Hope you all have a rather peaceful and enjoyable time with your loved ones, treasuring those precious little moments that make it all worth it, all the way! And now instead of me sharing a bunch of words that will probably distract you from what you are about to embark on… how about if I just share over here a link to a short video clip that stars one of those 2009 characters difficult to forget and which has meant so much for a bunch of us not only on how to tell a good story, but also how to relate to it all the way from what we have been doing over the last few years …

Of course, I’m talking about "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections" (From Jean Francois Chenier) who wouldn’t leave us in such a special time just like that. After all, "sometimes, Web 2.0 is about being social"…

¡¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Tags: Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Christmas, Merry Christmas, Life, Work, Jean Francois Chenier, Lotus Connections, Connections, Best Wishes, Happy New Year, Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Bliss, Things That Matter, Special Moments, Joy, Fun, Stories, Storytelling

Yay! Indeed, it looks like the yo-yo effect that you folks are seeing with my recent blog posts over here has got to do with the fact that holidays have taken their toll and have managed to keep me disconnected and away from everything online for a little while. Then when coming back to work things are rather hectic, as usual, trying to catch up and, before I know it, it is nearly two weeks that I have been away from this blog. Whoah! (Again!)

Anyway, I am now back again into the full swing of everything online and, as such, regular blogging activities will resume in this blog from here onwards. Just my usual self. In fact, next article is going to have an interesting observation I have been pondering about on what, to me, seems to be *the* real barrier towards full adoption of social software within the enterprise. And, in this cases, just before you jump into the wrong conclusions out there, it hasn’t got anything to with work, enterprise nor business. (Interesting, eh? Well, coming up shortly!).

To get things going though, and to resume my regular blogging activities, I thought I would share with you folks a few words of where I have been over the last few days (Although I have been back at work for a couple of days already!). As you may have noticed, for a good number of months, I have developed that habit of sharing a picture every time that I put together a blog post over here. Most folks have realised that those pictures are actually rather special to me.

Yes, they are all pictures I have taken myself from the island I have been enjoying tremendously for the last five and a half years: Gran Canaria. Each of them has got its own story; some of them are even related to the article I publish next to them; some of them just bring back so many good memories from when they were taken; most of them are dear to my heart making me realise how lucky I am of living where I live.

Either way, beginning of December, I decided to finally put an end to something that I almost felt embarrassed about: the fact I have been in Gran Canaria for nearly six years and I didn’t had the decency :-O to go and check out some of the other equally stunning Canary Islands. Yes, I know! Shameful! So I thought it was a good time to put an end to that and a couple of weekends ago I decided to spend a long one in the other one island that has been attracting me for a while now, right from the start almost: Tenerife.

That’s right! I decided to jump into the ferry and spend a whole weekend of disconnectedness and just pure unwinding! And wildly successful, in my opinion! Why? Well, you may want to pop over into my Flickr account to get a taste of it, but mainly because of breath-taking, mind-blowing and incredibly humbling experiences as this one:

Or this other one:

Or how about this other one?:

Not bad, eh? Well, I could tell you a whole bunch more of the stuff I went through, constantly being wowed with full unbelievable emotions and experiences, but I think I’ll just leave you with those pictures for now letting you know I will be adding a whole bunch more over the next few hours into a new set I created a couple of days back … As stunning and incredibly amazing as this one:

Like I said, regular blogging activities will resume from here onwards, as usual, but that weekend I spent in Tenerife surely made me wish I would have taken on photography when I was a lot younger, because these pictures don’t really make justice to some of the stunning sceneries and magnificent landscapes I got to witness over those four days of intense brilliance!

Thank you, Tenerife! I will be back again! One day. I know. For sure!

Tags: Holidays, Weekend Breaks, Breaks, Unwinding, Disconnectedness, Disconnected, Work, Life, Balance, Work Life Integration, WLB, Work Life Balance, Spain, Canary Islands, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Mount Teide, Teide, La Rosa, The Rose, Flickr, Pictures, Photography, Humbling Experiences, Landscapes, Brilliance

Lots and lots of great discussion, as well as very thoughtful and straight to the point questions from the participants that made it very very interactive, helping me realise I would have never thought I could talk for that long around this topic, but I guess that 6 1/2 hours can give you plenty of time to talk about lots and lots of different things. Specially, if you’re passionate about them!

