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

Yoigo - Verdad Verdadera - Seriously? You Reckon?

As I am back home already from another wonderful event in Madrid (At IBM’s Innovation Summit Pro-voke) and already spent most of my day catching up with things, both at work and outside, I thought I would finish off the day (And get started with the weekend!) by posting this blog post, which has been in my mind for a few weeks now. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. I put together two different versions of this entry, but I wasn’t too much convinced about either of them, more than anything else, because they were poignantly negative. So, in the end, I decided to go with this lighter version of it. Much better.

If you have been following this blog for a while now you would probably know how most of this year I have spent it travelling all over the place participating at various conference events, as well as talking to various different customers around the topic of Social Computing, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration and Communities, amongst some others. You would probably also remember how the number #1 issue I have been experiencing all along has been connectivity, or the lack of, better said.

This blog post is a reflection of what most folks have been talking about mobile connectivity and how pervasive it has become nowadays. Well, allow me to state quite the opposite! All along, whether we like it or not, we have just been living an illusion, a chimera. A myth! And even today I am much more convinced than ever before!

In a very interesting, enlightening and at the same time provocative blog post, my good friend Jevon MacDonald encouraged all Enterprise 2.0 vendors to start paying more and more attention towards the mobile market when designing and making available Mobile 2.0 applications. Well, while he brings in a whole bunch of really good points, I am going to take things even further!

Before we start demanding for Enterprise 2.0 vendors to provide us with Mobile 2.0 apps., let’s get back to basics and ensure we can all GET CONNECTED to the Internet in the first place! Yes, indeed, not matter how cool, user friendly, sexy, helpful, resourceful, appealing, etc. all of these mobile 2.0 apps. would be like, if we CANNOT connect to them, they are useless! Now. And forever!

This is perhaps, to me, the number one caveat from adopting social computing and social networking tools, both inside and outside of the corporate firewall! Not the tools themselves, nor the cultural aspects, nor the knowledge workers themselves (Or the businesses they work for!), but the availability of a stable, reliable and scalable broadband network connection throughout!

That, to me, is the main issue that is stopping us right now from a wider adoption. Specially for those of us who are more mobile than never and who are starting to rely more and more from a good and reliable Internet network connection.

Yes, I know that some of you may well say that things have improved over the last couple of years and everything, and that may well be the case, but this year and, specially ever since I started giving up e-mail at work (And use much more heavily social software instead, therefore living more on the Web), I have been able to prove, time and time again, how such network connectivity is not as pervasive as we thought or expected it to be! Anyone remember a recent conference event they have been to where the Wi-Fi connection has been good throughout the entire event? Right now, I am having problems myself coming up with the name of one of them!

Here is the latest example, which is partly the reason why I am putting together this blog post. As you well know, since mid-September, with the holidays and a couple of business trips, I have been more on the road than working from home. Yet, the connectivity has been horrendous in the three countries I have been to during that time (Spain - Barcelona / Madrid, London & Mechelen, Belgium).

While I have been on holidays in Barcelona the first few days I stayed at a couple of good hotels, right in the city centre, and although they offered FREE Wi-Fi, I wasn’t able to connect to either of them for whatever the reasons. In London, I had a very similar problem while I was presenting at a Web 2.0 conference and in Mechelen much of the same in another hotel right in the city centre!

That’s why a few months back I eventually got the recommendation to finally get a SIM card that would allow me to work not just with voice, but also with data, wherever I would be travelling. And I did. It was Yoigo. And I was happy. And it was all joy. And I thought to myself all of my problems would be solved once and for all! No longer would I need to depend on a network connection other than that one from Yoigo. Ha! Poor thing! A myth! Like I said.

To start with, back in May, and while in Germany, I had a taster of what roaming charges are like using a SIM data card. A few MBs downloaded and a phone bill of nearly 100€! Nice one! Not really!!! (Yes, I know you are going to say I should be using MaxRoam, and I would probably have a look into it, but will it offer me a decent broadband capability or just another analogue one, because if that is the case, I’ll pass & save the money for something more productive!).

Thus, when travelling abroad I realised I would still have to go through the same painful experiences, as I have been going through all along. Then I thought, ok, I can make use of Yoigo within my country. Their SIM data card prices are, indeed, very competitive and probably the best in the market at the moment, but, as you will see in just a paragraph or two, it is just not good enough!

