However, if you haven’t, I am going to keep this blog post rather short, so you can go and have a look into "Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish: Teach Every Child about Food" and enjoy 20 minutes, approx., of pure genius, joy and inspiration! Whether you are well built or slim, whether young or old, whether you care or whether you don’t, this is one of those incredibly thought-provoking videos that will surely make you change and / or adapt some of the food habits you may have gotten used to over the course of the years and those from those around you.

And all of that coming from someone like me,  who keeps struggling to find the right balance, specially when travelling abroad and being away from home for a few days, but who, after watching the video clip, clearly sees the light at the end of the tunnel and is already on a mission to take on board some of the helpful tips shared throughout the video clip by Jamie. And, believe me, it’s worth it. Very much so!

Thus without much further ado, here is a little bit of homework for you for over the weekend, in case you may not be able to watch it in the next few minutes. Go and click on PLAY, sit back, relax, and enjoy one of those TED presentations that will help change your life forever. For good! For better!

Tags: TED, Videos, Inspiration, Inspiring, Life, Health, Healthy Habits, Habits, Fit, Fitness, Food, Jamie Oliver, Travel, Travelling, Making a Difference, Things That Matter, Break the Habit, WOW Factor

Check the latest example; a YouTube video clip that the always inspiring and insightful Harold Jarche shared a few hours ago on this tweet under the title "The Unconsidered Life", where philosopher and author A.C. Grayling comes to talk for a little bit over two minutes on some thought-provoking topics like the "unconsidered life" (That one will WOW you big time, I am sure!); how we move seamlessly from data to knowledge to, finally, understanding (Which reminded me of the blog post I put together not long ago on Nick Milton’s distinction about Data, Information & Knowledge Management and which I think takes knowledge into the next frontier: our understanding of things around us).

Another topic that A.C. Grayling touches base on, and which I thought was rather interesting as well, was that one of Citizen of the World, which I am not going to talk much about it, to be honest, since it touches base on one of the three topics that I decided long long time ago I would never go and discuss online. I am sure that after you watch the video you will understand why. This particular piece is towards the end and you will see what I meant when this is one of those video clips that can surely WOW you to no end for a while!

If the purpose of the video was to make you think critically at things happening around you to make some sense out of it all and understand them accordingly, I think it’s been incredibly successful. At least, it’s managed to confirm something that was there before in the back of my mind, but that perhaps didn’t feel strong enough to progress further. Well, it certainly has now and after you watch the video I am sure it will have a similar effect for you. Yes, it’s that powerful and compelling…

What do you think? Has your understanding evolved somewhat now you have watched it through? I bet it has, at least, to some degree, don’t you think?

(A big thanks to Harold himself for sharing this great find with us all in Twitter and for bringing it into our attention… Excellent stuff!)

Tags: Serendipity, Knowledge Discoveries, Twitter, Social Networks, Harold Jarche, YouTube, Videos, A.C. Grayling, Unconsidered Life, Nick Milton, Data Management, Information Management, Knowledge Management, KM, Knowledge Sharing, Data, Knowledge, Understanding, Think, Citizen of the World, Inspiring, WOW Factor, Social Software, Scoial Networking, Social Computing

• How has the Web changed your life?
• How has the Web changed business and society?
• What do you think the Web will look like in 20 years?

So, since it’s been quite a while that I have last embarked on chiming in on one of those blogging memes I thought it would be a good time to do that over the course of the weekend and the actual blog post is up and running already. Over at my Posterous site under the same title: "The Web in Twenty", which will give me, by the way, a nice opportunity to kick things off again over there after the holidays, the business travelling and catching up from last week. Regular blogging activities will resume there as well with the same spirit as before, starting off with that entry I have just shared.

I wonder though whether the folks I tagged (Rick Ladd, Paula Thornton, John Tropea, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche and Stephen Downes) will dive in as well and share their insights with us …

What do you think? Do you reckon they will chime in?

Tags: Internet, Web, Future, 2030, Memes, Internet Memes, Metablogging, Blogging, Predictions, Rick Ladd, Paula Thornton, John Tropea, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Stephen Downes, Aneel Lakhani, Tagging

Consideramos imprescindible la retirada de la disposición final primera de la Ley de Economía Sostenible por los siguientes motivos:

1 -Viola los derechos constitucionales en los que se ha de basar un estado democrático, en especial la presunción de inocencia, libertad de expresión, privacidad, inviolabilidad domiciliaria, tutela judicial efectiva, libertad de mercado, protección de consumidoras y consumidores, entre otros.