Anyway, I won’t be able to share the slides that I used with you folks (Although if I sanitise them enough I may be able to, so I would need to look into that! Will keep you posted…). However, I am already working on another draft post where I will be sharing some thoughts around another slide deck from one of my team colleagues (Josh Scribner) who recently presented on this very same topic of social software adoption at a conference event in the US. Thus stay tuned for more information details to come through …

For now, and in order to resume back my regular blogging activities, I thought I would share with you today a rather short video clip under the heading "A Century of Progress" that I think you would be interested in. Intriguing title, I’m sure, you may be wondering, right? Well, not really so.

At a time when most of us can’t probably imagine any longer working for extended periods of time for the same company (Yes, a lifetime career is what I was thinking about … hehe), due to the new reality of the corporate world and our society as well, I suppose, here comes this video that portraits IBM, the company that I currently work for, celebrating its near 100th anniversary. Yes, I know! Nearly 100 years "working for the world"… Amazing!!

Well, it gets much more astonishing! At a time when, according to the latest statistics, knowledge workers hardly ever, anymore anyway, work for a company more than five years in a row, here I am pointing you folks to this video about IBM, where, doing some quick math, I just realised I have been working for this company for nearly 10% of those 100 years. Whoahhh! Who would have thought about that, right? Someone who, nearly 13 years ago, started working for that company while he was on vacation in the Netherlands for just two weeks before heading back home …

I know, I know, it is just unbelievable! Here I am putting together this post highlighting this rather interesting video clip as I just went through my 10th year anniversary with IBM as a full time regular employee (November 1, 1999), and in a couple of months I will be celebrating again the fact that on January 1997 I will be celebrating 13 years that I first started working for IBM in the first place.

WOW!!! I guess time does fly when you’re having plenty of good fun! It surely has been quite a journey, one I am rather proud to have experienced it to the fullest so far and one that I would have plenty of people all around to be grateful for, mainly, for helping shape up who I’m today. To all of you out there, you know who you are, don’t hide away!, a big special Thanks! for being there and for making that journey ever so much more enjoyable! Quite a learning experience! And still going strong …

Time and time again I get told I’m lucky for working at the place where I work, and do the job that I do, and mix and mingle with an incredibly amazing pool of talented people who are not just passionate about what they do, but they also make it contagious, which is probably why I really enjoyed the rather inspiring ending quote from that YouTube video as well: "When people think, the world wins".

Yes, maybe lucky, or privileged, or both! So here’s hoping I will make it for another 10 years, Why not? After all, it’s IBM, right?

Happy 10th anniversary to yours truly! And Happy nearly 100th anniversary, IBM! Thanks a lot for allowing me to share this wonderful journey with you all along…

Tags: IBM, Anniversary, 100 Years, Century, Innovation, Think, Changes, 10 Years, Progress, Josh Scribner, Social Software Adoption, Loyalty, Grateful, Achievements, Work, Life, Work Life Integration, Benefits, YouTube, Videos, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management

It’s an interview. A delightful short interview of a bit over 8 minutes done by Melissa Pierce with one of those guests you know you need to be ready with something to write down in fear you may lose it along the way. You can sense all of those golden nuggets you are about to witness, learn and enlighten yourself with. Yes, of course, never a disappointment, I am talking about the one and only: Seth Godin.

Like I said, it is a video interview, and an old one since it was first published in December 2008, yet, nearly a year later, it’s just as fresh and relevant as ever! Check out an have a look into "Seth Godin Wants to Know What You Are Doing With That Duck". It will be worth while every second of it, and I am sure it will not leave you standstill. Quite the opposite!

