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

New Experiement: Splitting Personalities

After the holidays and with all of the frenzy and hectic activities going on for Lotusphere 2010, which will get started next week in Orlando, FL, I didn’t have much of a choice with regards to sharing with you folks something that I got started a few days back, but that I have been thinking about it for a few months now. Yes, indeed, a new experiment! You see? This is what a long period of holidays would do to you! It would make you think things over and over and when coming back to work you would be ready to give that new idea a good try.

In my case, it is not so much of a new idea, not even a resolution for the new year, but something that I have been pondering about for the last few months already. Something that over the recent Christmas holidays I had an opportunity to think plenty more about it and take it into action as I returned back to work nearly a week ago.

No, not to worry, it hasn’t got to do anything email this time around (I think living "A World Without Email" is more than enough at this point in time, don’t you think?). However, it does relate to one of the social software tools that I have enjoyed the most in the nearly three years that I have been using it. Indeed, Twitter!

If you remember, last year I created a blog post where I was sharing some insights as to how disappointed I have been as of late with a number of social software tools outside of the firewall that I surely didn’t think would be turning around like they did, i.e. not respecting basic data ownership principles from their end-users based on their rather aggressive Terms of Service. Yes, I am talking about social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn & Slideshare, amongst several others.

I am still planning on coming back to that blog entry I shared a little while ago with a follow up one for 2010, since there have been some very interesting follow up comments from a couple of folks, but for now I thought I would share with you folks some more details on that new experiment as the result of me not using none of those three from here onwards (At least, till they change their ToS accordingly).

So, from here onwards I won’t be using any of those social tools I mentioned above, which means I will be having plenty of available time and energy to invest elsewhere. And this is where my new experiment for this year will kick in effectively. You may want to have a look and read this Techcrunch article by Vivek Wadhwa, to give you a little bit of background on what I am about to start (Hint: Basically use Twitter as my main social networking tool outside of the firewall, both for personal and business like interactions).

For a good number of months I have been thinking about splitting personalities with my one social software tool of choice outside the firewall (Twitter) and I think it’s now a good time to make it happen. That’s why for the last few days I have now got two many Twitter IDs that I will be using on a regular basis from here onwards. One of them, my usual one, elsua; the one I have been using now for nearly three years and where I try to have conversations around various topics of interest, which happen to be the very same ones as you will find in this blog. To name: Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Social Computing and Social Software Adoption. Basically, the one I will continue to make use of as I have been doing all along.

And the second one, elsua_b, which is the one I have decided to split personalities with from here onwards. Yes, that’s right! For the last few days I have already been using that second Twitter account to continue sharing nuggets about the very same topics as with the other one, but with a slight twist. And, that is, that I will, from here onwards, use this second account for everything that relates to IBM 2.0. Basically, my day job.

That’s right! After a few months of thinking whether it would be worth while splitting personalities and create this separate account for work related stuff it’s time for me to dive in and see how that experiment would go. I know that this may come as a surprise to plenty of folks, but, to be honest, there is a good reason why I wanted to get started with this experiment: and, that is to start sharing with the rest of the world some of the amazing stuff I get exposed to on a daily basis inside the company with regards to KM, CommunityBuilding, Learning and Social Computing. And not just from what I’m getting involved myself, but, mainly, from plenty of the activities that other fellow colleagues have embarked themselves on for a long while now.

Yes, all along I have been keeping "quiet" about this, since I didn’t want to overwhelm folks with far too much tweeting away than what I already do! (Yeah, those folks who already follow me know what it is like hehe); so that filtering is now going away with this new account: elsua_b.

I must say that for the few days that I have been trying it out I have been enjoying it quite a bit; I thought I would find it harder to work with both of them concurrently, but I have been using two of my favourite Twitter tools and that seems to have helped quite a bit. For elsua_b I am using Tweetie for the Mac, while for elsua I am playing, in between, with both Mixero and Nambu (When it doesn’t crash! -Ouchie!).

The interesting thing is that I didn’t know how helpful it would become right away eventually till I started to get everything ready for Lotusphere 2010, because I will be taking the opportunity to share with folks out there, who may be interested, what will be happening at the event, but instead of overwhelming folks with IBM related tweets at elsua I am going to make use of elsua_b instead.

I am sure you may be wondering now which one of the two you may want to follow, if you are using Twitter yourself, right? Well, I am pretty ok with whatever the approach: if you would want to follow the brand elsua keep following that one; if you would rather fancy checking out some of the stuff I get exposed to inside IBM with regards to helping make IBM more like IBM 2.0, then go ahead and follow elsua_b, because that’s where I will be sharing those related IBM tweets (Starting with live tweeting the Lotusphere conference next week!).

Oh, and if you don’t want to follow any of the two, that’s fine, too! Long time ago I learned just like I couldn’t keep up with following everyone, I would no longer get upset if people unfollow or don’t follow at all. Life is just too short to worry about such silly things as following & unfollowing, don’t you think? To me, Twitter is about providing good business value of their time (And mine!) by sharing knowledge nuggets that not only do I benefit about, but so do the network(s) of people who decided to follow me. Hopefully. In short, and that’s what matters, as far as I am concerned: helping you get the value of this split personality, because from my own perspective I’m already getting plenty out of it myself!

Thus stay tuned, because that me continuing to provide value will start next week, like I have just mentioned above, with Lotusphere where I will be live tweeting from that second account as much as I could possibly can, and, of course, depending on the network connectivity and availability. Fingers crossed the wi-fi will hold this year … So far, things are indicating that it may well be as if it will. Let’s hope so!

