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

How Long Before We Start Taking More Seriously Both Privacy and Security in Enterprise 2.0?

How about if we finish off another wonderfully busy and inspiring week in the Social Computing space with another thought provoking blog post on the topic of Privacy and Security, perhaps two of the main key themes that keep popping up as potential showstoppers for social software adoption efforts within the corporate world? Not bad, right? Well, before I dive into that one I just want to share a big Thanks! to  everyone for those wonderful blog comments, retweets & Mentions around this week’s blog posts that I have been sharing over here! Hope to come back to that blogging commentary in the next few days… So how about talking around privacy and security then?

Have we addressed it and fixed it already? Are we looking actively into addressing all of the various different issues? Will they really become the troublemakers on the adoption of social tools in the enterprise? What do you think? My take is that we haven’t; in fact, we haven’t even started yet the conversations on the topic! At least, not at the scale I would hope for… Allow me to explain …

Eugene Lee put together yesterday a rather interesting and very relevant blog post on these topics under the title "Architecture Matters – Privacy in the Social Platform"; it surely is a worth while read that would make folks thing twice about their current development efforts for social tools. Equally revealing, and very enlightening, are the various different links he includes as well on that article from Adina Levin (Data Sharing, Context, and Privacy, What’s Different about Enterprise Twitter?, and Enterprise OpenSocial – A Year of Progress). All worth while reading along, for sure.

The interesting thing from Eugene’s article though is the highlighted fact that SocialText may be one of the very few social software tools out there that may have nailed it as far as taking both privacy and security into account when developing the next generation of Enterprise Social Software. And I bet it must feel pretty lonely out there, because most others haven’t even started to think about it seriously.

I am not sure whether this is due to the fact that most of these Enterprise Social Software offerings have been designed and developed in the US, where we all know privacy and security may not be as tight and strict (Probably to the extreme!) as they are in other European countries or whether this is due to the fact that most vendors may well think that since they are developing social software tools for behind the firewall so both privacy and security are not really of a primary concern to them…

How inaccurate! If privacy and security need to be taken into account for any software vendor it is actually essential that those two aspects are being taken well into account if that social software tools suite is meant for internal collaboration. If not, have a wander around in countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, Denmark, France, Spain, etc. etc. where an oversight on these two important topics can be rather costly. For both employers and knowledge workers.

Last year, during the course of the Enterprise 2.0 conference event in Boston, a bunch of us, attendees & presenters, tried to bring forward these important issues on to the table, so that we could start the right level of conversations around them, before it may well be too late. Much to our amazement those conversations never took place and almost a year later, we seem to be on exactly that very same dead end we were last year, except perhaps a bit worse: a year has gone by with nothing substantial happening and organisms like the European Union are starting to wake up and look into the realm of social networking behind the corporate firewall and its full potential implications.

Somehow, I feel we are not putting enough stress on how important and crucial, finally, getting it right will become in the next few months, couple of years, before organisms like the EU itself and various other countries will start wondering why time and time again various Enterprise Social Software tools don’t really comply with both their privacy and security guidelines. In fact, they have kind of neglected it all along, which is, perhaps, the most worrying thing!

Like I said, examples like SocialText are, I am afraid, a rare instance; in fact, I’m really proud about the fact they have taken, all along, rather serious the topics of privacy and security, because amongst several other things, they are proving, once again, that not only are they (maybe) ahead of everyone else, but they are also demonstrating actively with that commitment that it can be done. That it should be done. That for social software tools to survive within the corporate environment they need to respect, comply and abide with those privacy and security regulations that other enterprise software has been having for decades. So if they have proved that, why can’t everyone else follow their lead? I mean, why the stubbornness on this key matter? Wouldn’t we all want to design & develop state of the art social computing tools that would be safe to make use of for knowledge workers behind the firewall? Because right now, it is not happening …

That’s why this year, while I will be attending (And presenting! -More on that later, by the way!) the Enterprise 2.0 conference event in mid-June I do plan to ask the same questions again that we asked last year on what vendors are finally doing about both privacy and security. They are far too important to be left out, once again, for another year, and I think it is our responsibility, as social software internal evangelists to highlight across the board how critical it is to bring up this subject time and time again, so that, at some point, we may be able to have those issues addressed and sorted out once and for all.