Oh my, I bet you may be wondering what the video is all about and whether it would be worth while for you to go through or not, right? Well, let me help you with a couple of teasers and see if they would help change your mind and watch through it…

The video starts with an introduction from Seth himself on what he does, what he has been up to and what he thinks are some really good principles to operate in this world… To name:

• Treat people with respect
• Customers have more power than ever
• Great ideas spread

From there onwards, and based on those principles, he comes to state how Leadership is the new marketing; how leading people, connecting people, mixing all those three elements will get us all a new kind of leadership, that one of the 21st century leaders, where we no longer take or accept average products from average ideas. Quite the opposite!

Right afterwards he shares some wonderful stories as references to the concept of the Long Tail by Chris Anderson, where the main message from this excerpt that wasn’t there before in past years is one of my favourite ones: choices.

Choices that will help continue provoking that revolution with lots and lots of components, one of them connecting people with each other, where the cost of transfer of an idea is nearly down to zero; pay attention to this part of the video where Seth gets to share a story that is very descriptive of the whole movement and which has got to deal with something as relatively simple as a T-shirt and how to sell it. Just brilliant!

Not bad so far, eh? Well, it gets better. Way better! I know that plenty of people out there don’t buy into the generations argument within the workplace, but I would encourage you to check out this video with Seth, because in it he reflects on some beautiful insights on that very same generational divide, specially, on how basically the different generations see each other. Striking would be a mild word to describe how powerful these messages are, mainly because of their accuracy. And not just the youngest generations, but all of them in equal terms. I tell you, you would need to watch it…

Finally, I thought I would move on from there into another one of my favourite parts from the video interview, which I am sure you are going to enjoy quite a bit, specially this particular quote that I feel is rather descriptive of who we are as social beings trying to conduct Social Business:

"Life becomes a series of interactions to get you better at creating ideas, spreading ideas, engaging with people with respect, so they wanna help you next time; understanding how to use new tools, so that when further new tools come along they would not be afraid of them [...]"

Whoahhh, indeed! It’s all about building a set of experiences that could help you advance further; that could help you build up that brick wall that will become your life… And what a brilliant way of ending up the video other than asking you what you are doing with that duck?

(I will stop here now, hoping those very few insights will give you a better chance to judge whether you would be spending those 8 minutes of your time going through it and see whether you could answer the question to that last comment from Seth himself… )

Here is the embedded version of the video:

Tags: Matthew Fairlough, Jemima Gibbons, Monkeys with Typewriters, Books, Melissa Pierce, Seth Godin, Duck, Respect, Trust, Customers, Ideas, Great Ideas, Leadership, Leaders, Management, Managers, Management 2.0, Managers 2.0, Leaders 2.0, Chris Anderson, Long Tail, Stories, Anecdotes, Choices, Revolution, Social Business, Life, Interactions, Innovation, Pushing the Limits, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity

Every so often you may have seen how a number of different folks try to bring in some humour into the whole hype behind social media, specially with some social software tools, which I think is a good thing, because, amongst many other things, it keeps us all real. Or, at least, tries to. And that is just what the next couple of video clips are all about.

I am not going to mention much more about neither of them, other than perhaps warn people a little bit ahead of time about the language, that may be strong at times, but other than that I would just add… Have a good one everyone!

The Social Media Guru

And, now, how about some …

Twitter en entreprise from Florian KARMEN on Vimeo.

Hilarious, don’t you think? Anyway … like I said at the beginning of this short entry … have a good one everyone!

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Gurus, Experts, Twitter, Micro-Sharing, Micro-Blogging, Fun, Fun Stuff, Humour, YouTube, Vimeo, Videos

Well, it looks like we have got another video making the rounds on the Internet at the moment, which seems to pick the baton quite nicely and provide us with a follow up set of insights that would surely wow you without measure! I discovered the clip earlier on from a recent tweet from Daniel Hudson and I surely enjoyed watching through and get a more up to date of where we are in terms of the impact from social networking in almost everything we do hehe

And since it is Friday afternoon, end of another long, and very fruitful week at work, readying for the weekend (Just around the corner!) I thought I would go ahead and share it over here for you folks to have a look into it. Originally, it’s titled Social Media Revolution (Although I prefer much better one of the taglines from the video itself: "Welcome to the World of Socialnomics!", which gives the title to this blog post); it lasts for a little bit over 4 minutes and it was uploaded on July 30th (Yes, I know! Very recent!).

