This time around with something really exciting and truly innovative that has been going on in my mind the entire day, ever since I watched a specific YouTube video that I bumped into from an earlier tweet from the always insightful Mike Wesch referencing an experiment done by Dr. Monica Rankin, Professor of History (The University of Texas at Dallas School of Arts and Humanities), which she then describes more thoroughly at this specific Web site.

I must say that while I was watching through the video I just couldn’t help remembering a blog post I put together a few days back referencing a similar revolutionary change that was starting to take shape in the Learning and Education field. Remember Learning to Change – Changing to Learn? Then you must watch The Twitter Experiment by Dr. Monica Rankin.

In that video clip of a little bit over five minutes she gets to describe how she has been running, very successfully, too!, an experiment by which she uses Twitter with her students to help improve the overall flow of not only the classroom itself, but the interactions, and conversations, of the various students, amongst themselves and also with her. Some pretty fascinating stuff, for sure! Gems like this one are just too precious not to spread them around elsewhere: "Yes, it’s going to be messy. But messy doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be bad".

Then I would suggest you go and read "Some general comments on the "Twitter Experiment"" to find out some more around her conclusions on how effective microsharing in the classroom, i.e. making use of Twitter, has been for her and for her students. Plenty of amazing stuff in there as well, to say the least!

As a teaser, in that specific document Monica gets to detail how the experiment went by providing a short introduction; then talking about the class itself; followed by the plan and set-up; right after that sharing some more insights on the "discussions", their "best practices" to then wrap up with the limitations and strengths of the overall experiment. Very enlightening!

I am not going to spoil the video clip and the rest of the contents from Monica’s detailed document sharing her experiences, but I can certainly tell you that I wish I would have had such an opportunity when I was studying at the University of Salamanca a few years ago, because I’m sure it would have changed my, back then, perspective on the impact of technology in my day to day learning activities. Yes, such is the breath-taking impact of "The Twitter Experiment" by Dr. Monica Rankin that you are about to watch next …

I am sure that, after watching the video and reading through the document, there will be one single thought going through your head: if Dr. Monica Rankin has proved that making use of Twitter can be very helpful to improve the overall outcome of a classroom, why do some businesses out there still object towards fully embracing the concept of microsharing. Isn’t this enough proof, once again, that it works? You tell me …

(Although I think you already know my answer …)

Tags: Microsharing, Microblogging, Mike Wesch, Monica Rankin, University of Texas, School of Arts, Humanities, History, Learning to Change, Changing to Learn, Twitter Experiment, Messy, Orderly Chaos, University of Salamanca, Teaching, Learning 2.0, Education, Learning Activities, 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, YouTube, Twitter

"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

However, the problem comes when you decide to take things into the next level and see if the iPhone would be able to make within the enterprise environment. Well, that’s a completely different story. In my case, and sorry to sound so blunt about it, and perhaps a bit harsh, too, I don’t think so. In fact, I know so! It is *not* ready for the enterprise! At least, in my own case.

There have been a number of various different blog posts and articles sharing further details on how popular the iPhone has become within the business world and how more and more companies are starting to pay attention to such mobile experience. Including IBM. And while I do enjoy the numerous positive prospects of using such device at work, I can come up with two main reasons as to why I think such device still has got a long long way to go, before it grabs the attention from the mobile knowledge worker. Specially power users. Why? Here is why …

Like I said, I have been using my iPhone from a consumer perspective for a few months now and I am quite happy with it. A really enjoyable experience. For sure. However, a couple of weeks back I was able to go through the final test for me which was when I managed to connect to the IBM network, through a secure VPN connection, and spend some time navigating through the corporate Intranet.

Ok, you folks know that for over a year ago I have stopped using corporate email (Yes, that well known “A World With Email” mantra), which means I rely plenty more on being constantly connected to the network, whether internal or external. Whether from my home office or while on the road. Offline work for me has been very minimal as of late. Thus, what happened that morning when I took the iPhone for a spin, you may be wondering, right?

Well, it took me a bit over one hour to completely drain the battery of the device to the point where I needed to re-charge it again. Yes, you are reading it right… A bit more than an hour and I had to charge it again! *Unbelievable*, if you ask me, to put it mildly! You know, I wish I would have to work every day just that one hour that the iPhone would allow me to before I would need to find a place to plug it back in again!

The reality is though that when I am away from the office, travelling, talking to customers, on the road, at workshops, or even at conference events, the last thing I would want to do is look for a plug to charge my iPhone. It’s just not going to happen! In most cases, because I may not be even have the opportunity to find one! So you are stuck! Trouble! Big trouble! No, thank you!

The iPhone needs to understand and come to terms with the fact that mobile knowledge workers do even spend more hours working while on the road than at the typical office location and as such relying on a device that will have its battery drained in a single hour of heavy browsing is just a no go. At least, for me!

So, that’s one of the main reasons why the iPhone will never become my mobile computer, as plenty of people have been claiming lately all over the place. Quite the contrary. It’ll just become my casual consumer mobile device for all other trivial stuff where I don’t need to depend much on battery life. So if it goes, it goes. That’s fine.

But you may be wondering what’s the second reason as to why I feel that this device is not ready for the enterprise just yet, right? Well, here is the scenario. I work full time remotely; I have got a Nokia N95 that I use for work (Battery lasts much much longer, by the way, in case you are wondering!); I have got the iPhone. Both with the same phone company.

Yet, while the N95 provides me an incredibly good coverage throughout, both at home and while I am travelling, the iPhone barely makes it. In fact, most of the times the coverage for this device is incredibly poor, which means when people call me they can’t reach me. So they have to leave a voicemail. Which I can only get to when I myself have got that coverage back. If at all! Frustrating… And that behaviour seems to be happening constantly throughout the day and very consistently, too! So can you imagine depending on that critical phone call, for whatever the reason, and you find out that the iPhone has let you down, once again, because of the poor coverage? No, thank you!

Like I said, I am starting to have very high expectations for the upcoming 3.0 release of the iPhone in the next couple of months; see if it would address these two main issues I have at the moment with it. And convince me that once again I can enjoy that working mobile computing experience without taking with me my MacBook Pro. Because otherwise, this device will just be that. A fancy (And expensive!) gadget that I can’t use longer than 1 hour a day, before it dies off again … That may be the time, perhaps, for a change … a change to other smarter mobile devices that understand what a mobile knowledge worker faces every day while getting to work. Because right now the iPhone just doesn’t cut it. And by far!

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Productivity, Apple, iPhone, MacBook Pro, MBP, Nokia, N95, Mobile Workforce, Mobile Worker, Mobile Knowledge Worker, Knowledge Worker, Power User, Intranet, VPN Access, Battery Life, Batter, Network Coverage, Coverage, Movistar, Travelling, On The Road, Accessibility, Reliability, Poor Performance, Gadgets, Mobile Devices

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

No, I am not going away any time soon, nor quitting any of the already existing social tools I have been using for a while. What I have been doing lately is giving it some further thought on how I would want to spend my time not only exploring social computing within the enterprise, but also how I could help spread the message around with its wider adoption. Once again, I sensed how I was starting to spread thinner than what I would have hoped for and therefore it was time to re-group again and think about how I would want to make continued used of these social tools.

I am sure over time I will be able to share with you folks my new approach towards some of the tools I have been using for a while; some of them rather surprising, and a couple of them rather thought-provoking (Like my continued use of Twitter, for instance), but for now I just wanted to let folks know that I am back to my usual regular blogging activities with plenty of really cool stuff to share with you all.

Starting with a YouTube video which, to me, represents something I have been mentioning as far back as 2002 with regards to what Web 2.0 is all about and what it means for us, not just as Internet end-users, but more as a modern, post-industrial society overall: it has never been (Nor will it be … ever) about the tools themselves, but it will continue to be all about us, as humans, most capable of transcending the Web and allowing us to change ourselves on not only who we are, but also what we do and live for in the current times…

Remember the wonderful video clip The Machine is Us/ing Us, that I blogged about a little while ago, that Michael Wesch put together and that changed our views on what the Web 2.0 movement was all about, well, check out The Machine is Us/ing Us – Dance Mix (And which Michael also referenced under the title “The Machine is Us/ing Us – Dance Mix“) where you can clearly see what I meant with Web 2.0 transcending the Web…

It is one of those YouTube videos that will surely give you goose bumps (It surely did to me and managed to bring me back to life as far as my blogging activities are concerned) and will remain a strong reminder for us all that Web 2.0 and social software, for that matter, are not just about the tools, quite the contrary, it’s all about us, our Internet culture, our ability to experience the Web in ways we never thought we could, mainly by reaching out and connecting with other people, to, in the end, help each and everyone of us make a difference!

What a performance!

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Web 2.0, Culture, Society, Humanity, Internet, Web, Dance, Ballet, Transcending the Web, Machine Is Us/ing Us, Michael Wesch, YouTube, Performances, Inspiration

Thus, "what’s exactly Ada Lovelace Day?", you may be wondering, right? Well, it is "an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology" and since I have got plenty of examples to share I just couldn’t say no to such a lovely initiative. However, not to worry, I am not going to put together a rather lengthy post detailing a few examples of women who have been more than an inspiration for yours truly for a big part of his work life. Instead, I am just going to stick with one I have been admiring all along since I first met her, nearly two years ago!