Yes, their pricing model is very competitive and very attractive, but then again, we come to the problem at hand. Their coverage and bandwidth is just appalling! Awful! Terrible is probably a mild word! As bad as having a modem dialling through an analogue line! (Yes, indeed, those kind of speeds!). And it would not matter where you are. While I was on holidays in Barcelona I couldn’t reach most of the Web sites I wanted to go to. While I was in Madrid this week, I had the same issues! Over and over again! And don’t even mention the opportunity to connect consistently to VPN networks. Not a chance either!

Oh, don’t take me wrong. It works! It loads pages, like your e-mail (Which I no longer use myself, remember?) or like http://m.slandr.net (Which is one of the many Twitter mobile Web sites), and which displays very little traffic. But as soon as you go into some heavy Web sites, like most social networking sites, or grabbing your RSS / Atom feeds, or something so relatively simple like loading a simple Web site with a few graphics and images, you can surely put yourself together to wait for two to three minutes before it loads! Yes, two to three minutes! (You see? I didn’t say analogue for nothing).

As you can well imagined, all of what I am talking about above comes from my experiences, while I was in Barcelona and Madrid, but, mainly, in Barcelona. Since I thought such service was rather unacceptable, I decided to call the support folks for Yoigo. And what happened? Well, the usual stuff.

Yoigo is one of those mobile operators that has got a catchy phrase to capture customers: "Verdad Verdadera" (Something like "Truthful Truth"), indicating how they are much much different than other mobile providers, not only on their pricing model(s), but also as far as their support goes! Ha! Too funny! How wrong!

Not to worry, I am not going to share another horror story on my own HelpDesk experience with them. I think you can imagine it by now. However, what I am going to say though is that when contacting them to check out why that response time was so appalling I got two messages back: first one, sorry, we have got a general problem in Barcelona (Sorry, that was not accurate. I had the same problem for the 9 days I was there! And also in Madrid!) and, secondly, a bit more serious than the first one: they wouldn’t guarantee that the SIM card would provide the speeds advertised, so I was advised on something they would not do anything about, because it’s just not part of their covered support.

And I went … WHAT?!?! You kidding me? You may be saying that, but certainly you are more than happy to put the bill together and send it across at the end of the month, right? No matter what. Even though you don’t offer a guarantee it will get connected with the specific speeds mentioned? Hummm, how that does make you different from other providers? Let me tell you something. It doesn’t! It just makes you much of the same. Abusive with your customers with an attitude like you take it or leave it. Your choice! (How wrong, once again!)

Not going to comment much more on it all, because I know nothing is going to happen. I don’t expect them to read this blog post, I don’t expect them to react to my concerns of their NOW high pricing for the very poor / quality of service they provide) and to be honest I just don’t care anymore. I gave them plenty of opportunities to do something about it, and they didn’t. And, well, my opinion today (And, like I just said, I think I have given them far too many opportunities to change things… Sigh) is that Yoigo is just like another mobile provider abusing from their Internet mobile end-users with very high prices and very poor connectivity capabilities, which is really sad, because they were really promising quite a different story!

Yes, I realise I may be asking for too much, i.e. a mobile Internet broadband connection that just works, but to be honest, I am starting to prefer to be disconnected and live without it, than with the growing disappointment and rage of a service I am paying fully for, yet, I cannot make use of it as advertised!

How "truthful truth" (Verdad verdadera) can that be? When will telcos understand, once and for all, that they are the key towards making the bountiful world of the Internet available to us all. That they are just bottlenecks stopping our adoption of such valuable resource as the World Wide Web not just to improve the way we work, but also the way we use it for our personal benefit? That they are missing a HUGE opportunity to partner with Enterprise 2.0 vendors to empower us to get the most out of Social Computing to help us connect with one another across the globe to enhance our own personal business relationships?

When will they realise they are missing out on a GREAT opportunity to build long lasting, fruitful working relationships with those of us who are constantly travelling on the road and who have a growing need to be constantly connected?

When are they going to join the 21st century once and for all? That century of the Knowledge Economy where everything flows and where making connections in the social computing space will become essential to conduct business? Am I just asking for too much? Is that all just that? An illusion? A myth?

