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

Trip to London to Present at Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit

If last week, during my vacation in Barcelona, I was twittering quite a bit about the various issues I experienced throughout the whole week with some very poor performance on wireless connectivity throughout the couple of hotels I stayed in, as well as my mobile SIM card with Yoigo (Not to worry, I have got a couple of blog posts I need pruning first a bit more before I let them go out into my blogs, but I can surely guarantee you they will be fun! NOT!!!), this week things have changed completely. And for the better! I am enjoying a lovely, and pervasive, standard ADSL connection at the super fine Hyde Park Executive Apartments in London, where I am going to stay for about a week.

Yes, indeed, I am on the road again! What a year, eh? Incredibly hectic and exciting to say the least! I am just going to do a little bit of fast forwarding and ask you folks to hang in there for the various blog posts I will be sharing over the course of the next couple of weeks with some of the highlights from the amazing time I had while in Barcelona; like I said, one of my all time favourite cities in the world! And, specially detail some more about the wonderful people, and conversations we had!, I have met over the last few days.

But that will need to take a little break, because, like I have mentioned above, I am on the road again, this time to London, to get busy with a few things I wish I had the time to detail earlier on, if it weren’t for the appalling lack of connectivity over the last 10 days! Alas, it didn’t happen. (Sigh) Anyway, moving forward (For now…)

Yes, I am in London. Yes, I am still on holidays! , enjoying a few days catching up with one of my favourite, and most cosmopolitan, cities I have been to in my short life. Even though I have seen most of the city throughout the course of the years, it still amazes me how much it continues to change & thrive and give you that impression that you need to explore it again just to catch up since last time! In my case that would be 2005!

But that’s not the only reason why I am here. I am also here in London, because for the first time in a couple of years I have now finally managed to be able to make it to one of those Web 2.0 related events I always wanted to attend, but never quite managed to make it. Till this year…

I am talking about Unicom‘s Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit that will kick off on October 1st, and for a couple of days, at MWB Victoria and where I will not only be attending as a regular attendee throughout the entire event, but also I will be speaking at one of the sessions on the first day.

You will be able to check out all of the details of this very interesting and engaging event, I am sure, if you get your hands on the event’s brochure or if you check out the Programme / Schedule. In there you would be able to read how folks I have been following for a while now, and whom I have got plenty of admiration and respect for, would be participating as well at the event. People like Euan Semple, Penny Edwards, Leisa Reichelt, Suw Charman-Anderson, Dominic Campbell and, of course, David Gurteen, who I have known, and have followed!, for many years now and with whom I am finally going to have a chance to meet up face to face! Oh, and the same would be happening with Euan!

Can you see where my excitement comes from? heh Well, it gets better!

As I have mentioned above already, I will be sharing the agenda / programme with such an amazing bunch of folks talking about, yes, you know it already, my favourite topic this year: Thinking Outside the Inbox! Although this time around with a slight tweak here and there of the speech itself. Here is an excerpt of what I will be covering during my session:

- "The changing nature of collaboration
- The role of communities in helping accelerate the adoption of social computing
- Enterprise social software what it is and why you should care about it.
- Practical examples of social software in the enterprise, its Web 2.0 characteristics and benefits vs. traditional collaboration tools"

I am not sure whether the sessions will be recorded or not, but it is my understanding the slide decks will be shared, although, they are almost identical to the ones I have been using all along. The pitch, though, will be different.

I am not sure whether I would be live con-blogging or tweeting (@elsuacon) the rest of the event, since it would pretty much depend on the connectivity we would have throughout, and so far my experiences haven’t been that good for multiple other conferences. We shall see how that goes! But needless to say that even if I cannot report about the conference live I will still be putting together some highlights after the event is done and I am capable of finding some free time!

