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

Social Workplace for Government 2.0 by Deb Lavoy

Last Friday I put together a quick blog post sharing with folks some further insights on the already available film "Us Now – On the Power of Mass Collaboration, Government and the Internet",  mentioning as well how over the weekend I would take some time to watch it and beginning of this week share some more thoughts on what I thought about it. Well, I did. I did watch it in its entirety last Saturday and I thought I would share with you today the impression(s) it left on me.

What a fantastic film, folks! If you can spare a bit over one hour of your time, this is one of those films that I am sure you would enjoy tremendously. I certainly did! There are plenty of things I learned about social software and Web 2.0 in general, and I know you would as well, but if there was anything that I absorbed almost quite immediately was something that I have been mentioning it for a while already: the fact that Web 2.0 transcends the world of the Internet big time and it touches us, as a society, in multiple levels that not only don’t we start to comprehend just yet, but we don’t have much of a choice to avoid it either altogether. And probably we shouldn’t!

Yes, I am talking about the unavoidable change we are all going through. The point of no return. A new wave of social interactions, way beyond the Social Web, that help us not only continue to share more and more knowledge by the day and collaborate with others, but also help us nurture and nourish our trust levels with everyone else, which is where I felt that’s the kind of change we most probably need at this very moment in time, given the current econolypse we are all going through.

Throughout the film you would be able to see plenty of use cases and scenarios of how folks like you and me are taking advantage of social software, but moving beyond the level of virtual, distributed interactions into more physical ones that have already been enhanced by those online conversations that have been taking place already! Thus virtual and physical come together as one. Finally! Us. A change we can no longer ignore, nor neglect or fail to embrace. We are just way beyond that level of reluctance and skepticism. We have already started embracing what’s inevitable: our own change to become something better as a result of those "improved" social interactions. Basically, what I have been saying all along on "work smarter, not necessarily harder", but which would also apply to every single aspect of our daily lives, not just work!

Fantastic video, I can assure you! With plenty more striking conclusions that I would not want to spoil for you, but I can certainly encourage you to watch through it till the end. It’s very very worth it. And funny enough earlier on today a tweet by my good friend, and very prolific KM blogger, John Tropea, just caught my attention on a Slideshare presentation that’s been around for a couple of months already, but which touches base, incredibly accurate, too!, with some of the main topics mentioned throughout the film itself! Talking about serendipity doing its magic …

After you have watched the movie check out the presentation titled "Social Workplace for Government 2.0" by Deb Lavoy. You will love it from the very first slide till the very end! What a wonderful deck on assessing and evaluating the benefits, barriers and overview of technologies within the social software space around the whole industry of Government. Her entire presentation covers three key main points that everyone should be not just aware of, but fully embrace them altogether. And if you don’t believe me, here you have got them:

• "Social media tools make connections that drive collaboration and Knowledge Management
• Culture is more important than technology
• New Technologies are pleasant to use, so people use them"

Brilliant, don’t you think? Well, it gets better! Way better! Deb covers very well, and rather extensively, topics so important as collaboration (Slide #10 on this subject is priceless!), transparency (Slide #15 is just such a gem!), compounding value, trust, respect, barriers to adoption (Fear & management by fear – Slide #31 is just so spot on!), etc. etc.

Like I said, one of those slide decks you bump into every now and then which would make you think for a while and which will continue to inspire you, in my case, with my efforts of driving, into new levels, the adoption of social software all over the place. It’s a change I cannot longer deny, or neglect, nor will I try to understand. There is no need to. It’s ok. The waters are lovely! We just have to dive in, deeper than ever, get soaked and continue to enjoy the various different benefits on driving the next wave of collaboration and knowledge sharing conversations by experiencing how Web 2.0 transcends the Social Web as we know it! Just brilliant!

Oh, and don’t forget to watch the Us now movie! It will help you much bring the dialogue on to the next level! Yes, as good as that! If not more …

Tags: Us Now, Films, Movies, 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, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Government, Society, Humanity, Inspiration, Insights, Econolypse, Physical Social Networks, Virtual Social Networks, Virtual Teams, Online Collaboration, Twitter, John Tropea, Social Workplace, Government, Government 2.0, Deb Lavoy, Culture, Technology, Social Web, Transparency, Trust, Compounding Value, Barriers to Adoption, Management by Fear, Fear, Slideshare

Launch Day of Communities and Networks Connection

For a good number of years, almost from the very beginning since I have gotten involved rather heavily with social software in my role both as a Knowledge Manager and Community Builder, I have been saying that the major drivers of social software adoption within the enterprise are communities, whichever flavour you would want to consider (of Practice, of Interest, of Purpose, etc. etc.). Any corporate social computing strategy that doesn’t take into account a community building program to help spread the message on social networking is bound to fail. And big time!

