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

Staying Connected Always Comes with a Price – Are You Willing to Pay for IT?

I’m sure that during the course of these first three months of the year you may have read already a few dozens of articles, blog posts, news items, etc. etc. stating that this is it! This is the year! 2010: The year of (the) mobile!!! 2010: *The* Year of Mobile!!!! Yay! Get your smartphone out and start enjoying a new era of Web Computing while on the road! Well, well, well, let me tell you something, folks. No! It’s not happening! 2010, once again, will not be the year of the awesome Mobile Web Computing experience. Not today, not by year end. One more year gone by and still waiting for the world of mobile to deliver… Maybe in 2011?!?! Who knows …

Either way, the reason why I am putting together this blog post today is because, as I have mentioned a couple of days back in another entry, last week I spent a few days on the road while participating on the Lotusphere Comes To You events in both Madrid and Barcelona and, once again, I experienced what it is like being disconnected for a good chunk of the week without remedy. I thought I would be able to get by being on my own home country, but, as you will see shortly, things didn’t turn out to be all right at the end of the day.

This is not going to be a rant post, well, at least, it’s not the original intention I’m putting it together for. It’s the reality. My reality of travelling on a rather regular basis both inside and outside of Spain and time and time again having to struggle with this hard fact: that true mobile Web computing is a myth. It always has been; it’ll be for a long while still.

As usual, I thought I would have an opportunity to do some work getting connected to my company’s VPN connection during those days I was not participating at the LCTY2010 events, but, unfortunately, things happened in a slightly different way than planned. As a starting point, I got to stay at the same hotel I usually stay in, the Confortel Suites Madrid (Calle de López de Hoyos, 143), where the rooms are large, spacious, clean, with everything included and where the service is amazingly helpful and very competent. And, of course, they offer free WiFi throughout the building! Pretty neat, eh?

It surely is! It’s the hotel where I have stayed already a few times, because of the lovely perks I just mentioned above, including that free WiFi. However, this time around, things didn’t work out all right. I stayed there for two and a half days and throughout all of that time I just couldn’t help get connected to the WiFi (The entire time!) and, what’s worse, not even the Ethernet ADSL connection. Yes, for two and half days. I raised the issue a few times and got told the connection was working and therefore should be able to access it, but alas I didn’t. Yes, I guess that’s what you get for free WiFi, right? No, I mean, really, I didn’t pay a single Euro cent for it, so I guess they were thinking of not delivering much, so I was cut off altogether from it.

That’s probably just fine, if you know about it in advance (I mean, if I would have known about it beforehand I wouldn’t have gone to that hotel in the first place. I would have wanted to save myself some time, and a few frustrations). You can then say you can opt-in for the pay per day use and get by your day with ease and doing your work. No, that won’t work, I am afraid. And not just for this hotel. It looks like, by default, you rather have free WiFi, or nothing. There is no alternative for pay per use models you could make use of, which means that if that one doesn’t work you are out of luck, like I was for those couple of days! Ouch!!! Yes, it hurt and quite a bit!

I then thought, "Hang on for a minute, you have got the iPhone 3G with you and that has got tethering with it, why don’t you give it a try?", which I did and this time around the results were a bit mixed up! Yes, through my iPhone tethering I found out I could connect to the Internet, but alas it would not allow me to connect through my VPN connection, so I was half way there! Well, actually, I never moved from that position; so got stuck with a good valid Internet connection, but most of the content I wanted to access was behind the firewall so again, there I was trying to get some work done and struggling to pass by the fundamentals: getting properly connected in the first place.

During the conference events I actually managed to have a good, solid WiFi connection, which I am sure most of you folks may have noticed, as it gave me an opportunity to live tweet all of the different sessions that I attended, although I didn’t have much more time to get some work done along the way. So I had to wait till Barcelona and hope for the best!

After a three hour delay, and stuck at the MAD airport all of that time with no access to the Internet, since we were asked to go from gate to gate to catch our next flight, it was time for me to arrive in Barcelona where I was staying at the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, a lovely, fancy and elegant 5* hotel where everything was just perfect, including the venue of the overall event itself. Except, of course, for the Internet connection.

This time around they didn’t have free WiFi, but a pay per use wireless connection, as well as another Ethernet based one. I thought it would be all right to make use of it, so I eventually paid 20€ (Yes, 20€!!) for 24 hour uninterrupted connectivity thinking I would probably be on my way to finally get connected in a decent manner. No, not this time around. I eventually checked the speed of the network through SpeedTest and got these whopping results:

I know you may be thinking that those are not such bad speeds for a hotel WiFi connection and I would probably tend to agree with you, except for a minor reason, which I think is a good one: the 20€ I paid for it! I have got a 10MB download WiFi connection at home for which I am paying 49€ every month. So let’s do the math on this one. If I am paying for what I would consider an outstanding service, I would expect pretty much to get *that* kind of service and not something that even my 3G iPhone can outdo in no time!