Free time? Yes, not much this time around either! Because there is another good reason why I am here in London during the next few days and that is to participate on my first London Knowledge Cafe where both Unicom and David Gurteen have offered me the unique opportunity to expand further on why, how, since when I have been giving up on e-mail at work and also explain further how other folks can start doing the same thing I have been doing now for over 8 months! (No, I haven’t forgotten either the blog posts on the weekly progress reports about how things are going. Those are coming up, too! And stay tuned, because they are looking good!).

You would be able to read plenty more about it over at "Could you stop using e-mail?" and, as you can see, it is an open to everyone event, where I will try to be as provocative, enlightening and entertaining as I possibly could be, so that you can learn a few tricks on how you can free yourself up from e-mail at work. For good! Just like I have done!

Phew! And that would be it! That’s some of the stuff that’s happening this week, while I am in London, about to enjoy, I am sure, a brilliant time! Oh, oh, did I mention I am still on holidays till next week Monday, October 6th? Well, I may not be working, indeed, but you all know there is no way that social networking will stop and, specially, my favourite one, pure face to face social networking!

Thus, if you are around, or in town during those days, and would want to meet up for a drink or two, or food, get in touch! And we will surely meet up! It may be coming through as a packed up social agenda, so if you see I am not very active over here in the next few days it may well be that, once again, life has won that everlasting battle with work in striking a balance. And I will probably be spending the time doing something else than sitting in front of the computer …

And, of course, I will probably be using my Twitter ID to share some highlights along the way, as well as one other way to get in touch with folks, whenever I managed to be online, promising to be a good week for that this time around! About time, too!

See you around!

Tags: Unicom, Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Remote Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Personal Knowledge Sharing, Barcelona, Travelling, Holidays, Connectivity, Wireless Access, Yoigo, SIM, ADSL, Hyde Park Executive Apartments, London, UK, United Kingdom, Business Benefits, Business Value, Agenda,  Euan Semple, Penny Edwards, Leisa Reichelt, Suw Charman-Anderson, Dominic Campbell, David Gurteen, No E-mail, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Giving up E-mail, Twitter, Blogging, Metablogging, Con-blogging, Live Twittering, Live Tweeting, London Knowledge Cafe, Knowledge Cafe, Face to Face

Trip to Barcelona – On Holidays!

As I am writing this particular blog post I am flying at 35,000 feet away from Gran Canaria and on my first day of a holiday I have been putting aside for a couple of years now. Yes, indeed, I am on my way to Barcelona, Spain!, one of my favourite cities in the world and one that although having been over here a few times already I just can’t get tired of it.

Call it all of the things and activities it has got to offer, or the friendly people, or that lovely cosmopolitan atmosphere that makes you feel like you are living in a very large metropolis, yet, very walkable at all times; call it all of the great places to enjoy some amazing Mediterranean cuisine, or the lively nightlife! Yes, all of that and so much more!

So this time around, as opposed to the last couple of years, where, for one reason or another, I just couldn’t make it, because of whatever the conflict or double booking, I had it booked up for quite a while and today is my first day of a wonderful holiday! I am sure! And I can’t wait! heh

Does that mean I will be stopping with my regular blogging activities for the next few days? Well, not sure. It will depend on how things go. I am going to be here for nine days, before I get to travel elsewhere again, and depending on timing and a few other things, which I am sure will come up to your mind, as I am writing this, I may be able to share the odd blog post here and there. But I don’t think I would be blogging on a daily basis, like I have been doing so far all this time.

Thus in a way, this holiday may also indicate a short break for me from my regular blogging activities, while I get to enjoy the city and its many attractions and, like I said, ponder a bit about a number of things and share the odd entry over here.

However, that doesn’t mean that my social networking activities are going to stop while I am on holidays heh On the contrary, they are going to become much more intense and fruitful as I am planning on doing plenty of my favourite social networking activity: meeting up with folks for a drink or two, or food, whatever may be the option and catch up with those folks who may be in town…

Like I said earlier on, I will be in Barcelona till the 29th of September. So if you would want to meet up for a drink or two, or grab a bite, give me a shout and we shall meet. When? Not sure, it will depend on both your schedule and my own heh, but I am sure we would be able to meet up! Without a doubt!