2 – Genera para Internet un estado de excepción en el cual la ciudadanía será tratada mediante procedimientos administrativos sumarísimos reservados por la Audiencia Nacional a narcotraficantes y terroristas.

3 – Establece un procedimiento punitivo ‘a la carta’ para casos en los que los tribunales ya han manifestado que no constituían delito, implicando incluso la necesidad de modificar al menos 4 leyes, una de ellas orgánica. Esto conlleva un cambio radical en el sistema jurídico y una fuente de inseguridad para el sector de las TIC (tecnologías de la información y la comunicación). Recordamos, en este sentido, que el intercambio de conocimiento y cultura en la Red es un motor económico importante para salir de la crisis como se ha demostrado ampliamente.

4 – Los mecanismos preventivos urgentes de los que dispone la ley y la judicatura son para proteger a toda la ciudadanía frente a riesgos tan graves como los que afectan a la salud pública. El Gobierno pretende utilizar estos mismos mecanismos de protección global para beneficiar intereses particulares frente a la ciudadanía.

Además la normativa introducirá el concepto de ‘lucro indirecto’, es decir: a mí me pueden cerrrar el blog porque ‘promociono’ a uno que ‘promociona’ a otro que linka a un tercero que hace negocios presuntamente ilícitos.

5 – Recordamos que la propiedad intelectual no es un derecho fundamental contrariamente a las declaraciones del ministro de Justicia, Francisco Caamaño. Lo que es un derecho fundamental es el derecho a la producción literaria y artística.

6 – De acuerdo con las declaraciones de la ministra de Cultura, esta disposición se utilizará exclusivamente para cerrar 200 webs que presuntamente están atentando contra los derechos de autor. Entendemos que si éste es el objetivo de la disposición, no es necesaria, ya que con la legislación actual existen procedimientos que permiten actuar contra webs, incluso con medidas cautelares, cuando presuntamente se esté incumpliendo la legalidad. Por lo que no queda sino recelar de las verdaderas intenciones que la motivan, ya que lo único que añade a la legislación actual es el hecho de dejar a la ciudadanía en una situación de grave indefensión jurídica en el entorno digital.

7 – Finalmente consideramos que la propuesta del Gobierno no sólo es un despilfarro de recursos, sino que será absolutamente ineficaz en sus presuntos propósitos y deja patente la absoluta incapacidad por parte del Ejecutivo de entender los tiempos y motores de la era digital.

La disposición es una concesión más a la vieja industria del entretenimiento en detrimento de los derechos fundamentales de la ciudadanía en la era digital.

La ciudadanía no puede permitir de ninguna manera que sigan los intentos de vulnerar derechos fundamentales de las personas, sin la debida tutela judicial efectiva, para proteger derechos de menor rango como la propiedad intelectual. Dicha circunstancia ya fue aclarada con el dictado de inconstitucionalidad de la ‘ley Corcuera’ (o ‘ley de patada en la puerta’).

El Manifiesto en defensa de los derechos fundamentales en Internet, respaldado por más de 200 000 personas, ya avanzó la reacción y demandas de la ciudadanía antes la perspectiva inaceptable del Gobierno.

Para impulsar un definitivo cambio de rumbo y coordinar una respuesta conjunta, el 9 de enero se ha constituido Red SOStenible, una plataforma representativa de todos los sectores de la sociedad civil afectados. El objetivo es iniciar una ofensiva para garantizar una regulación del entorno digital que permita expresar todo el potencial de la Red y de la creación cultural respetando las libertades fundamentales.

En este sentido, reconocemos como referencia para el desarrollo de la era digital la Carta para la innovación, la creatividad y el acceso al conocimiento, un documento de síntesis elaborado por más de 100 expertos de 20 países que recoge los principios legales fundamentales que deben inspirar este nuevo horizonte.

