions that I didn’t get to attend, since they were in German, and my German skills are a bit rusty at the moment, so I decided, instead, to do some serious social networking face to face and have a few conversations with various folks coming from different areas of expertise, but all of them with a commitment to make Enterprise 2.0 a success within their own companies. Quite re-energising to see all of that talent coming together into changing the way the corporate world has operated for the last few years. Very refreshing stuff, if you would ask me, because whether we like it or not, this is going to be the generation of folks who will be ruling the corporate world in the next couple of years, if not already! … I can imagine how some of the pictures taken were able to capture those precious moments of an engaging dialogue with someone you share a common passion. Priceless!

And, finally, the last session was the wrap-up session from Gunter Dueck, which I have talked about previously, and one of those sessions that although I didn’t make it, as I was busy with meetings, & Gunter was giving his speech in German, it surely was worth while the time! Kept bumping into people that afternoon saying that his session was one of the very best from the entire the event! And with that introduction, I am certainly looking forward for someone to be able to translate the main thoughts into a blog post in English that we could all digest. Another one in German may also help out quite a bit!

That was it, folks! That’s it for me for today on the highlights from the breakout sessions I was able to attend during Next08. There are plenty more, of course, since there were four concurrent tracks taking place, so you may want to head over to the Agenda and check out some of the remaining sessions, which are already having the replays of them available on the main site for the event, so you can watch them at your own pace…

In an upcoming blog post, the last one from the series, I will be sharing some of the different highlights from a personal perspective from the people I met there, as well as the organisation of the overall event, which I think did a GREAT job! Thus stay tuned, because there is more to come!

Tags: IBM, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Hamburg, Germany, Next08, elsuacon, Twitter, Live Twittering, Live Con-blogging, Web, Internet, Marketing, PR, Trends, Open Collaboration, Digital Nomads, Gunter Dueck, Social Web, Video, Replays, Recordings, Real-Time, Google, Google Mobile, Robert Hamilton, Jeremy Ruston, TiddlyWiki, British Telecom, Fischmarkt, Ryan Singer, 37signals, Design, Web Design, UX, User Experience, Ease of Use, Simplicity, Organisation, Logistics

Trip to Germany: See the Light – Thinking out of the Inbox

Phew! I really needed to have those couple of extra days off over the weekend to unwind from a massively busy schedule with plenty of travelling all along in the last couple of weeks, having just returned from Barcelona on Friday, then on the road again over the next couple of days. Too hectic, huh? Yes, probably, but loving it! Every minute of it! Yes, that is right! Things seemed to have been rather feverish lately and must say that there is no sign it is going to stop any time soon! That’s why you have seen very little activity from my usual regular blogging, but fear not, because now that I am done with the weekend I have got a bunch of posts to share with you folks over the next few hours!

Starting with some more reviews from the Next08 event in Hamburg from a couple of weeks back, where I am hoping that the video recording of my session will become available shortly as well, so that I can share the link with all of you, as most of the different replays are up and running already and in various different places. Then from there onwards continuing further with the weekly reports on my progress giving up on e-mail, where the good news keep piling up, thus stay tuned for those, too!

One of the other things that I would want to touch base with as well is with regards to one of my customer visits from last week to Barcelona, where the session I provided on Social Computing in the Enterprise sparked some really good, and thought-provoking, discussions I am hoping to touch base on as well (Link here, in Catalan). Not going to mention too much just yet in order not to spoil it, but I can certainly guarantee you that it would be quite an interesting read.

At the same time I am planning to create another blog post on the Startup 2.0 event that I was kindly invited by Jose Antonio del Moral and where I met a good bunch of folks involved with Start ups and the Web 2.0 world with a special mention to some fascinating discussions with one of the folks I have been following up for a little while now and whom I know our relationship is going to get more active than ever: Tom Raftery (By the way, Tom, congratulations on the massive gig! Great news for sure!! ). Thus something else to talk about over the next couple of days as well.