Yes, go and meet Gina Poole! She used to be my boss, now she is my boss’ boss. Yet, nothing has changed! If there is a single word I can use to describe her, VP, Social Software at IBM as well as VP, Social Software & Web Marketing, it would be approachable! Indeed! When she got started with leading one of the most impressive social software adoption programs inside IBM, (The one I am working for at the moment heh ) her presence in the social software space was rather scarce. But that changed soon afterwards.

The fact she is one of IBM’s executives didn’t stop her from leading the way, and leading the way by what really matters in this social computing space: leading by example! Soon afterwards she started an internal blog, continued to use social bookmarking sites like Dogear, share important files through file sharing applications like Cattail (Bless her for avoiding to blow away my Inbox!), make extensive use of Enterprise 2.0 tools suites like Lotus Connections, behind the firewall, as well as social networking sites available outside like Slideshare or Twitter.

She gets it! She always has! But that’s not all of it that I admire in her, and this is really what makes her part of Ada Lovelace Day. It may not well be that she is too technical, probably she never meant to be, but, as far as I can tell, she makes an amazing executive / manager treating her people like what they are: people, which I know for sure it is getting very rare nowadays to see and experience such thing …

Yes, I know. I am lucky! Very lucky, if I may add. But even then what I admire the most in her is not only how approachable, flexible, committed, involved, engaging, resourceful she is for her daily job and that of her entire team(s), but more how she perseveres till the end in achieving a goal! Even if that goal means leading the social software revolution at IBM or such other mundane tasks such as helping me land in my dream job! Most of you folks out there know about how long it took me to get there, but I eventually made it, indeed! And all of that thanks to her perseverance and that of a couple of other folks!

That’s why to me, my Ada Lovelace Day is going to go to who I consider the new "Manager" of the 21st century. Yes, that Manager 2.0 that another female role model shared not long ago: Kathy Sierra. Talking about true inspiration, right?

Tags: AdaLovelaceDay09, Women, Women in Technology, Inspiration, IBM, Executives, Management, Management 2.0, Manager 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Ada Lovelace Day, Ada Lovelace, Gina Poole, Leader, Leader 2.0, Leadership, Dogear, Connections, Lotus Connections, Cattail, Slideshare, Twitter, Committed, Flexibility, Involvement, Engagement, Resourceful, Approachable, People Manager

It’s one of those tools that I would not classify per se as a social software tool, yet, it surely is helping me engage further in the social networking space much easier, and faster (As well as healthier!) than whatever I could have imagined so far. Yes, indeed, I am talking about the superb TextExpander, your next best friend on the Mac!

TextExpander "saves you countless keystrokes with customized abbreviations for your frequently-used text strings and images" and although initially it may not say much more about it, once you start watching your behaviour of how you interact with your computer you immediately get hit by the numerous ways you could make use this application itself. And from there onwards, there is no way back! However, I thought I would expand further on the topic and perhaps share with you five different reasons as to why you would want to consider this tool to, at least, give it a try at some point. Thus here we go:

1. Saving keystrokes: If you are one of those people that gets to type quite a lot of text all over the place, and if that text string happens to be rather repetitive sometimes, why should you type it again, right? Well, with TextExpander, a couple of keystrokes and off you go, it will add that text for you automatically, whether just plain text or rich text! Even images!! Amazingly easy!
2. Spell check: With TextExpander you will no longer need to use a spell check; the application itself will become your default spell checker for everything! And all of that thanks to the AutoCorrect group of snippets. A huge database of strings that will correct on the fly almost every single spelling mistake you make. Try it! I know you will thank me later! Yes, it is *that* good!
3. Filling out forms: How many times have you had to fill in an Internet form or a specific document, presentation, spreadsheet, regular text file, whatever, with the same information details over and over again? Far too many, right? Well, with TextExpander, a couple of characters and voilá! Your forms instantly filled in and ready to go! Priceless!
4. Wealth of macros: One of favourite reasons. While you get to educate TextExpander to include the regular (rich) text strings you will want to avoid typing again, there is already a wealth of group snippets that you can import right away and start seeing the benefits of using this tool. Right from the Snippets user preference you can rather go ahead and create your own or import those already existing ones! That way you don’t have to start from scratch! Nice, don’t you think?
5. Watching over your health: Repetitive Strain Injury anyone? In the past I have talked about RSI a couple of times and have shared a number of tips on how to help prevent it. Well, perhaps one of the most compelling reasons I can mention for TextExpander is how it helps you save time by not having to constantly be typing away the same text strings, which means that with a couple of keystrokes you are off to insert the text you need without having to type it and therefore freeing up your hands from your keyboard. To that extent one of the nifty features is providing you some statistics on how many characters you have saved, but most importantly how many hours you have saved in the end as well!

   And I can only say that in my case it has been plenty of them, so you can imagine how grateful both of my wrists are about the extended breaks I am enjoying from that all of that typing away! W00t!

I am sure there would be plenty of other reasons why you would want to make extensive use of the fantastic TextExpander application, so I encourage you all to perhaps share through comments what your favourite ones are. Yes, I do realise that there is a price tag for this tool, and, to be honest, considering the amount of time I have been saving already; considering as well how much less I get to type on a daily basis, I can certainly state that $30 is not that expensive. Quite the contrary! I consider it quite an investment not only for my time saved, but, most importantly, for my own health! And that’s what really matters, don’t you think?

Oh, to wrap this Mac Tip #3 blog post, I thought I would give a special thanks as well to Euan Semple, who first introduced me to TextExpander through Twitter and encouraged me to give it a try and from there onwards I haven’t been back and more and more by the day it’s becoming that essential tool for my Mac I cannot longer live without! So, thanks much, Euan!

Tags: Mac, Apple, MacBook Pro, MBP, Tips, Hints, Productivity, Productivity-Tips, Tools, Images, Text, Rich Text, Text Strings, Twitter, TextExpander, Smile on My Mac, Spell Check, Macros, Forms, Repetitive Strain Injury, RSI, Euan Semple

Well, today’s Mac Tip  doesn’t have much to do with email per se, but I am sure you would find it equally helpful. Specially, if you have to handle large amounts of pictures in a very short period of time… If you have been following this blog for a while you would know by now how when I made the switch from a Windows notebook into this MacBook Pro there were two different applications I knew I was going to miss big time.

One of them hasn’t made it just yet into the Mac world (So I will not mention it this time around, waiting for that time when it is finally there!), but the other one has and this is what this blog post will be about; my favourite program to handle pictures on the Mac: Google’s Picasa!

There are plenty of different reasons why, if you haven’t given a try to Picasa on the Mac yet, you actually should. However, I thought that for today’s Mac Tip I would share with you five reasons why it would be worth to give it a try and, I am sure, keep it! So let’s go!:

1. Handling large amounts of photos: Must confess, up until now, I have been using both iPhoto 08 and Aperture and just simply loading both libraries of my pictures archives (Over 15GB) would take a good amount of time that with Picasa just doesn’t happen. Open up the application and voilá, ready to go! And the same thing happens with navigating the different galleries. Just too slow compared to the snappy Picasa. Thus if you have got large amounts of pictures, Picasa will do the job beautifully faster!
2. Exporting and uploading with Flickr Uploadr (into Flickr): One of my favourite features from Picasa. That is, the capability of working with your photos, adjust whatever settings, export the new picture and ready to be uploaded into my Flickr account with the lovely Flickr Uploadr. Just perfect! Allows me to have control over the quality of the pictures I would want to share and that’s why you may have noticed how I have started to share many more pictures in there than in previous months. Main reason: Picasa itself.
3. Creating collages on the fly: One of my other favourite features. Putting together some of my favourite photos and then on the fly create some amazing collages that surely have the effect I would want to provide. Check, for instance, the collage I put together for my Twitter homepage background. It was done with Picasa’s collage capabilities. Very nice!
4. I’m Feeling Lucky: To me, the one single feature that makes Picasa on its own worth it! That super nifty and incredibly powerful button that when displaying a photo you click on it and it does a wonderful job for you improving the overall quality of the picture. Just amazing! I used to do this with both iPhoto and Aperture (And, except for more complex tweaking of images where I still use the latter), and very soon it became a bit painful for simple image processing. With this particular option in Picasa it gets the job done in a blink! Like I said, this feature alone is worth while downing and installing Picasa itself.
5. Free: Yes, of course, I have to give this one as well as one of the top 5 reasons. Very few of the image processing and handling tools out there for the Mac are freeware. Both iPhoto and Aperture cost money (And quite a bit in the case of Aperture!), thus knowing there is a very qualified tool for this kind of job that you can get for free in a Mac is just a no-brainer. Don’t you think? Yes, I know it is beta as well, but we do love betas, don’t we?

And that would be it. Top 5 reasons for me as to why Google’s Picasa has now become my default Mac application to handle, process and share pictures (In combination with Flickr Uploadr). I know there are plenty more, but I think those five would be good enough. And if not, check out the end result of what this superb tool can do for you and for your pictures:

Not bad, eh? Not bad at all!

Tags: Mac, Apple, MacBook Pro, MBP, Tips, Hints, Productivity, Productivity-Tips, Tools, Images, Photos, Photo Gallery, Flickr, Google, Picasa, Free, Freeware, Beta, iPhoto 08, iPhoto08, Aperture, Flickr Uploadr, Twitter, Collages, I’m Feeling Lucky, Pictures, Productivity Tools

This is an entry that doesn’t have anything to do with the topics I get to blog about over here on a regular basis, yet, somehow I feel it touches on some of the key points I am hoping are getting through to folks who may eventually bump into this blog, as regular visitors or casual Web surfers.