En particular, consideramos que en estos momentos es especialmente urgente la implementación por parte de gobiernos e instituciones competentes de los siguientes aspectos recogidos en la Carta:

1 – Las/os artistas como todos los trabajadores tienen que poder vivir de su trabajo (referencia punto 2 ‘Demandas legales‘, párrafo B. ‘Estímulo de la creatividad y la innovación’, de la Carta);

2 – La sociedad necesita para su desarrollo de una Red abierta y libre (referencia punto 2 ‘Demandas legales‘, párrafo D ‘Acceso a las infraestructuras tecnológicas’, de la Carta);

3 – El derecho a cita y el derecho a compartir tienen que ser potenciados y no limitados como fundamento de toda posibilidad de información y constitutivo de todo conocimiento (referencia punto 2 ‘Demandas legales‘, párrafo A ‘Derechos en un contexto digital, de la Carta);

4 – La ciudadanía debe poder disfrutar libremente de los derechos exclusivos de los bienes públicos que se pagan con su dinero, con el dinero publico (referencia punto 2 ‘Demandas legales‘, párrafo C ‘Conocimiento común y dominio público’, de la Carta);

5 -Consideramos necesaria una reforma en profundidad del sistema de las entidades de gestión y la abolición del canon digital (referencia punto 2 ‘Demandas legales‘, párrafo B. ‘Estímulo de la creatividad y la innovación’, de la Carta).

Por todo ello, hoy se inicia la campaña INTERNET NO SERA OTRA TELE y se llevarán a cabo diversas acciones ciudadanas durante todo el periodo de la presidencia española de la UE.

Consideramos particularmente importantes en el calendario de la presidencia de turno española el II Congreso de Economía de la Cultura (29 y 30 de marzo en Barcelona), Reunión Informal de ministros de Cultura (30 y 31 de marzo en Barcelona) y la reunión de ministros de Telecomunicaciones (18 a 20 de abril en Granada).

La Red tiene previsto reunirse con representantes nacionales e internacionales de partidos políticos, representantes de la cultura y legaciones diplomáticas.

Firmado
Red SOStenible

http://Red-SOStenible.net

La Red Sostenible somos todos. Si quieres adherirte a este texto, cópialo, bloguéalo, difúndelo.

Hashtags: #RedSOS #manifiesto // Tags: #RedSOS, #manifiesto

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

Funny enough, it hasn’t got to do anything with a good number of the various different challenges that plenty of people have been talking about all around for a long while now. Yes, this is a blog post where I would not talk about cultural barriers, nor the various technology challenges (Social software tools being too complex to use, as the main one, for instance, as well as the plethora of them available coming as a close second one), nor the difficulties in letting command-and-control let go by organisations as well as some of the management layers, nor the reluctance to change and so on and so forth.

No, this is not going to be a blog post about any of those. I’m actually going back to basics. Back to what I consider the root of the problem as to why we are probably not as effective and efficient as we could be with our own adoption of social software within the enterprise. And I will use myself as an sample providing you guys with a bit of context and background of where I am coming from with such statement.

So let’s get things going with that context. In the current corporate environment one of the growing trends that you would have to agree with me it’s becoming more and more prominent by the day is how global, distributed and virtual it’s become over the last decade for all of us knowledge workers.

Right now it is almost impossible to find a business that may have all of its employees working in the same building, the same city, or perhaps, in plenty of cases, the same country. Yes, we all becoming more global, more virtual, which means that we are no longer being "restricted" to working in a traditional office (That same office building where 10 years ago perhaps we would’ve spent plenty of time at the water cooler, or coffee corner, in our early mornings and afternoons catching up with our team and other fellow colleagues enjoying a cup of coffee, or some tea).

Instead, we have all been getting used to the idea of working remotely, whether it is at our own home offices, while we are on the road, while visiting customers or business partners, while at the airport, and the nearest Starbucks "office", etc. etc. You get my drift. We are all basically taking the office with us.

And that’s where the problem starts. Right at the root of the cause as to why perhaps we may not have adopted social software as much as we probably should have in the first place. I guess by now you know where I am heading at this point in time, but, just in case you may not have, here it goes: to me, the biggest challenge for a successful social software adoption for remote knowledge workers within the enterprise is no other than the appalling quality of broadband connections we have got in our virtual offices.

There! I said it! I let it all out! The main problem that no one wants to talk about. The complete rip-off that us, knowledge workers, have been suffering from for a good number of years. But let’s see that with a bit more context and provide an example. In this case, an easy one: myself.

I have been a remote employee, working from my home office, for over six years now and I absolutely love the experience. I probably wouldn’t even change it for anything else. And I suppose that would apply as well to the over 50% of IBM remote employees who work away from a traditional office. And I bet that would apply to most of you folks out there as well who have been working remotely for a while now.