Finally, and as I am entering the 16th week in a row of my new reality on giving up on e-mail, I am now ready to start sharing with you folks different blog posts where I can talk about my social software tools suite that I have been using all along and with which I am sticking around for the next few months, in order to help me successfully move away from e-mail. Thus stay tuned for those entries as well if you would want to find out some more how you can get started yourself. Oh, and a lovely surprise I am hoping to be able to share as well very very soon, too!

And now, to wrap up this half-way-through-catchup status blog post from the last few days, I will detail where I am going to be this week and the next (My Dopplr account has been updated already, by the way, in case you are wondering). But before I do that watch out as well because I will be creating a number of other different blog posts where I am going to be sharing some further details as to where I will be over the next few weeks ending up, so far, to the end of June! Non-stop travelling till then! But let’s get started with one step at a time…

Starting this coming Wednesday I am actually flying out to Germany to participate in an event that the IBM Software (Tech) Sales folks have been setting up and which I am surely going to enjoy quite a bit! It is called "See the Light (2.0)" and its main purpose is to help spread the message around with regards to Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and Social Computing in general. Yes, I know, my kind of thing! Indeed!

Initially it is going to be for an IBM internal audience, thus a bit more restricted than the events I have been participating thus far in the last few days, but still equally exciting. So much so, that I will be one of the speakers talking about the presentation I have been doing already a couple of times and which I am thinking about changing its title a little bit, thanks to the inspiration from this particular event itself. Thus I will be presenting on "Thinking out of the Inbox – More Collaboration through less e-mail", but I am thinking that I may be changing the title to something more like "See the Light – Thinking out of the Inbox". Much shorter, straighter to the point on what I am doing lately, as well as keeping that evangelism flavour that part of my job role entails. We shall see how that goes…

So, where am I going to go? Well, it certainly is going to be quite interesting and totally new to me. I will actually be in six different cities in Germany over the course of eight days! Yes, you are reading it right. I will be in six different cities over the course of eight days enjoying the unique experience of the Autobahn. Thus I will be flying out this coming Wednesday to Munich where my Tour of Germany will start the next day; then from there onwards off to Stuttgart the day after to continue further with the roadshow. Then I will be spending the entire weekend in Cologne (Probably where I would be getting the highest chances to meet up with folks as I unwind a bit from everything while in there) and will continue with Monday to Frankfurt, Tuesday to Düsseldorf and, finally, Wednesday to Hamburg. And Thursday on my way back home! Have a one day rest at home, and off we go again with the next trip on Friday (But that would be another entry on this blog, not to worry!).

Goodness, eh? Yes, that’s right! That’s the kind of massively hectic week that is awaiting me, talking to a whole bunch of people on Social Computing in IBM and the kind of impact it is having within the corporate world and then finishing up sharing my experiences on how I have been using successfully social software tools to walk away from work related e-mail for the last four months. Sounds like some good fun ahead of me! And I can’t wait!

I am sure that during the course of these few days where I will be travelling I will have some time to keep posting those posts I mentioned above I would want to touch base on, but I am thinking as well that if you fancy getting together for a drink or two, or a dinner, you may want to keep in touch, leaving a comment over here, or contacting me through the various social software tools we interact with each other already. No guarantees I would be able to make it, like I said, Cologne is probably the best option over the weekend, but you never know. I may be able to generate more free time than I expect at that point in time. Either way, here you are, resuming my blogging activities after a wonderful and relaxing weekend and ready for another two weeks of feverish activities in the 2.0 space!

Come on! Let’s do it! Let’s get the fun started!!!