I think our time to remain quiet and don’t say anything else about it, so that we don’t upset those vendors, is just about to finish. We cannot afford leaving out of the equation such an important topic with such huge implications for us all dealing with our various social software adoption internal efforts. So I am hoping that those of us who will be at the Enterprise 2.0 conference will use that opportunity, once again, to challenge, and make rather uncomfortable, those specific vendors who we feel are letting us down not confronting these issues, just because they think organisms like the EU and various other countries are not important enough. They are. Do you think we are going to wait for them to shut down that enterprise social software tool we have put so much effort on already?

I don’t think so. At least, I won’t be keeping quiet much longer anymore. I think it’s time to ensure and prove we are doing something about it, pretty much like SocialText, demonstrating, quite clearly, how we can eventually make it happen. And if they have managed to do it, why not everyone else? What’s your excuse then?

Tags: Privacy, Security, Privacy Regulations, Privacy Issues, Eugene Lee, SocialText, Wikis, Enterprise Wikis, Adina Levin, Enterprise Social Software, Vendors, European Union, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Denmark, Spain, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston, #e2conf, Leadership, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Communication, Connections, Productivity

Little Venice in the Spring

Now that I have finally managed to get my hands on a decent piece of equipment, which I had the great pleasure of taking it for a spin not long ago (And was really impressed with the results, I must admit!), I thought it would be a good time again to reintroduce a new series of blog posts to make justice to the beautiful island I have been living in for the last six years: Gran Canaria, Spain. It’s about time, I think.

If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you would remember how some time ago, every so often, I used to put together a series of posts about places of interest (And worth while checking further, or exploring further, if you are that kind of adventurer…), things to do, landmarks to check out from an island that I can never get tired of, nor does it cease to amaze me time and time again. So I’m going back! I’m going to start sharing, ever so often, the odd blog post where I will try to share some further insights from what it is like living in such a paradisiacal island I discovered over a decade ago and from which I just can’t get enough!

Actually, there is also a specific reason why I would want to take up sharing these blog posts once again. It all begins with combining two other passions of mine: photography and Gran Canaria itself. It’s funny, because I never thought I would be saying this, but it was this island that one that made me appreciate the wonderful world of photography. Yes, I still consider myself a newbie with lots and lots of things to learn in order to master this fine art of taking snapshots, specially when you tend to discover plenty of tricks as you go along. But the way I see it is that I have got plenty of time as well as some of the most breathtaking landscapes, and a few other things, too!, that continue to help me improve my skills.

And, like I said, with that new piece of equipment I got my hands on a few months back, I just couldn’t help avoid the urge of coming back to this blog and start sharing that new series of blog posts detailing why I fell in love with this island over ten years ago, when I landed over here on my first holiday. I know that most people would think that Gran Canaria is a holiday island on its own and, in a way, they are rather accurate. However, that’s just a small fraction of all of the stuff you can do, watch, learn about, experience, enjoy and treasure. A small fraction, indeed!

That’s why with each and everyone of these blog posts I’m hoping to share with you some of those hidden treasures that this island has got to offer to everyone who may want to spend some time visiting and wanting to have a good time. So, from here onwards, every now and then, there is going to be a new set of articles I’ll be putting together where I am hoping to share with you some of the golden gems that this island has got to offer to anyone who may be interested.

At the same time, I am going to do things a little bit different than the initial round of blog entries, since I’m also planning to share further details on interesting places to check from a culinary perspective. Yes, that’s right! I will also be sharing some further insights on restaurants to check out throughout the island, so if you ever come and visit you would probably have a handful of good options to check out. I already got a couple of lists (Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 restaurants I just can’t wait to share across!) that I’m sure you would be interested in … So hang in there!