Like I said half way through, Jevon mentioned how Enterprise 2.0 vendors need to start paying attention to the mobile market. Well, I am just going to take things into a bit more of a fundamental premise saying that, for that to happen, telcos need to stop being the bottlenecks and become more of the enablers for that interconnected world we have all been longing for all along!

Will they be ready at some point? Will Yoigo ever adopt and embrace their own slogan? Or will they just be like all of the others? Well, I don’t know. We shall see. I am just glad, for now, that I am back home and with a Wi-Fi connection that just works

Have a good one everyone! (The search continues … )

Tags: Yoigo, Mobile Providers, Mobile, Mobile 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, Pervasiveness, Connectivity, Internet, Availability, Scalability, Reliability, Accessibility, Mobile Workforce, Telcos, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities, Jevon MacDonald, Verdad Verdadera, Broadband, Customer Support, HelpDesk, HellDesk, Bad Customer Support, Twitter, s.landr.net, MaxRoam, Spain, Barcelona, Madrid, London, Mechelen, Belgium, IBM, Innovation, Getting Connected, Constantly Connected, Always ON, Always On Line, Travelling

Trip to Madrid to Participate in the IBM Innovation Summit Pro-Voke

As I have been hinting in a couple of previous blog posts, I am on the road again (Goodness! That’s probably the phrase I have used the most this year! heh), although this time around a lot closer than in most business trips I have done lately. Yes, that is right. I am in Madrid again. And I will be here for the next couple of days (Till Friday morning). Main reason why? Well, a couple of months back I was offered to be part of a panel of a very special, inspirational and thought-provoking event and, of course, with such introduction I just couldn’t say "No".

Thus here I am, back in Madrid going to take part on a very special event organised by IBM, called PRO-VOKE - El Valor de la Tecnología en la Empresa del Futuro (Inspirar, Liderad, Innovar). Something along the lines of "The Value of Technology in the Enterprise of the Future - Inspire, Lead, Innovate". In short, IBM Spain’s Innovation Summit. This event is a one day show, in fact, a one morning show, but let me tell you what makes it special for me and why I just couldn’t turn it down.

To start with it is that kind of events that, although it is not open to everyone, it’s going to have an impact, a very massive impact, at least, with plenty of folks, including myself, and I will explain why. Secondly, the agenda of the event looks very interesting and engaging as it will be a mixture of keynote speaker sessions, interviews, and a panel for the very end, which is the one where I will be participating.

You will probably need to head over to the main site to check out further details on the event itself, but let me throw over here a few names of the folks who are going to be there, so that you will see why I am really excited about being here:

Amparo Moraleda (IBM President for Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel and Turkey); Michael Wesch (Yes, the same Michael Wesch who has been educating us on the impact of Web 2.0 in our society going way beyond just the Internet itself!); Lou Gerstner (Former Chairman of the Board and CEO of IBM from 1993 until 2002 & currently Chairman of the Carlyle Group); Jaime Arrazola (VP of IBM GTS Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel & Turkey); and, finally, the list of panelists: Pol Mac Aonghusa (CTO Emerging Technology Incubation Center), Florence D. Hudson (IBM Energy & Environment Strategy & Execution Global Executive), Fernando Becker (Corporate Resources Director, Iberdrola), Felipe Bernabé García (Secretario General y Consejero de FCC (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas)) and José María Fuster (Chief Information Officer of Grupo Santander). And, at the very end, to close off the event, Christina Garmendia, Minister of Science & Innovation.

Well, to that, more than impressive, line-up of superb speakers & panelists you will need to add yours truly, as well, as I will be participating myself in the main panel and I can tell you that there is nothing so humbling as being part of such event, just by looking into the agenda! I feel just like going there and do nothing else than sit quiet, listen & learn!

And that’s what I am planning to do, too! However, I was eventually invited into the panel session, later on in the morning, this coming Thursday, to talk a bit about the impact that social computing is having in the corporate world driving innovation into new levels of engagement, more specifically in the area of collaboration and knowledge sharing. Thus I will try to share some of my experiences and what I have been learning over the last five and a half years of Social Networking evangelism in the enterprise and how disruptive social innovation has been all along and where it may take forward the Enterprise of the Future.