As most of you folks know already, over the last few years I have developed quite an avid interest around the fascinating world of tennis, and that mainly because of two main reasons: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Yes, indeed, yesterday morning, Canary time, we witnessed one of those epic battles amongst two titans that surpasses perhaps any rivalry from our current times, at least, in the sports world!

Yesterday was just another proof of it! However, we also saw something else. Something rather unique and compelling that speaks about what these giants are capable of or, better said, made of: feelings. Emotions that would melt everyone even in the toughest situations. Just like you and me, they showed they are also human. Both Roger and Rafa demonstrated that they do have a common passion, a common sense to achieve a very specific goal: be on top and demonstrate their leadership in all courts / fronts!

And that’s just what they both did yesterday! They showed how insanely human their tremendous leadership has been all along and while, I am sure, most of us were sharing a tear or two, they have both won our respect for each of them, and for the game itself. Going to always remember them for that! In case you haven’t seen the finals of the Australian Open, I would strongly encourage you all to catch up with it! It will be worth while your time. I am certain!

Now, can you imagine the corporate world of the 21st century, the one we all feel social software is slowly, but steadily, humanising and shaking itself inside out, behaving in such powerful way? Can you imagine your business re-gaining that human side of things? Those feelings? Those emotions?

Congratulations, champs! It’s been an amazing thrill watching you and I am already looking forward to the next one! … Whatever the result. You have shown us all it doesn’t matter just as much anymore!

Tags: Tennis, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Australian Open, Australia Open, Finals, Championships, Leadership, Human Being, Feelings, Emotions, Leadership 2.0, Life, Human Spirit, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Social Networks, Networking, Relationships

I mean, me enjoying the pleasure of travelling, because over the last few months it has been, all along, everything, but a pleasure. Including this week! As you may have noticed, mainly from my twitterings, I am on the road again! First business trip of the year and already taking me into multiple places. This week I will be in Raleigh, NC, US where I will be meeting up with my team to come together with the core set of activities for our program on helping drive the adoption of social software with client facing teams, as well as with the rest of IBM.

Then, this coming Sunday I will be heading down to Orlando, FL, US, where I will be attending the IBM event of events; the one you can’t miss out; the one you know is going to change your working experience for good; the one where you will be able to find out what’s going on with some of the most impressive products IBM has been working on all along around the area of Social Computing, amongst many many others; the one I have always been looking forward to: Lotusphere 2009.

From there onwards I will be heading back to Madrid, on the weekend of the 23rd of January, to go and present on Monday to an IBM internal group on what IBM is doing around the subject of social computing and how that specific team can get things started for themselves.

Like I mentioned a couple of days ago, this year I am planning on detailing a bit more on what we are eventually doing internally to help drive such adoption of social software, thus expect to see follow up blog posts on the subject coming up soon! At the same time, I will be putting together a couple of short entries detailing what I will be up to while at Lotusphere. Surprise, surprise, plenty of good stuff to come!

For now though, please allow me to expand further. Back to how I started this article. Yes, this is going to be one of those longer blog posts I mentioned a few days back that will be popping up every now and then. This time around I just feel I need to get it out of my chest.

Back on to the subject of travelling and why I am starting to enjoy it less and less to the point whether I am wondering whether it is worth it altogether. Here is the story of what has happened this week…

Last week I managed to eventually book a rather complex business trip that involved going through a good number of airports over the course of merely twelve days: Gran Canaria, Madrid, Boston, Raleigh; then Raleigh, Atlanta, Orlando; and, finally, Orlando, Miami, Madrid, Gran Canaria again. Phew! Quite an itinerary, indeed! But, like I said, I managed to book all flights and hotels with no further issues.

However, things changed beginning of this week, when just one of those magical serendipitous knowledge discoveries kicked in and through my hairdresser, yes, you are reading it right, through my hairdresser!, I found out that, from January 12th, there is a new procedure to go through in order to travel to the US. A new online form everyone needs to sign up for, called ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization), which needs to be filled in and signed up before you are allowed to enter the country.

The approval will eventually take place rather right away or within a 72 hour period. Reason why? I am not sure, but that is what’s mentioned on its Web site. Either way, panic kicked in, because I was due to fly out on Wednesday early morning and I didn’t have the approval. So after a quick phone call to the US consulate in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to confirm it, I went over to the ESTA Web site and sign up the form. And I got lucky, if I could use that word, not much though, because I had to wait for that period within 72 hours. Panic growing…

This whole situation changed completely a great start of the week to a stressful situation out of my control and at the mercy of hoping that things would work out! In the mean time, news coming from Madrid were not very good either! Plenty of snow, a strike (Was flying with Iberia and probably shouldn’t be saying much more, specially if you have travelled with them in the past!) and hours of delay at the MAD airport didn’t look much better either. Panic going crazy by now!

As you can imagine, I spent Monday and Tuesday stressed out hoping that everything would turn out all right and hoping that I would be able to travel to the US on Wednesday morning. The ESTA form approval was starting to take too long and I already started to lose hope that I would eventually be making it, but I decided to have everything ready just in case. So, to my surprise, on Wednesday early morning, 4am local time, I checked out the status of the request and I got it approved! Yay! I could travel to the US! All of this happening 30 minutes before I had to be at the airport for the first leg of my trip! Phew! Just in time!

I got to the airport, checked in my bags all the way to Raleigh, NC, and had a good seat. I thought, brilliant! Everything is going according to plan. Or so I thought. When I got to Madrid, where it was still freezing!, I didn’t see a single sign of the strike, or the delays or the chaos that reigned over the last few days. Another piece of good news! And off we go to Boston!

Well, not so fast, Mr! Apparently, people have become rather selfish and inconsiderate nowadays, because when we all got to the plane, on our way to Boston we eventually ended up with a 2.5 hour delayed because the planned luggage weight and the actual luggage weight didn’t match and they had to check things out. Five people were carrying far too much weight in their suitcases and therefore had to leave that behind or them stepping down. Eventually they did step down (We didn’t see those folks anymore on that flight) and 2.5 hours later we took off!

By then I realised how in between the Boston flight and the one to Raleigh I only had 90 minutes of time over to make the next flight, which, in normal conditions, would have been all right, but this time around it meant I lost the connection to Raleigh way before leaving Madrid. Oh well, I thought. Hopefully there would be another flight before the end of the evening…

Eight hours later the plan arrives into Boston, connecting flight is gone already, and head into customs. To my amazement, and while waiting on the queue I found out that all of the stuff I have gone through with the ESTA form process was not worth it a single bit! I still had to fill in the green card to be allowed in the country (Mind you, on its Web site, it is mentioned how this new process replaces that same green card! Crazy!) and go through the standard usual procedure! Arrrrggggghhhh! By now I realised I wasted two entire days stressed out for NOTHING! Not good! I mean, if you are going to make something mandatory from a specific date and you get people to go through that hassle for their own sake, don’t turn around and change things back to what they were! It will get people rather annoyed and upset!!!

Ok, can anyone remind me what the ESTA form is supposed to be used for then? Was it worth it all of the stress for nothing? No, thanks! But, again, very little I can do, I know. Just have to put up with it and move on. And so I did. Things have changed quite a bit over the last few years…

I headed over to the Connecting Flights desk and asked whether I could take a flight to Raleigh before end of the evening, and, unfortunately, the answer was negative! Ouch! That hurt! Really hurt! 18 hours in transit already, a couple of nights without good sleep kicking in and knowing I would be stranded in Boston for the night was starting to get me. And pretty bad. But again very little I could do at that stage.

I was told I needed to stay overnight in Boston, at the Comfort Inn hotel (A very nice hotel, by the way!), and leave for Raleigh at 6:00 am. So that meant, having to head to the hotel, after having waited for the shuttle bus for over 35 minutes on the street (And believe me, Boston was NOT warm last night! Quite the contrary!!!), check in, having a quick bite (Although with a 15$ voucher I am not sure how much you could eat!), and straight to bed. And off to another rather early start! Ouchie!!! (Sleeping eight hours in two full days of travelling is NOT healthy, I tell you that!).

And that’s where I am now. On my way to Raleigh. On a plane. No delays. Over at 35,000 feet, Two hour flight where I have been able to draft this long blog post during the time it would take me to get there and although I will be posting this entry during the course of the day, I just thought I needed to get it all out of my chest. It was starting to get me and as I am about to wrap up the article, I feel much better! I guess that’s what blogging is good for as well.

I know that no matter what I do about this whole experience, nothing will change. No compensation would get rid of the frustration, the stress, standing on the cold for far too long (Hope the cold doesn’t come back!), the over 24 hours of travelling, the lack of apologies from anyone, at any time, the we don’t care about you anymore (We just want your money at all costs!). One thing that I know for sure is that travelling is no longer a pleasurable activity. Quite the opposite. And I guess next time around I will think about it, twice. That’s my lesson learned from this whole week.

Oh, and then there is the lovely process (NOT!!!) of having to declare expenses from the business trip, but that is another story altogether!