Like I said, it’s four minutes worth while watching and learning about some very interesting facts of what’s happening in the social media space and how we are, indeed, living in exponential times. I could talk plenty more about the video, but instead I will cut if short right here and just embed it below, so you can have a look into it. Enjoy it and have a good one everyone!

Tags: Life, Changing World, Work Life Balance, WLB, YouTube, 21st Century, Future, Reality, Now!, Globalisation, Jobs, Learning, Connected, Connections, Technology, Shift Happens, Conversations, Exponential Times, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Social Media Revolution, Daniel Hudson, Twitter, Socialnomics, Social Computing Impact, Social Software Impact

Funny, eh? Well, probably even more so… Earlier on this week, my friend Claire Flanagan shared a link to a YouTube video that I not only thought it was hilarious on its own, but equally provocative on the current state of things we live with all of this consumer Web 2.0 stuff. Blank!

And never better said, indeed! Ever thought of your brand, whether your own personal brand or the corporate brand from your business, and how it is been seeing out there on the Internet? Ever thought what it could look like in all of that open and participatory, as well as collaborative Web 2.0?

Well, look no further! I was just about to post the highlights blog post from Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston for Day 1 of the conference, but thought that for this casual Friday spirit I would share this other post instead. Specially since while watching through it you would be able to relate to it quite a bit, even more so if you have been involved with Web 2.0 and the prosumers space of the 21st century. And pondering some more on this very same topic, for most of the folks who were at the event, and who care for their (corporate) brand quite a bit, you will see there is more than one strong connection with the main theme of the video clip itself. Because after all "When advocates talk, brands grow…" (You would have to agree that’s a great byline!)

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video link over here since I am getting this lovely message "Embedding disabled by request", (Pretty ironic, too, don’t you think?), so you will need to head over there by clicking on this link. But, believe me, it’s worth the under 3 minute watch!

Have a good one everyone!

Tags: Brands, Branding, Personal Brand, Corporate Brand, Prosumers, Consumers, Reviews, Participatory Web, Social Web, Web2.0, Open Web, Claire Flanagan, , YouTube, Videos, #e2conf, e2conf, Boston, Conferences, Events, Advocates, Evangelists, Consumers, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Innovation, Engagement, Involvement, Feedback, Advocacy

So, to such extent, I thought I would go to for a lighter blog post today, one that will inject a smile or two, a giggle or two, perhaps, or, just simply, a good laugh to help you get going with what’s left of this working week… And, of course, it is going to make you think a little bit as well on a problem that plenty of folks seem to have been advocating for since forever, although I have got other opinions on this very same topic…

Not going to say much more and spoil the theme of the YouTube video, so, without much further ado, here is the direct link and the embedded version of it:

Hilariously funny, don’t you think? With a rather thought-provoking question underlying throughout the entire video clip: but can you relate to it? Can you identify yourself in the video? … Hold it, don’t try to answer that one just yet… Enjoy the rest of the weekend and then come back next week and share a comment or two on whether you need some help … Or not

And, in the mean time, if you would want to watch another very short video clip that has got a good number of knowledge nuggets to ponder and think about for a while, as well as learn plenty from each and everyone of them, may I suggest you check out  as well this YouTube vido interview with one of my favourite, and good friend, Enterprise 2.0, KM, Social Computing people: Euan Semple (Yes, in case you may not have noticed just recently, his blog has changed address! So go and update your essential bookmarks, too!):

Have a good one everyone!

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Information Overload, Xerox, YouTube, Bad Filtering, Euan Semple, Words of Wisdom, Communications

"Like it or not, the use of social media platforms like twitter will define our online legacy. The words we say over time will shape and frame the person we are from a digital perspective. Now imagine if some of the people who are reading your tweets will not read them for 5 or 10 years or longer.

How many of us have kids who are growing up at the moment who we would like to be able to talk to about things going on in our own lives but just can’t because they are not old enough to understand and appreciate what it is we would like to share with them? And when our kids come of age, how will they react to the things we said about them on platforms like twitter, in podcasts or in our blogs?