Finally, there is also another motif for me to get things going with this series of posts. And that’s to show to plenty of my worldwide friends out there, those who I have met over the course of the years with all of that travelling (I knew it would pay off at some point!), the kind of place where I have been living for the last few years, so that they, too, can see that it’s not just all about sunshine and gorgeous beaches, nor fish & chips, or steak with fries! So it would be interesting as well to share with you other tidbits I may bump into out there on the Web that I would think would be worth while sharing across as well, so that you folks (You know who you are!) could have a better overview of what it is like living in Gran Canaria.

Like, for instance, did you know that we have got a small place called Little Venice? That it is one of my favourite places from the entire island, because it combines, rather perfectly, both the flavour of a local fishermen’s village with that of a rather popular tourist destination? But that it keeps it all in good harmony and it’s quite a treat walking through the various streets, the harbour, the upper side of the village, etc. feeling that would be that perfect place where you can picture yourself enjoying your retirement for so many good reasons? Welcome to Puerto de Mogán!

Well, last weekend I spent there the entire Saturday afternoon over there, and, of course, I took my camera with me. Most of the pictures I took are already in my Flickr account, but I thought I would share with you over here a couple of them to give you a taster of what is awaiting for you on the southwest of the island of Gran Canaria.

Not bad, eh? Well, I hope you do enjoy this new series of posts I’m about to re-launch over here in this blog, hoping that one of these days you may perhaps drop by my island, my home, so that I can then show you around and enjoy a drink or two, or some of the amazing food served by some of the most interesting and intriguing restaurants you can imagine. Get ready and prepare yourself! It’s going to be a fun ride!

Tags: Photography, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Islas Canarias, Tourism, Turismo, Life, Puerto de Mogan, Fishermen’s Village, Villages, Little Venice, Canals, Flickr, Food, Entertainment, Tourist Destinations, Sunshine, Beaches, Harbours

Top 10 Use Cases Enterprise Microsharing Will Help You Get Less Email

I have always wondered when would articles like eMarketer‘s "Social Not a Threat to E-Mail" grab that opportunity of providing a bit more of extensive details on the transition that email is currently going through at the moment moving away from being, consistently, that content repository that fits, and suits all sorts of interactions, to that messaging and notification system, a la newsfeed aggregator, that plenty of people prefer in order to keep up to date with social software tools updates. I bet we would all be much better off.

Also thinking that using email, versus social tools, to keep in touch with other family members sounds like a good approach to me. It should remain a private conversation to some extent, don’t you think so? At least, that’s how I use a large chunk of my personal emails at the moment. So when are we going to get studies and research articles published on corporate email and the current transition it’s going through at the moment… I bet that would be much more interesting. For sure!

If not, take a look into the wonderful blog post that my good friend, Alan Lepofsky, put together a couple of days back under the title "Enterprise Microblogging Enables Everyone to Participate", which clearly describes that transition I have just mentioned above of various different tasks and activities we used to carry out through email and how they are slowly, but steadily, entering the realm of microblogging (Or microsharing, which is the term I usually like to use). Alan builds up from there sharing a rather short, but amazingly powerful, YouTube video clip that explains just that! Worth while the one minute it lasts, for certain!

Even more, he takes things further and shares a few more links to some other interesting and relevant resources on this very same topic: how enterprise microblogging is taking the corporate world by storm and is helping reposition multiple levels of interactions we all used to carry out through email, but no more! Instead, they are taking place out there in the open Intranet / Internet and made available publicly, by default, to everyone! Worth while a read through all of those articles…

It’s interesting to notice how, even thought Alan and myself are no longer working for the same company (We used to!) our experiences are very similar. And that’s why I thought about perhaps putting together this article today, where I could share with you folks a few other insights on how microblogging is changing the way we do business nowadays. Regardless of the company.

As most of you folks know, I work in a program, within the IBM Software Group, called BlueIQ, whose mission is to help IBM accelerate the adoption rate of social software, both inside and outside of the corporate firewall. We have been busy with it for nearly three years now and in the last 18 months we have been putting together an Enablement program with plenty of education and reference materials for a good number of tasks / activities and how to go about them using social tools. In the last few days I have been working on one of our latest modules on Microblogging / Microsharing / Status Updates.