Tags: Travelling, Business Trips, Pleasure, Twitter, Raleigh, Orlando, Madrid, Spain, US, Lotusphere 2009, Lotusphere2009, IBM, Conference Events, Events, Gran Canaria, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Bad Experiences, Travel Hell, Travelling Hell, Comfort Inn, Compensation, Customer Service, Iberia, Ranting, Rants, Travel Rants, Bad Customer Service, ESTA, DHS

Tags: Life, Changing World, Work Life Balance, WLB, YouTube, 21st Century, Future, Reality, Now!, Globalisation, Jobs, Learning, Connected, Connections, Technology, Shift Happens, Conversations

For a good number of months I am sure you may have noticed how all of the blogs I maintain at the moment have become a whole lot more focused and specific on a couple of topics which have dominated most of my blogging for 2008: first, the initial experiment, now reality, of giving up e-mail at work and divert most of the conversations into social software spaces and, secondly, the huge amount of travelling I have done in the last twelve months.

Well, now that the experiment has consolidated itself over time and there is no way back for me, and also seeing how this year seems to be paving out a lot easier on my travelling schedule I think it is time for me to go back to basics. Yes, indeed, I am going back to where I started with blogging! And about time, I think, too!

Ok, I know you may be wondering what my blogging style used to be at the beginning, right? After all, I am talking about five and a half years ago that I first starting blogging at my corporate blog behind the firewall. Well, to start with, I am going back to the main topics that sparked the creation of this blog: Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities & Community Building, Learning and Social Computing (Social Software or Enterprise 2.0, whichever term you would prefer). Yes, I will still continue to write the weekly progress reports on giving up on e-mail and also highlights from the reduced travelling I will be doing, but at the same time, it is a good time to go back to where I started, which is still what drives my passion in the corporate world: Knowledge Sharing, Collaboration and The Future of the Workplace with Enterprise 2.0.

Thus expect to see more blog posts around KM, around Collaboration & Communities and the blend of Learning and Knowledge, specially within the corporate world. But expect as well to have shorter blog posts, too! Yes, that is right! You know this one already! A couple of times I have mentioned in the past how I wanted to keep my verbosity on the short side and time and time again, I failed! Like in this very blog post I am putting together!

Well, I think it is time for me to re-focus on my blogging style; to start writing shorter blog posts. to link more to other interesting bloggers on what’s in their minds; to share some further insights and my two cents on plenty of the stuff that’s going on in the areas I have just mentioned above; to comment back on previous blog posts I have put together and comment as well on other articles I bump into; in short, to be elsua again! Yes, the same elsua that over five years ago decided to take the plunge and join the blogosphere, and for that matter, the world of social software altogether! And let his passion about those topics drive his blogging…

Like I said, this is probably going to be the last blog post on the long side that I will be putting together, unless the odd one sneaks in here and there (Probably the ones related to highlights of particular events that I may have attended or plan to), but for the rest things are going to be a lot more dynamic, a lot faster for your folks to digest and dive into the conversation, but, hopefully, still keeping the same quality you are all used to. At least, I am going to try my hardest in making it happen and somehow I sense the new blog template upgrade is going to help with that! heh (Talking about an incentive, eh?)

As a result of that my other two blogs are going to be impact in pretty much the same way as well. So expect to see shorter blog posts, but perhaps much more frequent. Oh, and since I know that I am running into the dangerous road of perhaps sharing far too many entries in a single day (Back when I got started I used to blog 4 to 6 blog daily posts! -Oh, the good old times! heh), this is when the Lifestream of elsua.net will kick in, because I am about to start using a couple of other social networking tools to share some of those different insights and all of that content is going to come through that particular section.

Of course, I will write about it whenever I am ready with the launch of those couple of social tools. They are not new, they have been there for a while now, but I feel it is now time for me to start making use of them. One of which is one you know already: ma.gnolia. My favourite social bookmarking tool out there on the Internet (Dogear, of course, is my favourite one behind the firewall ).

In it you would be able to see all of the links I have been sharing all along and, just recently, I restarted again to tag those articles, blog posts, interesting references where I have dropped a comment under a specific tag: commented, and since I have configured Lifestream to grab those shared links from ma.gnolia you would be able to keep up with where I have been (Oh, this particular section also includes my twitterings). Mainly, because there may be the odd day where I may not have a chance to put together a blog post, but that doesn’t mean I have been quiet that day. Head over to Lifestream and see what’s going on.

Oh, and when the second social software tool kicks in, things are about to get even much more interesting … But that would be the post for another day. For now, I think I have taken enough of your time for one last time and from here onwards it is all down to me to see where I can keep up with this new challenge for 2009: going back to basics! Yay!

Let’s do it!

Tags: Metablogging, Blogging, elsua, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Blog, Changes, Design Changes, Template Changes, Twitter, Lifestream, Blogging Style, Blogging Voice, Thinking Outside the Inbox, No-Email, Travelling, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, Community Building, Learning, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Innovation, Future of Workplace, Blogging 101, Ma.gnolia, Dogear, Basics

Well, here I am again then, putting together a follow up blog post to the one from yesterday where I will be commenting further on some of the various different changes that will be taking place over at elsua.net and which, in a way, will also affect to some extent how I will keep things going with all of the blogs I currently look after.

Thus without much further ado, here is a short list of the new things you will be able to find at my main person / business blog:

• About: This is where folks can find a recent photo of what I look like (Ideal when meeting up face to face!), but also a description of who I am, what I do, what I like and what people can expect from the blog. And, finally the opportunity now to leave comments with whatever you may have in mind that you feel would need / require my attention. Whenever people may not be able to reach out to me through IM, Twitter, Facebook or whatever other social networking site, this would be the area to drop by and leave a comment. You see? I didn’t mention email
• Archives: One of the sections I am most excited about and which I was really looking forward to finally have it as part of the blog. A lovely, and nifty, index of the over 866 blog posts I have put together in elsua.net, so if you are looking for something I may have blogged about in the past you will be able to find it through there much easier! Oh, and the Search function now works, too!
• Links: For a good number of months I was using a blogroll injected directly from BlogLines, where folks could check out some of the current reading I was doing. But then things got messy and I eventually had to take it down. However, since plenty of folks have been asking me about it again in the recent weeks I thought it would be nice to recover it and that’s why under Links you will find my current blogroll of over 270 feeds, because, yes, indeed, I still read feeds (As well as Twitter!). Don’t you?
• Photos: Definitely, this was one of the sections I was really looking forward to, but never thought I would have a chance of implementing it. But, again, thanks to the lovely piece of work from Laura Whitehead, under Photos you would now be able to get a glimpse of all of the photos that I get to share in my Flickr account, without you having to go anywhere else. Over there you will be able to find pictures from all of my travelling (Getting started with 2009’s in just a few days from now, by the way!) as well as from the place where I have lived for the last five years: Gran Canaria.

  You may have noticed how I haven’t been sharing as many photos as I once used to and all along there has been a reason for it: not having a good enough photo editing / processing software on the Mac. But now that Picasa for the Mac is there (Which, along with Camtasia, was the only piece of software I really missed from Windows. Now, not anymore!), be certain that I will start sharing plenty more of the pictures I have taken during the course of 2008 and beyond!

• Lifestream: Finally, another section which I was really looking forward to implementing in elsua.net, was the one called Lifestream, which happens to be a super nifty WordPress plugin, put together by David Cramer, and which is going to prove incredibly useful as I start to diversify my online presence in more and more social spaces. Yes, that’s right, I won’t say much about it for now, but things are going to change slightly with my own blogging style and how I get to use other social software tools and Lifestream is the one that is going to put them all together in a single place. Thus stay tuned for more to come…

And that would be it, folks! Some of the most striking, and new, changes that you would be able to notice on my main personal / business blog on the Internet. The rest you would notice how it is much cleaner, a lot less clutter, plenty less widgets (I have only kept there MyBlogLog, since I still make use of it to a certain degree) as I was fully aware how much noise they added to the template as well as slowing down the overall Web site itself. So I decided to take them all down!

Finally, you would also see how for each of the blog posts I will be putting together you will have an opportunity to weigh in your thoughts not just with comments, but also with ratings (Thanks to the GD Star Rating Wordpress plugin put together by Milan Petrovic), as well as share across that specific article in various social bookmarking and social networking sites, thanks to another really nice Wordpress plugin called Sociable, put together by Joost de Valk.

Like I said, quite a thrill having gone through such a massive upgrade of the blog template, which in reality has also managed to introduce a few new things which I am hoping you would get to enjoy them quite a bit more, but, most importantly, a much more significant change, which is going to be detailed in Part III of this series and which will relate to describe some more the new blogging style I will be adopting (Adapting to) from here onwards. But that would be another day…

(For now, if you are reading this article directly from elsua.net, hope you will be enjoying this new ride, and remember if you find something is broken or whatever other issue or bug, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We will be more than happy to amend things right away!)

Tags: Metablogging, Blogging, elsua, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Blog, WordPress, WordPress.org, Changes, Design Changes, Template Changes, Twitter, Feedback, Laura Whitehead, Web Design, Archives, Links, About, Photos, Flickr, Lifestream, BlogLines, Gran Canaria, Travelling, Picasa, Mac, Google, Photography, Camtasia, Lifestream, Plugins, WordPress Plugins, David Cramer, MyBlogLog, GD Star Rating, Milan Petrovic, Sociable, Joost de Walk, Blogging Style

Yes, that is right, if you head over to my main blog you will be able to see a massive change in the design of the site, still using WordPress.org though (Currently upgraded to v2.7), but with plenty of major updates all over the place. A lot cleaner, a lot easier in the eye, a lot less cluttered with widgets, gizmos, scripts and whatever else, and, hopefully, much easier to read and digest its content. Finally, friendly to those folks still on Internet Explorer or using whatever the mobile device (On the iPhone / iPod it looks fantastic! - must confess).