The event itself will take place at the IBM Forum in Madrid and although I know there is Wi-Fi available, I am not really sure whether I would be able to live blog / tweet it. One thing for sure is that there will be an upcoming blog post with the highlights of the event and key learnings I got from interacting with most of those folks.

Like I said, right now I can only think it is going to be an incredibly educational, enlightening and humbling event. One that will surely leave a mark after it’s over. One of those for which I just can’t wait to write down those highlights and share them with the rest of you folks! Social Innovation is here. Thus I shall just keep it short for now:

STOP talking innovation; START experiencing it!

(Needless to say that if you are around, and if you would want to get together for a drink or two, or food, just give me a shout and we shall meet up! Leaving Madrid on Friday morning!)

Tags: IBM, Spain, Madrid, IBM Forum, Innovation, Social Innovation, Summit, Pro-voke, Enterprise of the Future, Enterpriseofthefuture, Inspire, Lead, Innovate, Agenda, Panel, Amparo Moraleda, Michael Wesch, Lou Gerstner, Jaime Arrazola, Pol Mac Aonghusa, Florence D. Hudson, Fernando Becker, Felipe Bernabé García, José María Fuster, Grupo Santander, Iberdrola, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, Christina Garmendia, Minister of Science & Innovation, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Learning, KM, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Personal Knowledge Sharing, Social Media, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Communities, Learning

How to Get in Touch for the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin - Join the CrowdVine Network!

A few minutes after I created the blog post where I was sharing with the readership of this blog the opportunity to win a complementary pass code for the event, I had a couple of folks interacting with me through e-mail and Instant Messaging asking me what would be the best way for them to reach out to me, if not using e-mail (You see? I am slowly, but steadily, winning the battle! heh), since they all knew I am about to go into another business trip I will detail some more shortly and that would end just before I head to Berlin next Sunday!

I mentioned it to them, through those interactions, what would be the best way of getting in touch and I thought I would spend a couple of minutes over here as well. I suppose it would become rather handy, specially, since I am sensing it is going to be a pretty hectic week, once again, and may not have enough time to get in touch with folks before I am in Berlin.

So, back to those e-mails and IMs conversations, I mentioned to them that the main tool I am planning to make use of would be one that the Web 2.0 Expo folks have put together as well, which is The Web 2.0 Expo CrowdVine space, and which is starting to look really really nice! This particular group space is where most of us, attendees, will be hanging out to connect with other folks, to reach out to all those who we would like to meet up and to indicate those folks who we are a big fan of! Pretty neat!

Of course, there will be still plenty of other interactions in that particular group space, but mainly I think it would be rather interesting to see how we would be able to connect through it. I have already got a profile (Yes, yet again, another one!) in there, where you would be able to find out what I will be up to and who I am planning to meet up and hang out with. At the same time there are a number of conversations which are flourishing already and which would be worth while contributing to as well. We shall see how time allows for me to chime in as well!

At the same time, of course, there is a blog for the conference, a Facebook Fan page, a FriendFeed room, a Twitter handle to follow up for updates and, like usual, the blogosphere in its full force with plenty of insights going around all over the place already! You can start subscribing to the different channels! Plenty of choice this time around!

I, too, would be blogging about the event, but most probably after the event itself, as highlights posts, from the sessions I will be attending and will be sharing some additional thoughts on folks I will be meeting up with, and for the most part, of course, I will be on Twitter, doing my usual live tweeting, over @elsuacon.

As you would be able to see, plenty of choices and opportunities to get a flavour of what the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin would be like, but I can certainly tell you one thing, not matter how much great content gets shared across the board, what would be the killer event or happening for me would eventually be the usual suspect, the networking with fellow colleagues (Did you know that almost my entire team is going to be there! As well as some of the most well known IBM Social Software evangelists who I have the great pleasure of hanging out with for the last few years?), as well as social media consultants, some of the other players in the field, amongst many other thought leaders in the space of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0.