While putting it together I realised, as I was noting down the various use cases and business benefits, that in the last few months microsharing (I will stick around with that word from here onwards …) has probably been one of the most fundamental 2.0 concepts that has allowed me to continue living "A World Without Email" causing a substantial reduction on the amount of incoming emails I receive on a weekly basis. Like last week, where I have only received 7 emails in the entire week!

So I thought I would go ahead and share with you folks some of those various key benefits and use cases that I have been using in that education module, so that people out there would be able to benefit plenty more from such a useful resource. And that’s why I decided to put together this blog post over here today sharing my list of the Top 10 Reasons Enterprise Microsharing Will Help You Get Less Email. Now, I can’t guarantee you will be ditching corporate email for good any time soon, but I can certainly vouch you will see a substantial reduction on the high volume(s) of incoming emails you may be suffering from today.

I will try to be brief, since most of those reasons are actually use cases based on common tasks and activities that we all get exposed to on a daily basis and which I think would resonate plenty more with you all. Remember though, I’m not saying that email is dead (I still see some good use for it for a couple of instances…); what I’m about to share with you folks is how you can move away from your Inbox 10 different types of activities / conversations you used to carry out through email, but from here onwards through microsharing, with all of those additional benefits of switching from private by default (Email) to public by default (Social Software Tools – Microsharing). Let’s get started!

1. Questions and Answers: Probably one of the most popular use cases for enterprise microsharing; give people an opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Yes, I know most of you folks out there would probably think that’s what Forums / Newsgroups are for, but then again don’t forget how we all work as human beings; if I have got a question I need an answer for, there is a great chance I will go and ask my personal network first, before going elsewhere. And that’s exactly what enterprise microsharing enables knowledge workers to do, specially when working virtually. A great way of staying closer, and connected!, to your personal distributed networks by interacting and helping answer questions or asking yourself some of them. Regardless of where you may well be.
2. Narrate Your Work (By Dave Winer): Declarative Living (By James Governor) or Ambient Intimacy (By Leisa Reichelt), whichever term / concept you would want to make use of. If you are familiar with either of them, you know what I mean with this particular use case, but, just in case, it’s all about the easiest way of keeping up with, and nurturing, your working relationships by constantly improving your social capital skills.
3. Informal Learning: Through the sharing of expertise across the board as well as links to other relevant content that other fellow knowledge workers would benefit from as additional reading. Right there, while they are at their jobs! On the spot, without having to go anywhere else and with their work context intact. Part of their work flow. Always learning new stuff by exposing yourself out there to all sorts of interesting resources, links and, above all, conversations.
4. Serendipitous Knowledge Discoveries: or rediscovering new value by chance, which is another nice way of putting it. Although I prefer to refer to it with "Letting serendipity do its magic". I am sure that most of us may well relate very nicely to this one as we have experienced it time and time again through microsharing tools like Twitter, amongst several others.
5. Find Experts: This is an easy use case for everyone out there; instead of hiding yourself away behind your Inbox, where no-one can see you and therefore everyone thinks you don’t have anything better to do than answering their queries, how about leaving your hide-out space, go out there in the open, start microsharing your knowledge and through narrating your work help raise the right level of expectations on how you could accommodate interruptions and handle them accordingly. In a way, experts are scared that they will get overwhelmed with queries, but, in reality, this is further from the truth! If they keep sharing and narrating what they do, they are already generating the right level of expectations of how and when they will be handling interruptions. Basically, if those seeking answers see how those experts are busy doing something else, there is a tendency they will respect that and go ahead and do something else waiting for their turn. Believe me, it works.
6. Identify Knowledge Gaps: This particular one would become very helpful when multiple knowledge workers keep asking the same question(s) time and time again and no answers would be provided. That’s your best opportunity to find out and spot those knowledge gaps and then you will need to get down to work, address them and fix them, so those questions don’t come up again!
7. Help and Support for Technical Problems: We have constantly seen this one happening in Twitter, so just imagine having that capability behind the firewall where knowledge workers could ask questions and help each other on how to improve their respective overall productivity, knowledge sharing and collaboration tools suite. Yes, indeed, this one would be very much along the lines of getting answers for the typical "How Do I…?" type of interactions.
8. Announcements, News Items: Create an awareness with broadcasting messages of changes (Like system outages), news items or major announcements that are going around you, instead of sending an email with those items. Ideal for top down, cascaded / forwarded emails no-one likes to receive! (Yes, I know, the ones you don’t even read anymore!)
9. Knowledge Sharing out in the Open: that way we transition from private by default to public by default and allow knowledge workers, through real-time search engines, re-find and re-use the content they would need, much faster, much easier and much more immediate. Right there, right then.
10. Personal Branding: Yes, I know most businesses may not feel comfortable with personal branding, but it is there. It’s your people. It’s your business. It’s your corporate brand. Your people are your brand. So microsharing will help them merge successfully both the personal and corporate brands into a stronger entity, one that can speak for you out there in the thousands and in short, but rather effective, chunks! Very easy to consume and digest, too!