Overall, not as busy as what it used to be, which means that it would probably help folks navigate through the content much easier. The interesting thing is that if you stop over the site and browse through the changes you will also get to notice a good number of updates that will be happening to the overall content itself. Yes, indeed, this update of the template will provoke as well a good number of changes of my own blogging style on all of the three blogs and I am hoping that over the next couple of blog posts I would be able to share some further insights on where I will be taking next my own blogging style.

For now, just wanted to give folks out there reading elsua.net the heads up that the change has now been completed! You are more than welcome to click and check every single aspect of the site and if you find that something is broken or is giving you unexpected results please do get in touch and let me know, through a comment on this blog post itself, or through Twitter itself. I will be collecting all of that feedback and amend bugs, issues, etc. accordingly.

Finally, I would want to let everyone know that this whole facelift of my main blogging site wouldn’t have taken place if it weren’t for the superb piece of work put together by Laura Whitehead (@LittleLaura in Twitter) who over the course of time has managed to put together a wonderful job and has been incredibly patient listening to my needs and wants and what you see right in front of you is all her work! Well done, Laura! Thanks ever so much for that fresh change! … Very much needed

Tags: Metablogging, Blogging, ITtoolbox, elsua, Bloggiversary, Anniversary, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Blog, WordPress, WordPress.org, Changes, Design Changes, Template Changes, Twitter, Feedback, Laura Whitehead, LittleLaura, Web Design

To start with I have been on holidays (Still am till the beginning of the New Year!) and although I have been having a good rest and almost in disconnected mode from everything, I have been rather busy having to handle all of the paperwork of the country transfer from IBM Netherlands to IBM Spain and, believe me, it hasn’t been an easy task, specially since one of the weeks I have been away already has been rather hectic. Through e-mail!! Who would have thought about that, eh? But not to worry, I will be sharing some further insights on that shortly, as part of the weekly progress reports, which I am running a couple of weeks behind, I know. But we will eventually get there, I am sure.

I have also been rather busy catching up with folks offline, specially during this time of the year where everyone seems to pause for a little while and have a chance to enjoy some peace and quiet, reflect on the year about to finish and treasure what each and everyone of us has or what we may have been involved with lately. What in Twitter I have been calling beers&friends, if you know what I mean.

But if there is a single reason why I have gone a bit dormant over here and why I think it is still going to be like that for another couple of days, is because, as some of you may already know, I am already working on what will be happening in 2009 for me, as far as Thinking Outside the Inbox is concerned. I am putting together a new theme, a new master presentation deck, a new pitch, something really cool that will be happening to one of my blogs (http://elsua.net) and which will impact the other two I am currently maintaining and that has been keeping me far too busy to blog about it overall. At least, for now.

I hope that very soon I will be able to unleash some really interesting piece of news happening with http://elsua.net and that will be the kick-off for 2009 for everything related to elsua. Thus stay tuned for plenty more to come up very shortly!

For now though I just couldn’t help coming over here for a few minutes and share with you folks some those special wishes we all have been exchanging all over the place and which I am sure are getting you into the spirit of the special times we are going through. Yes, indeed, it is Christmas!!! Yay! (But you already knew that!)

That’s why I just want to wish you all a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with plenty of good Health and Prosperity for 2009!!! And also want to take this opportunity to give you a special thanks! for sticking around and for dropping by every now and then over here in this blog and for sharing plenty more insights that I would have ever hoped for and help contribute into some of the conversations we have been having all along. Without them, I am sure things would have been completely different. So here I am, taking a couple of minutes to thank you all for those contributions and hope that we can keep the dialogue going throughout 2009!

Till then, all the very best for you and your loved ones in this special time of the year and here is to a wonderful 2009!!!

Tags: Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Christmas, Merry Christmas, Spain, Las Palmas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Playa Las Canteras, Flickr, Pictures, Life, Work, elsua, Thinking Outside the Inbox, 2009, 2008, IBM, Christmas Tree, Holidays, Sun, Fun, Special Times

So, let’s get things going with IBM’s Innovation event "Shape Your Future", where you would be able to see how tomorrow afternoon I will be speaking, once more, on the topic of "Thinking Outside the Inbox" where I am hoping to bring together as well some of the various conversations I have been having in the recent past from a couple of other events I have been engaging with.

The slide deck continues to be the same, i.e. giving up e-mail at work, but pretty much the speech has evolved tremendously over the last few weeks, since I will be incorporating some of the most relevant and interesting conversations I have been having all along in the last couple of months. Hope this session will be recorded somehow, so I would have an opportunity to perhaps share such recording with everyone. At the same time, stay tuned for some really good news on the progress reports, because I have got something for you I am sure you are going to enjoy quite a bit! You will see…

If you would notice, this is the sister event I presented at, not long ago, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and which I blogged about not long ago as well. Thus it follows a similar structure. You would be able to find information about the event over here, from where you can also find out some more about each of the speakers who will be there (I seemed to be missing from the list, but not to worry, I know I will be there, too!), as well as the location in Mechelen.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the two day event would be, of course, the programme itself, apart from the (Social) Networking, for sure! In it, you would be able to see what the keynote speaker sessions would be about, as well as the various breakout sessions, including the one I will be doing, and from peeking through it I am certain you would be able to see the quality of the materials presented around the topic of shaping your future and how each of the speakers will bring together a new, fresh air into the next level for Innovation!

And, like I said, all of that happening at the same time that the InnovationJam 2008 is taking place over the course of the next couple of days! I haven’t blogged, nor mentioned much about it, because at the beginning I was not really sure whether I would be able to participate in it, or not, since it got started yesterday while I was still on holidays and will continue over the next couple of days while I am on this business trip, where I am just finding out, the hard way, as usual, how unreliable a good Internet connection has become nowadays. As soon as I have got a few applications running it runs into a hard stop and I cannot longer move on further with engaging in such event or catch up after the holidays. Ahhh, well… So much with regards to pervasiveness and broadband penetration, right? Not likely!

I just hope it will improve while I am here, because otherwise it would be too bad to miss the whole thing out! I hope not! One thing for sure that I am certain is going to win is the networking side of things, so if you are around in Mechelen, over the next couple of days, and if you would want to get together for a drink or two, give me a shout and we will find some time, I am sure!

For now, time for me to prepare the event(s) of tomorrow hoping the broadband connection will be restored to what’s supposed to be and see if I can finally catch up with InnovationJam 2008 and starting jamming a bit! How about you? Are you jamming yet?

Tags: Holidays, Work, Life, Barcelona, London, Belgium, Mechelen, IBM, Shape Your Future, InnovationJam, InnovationJam 2008, Innovation, Jams, Collaboration, Online Collaboration, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Enterprise 2.0, Web 2.0, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Jamming, Connectivity, Broadband, Pervasiveness

If you have been a long time reader from this blog you would remember how a little bit over a year ago I actually became an active member of the Social Media Today Collective group, just as it was getting things started and building up some more momentum around the Enterprise 2.0 & Social Computing spaces. I guess that time flies when you are having fun, because over the course of the last couple of days SMT is actually celebrating their first birthday / anniversary! Goodness! Yes, indeed, time flies when you are having fun!

I must say that during this time, it surely has been a great pleasure and a privilege to be part of such incredibly talented, energised and splendid group of thought leaders and bloggers, social media consultants, CIOs, CEOs, and a long etc., always wanting, and succeeding, in taking things into the next level! You cannot imagine the amount of stuff I have been learning throughout the course of the last few months exchanging information and knowledge and engaging in multiple conversations around the topic of social software and Enterprise 2.0, amongst many others with a good chunk of the regular and active members of the collective.

At the same time I have been having the unique opportunity to meet up face to face with a whole bunch of SMT members, including the co-founders Robin Carey and Jerry Bowles, and it probably wouldn’t be too fair to name them all, as I am sure I would be forgetting the odd name here and there! But either way, if there would be a collective rather representative of the Social Computing space within the corporate world nowadays, I am sure that the Social Media Today one would probably be ranking high up in the list! And rather high, to say the least!

You would probably remember how a couple of months back I was actually featured as an SMT blogger of the week (With SMT Blogger of the Week – Luis Suarez, the Blogger From Paradise) after having done a very enjoyable Skype interview with Jerry. So the least I could do this time around is to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and everyone of the SMT members for helping pave the road around the adoption of social software within the Enterprise. I am sure without this collective being out there actively nurturing and engaging in multiple conversations that adoption would have probably been a lot slower than what it is today!

So from here, a BIG and special thanks! to everyone who is, or has been, a member of the SMT collective and another rather special Happy Anniversary wish, hoping there are going to be many many more years to come for us to enjoy some of where the hot action is taking place within the Social Networking space! Keep up the superb piece of work & keep leading the way SMTers! It’s been a great pleasure and look forward to many more thought-provoking and engaging dialogue!

Tags: Web 2.0 Expo, w2e, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Conversations, Dialogue, Social Media Today, SMT, Anniversary, Birthday, Thought Leaders, Robin Carey, Jerry Bowles

And that time has just arrived. The video interview is up and running and available for everyone to download! But before I comment further on it, let me share with you how I found out about it. Not through e-mail, of course. Indeed!