So that basically means that if we want to become heavy users of social software, we need to rely, now more than ever, on faster remote network connections, not just the clunky ones that would allow us to just replicate our mail and go off-line again. I mean, we are having access to hundreds of information resources (News Web sites, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, screencasts, social networking sites, micro-sharing services, etc. etc. You name it!), where plenty of them are rich media based, which means they are rather heavy. So you would expect that we would have an opportunity to enjoy faster speeds, right?

Well, we are not. Quite the opposite! How many times have you been to a conference event where on the first keynote session the connection offered goes down? How many times have you been stuck in a hotel room with Internet access where you are paying up to €22 per day for very poor quality of service? How many times have you been at the airport, waiting for that flight, connected to the WiFi, paying €6-€10 "just to be connected"? How many times have you wished that your 3G smartphone would have decent network coverage to allow you to use the tethering service, so you could continue to work online? How many times have you thought you are paying too much, every month, for an Internet connection that is way less than desirable? How many times have you wished that things would be different, perhaps much more accommodating to our own needs as a paying recurring customer than the Internet Service Provider that keeps letting you down time and time again?

I’m sure that if you go through those questions you will feel identified with a good number of them. You may be even nodding, as I put down these few words, that it is just far too close to reality. Yet we don’t seem to be doing much about it. And that starting with myself having experienced that lack of service, but still paying through the nose for it. If you have been following my blog, or my tweets, for a while now, you could probably identify the kind of fun that I have been enjoying all along. Latest example, being stuck in a five-star hotel in Tenerife, paying the heavy charges per day for an Internet connection that was just as slow, if not worse!, than my 3G smartphone’s. Ouch!!

And like that one, I’m sure there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of different examples that you could go ahead and share away in the comments along the lines of "Yes, been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the souvenirs". Yet we don’t seem to do anything about it. It’s like we enjoy being abused by those who charge us huge amounts of money for very poor quality service.

And this bugs me. A lot! I mean, I have got tons of rich media and web resources that I would love to share out there with the rest of my social networks, yet it is all been religiously stored in my Mac, because I cannot be bothered any longer waiting for hours to upload a video of 30 to 50 MB (And that talking on the low file size of things…). I gave up a long while ago. And I feel very sorry about it, because it clearly reminds me of plenty of the issues that Knowledge Management has been having over the last few years: i.e. lack of knowledge sharing or, even, hoarding one’s own knowledge. Yikes!!

I know that you may be wondering that I may well be over exaggerating this, but quite the opposite, to be honest. If you would like to see some proof of what I’m talking about I would strongly encourage to take a look into Speedtest World’s Results and statistics. Unless you live in one of those lucky countries you’re off to witness a very nasty experience. Another example? Here it comes…

I live in Spain, in Gran Canaria, to be more precise. And, according to Speedtest World’s Results, my country currently ranks at the 46th position worldwide as far as download speed is concerned and an incredibly depressing 98th position worldwide as far as I upload speed is concerned. 46th and 98th!!! Just unbelievable! But, not to worry, because it gets better; well, actually, much worse!

For those rankings that I have just mentioned above, I am paying a whopping 90€ bill for my home home ADSL connection (50€ per month with Telefónica) and my 3G smartphone Internet connection (40€ per month with the wonderful service provided by Movistar… NOT!!!). Plus you would have to add the hundreds of euros that I have been spending to pay for WiFi at hotels, airports, Internet cafés, etc. You would agree with me that it makes for a really nice yearly bill altogether, don’t you think? Yes, I thought so, but what did we get back in return…?

Well, I’m getting tired. I’m getting tired of it all. I’m finding it more and more challenging by the day to come to terms with the fact that in order to continue making heavy use of social software tools where rich media sharing is a rule (Not a nice thing to have, as most Internet Service Providers seem to think… since, to them, the less you use social networking tools the better for them because they will be charging you the same amount of money for hardly any quality service or probably not the one you think you would be entitled to for that amount of money, in the first place, anyway), I would need to pay a nice monthly bill to allow me to stay connected.