I am sensing that networking while at the event is probably going to prevent me from being online as much as I would have probably liked and that can only mean one thing: the most powerful form of social networking (i.e. the face to face contact!) will have won the battle once again! And I just can’t wait for that to happen, because I am sure it would get us all exposed to plenty of excitement: new (But also already known) connections, new conversations, perhaps even new personal business relationships, you name it! I guess it would be up to each and everyone of us to put the limits! heh

Are you ready?

I surely am! And you know where you can find me! Mixing and mingling with the crowd!

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, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, web2expoeu, web2expoeu08, w2eb, CrowdVine, Social Networks, Networking, Face to Face, Conversations, Dialogue, Connections, Relationships, Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter, Blogging, Blogs, Blogosphere, Metablogging, Live Tweeting, Highlights

Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin and My Chance to Say Thank You!

For a good number of weeks, you would remember how I have been mentioning how, with all of this travelling going around all over the place, I am starting to find less and less time to comment back further on the lovely input that regular readers of this blog have been leaving behind as comments. I still read them all, each and everyone of them!, but over time I am finding it increasingly more difficult to capture additional thoughts, do some more research, come up with some worth while commentary and share it with you folks. And it is starting to hit me. Don’t despair, though, I am working on it, and for sure, I know that I would eventually get there. Back in full force commenting on some of the brilliant stuff you have been sharing all along!

In fact, believe it or not, I am already using some of your input as part of conversations I have been having live, i.e. face to face, with folks I have met at the various events I have been going to all along. Yet, still can’t find a way to feed that input as follow up comments into the original conversations. But not to worry, we will eventually get there. I am certain of that.

However, for now, I just thought I would share with you folks my two cents worth of this blog post, as a token of eternal gratitude for hanging out there, still reading some of these entries and adding your thoughts that in most cases have increased the quality of the original post(s). You all know how I feel about the readership of this blog. Without it, I am sure things would have been completely different, if non-existent. So the fact that I now have got a chance to say "Thanks!" is an opportunity I am not going to let it go, just like that!

Thus, just to reward all of those folks who have stuck around through thick and thin, here is my chance to share that token of gratitude. I have just been provided with a complimentary pass code for the Web 2.0 Expo (Where you know I will be attending & speaking at the event) and that basically means that one of you could be making it to the event for free! Yes, indeed, for FREE!

That’s right, I have got a complimentary pass code for one of you to make it to Berlin and enjoy what promises one of those Web 2.0 events difficult to forget during 2008! And, like I couldn’t have done it any other way, I will be more than happy to hand over that  code to the first person who leaves a comment on this blog post, claiming it! Thus if you wanted to go to the event, but didn’t know how you were going to be able to make it, this may be your chance.

Just leave a comment on this post, indicating your interest to attend and the pass is yours! And since it is just a single pass, the only rule applied over here for this would be first come, first served! So, hurry up, get in touch, grab the code and I will be seeing you in Berlin! And who knows, we may be able to share a drink or two, or food, if you would want to get together! Give me a shout along the way, if you would want to do that!

For now, time to wrap up this blog post, get the pass code ready, and anxiously awaiting for the first commenter to come through to hand over that code! Like I said, it is the least I could do for the readers of this blog. I just wish I could hand more than code, because all of you deserve that and so much more for still dropping by day in day out and commenting on the blog and making it a better place than whatever it was intended to be in the first place!

Thanks ever so much for that! And let’s get the show started! Who is going to Berlin with me?!?

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, Berlin, Germany, Networking, Social Networks, Discounts, Web 2.0 Expo Europe, web2europe, web2expoeu, web2expoeu08, w2eb, Free Pass, Complimentary Pass Code

Giving up on Work e-mail - Status Reports from Week 31 through to Week 35

After a superb business trip to Mechelen, Belgium, last week where not only did I have a great time, but also learned quite a bit!, it is now time to get back into the swing of things at work. Well, not really! Friday was the day of a massive catchup with everything and, like I was mentioning in Twitter, it was the first time in over five years that I spent it talking more on the phone than through online interactions! Goodness! I almost forgot how fast & easy it is to catch up while you talk, as opposed to when you write! I should be doing that much more often, for sure!

Anyway, you would expect I would be having time to get things back in order with my regular blogging and other work related activities, right? Humm, not likely! I am already preparing, during the course of today, for another business trip I will be doing this week, once again. Leaving tomorrow and going to Madrid to participate in a very special event which I will be blogging about shortly. Stay tuned, because it is going to be quite an interesting one!