Some time ago, Todd Watson, fellow IBMer and very good friend, mentioned a few weeks back what it’d be like coming back to work with no e-mail to process, based on the NYTimes article I got published not long ago, and just a couple of days ago, he picked up the subject, once again, in a subsequent blog post where he talked about that same subject as well as the landing page of where the video interview on The Future of Work was being hosted. I obviously picked that up from my feeds and here I am today, sharing your thoughts about it.

I don’t think that Todd will be reading this blog entry, since he is probably enjoying some very well deserved break away from everything, but the link he initially shared was the Facebook landing page from Start@IBM, a re-vamp of IBM’s new global careers Web site where you would be able to find plenty of really helpful info on how to land yourself in such a large company as IBM

On the Facebook page though you will find plenty of funny videos and interesting tidbits that will keep you busy for a while, but since you are probably much more interested in that video-conference interview, here are the details on how you can access it, since I can’t seem to be able to embed it over here.

Go ahead and check out Goodbye Cubicle, Hello Couch, which is the title of the video and which already hints some of the stuff I mentioned on the interview on what the future of work will be like soon enough. You will notice as well how in the video William Pulleyblank, Vice President, Center for Business Optimization in Global Business Services, also shares his views on what the future of work would be like, specially with the incorporation of the younger generations into the workplace. Quite enlightening to say the least!

The video lasts for about 2:25 minutes and it may sound like way too short, but not to worry, there is much more coming up shortly! I am working already with the same interns who put together the final touches of the interview into a much longer video which will contain the entire interview we did through Skype and I will then share the link to it. The video will be hosted out there on the Web, so everyone would be able to have a look into it as well. Oh, and I have just been told that the video contained in Facebook will also be shared in YouTube, so whenever that happens I will share a link to it over here as well, just in case you may want to reference it for those folks who cannot access Facebook.

Thus head over to take a look into Goodbye Cubicle, Hello Couch and get ready for the longer version of the video interview where, if you are into Social Computing and Enterprise 2.0, there will be plenty of different items discussed there to which you could relate to yourself. Stay tuned! …

Tags: IBM, Future of Work, Office2.0, Workplace, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Online Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Networks, Networks, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Generation Y, Gen Y, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Todd Watson, New York Times, Start@IBM, Start at IBM, Employment, New Hires, William Pulleyblank, IBM Global Services, Center of Business Optimization, CBO, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Personal Knowledge Management, Personal Knowledge Sharing, Conversations

I am sure that all of those folks heavily involved with Social Media / Computing would already know who Michael Wesch is (Have blogged about him and his work in the past a couple of times already!), so I probably wouldn’t need to make any kind of introduction, but for those folks out there who may not know about him, not to worry, I won’t be doing that intro either!

I will just ask you, all of you, eventually, to have a look into the presentation he did recently around the following topic: "An anthropological introduction to YouTube". The blog post providing an outline of what you would be able to find there can be found over at  “An anthropological introduction to YouTube” video of Library of Congress presentation and I can tell you, whether you love or hate YouTube, whether you would see its value or not, whether you would consider it a powerful platform to engage through video-sharing & video-blogging, amongst many many other things, or not, this is one of those presentations that will surely change your opinion, and inner thoughts, about YouTube and how it has changed our society and the culture of the entire human race!

It’s happened to me. Every time that I now go to YouTube, I don’t look into it with the same eyes or rules of engagement (Stay tuned for some more on that one!) as I used to. It has surely opened up my views on the kind of impact it is having within our society (And that would extend, obviously, to the role of ALL Social Media / Computing for that matter!) and if there would be a couple of words that I could use to describe his presentation they would be these two: a must watch!!! (Yes, I know that’s three words! But you know what I mean, right?)

Thus without much further ado, here is the direct link to the video, as well as the embedded version below, and after you have watched it, I challenge you all to confirm whether you have been moved by it or not. I am sure that you would, and very much so! (Specially towards the end of it!). And if not, nothing else would probably do within the social media space. I can tell you that, too! (That’s how incredibly moving, educational & enlightening it is!)

(Oh, and watch out this space as well, because it will not be the last time that in the next few days I will be talking about Michael and the brilliant piece of work he has been doing already in helping us understand how social computing is changing not only how we work, but also how we live our lives and the impact this kind of innovation is having in us all!)

Tags: Anthropology, Michael Wesch, University of Kansas, Michael Wesch, YouTube, Technology, Web, Internet, Human Race, Humanity, Life, Inspiration, Impact, Education, Learning, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Social Media, Social Computing, Social Software, Web 2.0, Innovation, Communities, Library of Congress

Well done, Rafa!!! And very much well deserved, too! Perhaps only one thing to say would be a special thanks to these two titans for making a Sunday afternoon, 6th of July 2008, an unforgettable one!

(Sublime Spaniard stretches the imagination < I just couldn’t have agreed more with that headline! Just superb!)

Tags: Wimbledon, Tennis, Classics, Tournament, King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, Rafa Nadal, King of Grass, Roger Federer, Titans, Rivalry, Sacrifice, Endurance, Talent, Brilliance, Fighting Sipirt, Sublime

With all of that said, and almost ready for another great and eventful week, where regular blogging will resume once again, I can only think of one single sentence:

Football – Made in Spain!

Well done, boys!!! That’s just how you play super fine football throughout the entire championships! … Very proud!

Tags: Football, European Championship, UEFA, Soccer, Europe, Spain, Champions, History, Celebrations

Thus as you can imagine I haven’t had much free time just yet to finish up those various blog post drafts I keep wanting to share over here at some point. But, like I have said it already, not to worry, they will come. However, today I just wanted to share with you something that I am sure you are going to enjoy. It is actually a couple of video links that match quite nicely the festive time I have been enjoying whole day today.

The first one is actually a video clip which is part of a videocasting series that is going on inside IBM and which is having a huge success at the moment, to say the least. Some time ago, my good friend, and fellow IBM colleague, George Faulkner came together, with a couple of his colleagues, with this bright idea of encouraging IBMers to shoot short video clips showing where they were working, i.e. the IBM building site, customer location, on the road, whatever, but mostly from the IBM office wherever it may have well been in the world. And that is how "This is where I work…" was born and why, from the very first moment, it became quite a show!

Thousands and thousands of downloads have gone through already and, funny enough, I never thought I would be taking part of it, since I always doubted people would be interested in my home office location. However, while I was in NYC, after having finished a superb week at the IBM Web 2.0 and Beyond Summit event, I spent a couple of days with George, and a bunch of other IBMers, and George, as brilliant as he is coming up with some serendipitous discoveries and fun activities, proposed to me to shoot a short video with several fragments sharing my thoughts on my stay in NYC’s IBM sites and do a clip on "This is where I work … today!". 

He thought we could take a few pictures here and there and get things rolling, but I thought we could actually do it with a little bit of a twist and decide to put to a good service, as usual, my Nokia N95, and we went video. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you would know how much in love I am with the N95 device (And you would probably know my reaction to other fancier mobile devices -no names mentioned in here – hehe) and after those couple of days, even so much more now!

I have been getting lots of comments about the quality of both the sound and the video footage for a mobile device and all I can say is that the N95 beats any other device in this category by quite a bit! One of the best purchases I have done in my short life buying gadgets. And the proof is this blog post.

Thus attached, and without much further ado, here you have got the video clip from that series "This is where I work … today" where you would be able to see yours truly, in various locations throughout the city, talking about what it is like working for a large corporation in the city. All done on the fly, with no script, no pauses, no premeditated wording going around, just pure, informal, on the spot, good fun!

George did both the video shoot and the post-production, more than anything else because he is much more talented than myself, for sure! And if not judge for yourselves. Here I am, talking to you from NYC in front of a video camera for the first time in my life and having a great time at it!

Yes, indeed, after you have watched this video clip I am sure you would understand now, in case you haven’t done so thus far, why I *love* working for the company I work, and why I am still enjoying it just as if it were my first day 11 years ago!! You got that one right, because of the people!

Does it ring a bell? Well, here is another good reason. A bonus clip I put together myself with the Nokia N95 while in NYC, enjoying some of the lovely spring weather I was fortunate to witness throughout the whole week!

Of course, I will be back!! (Even if that means bringing back with me another nasty bug that may take me down again for a couple of days! hehe)

(Time now to go and enjoy a long walk through one of my favourite places over here…)

Tags: Holidays, Bank Holiday, Koninginnedag, Ascension Day, IBM, George Faulkner, Videocasting, Vodcasts, This Is Where I Work, Nokia, N95, Serendipity, New York, New York City, Central Park, 11 Madison Ave, 590 Madison, Fun, Fun Stuff, Work Life Balance, Balance, Life, Work, Things That Matter, Spring, Experiences, Unforgettable Experiences

But this time around I am going to be mentioning something else that I thought was really really cool and that I was rather excited about. As you well know, on this weekly series of blog posts about Gran Canaria I have developed the tendency to share both some pictures and short video clips of various places that have impressed me all along from this island and way at the beginning I was actually making use of DailyMotion to store those videos, well, it looks like things are going to change from here onwards.

No, I am not talking about stopping with the sharing of those videos. On the contrary, I am going to keep it going stronger than ever. For sure. What I am really going to start doing is making good use of the wonderful new feature that the fine folks of Flickr have put together. Yes, video!!!  How awesome is that? Right next to the good bunch of pictures I have been sharing all along I will now be able to add Flickr videos as well and share them as part of the same flow. Love it!