Not sure what you would think, but certainly I can think of better things to do with that money, specially when thinking what I get in return. I know, you may be thinking that I am over-exaggerating  again, right? Hummm, I don’t think so. Check the following screen shot with the charts for the top countries and judge for yourself whether I am on a unique situation or not. I am sure I am not… Here’s the snapshot:

I’m not sure what we could do about it, since, like I said before, no one seems to be bringing up this as an issue. Actually, most people think that broadband penetration is good enough. Well, maybe it is not. Maybe it could actually be way better. But, to be honest, unless we all say it is an issue, or a challenge, towards the successful adoption of social software within the enterprise, nothing much will happen. And that would be a real pity. All our evangelising efforts and hard work being shattered with a snap of a finger, just because we keep tolerating such poor quality of service for something that, to us, Web workers, should be our right. Like it is in some places already… Maybe I should move countries once again…

Tags: Barriers, Obstacles, Challenges, Issues, Social Software Adoption Challenges, Broadband Penetration, Broadband, Internet Service Providers, ISPs, ADSL, Mobile, Mobility, Global Office, Virtual Office, Distributed Office, Knowledge Workers, Web Workers, Remote Employees, Rich Media, New Media, Costs, Telefónica, Movistar, Smartphones, SpeedTest, Spain, Gran Canaria, Internet Rights, Finland, 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, Productivity

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

Ante la inclusión en el Anteproyecto de Ley de Economía sostenible de modificaciones legislativas que afectan al libre ejercicio de las libertades de expresión, información y el derecho de acceso a la cultura a través de Internet, los periodistas, bloggers, usuarios, profesionales y creadores de Internet manifestamos nuestra firme oposición al proyecto, y declaramos que:

1. Los derechos de autor no pueden situarse por encima de los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos, como el derecho a la privacidad, a la seguridad, a la presunción de inocencia, a la tutela judicial efectiva y a la libertad de expresión.
2. La suspensión de derechos fundamentales es y debe seguir siendo competencia exclusiva del poder judicial. Ni un cierre sin sentencia. Este anteproyecto, en contra de lo establecido en el artículo 20.5 de la Constitución, pone en manos de un órgano no judicial -un organismo dependiente del ministerio de Cultura-, la potestad de impedir a los ciudadanos españoles el acceso a cualquier página web.
3. La nueva legislación creará inseguridad jurídica en todo el sector tecnológico español, perjudicando uno de los pocos campos de desarrollo y futuro de nuestra economía, entorpeciendo la creación de empresas, introduciendo trabas a la libre competencia y ralentizando su proyección internacional.
4. La nueva legislación propuesta amenaza a los nuevos creadores y entorpece la creación cultural. Con Internet y los sucesivos avances tecnológicos se ha democratizado extraordinariamente la creación y emisión de contenidos de todo tipo, que ya no provienen prevalentemente de las industrias culturales tradicionales, sino de multitud de fuentes diferentes.
5. Los autores, como todos los trabajadores, tienen derecho a vivir de su trabajo con nuevas ideas creativas, modelos de negocio y actividades asociadas a sus creaciones. Intentar sostener con cambios legislativos a una industria obsoleta que no sabe adaptarse a este nuevo entorno no es ni justo ni realista. Si su modelo de negocio se basaba en el control de las copias de las obras y en Internet no es posible sin vulnerar derechos fundamentales, deberían buscar otro modelo.
6. Consideramos que las industrias culturales necesitan para sobrevivir alternativas modernas, eficaces, creíbles y asequibles y que se adecuen a los nuevos usos sociales, en lugar de limitaciones tan desproporcionadas como ineficaces para el fin que dicen perseguir.
7. Internet debe funcionar de forma libre y sin interferencias políticas auspiciadas por sectores que pretenden perpetuar obsoletos modelos de negocio e imposibilitar que el saber humano siga siendo libre.
8. Exigimos que el Gobierno garantice por ley la neutralidad de la Red en España, ante cualquier presión que pueda producirse, como marco para el desarrollo de una economía sostenible y realista de cara al futuro.
9. Proponemos una verdadera reforma del derecho de propiedad intelectual orientada a su fin: devolver a la sociedad el conocimiento, promover el dominio público y limitar los abusos de las entidades gestoras.
10. En democracia las leyes y sus modificaciones deben aprobarse tras el oportuno debate público y habiendo consultado previamente a todas las partes implicadas. No es de recibo que se realicen cambios legislativos que afectan a derechos fundamentales en una ley no orgánica y que versa sobre otra materia.

If you would want to read the English version, head over to Boing Boing and read it over here. And for a much more extensive coverage of the Manifesto click on this link.