Tags: Travelling, Travels, Barcelona, Spain, Next08, Hamburg, Germany, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Clients, Customers, Catalan, Startup 2.0, Startup2.0, Jose Antonio del Moral, Jamoral, Tom Raftery, IBM, Software, Tech Sales, Sales, See The Light, SeeTheLight, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, Autobahn, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Köln, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Roadshow, Tour of Germany

She Will Always Be One Tweet Away…

Today, for the first time, in many many years that I have been working in IBM, something happened at work that made me go speechless! And those of you who know me in real life would agree with me how difficult that is. As you all know, this week I am mostly in Barcelona talking to different various customers on the topic of Enterprise 2.0 and social computing and therefore I have been so far a bit more disconnected than the usual home office time, but then again, all of a sudden and, in a split second that I go online with my Instant Messaging tool at IBM (Sametime) I get a whole bunch of IMs from people I work with asking me whether I have stopped crying after having heard the news…

And I thought … what?!?! What are you talking about? "You haven’t heard?" I get thrown back at me. "I haven’t heard what?" "Oh, you haven’t heard … Gia Lyons is moving into another job?" I went ahead and said … GREAT!!! "Outside IBM with Jive Software", I get thrown back again at me rather quick and off I go and shout out loud… "That’s just … (Insert your favourite bleep word here, please, hehe) AWESOME piece of news! The news of the year, for sure!"

Yes, that is right. Today I found out that one of those folks who I have always felt was rather special and unique, and still is! (Very much so!) is moving along into a new adventure and no other than with Jive Software, one of those companies that I have grown to have lots of respect for, and admiration for, the superb piece of work they are doing in the Enterprise 2.0 space helping break the barriers and hurdles the corporate culture has been putting together for a while now. Any company out there that is trying to do that and is successful deserves such admiration! For sure! And it’s got mine. For quite some time now, for sure!

So when I read the news that my good friend Gia Lyons was moving into such company as Jive I just couldn’t help, but being extremely happy for her, because I know she has made the right decision. I know Gia for several years now and I know what she is capable of ("Impossible" is one of those words that is not in her dictionary!). I do know as well that she is going to be thoroughly missed by a whole bunch of us sitting on the other side of the fence, but in my own personal case, and based on our own relationship throughout the years, both outside and inside of work, I am not too worried about it. Yes, she is gone from IBM; yes, she is no longer going to post to one of the most successful internal blogs there is right now; yes, I know she is not going to share quite openly all of her knowledge and various files she has been putting together behind the corporate firewall. And to be honest, I don’t care.

I cherish Gia dearly not because of what she has done for this company, and, believe me, she has done A LOT! But because of the various ways that she has been able to touch different people in multiple different ways, over and over and over again, starting with myself, leaving a mark behind that right now is almost just too painful to bear! Yes, indeed, she is that kind of special person. One that transpires pure genius on everything there is to know about Enterprise 2.0. One lively and unique personality that’s difficult to bump into in a lifetime. So contagious that just being around her you sense the energy & passion. Yes, that’s the word that would probably best describe her. And she is now going into a new adventure where that passion is going to come out even more! Whoooaaaahhhh!!!

Yes, I know I will miss her; yes, I know we will not be able to talk as much as we used to; yes, I know we may not be meeting in person as often as we did just recently (Still hope that we will be able to meet up at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston beginning of June); but today it is one of those days where I am very very grateful that we have got Twitter available, even if it has been rather flaky lately, because I do know that from now on, she is just going to be one tweet away…

Oh, and if you would want to get touched by her in multiple various ways as well that would make you think twice about the things you do in this space, check out her Internet blog over at Connected. She is just getting started with it for the last few weeks, but a good bunch of us have been privileged to get to know her from her internal one for several years now! Don’t miss your opportunity now…

If you ever get a chance to bump into her, stop her and get her to share some of that passion with you. It’s infectious, I am telling you, be warned, you will never be the same, like I am not the same person ever since I met her. Gia Lyons is one of those people I am extremely proud and honoured to have worked with. She has done so much for this whole social computing space that this particular blog post is already running short of words! So, yes, like I said earlier on … I … am … speechless … BUT in a WONDERFUL way!

Why? … Because She Will Always Be One Tweet Away…

Tags: Gia Lyons, Jive, Jive Software, IBM, News, Sametime, Moving, Adventure, Happiness, Energy, Passion, Privilege, Honour, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Collaboration, Innovation, Knoweldge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Communities, Learning, Lotus Connections, Connections, Twitter, Connected, Blogging, Metablogging, Opportunity, Connecting, Relationships, Conversations, Touched