Or what about yourself? How would you like to wake up in 4 years and read something you tweeted about years before and be inspired?"

If you read through the entire article you would be able to see some very interesting points on the kind of impact that our online interactions NOW will have, or may have, in the near future, not just for ourselves, but for those who care about us as well (Friends, family, relatives, co-workers, etc. etc.). Like I said, quite an interesting read and something that I thought it would fit in quite nicely with the couple of video links I bumped into in the last few hours and which, in a way, reflect very much my own digital footprint on how I feel about certain things…

Let’s get started. Remember that blog post I put together under "Twouble with Twitters [...]"? Well, it looks like the folks behind Current have put together another hilariously funny, yet somewhat accurate, I guess (Although I don’t think I could relate too much to it, to be honest), video clip on the status of the Twittersphere: Celebrity Twitter Overkill

I told you, incredibly funny and scarily accurate to some extent, but to a certain degree not my kind of online digital legacy, don’t you think? At least, not the one I am trying to pursue and I am sure that most of the readers from this blog wouldn’t either. However, with this other second video link things may be a little bit different:

I AM A GEEK! by The Society for Geek Advancement

Going through it has made me realised as well that I am not a geek (either), nor do I identify myself as one, nor would want I to be one. And although I realise that some of you folks may well identify yourselves as die-hard geeks, which I think is pretty cool, I guess I will just continue chasing further up my online digital legacy, because so far I don’t think I have found it. In fact, I doubt I would at all. Why? Because, to me, it has never been about the final destination, but more the journey along the way, and much more importantly, what I get to learn on a daily basis. That is my online digital legacy: my day to day key learning activities on the stuff I am passionate about.

That’s what I am. That’s my legacy…

Tags: Jeff Pulver, Digital Legacy, Digital, Legacy, Online Digital Legacy, Online Legacy, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Social Networks, Conversations, Digital Footprint, Current, Twouble, Celebrities, Twitter Celebrities, Twitter Celebs, Geeks, Twittersphere, Journey, Learnings, Life

I do realise though that it’s one of those video clips whose content most of your folks out there would know all about it already, but following the theme I started yesterday with transcending the Web, here we have got, once again, the brilliant folks behind Commoncraft (Lee & Sachi LeFever), back at it with a new video that’s starting to spread around like wildfire: World Wide Web in Plain English.

I am sure I am not the only one on this … but, for a good number of months, I have been all along recommending most of the series of … in Plain English videos to all of those folks who were keen on getting started with their own adoption of social software, but didn’t know how to get started. For a good number of months I have been consistently recommending people to check out each and everyone of those Commoncraft videos if they would want to get it in a matter of just that … minutes!

And now, it looks like both Lee and Sachi are back at it again in full force! But this time with a difference. A video clip of just over three minutes that shows everyone out there, who may not know just yet, what the World Wide Web is all about. Just another stunning piece of work! One that while I got through it a few minutes ago I just couldn’t help thinking that you can’t be too young, or too old enough, to get exposed to! Yes, that brilliant!

A video clip that I wish I had access to it about 12 years ago, when I was first starting to get exposed to the Internet coming from a strong background around the world of the IBM Mainframe (Remember those days?). Can you imagine the difference this video would have made in how I would have gotten started exploring the Web versus the initial skepticism we all experienced and went through? Can you imagine what it could do to all of those folks who own a computer nowadays, but perhaps are too afraid still to experience fully the Web?

That’s just exactly why I thought I would share a link to that video clip in this blog, so I would get an opportunity to help spread the message around on how we can all continue to transcend the Web and make it part of both our daily personal and business lives. In short, an integral part of us… I just wish the video would be available in other languages, so that I could show my mum where I get to hang out every day (with my friends and colleagues) and convince her how close we could well be, despite the long distance…

Tags: World Wide Web, WWW, Internet, Commoncraft, Lee LeFever, Sachi LeFever, in Plain English, Transcending the Web, Videos, IBM, IBM Mainframe, Technology, Society, Social Web, Life, Work, Business, Personal, Impact of Technology, Closeness, Small World, Interconnected World