Tags: Twitter, Micro-blogging, Micro-Sharing, Experiments, Split Personalities, IBM 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, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Business Value, Value, Live Tweeting, Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, #ls10

IBM’s Lotusphere 2010: What About BlueIQ?

Over the last couple of days, and as I have been wrapping up things at work to start making my way to Orlando, Florida, in order to be able to attend next week’s IBM’s Lotusphere 2010 conference event, a few people have been asking me whether I would be having a speaking slot at the event itself as well; so today I thought I would take this opportunity and share with you folks what I will be doing myself during the course of next week (Apart from being one other regular attendee, that is). To start with, no, I won’t be speaking during the event.

My BlueIQ team and myself have submitted a couple of abstracts, as well as a BoFs session on Social Software Adoption in a large corporate environment as that one from IBM, and, unfortunately, none of them got approved We know and understand how tough it is eventually to get a speaking slot on from what’s already a rather crowded and rigorous selection, so next year we are going to try harder and be back for more! Hopefully, by then the committee behind the approval of abstracts would be much more interested around the topic of Social Software Adoption in general (Hint: If you noticed, there isn’t a single session within the social software set of abstracts that made it through dedicated to the rather important subject of moving beyond the tools and their deployment and focusing on extracting value from a successful social software adoption strategy … Oh well … )

Either way, we know and understand how tough it is to get on the agenda, so we are committed to try much harder next year and see if that time around we can make it. Ok, but that doesn’t mean that we would not be doing anything during the course of the event, right? Of course, not! Like I have been saying already for a few more days, my entire team is going to be there and we got a bunch of different unevents piled up that we hope folks interested in the subject of social software adoption would be willing to participate and share some more insights with us exchanging experiences, know how, lessons learned, good practices, etc. etc.

Thus we will eventually be hosting a couple of lunches under the heading "Adoption and Value", both on Tuesday and Wednesday from noon EDT to 1:30pm EDT. You may be wondering what kind of conversations we would be having with those present both my team and myself, right? Well, here is a short blurb that describes what we thought about:

"Learn how to conduct social software advocacy in the enterprise – a chat with IBM Software Group’s internal adoption team.
 Look in the lunchroom for balloons marking "BlueIQ" tables
"

Now, you would remember how in the past I have been talking in this blog about the program I am part of and what my team does, right? BlueIQ, indeed! But you may be wondering what do we do exactly beyond helping accelerate the adoption rate of social software at IBM. Basically, some more specifics on what it is to drive the social software adoption inside IBM and for 500k employees.

Well, here is another short blurb that may help out a bit addressing those questions:

"Code-named "BlueIQ", this internal program coordinates the IBM Software Group adoption of social tools like Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, and Rational Asset Manager, as well as pilot work developed in IBM’s Technology Adoption Program and research labs. We provide both high-level value analysis as well as deep-dives on the technology; and we’re called on to provide training worldwide, engage with clients, and speak at conferences.



BlueIQ’s methodology for social software adoption combines task-focused education materials, jumpstarts, metrics, motivational activities, and enablement social tools with our most valuable asset: volunteers. 



Over 900 BlueIQ Ambassadors voluntarily carry the message of “productivity through social software” to the furthest corners of the company. In exchange, they’re the first to learn about new technologies, receive specialized content to share with their clients and peers, and grow their careers through an internal network of like-minded experts.



Through reverse-mentoring, we also pair subject matter experts with executives in order to provide task-focused social software education tailored to their unique needs"

That’s just not too bad, eh? Finally, I have found a chance to share with everyone out there what it is that I do on a daily basis while at work in my role as a Knowledge Manager, CommunityBuilder and, specially, Social Computing Evangelist. That’s why we are really excited to move forward with these unevents so that folks who may be interested in these topics would have an opportunity to come along and exchange plenty of ideas and experiences with us in order to make it a mutual learning experience, which, I guess, is what matters the most. Always! I mean, the learning experience heh

So, if you are a fellow IBMer who is interested in finding out what it is like helping accelerate such adoption of social tools, or if you are within Sales and would want to find out plenty more about how these social tools could help you, your customers and business partners, feel free to bring them along and let’s get the conversation going! Alternatively, if you are none of the groups mentioned above, BUT still with a keen interest in exchanging some more ideas on these topics, by all means, come on up, too, join us and let’s get the dialogue going!

In fact, that’s the whole point of having these kind of informal unlunches with the BlueIQ team I belong to; learn plenty more around the art of doing things right while helping your entire organisation, or business unit, adopt social software tools, so you would have an opportunity to show them how these social tools can be effectively business tools that would certainly help you, your team and your communities improve your / their day to day productivity.

Thus we hope to see you there! (Remember to re-read the text above on how you can find us on the huge lunch room and don’t be shy; come and say "Hi!" and share lunch with us for a few minutes. I promise we won’t bite … )

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, Lotus Knows, Lotus-Knows, LotusKnows, #ls10, BlueIQ, Social Software Adoption, Unevents, Unlunches, Informal Conversations, Dialogue, Sharing Experiences, Lessons Learned, Good Practices, Value, Business Value, Adoption, Lotus Connections, Connections, Social Tools, Metrics, Task Centric Computing, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Connections, Productivity, Events, Conference Events, Orlando, Florida