Oh, yes, I will be twittering, of course! There would be plenty of things to take note of and share with my various social networks. And, let’s face it, it will probably be as well the main option for me to get in touch with folks as I am not planning on staying still while in here! Thus although I am not planning on twittering far too much, like the usual twitterrhea I do far too often, expect to see a few updates here and there. Should be fun!

Well, we are about to start the landing routine, so I better cut it short over here for now … Hoping now that the weather will be just as gorgeous as back home! (And no, you don’t want to know how lovely it was heh)

(Fast forward a couple of hours later … landed safe and sound, in the hotel room. Now do another fast forward … a couple of days later, having enjoyed the lack of WiFi in the hotel I am staying in and the incredibly disappointing lack of support, coverage and responsibility for doing things right, like they say they do – Yes, Yoigo, ("Verdad verdadera", eh?) I am talking about you! – posting this blog entry a little bit later than expected and looking forward to some amazing time(s) … – Expect to have a much more disconnected time than ever before! W00t!)

Tags: Holidays, Barcelona, Spain, Work Life Balance, Life, Blogging, Metablogging, Twitter, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Photos, Flickr, Time Off, Wi-Fi Access, Yoigo, Lack of Customer Service, Yoigo Horrible Support, Yoigo Lack of Availability, Travelling

Social Software – The Basics By Jon Mell

I was just about to share another blog post around the topic of the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin (Remember you can get a 35% discount by registering with this code: webeu08gr23 - Don’t miss it!), which, like I have mentioned yesterday, I will be really looking forward to attending it this time around, specially after going through, once again, the impressive list of speakers who will be there at the event and the diversity of the topics that will be covered! Yet, something refrained me from doing that. Instead, I am just going to share with you a short, incredibly powerful entry, that I am sure would make you smile quite a bit for how simple it is!

And all of that due to one of those wonderful instances where serendipity does its magic. One of those serendipitous knowledge discoveries that clearly show the power of social computing, and, in particular, social networks.

It all starts with a fellow IBM colleague, and a good friend, Larry Hawes (Don’t forget to check out his Twitter bio! Quite inspirational!), who tweeted the following snippet:

"Here’s a post on "selling" social software that is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity. A short, must read! http://tinyurl.com/3jyxfb"

Boy, who could resist such temptation, right? Of course, not! No-one would! So I went over and checked the link and to my surprise who do I find there? My other good friend Jon Mell, who just recently joined the forces of the incredibly smart, resourceful and talented Headshift gang (Congrats and massive kudos to both Jon & the Headshift crew, by the way!!). Jon eventually put together a blog post under "Social Software – The Basics" (Still can’t figure out how I missed it!) that, after reading it, I thought I doubt anyone would ever be able to put it all in such simple terms. Yes, indeed, social software with a K.I.S.S. at its best!

It is just *so* accurate as well and so much anti-definitions (And you folks know how I feel about putting together definitions for such concepts like Knowledge Management, Enterprise 2.0 or Social Computing, amongst many others! ) that I am going to take the liberty of quoting it over here to help spread the message around, because if we would all think along those terms we would be making our lives so much easier! And for the better! Thus here it goes. Social Software – The Basics:

"Do you believe that there is business value in who you know as well as what you know?

Do you believe that a strong network of contacts can help you get things done and make things happen?

Would you like to help your employees get things done and make things happen?"

You would have to agree with me that it is just priceless, right? Well, hang in there; it gets better; check out his ending line to a brilliant post:

"If so, then the question is not why would you use social software, but why would you not?"

(hehe) *I know*, plenty of food for thought in there for us all to chew in as the weekend kicks in … Have a good one everyone!

Tags: Web 2.0 Expo, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Speakers, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Discounts, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, Basics, K.I.S.S., KISS, Serendipity, Larry Hawes, Jon Mell, Headshift, Simplicity, Definitions, Food for Thought, Musings, Ponderings