(NOTA: Este manifiesto fue redactado conjuntamente por periodistas, bloggers e internautas, en una maratoniana sesión durante la tarde-noche de ayer. Si estás de acuerdo, difúndelo por todas las vías que puedas)

Tags: Copyright, Copyleft, Democracy, Fundamental Rights, Manifesto, Politics, Shame, Spain, Derechos Fundamentales, Internet, Technology, Education, Science, Innovation, Manifestos, Boing Boing

Last weekend, on Saturday late afternoon (Between 5 PM and 7 PM, approximately) someone broke into my house and stole a few things. It must have been rather quick, or sloppy, or the thief got "interrupted", because the damage could have been a lot worse than what it was eventually. So far I am "only" missing my Nokia N95 (Over two and a half years old and which I will thoroughly miss!), my 32 GB iPod Touch (Over a year old & with my entire music collection in it! Ouch!) and an iPod Classic (Nearly 4 years old & one of the backups I had for that music collection. Still got another one though! Phew!). The rest seems to be all there. Intact.

However, while I have been putting together some more security measures in place, I just couldn’t help thinking quite a bit about a recent article that my fellow IBM colleague Bill Sweeney put together under the title "Social Media paranoia or valid concern?". It is a rather interesting, short and incredibly provocative article that comes to question how much information we should actually be sharing about our own private lives, and surroundings!, in the various social software tools available out there.

Bill brings in some very valid points, specially when you come to think about the fact that while the thief was "busy" I was just enjoying a "stunning long walk along one of my favourite places on the very south of the island" and "chilling out while watching the sun set … Priceless!". Now, if you have been following me for a while in various social software tools, you would realise how I don’t get to share plenty of stuff that relates to my private life. A long while ago I decided that some things should remain private, specially such personal matters that relate to me and those around me. And only those.

But, funny enough, the first time that I decided to share a couple of tweets on something I was doing over the course of the weekend, someone "decides" to break into my flat and take away a few things. Coincidence? Pure luck? Actually, bad luck? Paranoia? I’m not sure, but it surely makes you think about things, don’t you think?

Around the area where I live there doesn’t seem to be many more people tweeting away. Perhaps one or two other folks and that’s about it! So I guess that makes all of us a potential target. Yes, I live in a very small village, where most people know one another, where there are always people around, where plenty of things don’t go by unnoticed, yet for that two hour period no one showed up, no one noticed, except the wrong person.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I tend to think that it was actually bad luck and it was just pure coincidence that I was out of the house while the incident took place. However, I still think that Bill puts it very nicely under this particular quote:

"The more information about me that I aggregate and expose on the Internet, the more someone could potentially identify my physical address and perhaps take advantage of real time information that I present on the web"

That’s why from here onwards, I’m going to become a little bit more protective of what I would consider "private updates" and refrain myself a little bit from sharing them across. I’m not sure what price I would be paying in the long run for a patchy online persona in the various social software tools that I use on a regular basis, but somehow I just hope that all of my connections, relationships, friendships, etc. etc. would understand my position and adjust accordingly. I know it may be a tough thing to do, but what would you do? How far do you go in sharing those "private updates" across various different social networks? And, most importantly, would your relationship with your various connections change that much should they decide to protect some more their own private updates? What do you think?

Privacy and security have always been two very key, and important, issues to address in the world of social computing (Just as much as for many other areas!), that we probably haven’t figured them out just yet, but perhaps we should give them plenty more relevance than whatever they have been having in the past. Like I said, I don’t think it’s paranoia, maybe a slight concern, but I tend to think that it’s more along the lines of insisting on keeping some things private. Regardless of that impact it may cause. Because, after all, who wants to know all of my moves and updates? Probably, not the right people. I am sure.

(By the way, for those folks who were asking over the last couple of days, I am fine. Like I said, the thief didn’t make as much damage as it could have been, probably because the individual was in a hurry or something unexpected came up; and since this is not the first, nor the second time (And, certainly, not the last one) that I have been robbed in my life I suppose that the psychological and mental damages are not as devastating anymore as the first time your privacy and your own home get invaded. Nobody would ever get used to it, I am certain, but the initial impact hasn’t been the same. Wish things would have been different though)

Tags: Thieves, Robbery, N95, Nokia, iPod Touch, iPod Classic, Damages, Impact, IBM, Bill Sweeney, Twitter, Paranoia, Concerns, Security, Privacy, Protection, Data Protection, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Networking, Social Networks, Connections, Relationships

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