Yes, yes, I know that most people have been indicating how sharing videos in Flickr is a little bit limiting, since you can only upload videos which are 90 seconds long, but I tell you what, that’s just more than enough for me! In fact, most of the video clips I am planning on sharing will be that length anyway, so it makes perfect sense to place them together next to the pictures, don’t you think? And for those video clips longer that 90 seconds? -You may be asking, right? Well, I will continue to make use of DailyMotion, of course!

So let’s get the ball rolling then! Earlier on today I went ahead and shared a couple of short video clips in Flickr in almost no time, with a very user friendly interface and along the same lines of flow you get with sharing pictures and they are both part from a single series I created from one special place in my heart that gives me shivers every time I get to go there.

The name of the place is called Meloneras and is just on the very south of the island of Gran Canaria. It is one of those emergent touristy spots in the area where you will be able to find some of the finest hotels from the south of the island. Definitely, a good place to stay. For sure. However, what it also has is one of those stunning everlasting boulevards that would allow you to take long long walks along the coast enjoying quite some marvelous sunsets, both in winter and summer time! The most spectacular ones are the ones happening during the winter time when the sun sets across the Atlantic ocean. Just brilliant!

The funny thing is that I happen to live about 7 to 10 minute drive from there, so I get to go every now and then with the dog and spend one hour or one hour an a half unwinding from everything else and enjoying just one of those special places that only when you get there you realise the kind of beauty you are contemplating. I tell you, very few things can get better than that! And if not judge for yourself with these two videos I shared earlier on:

What did I say? It kind of makes you think you would want to be there, right? Well, that is just how I felt myself earlier on today a couple of times while I was struggling with a couple of tools. Perhaps next time I should just leave it and enjoy another one of those unforgettable sunsets @ Meloneras!

Want to join me?

Tags: Gran Canaria, Meloneras, Costa Meloneras, Sunsets, Daily Motion, Flickr, Flickr Video, Life, Life Work Balance, LWB, Tourism, Boulevard, Unwinding, Walks

Here is a quick description of what you will find there:

"[...] a volcanic crater – 1000 m (3300 ft) in diameter and 200 m (660 ft) deep – with a 569 m (1,867 ft) high peak, the Pico de Bandama, to which you can drive up. This peak has an observation platform, from where – despite its relatively low height – you can enjoy breathtaking views of the entire north and east coast and towards the mountainous centre in the west. With a clear sky you might even get to see the neighbouring island Fuerteventura in the northeast."

If you would want to read some more about it, you can certainly go ahead and check out Centre Tour – Caldera de Bandama, which provides a quick, short description of what makes that place special. And once you are done with it, here are the couple of videos I have shared earlier on today where you can see how every now and then I get to go there, just to chill out and admire the work of nature. Like I said, stunning!!

Gran Canaria – Caldera de Bandama – Part I:

Gran Canaria – Caldera de Bandama – Part II:

(And worth while a visit if you are around… No doubt!)

Tags: Gran Canaria, Nokia, N95, Caldera de Bandama, Bandama, Volcanos, Landscapes, Hiking, Life, Balance

As you can imagine, my brain has got very few brain cells working properly after such an intensive day of meetings and the usual catchup afterwards (Thank goodness for e-mails not being one of the things to catch up with! heh), so I decided to create this entry with some light blogging to pick up the subject I initiated nearly a week ago, and which I mentioned I would eventually get to share with you every now and then. Yes, I am talking about the weekly blog post on Gran Canaria, the place where I have lived for the last four years, the place that keeps captivating me day in day out. No exceptions!

If last week I created a blog post where I shared some footage from a couple of recent video clips I recorded with my super fine Nokia N95 (Glad to know as well I am not the only one who thinks it is a really good experience!), here I am at it again, sharing the third video I recorded while nearly the very top of Roque Bentaiga, but this time around from the other side of the enclave. With quite a view, I can assure you!

If there would be one single word that I could make use of to describe such amazingly beautiful spot it would be humbling. And very much so! It’s just like time disappears, it is just you, up there, in the mountains, with hardly anybody around, facing the rock, your inner thoughts, your fears, your hopes, yourself and nature. Yes, I know, it probably cannot get better than that!

It is in days like today that I wish I had taken the day off and head over there to spend the day and disconnect from everything! It would have helped quite a bit get a new perspective on most things and I know that when coming back that sensation of peace and quiet is something that would make you feel fully re-energised and ready to go back at it! That kind of experience is Roque Bentaiga, folks. One of my favourite places in Gran Canaria to meditate, to forget about the world, to stop, breathe, relax, breathe again, and go back at it!

And you know, the best part of it all is that it is incredibly easy to reach out and access with very good roads all the way before you reach the bottom and start climbing up to the top. Yes, one of those special landmarks that even the lazy ones in all of us with our sedentary lives cannot deny going for …

So, yes, light blogging today, folks, but after watching the video (Yes, I still need to get the hangout of operating with the video camera! Not to worry, it will get better overtime!), you would understand why I put together this entry to help me escape the day that is just about to finish …

And with that, and without much further ado, here is the weekly video:

Roque Bentaiga – Part III

As you may well remember, this past Monday, 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day, I was actually celebrating the fact that I have now been living and working remotely from one of the places I fell in love many many years ago and which I knew at some point I would be coming back. Yes, last Monday was my fourth anniversary of having moved to Gran Canaria! I guess that time flies when you are having fun, right?

Anyway, plenty of folks who have gotten to know me over the years, both in real life and virtually through the various social networks we share in common, have been wondering why I am just so crazy about this island. After all it is just plenty of sunshine and beaches all over the place, eh? Well, not exactly, there is just so much more!, that people don’t know about that, after being four years over here, I thought it would be a good time to change that perception a bit.

Yes, I know, what I am just about to announce over here in this blog may not have much to do, probably nothing, with the regular blogging activities I have been carrying out over here on topics like Knowledge Management, Collaboration, Communities, Social Computing or Enterprise 2.0 over the last few months. But I thought that after four years of having contemplated the idea, I guess it is just about time to announce that from now onwards, and, on a more or less regular basis, I am planning to share over here the odd blog post with various different references to some of the most emblematic natural spots that Gran Canaria has got to offer.

That way, you would have the opportunity to find out for yourselves why I have fallen in love with this island for its variety, amongst many many other things; after all, you don’t name such a tiny island a mini-continent for nothing, right? If you would remember, that is, if you have been a long time reader from this blog you would know how for a good number of weeks this new initiative I am trying to re-introduce again was an integral part of this blog and after a little while I stopped it for a few months. Well, now it is the time to bring it back. As a way to celebrate the four years I have been living over here and also as a way to show you what keeps me going and enjoying every minute of it.

So whenever the odd blog post on this subject would come up, I will be sharing rather a bunch of photos, probably from my Flickr stream, and / or some video footage with short clips of no longer than 2 minutes, 3 tops!, that I would be recording with my Nokia N95 and uploading it into my DailyMotion account from various different places that have captivated my heart all along and which over the course of the last few years have made me understand and comprehend some of the most impressive beauty of this island of Gran Canaria. Yes, I know, so much more than just sun & beaches!

And to get things started, here are a couple of short video clips I shoot a couple of months back, on a splendid sunny and warm day, where I decided to go to the countryside and up into the mountains to check out some of the stunning scenery you can ever imagine. The name of this place from the video clips is Roque Bentaiga, one of the most emblematic, beautiful and stunning natural spots from the entire island and one that as you come closer to it you can sense how magical the place is on its own! Just as I get to write this down I get goose bumps all over the place from thinking that a few weeks back I was nearly at the very top! And here is why:

Thus I hope you enjoy this new section, here in my blog, I am planning on updating every now and then sharing with you all some of the reasons why I may have been living over here for over four years, but I still love every minute of it and as time goes by, and I get a chance to share some more pictures and video clips, I am hoping to be sharing some of the charms that this island of Gran Canaria has got to offer!

Are you ready?

(No, not to worry, I am not abandoning the creation of blog posts on the major themes from this blog that you folks have been familiar with all along. I am just sharing with you all some of the reasons of why I am where I am and enjoying it a great deal!, so that, hey, you never know, whenever you may be coming this way you know some of the cool places you could check out! Consider me as your virtual touring guide from this precious mini-continent island!)

Tags: Gran Canaria, Roque Bentaiga, Bentaiga, Landscapes, Mountains, Sunshine, St. Patrick’s Day, Travelling, Photography, Video, Flickr, DailyMotion, Nokia N95, N95, Mini-Continent, Beaches, Sun, Life, Life Work Balance

As you can imagine, I had a fantastic week over there and I am surely looking forward to coming back, specially to meet up again some of the great folks I got introduced to during the course of the week. Even though they may all well be a little bit crazy! Yes, you are reading it right. Crazy!!! And if not judge for yourself…

Folks, meet Daniel Saeuberli, Collaboration, Messaging & Portals at IBM Switzerland, and Urs Schollenberger, Manager of Lotus Sales & PLM Switzerland! Two of the hosts I had while I was there for the entire week and who went further and beyond their call of duty to make my stay incredibly comfortable having every single thing sorted out for me and nothing to worry about! Just two wonderful people, to be honest! If you ever get a chance to bump into either of them, go and stop them and talk with them. You will learn a thing or two, I am sure! I did!