So, when both my good friends Nancy White and Tony Karrer kindly invited me to take part of the superb initiative they just launched called "Communities and Networks Connection" where the contents of my blog http://www.elsua.net will be syndicated to provide some further insights on how communities and (social) networks are shaping the wider adoption of social tools within the corporate world and beyond, I just couldn’t resist such lovely offer.

And here we are! On the first day of the launch of "Communities and Networks Connection" and with plenty of excitement building up already. Both Nancy and Tony have already kicked things off by sharing a couple of blog posts on the topic, respectively. I would recommend you get to read both of those articles, specially Tony’s, since he has basically shared all of the details on how this new Web site would work out eventually. Some pretty fascinating stuff I’m not going to reveal much about so that you get to read it inside out from here.

After you are done with Tony’s entry, go and head over to Nancy’s, because in it you would find one of the reasons why I am really excited about this launch: yes, the indeed, the superb quality of the folks who are also joining this particular aggregated network of networks.

I am sure that you would be rather familiar with most of them. T N T — The Network Thinker with Valdis Krebs, Michael Sampson, Matt Moore, Lilia Efimova, Jenny Ambrozek and Victoria Axelrod at 21st Century Organization and Jessica Lipnack are just a few of the ones I know and have been following already for a long while!; some others I respect and follow religiously have already blogged about the kick off with examples like John Tropea (With another excellent read!), Mike Gotta, The super fine Anecdote team, the folks over at FreshNetworks and Joitske Hulsebosch.

Thus as you can see a tremendous potential for Communities and Networks Connection. And I know that for some people out there this new Web site would seem like just another Web aggregator of content from a bunch of very insightful folks in the space of communities and social networks. Well, that’s not the case, folks; like I said, read Tony’s blog post to see the scope of what’s different with this new site that has gone live today. You will see that it will change the game substantially from everything we have seen already and I just can’t wait to be part of it!

Welcome to the Communities and Networks Connection!

Tags: 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, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Community Building, Community Builders, Nancy White, Tony Karrer, Communities and Networks Connection, The Network Thinker, Valdis Krebs, Michael Sampson, Matt Moore, Lilia Efimova, Jenny Ambrozek, Victoria Axelrod, 21st Century Organization, Jessica Lapnick, John Tropea, Mike Gotta, Anecdote, FreshNetworks, Joitske Hulsebosch

Tumblr – elsua’s Clippings

If you would remember, a couple of days back I mentioned how the Lifestream section from elsua.net, my personal & business blog, was going to start feeding content from the various social software spaces where I usually hang out;  most of which you folks are already very much aware of: Twitter, Flickr, Ma.gnolia, etc. etc.

I also mentioned how there would be a new (To me) social software tool out there I would be using during the course of 2009 and which I always wanted to take for a spin, but never found the opportunity. Well, I think it is now time for that to change!

As the title of this blog post states it is, of course, Tumblr! Welcome to elsua’s clippings!

Yes, that’s right. For the last few days I have already been using Tumblr and enjoying the experience quite a bit! It is incredibly easy to use and one of the things I like the most is how pervasive it is. You can post to it directly from the Web, or from various mobile devices (Including the iPhone ), from the desktop (With a widget), etc. So I just couldn’t say No! I have been wanting to dive in for quite a while, but never found the chance. Till now.

Thus what would you expect to find in elsua’s clippings? Well, to put it in very simple terms, everything that may be shorter than a blog post, but longer than a tweet! and which would very much deal with the stuff I’m interested in, both from a business and personal perspectives.

So far, for instance, I have been sharing some of my favourite YouTube videos, as well as some very interesting quotes I have bumped into, both from the online and offline world, and which, I think, are worth while noting. That would include relevant quotes from books I may have read till now.

Finally, you may be wondering what made me take the plunge and dive straight in, right? Well, three different folks I admire dearly, who have been using Tumblr for a little while already and whose tumblrings I have been enjoying quite a bit! (As well as their blogging and twittering!). Check out Stowe Boyd’s /Ambivalence, Jay Cross’ & John Tropea’s Snippets. Worth while subscribing to, don’t you think?

If you would want to follow up on elsua’s clippings, you can do so directly from the main Web site, its RSS feed or elsua.net’s Lifestream section. Hope you enjoy it just as much as I am sharing across all of those tidbits and interesting clippings one gets exposed to on a daily basis. Far too many to keep them private!

Tags: 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, Social Networks, Networking, Conversations, Dialogue, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Communication, WordPress, Lifestream, Twitter, Flickr, Ma.gnolia, Tumblr, elsua’s clippings, Web Clippings, Quotes, iPhone, Stowe Boyd, /Ambivalence, Ambivalence, Jay Cross, John Tropea, Library Clips, Snippets, Cajón Desastre