There you have them; my top 10 reasons, use cases or activities that microsharing tools would allow you to execute effectively without using a single email. I’m sure there are plenty more! Feel free to add your favourites in the comments and perhaps that way we can help consolidate an essential list of reasons as to why enterprise microsharing makes sense for any business out there. For now I will leave you though with what I think is one of the best reasons why microsharing, both inside and outside of the firewall, is very much worth while the time, the effort and the energy to invest on: and that’s the fact that enterprise microsharing is probably the easiest model of 2.0 engagement for every single knowledge worker out there, whether you are technical or not. Because, after all, who doesn’t get Twitter? Anyone?

Now, I realise this is a rather long blog post on its own already, but allow me to share with you folks one last thing over here that I am sure you will enjoy quite a bit. If you have jumped forward from the beginning of this blog post to here, hoping to read a good conclusion to this article, you are not going to find that over here. Instead, you are going to watch it through for a little bit of 4 minutes and a half and enjoy every second of it!

My good friend, and fellow IBM colleague, Jean Francois Chenier, has done it once more and has put together the next episode of the golden series "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections", episode #8, around the concept of enterprise microblogging / microsharing. What a perfect timing, don’t you think!?! Either way, I won’t say much more on this topic (Already feel I have talked enough about it!), you already know how these really fun to watch, and instructive, videos work. Here is the direct link to it  and the embedded version, if you would want to play it right away:

And here is, finally, the one liner summary of this long blog post: Enterprise microsharing will help you reduce your incoming emails (As well as those going out!) and move across most of those conversations away from your Inbox into open social spaces where everyone can contribute and participate. Yet, it all starts with you cultivating, nurturing and working your way really hard towards building and sustaining healthy personal social networks. Don’t wait for them to come to you! Go and greet them! Embrace them! Let them help you find a way to live "A World Without Email", amongst several other things! Just like they have for me for the last three years… And counting!

Tags: eMarketer, Threats, Messaging, Notification, Content Repository, Newsfeeds, Aggregators, Alan Lepofsky, Participation, Engagement, BlueIQ, Social Software Adoption, BlueIQ Enablement, Education, Adoption, Learning, Enablement, Microblogging, Microsharing, Status Updates, Use Cases, Business Value, Activities, Tasks, Activity Centric Computing, Questions and Answers, Narrate Your Work, Dave Winer, Declarative Living, James Governor, Ambient Intimacy, Leisa Reichelt, Informal Learning, Informl, Serendipity, Serendipitous Knowledge Discoveries, Finding Experts, Knowledge, Knowledge Gaps, Help, Support, Technical Questions, Announcements, News, Awareness, Broadcasting, Openness, Personal Branding, Jean Francois Chenier, Lotus Connections, Connections, Connections Profiles, Boards, Connections Profiles Boards, 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, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email