One of the many things I learnt was how Daniel is, like someone I know would say, a little bit crazy! Yes, folks, meet Daniel in his spare time. Here is his Facebook profile to give you a hint on what he enjoys the most. It is not playing cards, believe me! Yes, that is right, Daniel is into skydiving, but not the usual skydiving that we are all used to and everything with people jumping off with their parachutes.

Daniel takes it to the extreme and, my goodness, does that word get a new meaning when he is around!! Check this out. Have a look into this video clip placed in YouTube of just a little bit under 7 minutes, where you can see him in action:

WOW! You may be thinking, right? Well, yes, so was I!! Daniel is the one doing all the shooting with the video camera while heading down at an incredible speed, in the middle of the mountains, with plenty of snow and rather cold, I can imagine, and still having a superb time! I still remember the conversation we had last week where he explained how it all got started for him. Purely fascinating!! (And I would fall short in describing how it felt back then!)

Not to worry, I am not going to jumping any time soon, although he tried to convinced me over a drink or two, but just watching over the video you can see what kind of passion drives Daniel and his team to do what he gets to do on a rather regular basis. I think it is just remarkable that out of his already pretty busy and tight schedule he still gets to do stuff like that!!

And they are looking for sponsors for their extreme skydives!! Can you imagine? Having your product or logo flying around in such a stunning scenery going at an incredible speed and recording it all while going down? Ha! Talking about viral marketing, folks!! Nothing compared to that, I am sure.

I tell you, it was a real pleasure meeting both Daniel and Urs, and a whole bunch of other folks while in there. But it was some serious fun as well get to know what these folks get to do, and I mean not just the business person, but the complete person. With their craziness and fascination for skydiving, errr, I mean extreme skydiving!!

Oh, and guess what? Some of his good friends, who are also doing lots of skydiving, actually hang around in a place, which is just about 10 minutes from where I live! In fact, I actually get to see them every single Sunday whenever I go to the beach! Small world, eh? heh Amazing!!

Tags: Zürich, Switzerland, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Communities, Social Capital, Daniel Saeuberli, IBM Switzerland, IBM CH, Urs Schollenberger, Facebook, YouTube, Skydiving, Extreme Skydiving, Speedflying, Extreme Sports

For now, I just want to share with you folks a video clip that one of my fellow IBM colleagues shared internally and which, to say the least, will make you think twice about the things you and I care. Yes!, another one of those blog posts where it’s the small things that matter… And here it is why:

After watching through that I am sure that one gets to learn a thing or two on putting the right things into the right perspective, don’t you think?

Update 14/02/08 : Special thanks to David Rojas for the additional comments and for finding the video in YouTube, much better to link to and embed than the original, so … updated!

Tags: Life, Priorities, Work, Money, Perspectives, Small Things, Small Things That Matter, What Really Matters, Economy, Poverty, Richness, Wealth

I attended some really good keynote and speaker sessions, hanged about at the Innovation, User Experience and Meet the Developers Labs, met a whole bunch of new folks and, much more importantly, I got to meet up with a whole bunch of good old friends with whom I have been spending a good amount of time nurturing our relationships within various social networking tools. And, of course, we had plenty of good fun with whatever other activities were planned throughout the entire event.

It was a remarkably wonderful experience to be able to connect with those folks, meet some new, brilliant and talented people very passionate about social computing in general and Enterprise 2.0, in particular, although most of them didn’t realise about it (Which is a good thing!) and also I had the unique opportunity to meet up on site my entire new team, where I am the only one working overseas. Just brilliant!!

However, as I got back and started to get immersed into reading more and more what actually happened throughout the event I realised that I should prepare better for next year’s, so that I have got the chance to improve the overall experience from the blast it’s been this year so far. Thus with that spirit, here you have got 10 things I would be working on differently over the next few months to help me prepare for Lotusphere 2009!

1. Plan ahead better which sessions I’d be attending: That basically means getting my hands on the super nifty Notes database put together by the Genii Software folks as soon as I possibly can, so that I can peek through those various presentations I’d be interested in ahead of time. There were so many great sessions put together that one had the constant feeling of having missed something! (Thank goodness, most of the decks are available online for download / replay!)

2. Ensure at all costs I got the hotel room booked at The Swan Hotel in Orlando: That worked out beautifully this year, so I need to ensure I am registered soon enough to book myself for the same hotel.

3. Perhaps go with some carry-on luggage instead of the regular suitcase: Yes, indeed, I am not ready to lose, yet again, my luggage just before getting there! It’s happened a couple of times already, not willing to let it go once more!

4. Get easy on late nights and alcohol: Yeah, I know, I said that! This year I basically missed all of the BOFs sessions in the morning, because there was no way I was going to get up at 6am to attend one of them at 7am. It’s just not going to happen! Perhaps they should move them towards the end of the day … hint, hint, and let us get some good night sleep!!

5. Be prepared to walk & take an extra pair of shoes: Stuart McIntyre, from Collaboration Matters, mentioned to me in a Skype conversation, before just heading to Lotusphere 2008, that I should go and listen to The Taking Notes Podcast’s episode #74, as I was bound to find everything I needed to enjoy the event as a first time attendee. Of course, I listened to the fine show put together and one of the comments was that every day we would be walking quite a bit in between hotels, sessions, Labs, evening activities, etc. etc. Well, that is just so true! I literally burnt out a pair of shoes just from walking!! (Thank goodness I always take a spare one with me!)

6. Hang out more at the bar(s): Like usual, and this is something I have learned over time myself, all of the best social networking is just happening right there, right then: The bar(s)!! And there are plenty of them, so I need to go to them much more often than what I already did this year! I know, hard to combine with #4!!

7. Trust the network more: IBM’s Lotusphere 2008 has probably been the first one, from all of the different IBM and non-IBM conferences,  I have attended where the wireless network has just been amazingly brilliant and reliable throughout the entire event, even when it was all finished and done with! I need to make a conscious effort to do some more live con-blogging, twittering, shooting photos / videos, etc. etc. The network will be just fine!!

8. Walk even more than this year: Not only would it prove to be a very very healthy activity, but it would also give me the opportunity to check out more extensively the fantastic Product Case area where lots of the hottest action was happening! Yeah, can you believe that I only returned with one (Not lousy!) t-shirt?!?!? Yes, I know. Sad

9. Talk to more people: Well, I guess I can’t have enough of it, can I? To me, it’s what makes every single event a great success!! Meeting new people who you may share a passion with for whatever the subject, introduce yourself to most of them (Even if you do not know them!), show off with one of your lovely MOO cards, and start talking! Believe me, in my experience this year, people are very willing to find out more about who you are, what you do and what brought you to Lotusphere … and bingo! A new connection has been born! Time then to nurture it!

10. And, finally, my favourite tip for next year; Let serendipity do its magic; Over and over again! Serendipity is a wonderful thing, we all know that, but you would be amazed at the huge volume of really stunning conversations I had throughout the conference event due to one or another of those serendipitous encounters. I am surely going to let it do its magic much more often than what actually happen this year?

How? Well, walk, walk, walk and walk all over the place!! That’s how I met the folks I wanted to meet up with in the first place. And I only got to see about half of them!! So next year I need to walk twice as much as this year so that I can keep bumping into several folks I would really want to meet up with, but also letting that magic work for those folks who I don’t know anything about just yet and who are just waiting to make that connection. Like I said, let serendipity do its magic. After all, it’s just the perfect place, don’t you think?

Well, that would be it, folks. That’s the final blog post from my reviews of one of the most superb events I have ever attended. Ever! I mean it. I am surely looking forward to next year’s and put into practice all of the tips I have mentioned above. But how about you? If you were there this year, what would be your tip(s) for next year? What would you do different next year to enjoy the overall experience ever so much more? Tell us … We are all ears!

Tags: IBM, Lotus, Lotusphere2008, Lotusphere, Collaboration, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Communities, Social Media, Learning, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, KM, User Experience, Meet the Developers, Labs, Emerging-Technologies, Genii Software, Lotusphere2009, Tips, Orlando, The Swan Hotel, Luggage, Suitcase, Travelling, Stuart McIntyre, Collaboration Matters, The Taking Notes Podcast, Bars, Social Networks, Networking, Conversations, Dialogue, BOFs, MOO Cards, MOO, Serendipity, Magic

Actually, it rocks, because, as you would be able to see from the screen shot, I have reached Inbox zero on top of it and it surely looks rather nice being able to play with a very solid release, even though it is still beta, and getting rid of all of the e-mail that may have come over the weekend. Oh, and at the same time check out some of the nifty features that are coming along, like the embedded RSS / Atom feed reader client that, although simplistic, it sees to be the only one keeping up with the heavy update of Web sites like Twitter.

W00t!! Yes, indeed, can you imagine? My mail box running hand in hand next to my Twitter feed? How cool is that? And that is just the beginning, because I am surely going to enjoy this beta release before we move into the next one. First, time now to explore all of the different capabilities, like installing plugins, hacking the Welcome / Home page, etc. etc.

Who said that Mondays couldn’t be fun? Well, mine is so far…

Tags: IBM, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes, Notes 8, Notes 8.5, Notes 8.5 Beta, Mac, MacBook Pro, Apple, Notes Client, Productivity Tools, Performance, Eclipse, Lotusphere, Lotusphere2008, Twitter, Syndication, Inbox Zero