For now, though, I think I will go with this blog post where I will try to catch up with those weekly progress reports I have been sharing all along since I started giving up on e-mail at work and which I have been neglecting for a little bit due to the holidays to both Barcelona and London, then the business trip to Mechelen and a week here and there. So I thought I share with you folks what has happened during those weeks.

To start with, I will not be commenting on other interesting links I have bumped into or the conference events I have been to during all of this time, since I will be blogging about them separately and I would also want to keep this blog post on the short side. So, what I will do, without much further ado is to share with you folks the actual progress reports and I will comment, right afterwards, with a couple of thoughts for each of them, so you can get a glimpse of what’s been happening all around. Thus, let’s get started!

As you would be able to see, lots of things have happened during the last few weeks, while I have been preparing for my vacation, during my vacation, on the first business trip after the vacation and so forth! To get things going, it looks like I hit my new challenge twice in that period of time! Yes, that is right! On my new challenge, I proposed to keep that incoming number of e-mails even lower, 20 or less! And to my amazement, since I didn’t expect it to happen so soon, there have been two times that I have done it, as you can see on those weekly reports. One with a hit of 20 and another one, the one I am incredibly excited about, which is 13 e-mails! Yes, that’s right! 13 e-mails in a single week!!! That’s exactly what I am looking forward to with this second part of the challenge of giving up on e-mail at work!

Too bad that after I came back, and while I was in Mechelen, Belgium, that count went sky high, with one of the highest from the entire nine months I have been doing this! But not to worry, it is all an exception, from what I can see. That really high count of e-mails was eventually due to three different factors:

- InnovationJam 2008: I managed to put together and share a number of different ideas, despite the poor conditions regarding my connectivity during that time, and a couple of them picked up a nice momentum, which developed in several private 1:1 conversations, too! I am trying to put together some of the thoughts exchanged throughout the Jam conversations so that you folks can have a look at some of the amazing stuff that happened throughout!

- Calendaring & Scheduling: This is something I have blogged about already in the past, and it is probably the number #1 issue that still keeps me making use of e-mail at odd weeks, like week 35, for instance. Two days in that week registered really high peaks of incoming e-mails, because I was discussing with a few folks the final logistics for a couple of events I will be attending from here till end of the year! If calendaring and scheduling is an issue, imagine it even worse when people send you e-mail after e-mail to finalise details that could have been done in a very simple, yet very effective manner: a phone call! (Or through Activities!). I need to work more on this one, before it kills me. Or, worse, something else that is starting to take some shape and which would need some further thinking before I share it across. We shall see.

- 1:1 conversations: As more and more folks realise how I still use e-mail for 1:1 conversations of a confidential / sensitive nature, sometimes I do get a few of these, yes!, they come in batches!, of folks wanting to detail stuff in a personal private conversation. And like I have been saying all along, more than happy to accommodate those coming through e-mail. The rest will be going OUTSIDE the Inbox!

Thus there you go. In a single blog post the weekly progress reports from the five weeks I haven’t been able to detail before, due to vacation preparations, the time away on holidays, and the business trip to Mechelen. Oh, and there was something else that sparked two very nasty blog posts while I was on the road, but, not to worry, I will not be sharing them over here. Far too negative! I will be putting together a rather softer one on the topic, which has surely influenced as well some of the high numbers on concrete days. Here is a hint on what it will be about: connectivity or, better said, the lack of!

But that will be the subject for another blog post. For now, time to leave things here. Hope you enjoy the massive catch up on all of those progress reports from the last few weeks and off to the next blog post that will contain a lovely surprise for those faithful readers that despite my somewhat irregular blogging activities, they still keep up with this blog eventually. Hang in there, lovely surprise coming up for you shortly!

Tags: IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, email, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Productivity, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Re-purposing E-mail, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Shape Your Future, Travelling, Business Trips, Mechelen, Belgium, Madrid, Spain, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Twitter, Shapeyourfuture, Social Innovation, InnovationJam 2008, IJam08, IJam 2008, InnovationJam, Calendaring & Scheduling, Calendaring, Scheduling, Confidentiality, Sensitive