If you have it, and if you charge for it, the least we can all expect is that you would be able to deliver consistently, right? Well, it didn’t happen while staying in this 5* hotel and I surely was very surprised about it, because I thought it would be that kind of excelling service all around! It never arrived. And what’s worse is that I tried to using the iPhone tethering again while in Barcelona and that worked for the Internet connection, but not to help me get connected through the VPN option. Again! [Arrrgggghhh]

So once more, I was stuck for another day and a half, without access to my internal VPN network and on the brink of shouting out loud "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!"; I have had it! So much for relying on Internet Access services in multiple places that at the end, and due to the lack of them, one would have to go basics and start acting accordingly; thus here is what I’m doing from now onwards:

• Get one of those, somewhat not so cheap either!, UMTS devices that would help me stay connected regardless of where I may well be at all times; yes, I know and I do realise that’s going to be an expensive purchase, but then again, not more expensive than the several hundreds of $$$ I’ll be saving to the company not having to pay 20€ anymore per day trying to get connected through a very poor connection in the first place. It just doesn’t work that way, I am afraid, so moving along with the times: getting the independence I need to get my job done! That’s all what matters for Web Knowledge Workers nowadays don’t you think? I mean, can you imagine yourself travelling not having access to the Internet/Intranet? No, neither can I!
• Stop coming back to those hotels that have failed to deliver on what they themselves said they had in service; life is just too short to have to spend several hours trying to figure out whether you are connected or not; I just want to have things easy: start up the Mac … connected! Am I asking for too much?
• Create some sort of black list of those hotels where the service advertised in the specific area of Internet Connection didn’t deliver; more than anything else to help others avoid the frustrations I keep going through time and time again for continuing to come back to the hotels that don’t seem to put their act together. So this time around, I am starting with the Confortel Suites Madrid and Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I hotels in both Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, which failed to deliver (And they did a great job at it!) and managed to keep me disconnected for most of the week!

As you can see, staying connected while travelling still remains a challenge, and an expensive one, too!, if you ask me; and once again this week I will be putting things to the test when I travel to London to participate in the SOMESSO / Headshift Social Business Summit while I keep wondering what the network connectivity would be like, both at the event and at the hotel I’m staying. Will the latter be added into my already started black list? Time will tell … [Fingers crossed...] I just know I had to put a stop to this nonsense of not getting a good, decent Internet / Intranet connection, right when I needed, and even if I would have paid for it. There is a time when enough is enough, and for me that time has arrived today. And for you?

Tags: Mobile, Mobility, 2010, Smartphones, LCTY2010, Lotusphere, Travelling, Business Travelling, Business Travel, Mobile Web Computing, Hotels, Confortel Suites Madrid, WiFi, Internet Connection, Connectivity, Lack of Service, No Service, iPhone, Tethering, Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, Black Lists, SpeedTest, Services, Pay Per Use, VPN, UMTS, Web Worker, Web Knowledge Worker, Access, Internet Access, Wireless, SOMESSO, Headshift, #sbs2010, sbs2010, Social Business Submmit, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Productivity, Mobile 2.0, Mobility 2.0

When Command and Control Needs to Become Engage and Support

Every so often there are those times when you bump into a couple of articles published by people, who you know and respect dearly for the tremendous amount of great work they have done in the space of Social Computing, that give you such an adrenaline rush, while reading through them, that you just can’t stop thinking about anything else for a little while. And if those blog posts have got to do with two of my favourite topics from all along (People and Trust) in that context of the Social Enterprise, you know I will surely be sharing my two cents of the conversation.

So here I am; more than happy to point you to two essential, and worth while going through, blog entries that will surely make you think quite a bit on how important trust is for Enterprise 2.0 to succeed within the corporate firewall (And beyond, for that matter!); yes, I do realise that trust is one of those recurring terms / themes that perhaps may have been abused quite a bit, specially in the workplace context (Just as much as terms like Collaboration, Communities, or, even, Knowledge Management), but then again, when you see the word trust you know pretty well what you are referring to and could very well explain it in a sentence or two.

Well, my good friend Oscar Berg has just done that over at one of his recent blog posts titled "Control is waste & trust drives value creation", where he shares a couple of golden nuggets worth while remembering, when describing how crucial trust is for any personal business transaction amongst peers, customers or business partners:

"Trust is the fuel for any enterprise. Trust in your purpose, trust in your peers, trust in yourself.

Trust drives value creation.

Control is a sign of trust failure. Control does not add value. Control is waste. Control restricts value-creation. It is something management adds when they don’t trust their employees to perform as expected" [Emphasis mine]

I couldn’t have said that in much better words that those employed by Oscar; trust is the glue that makes collaborative work happen effectively across teams, communities and networks by helping knowledge workers excel at what they know best: constantly innovate. Every move, every conversation, every personal business interaction happening in an open environment where there are no restrictions, no limits, "no rules", just a bunch of knowledge workers wanting to make a difference for their customers and their business by sharing their knowledge across and collaborating efficiently.

The rest of his article is just as good and equally thought-provoking, so I would encourage you to go and read through it and find out his thoughts on how that lack of trust impacts tremendously the overall performance and productivity of those knowledge workers. Priceless!

Ok, now that you have read Oscar’s article, check out the absolutely delightful piece that my good friend, the always insightful, Euan Semple, has put together over at infoBOOM under the title "The Trojan Mice Approach to Enterprise 2.0", where he touches based on one of the recurring themes I have been mentioning on this blog for a long while already; and that is the critical role that people (Knowledge Workers) play in the successful adoption of Enterprise 2.0 within the corporate world, regardless of the tools / technologies and processes that may be available out there. To quote:

"You can build as fancy and expensive a system as you like but if people don’t want to use it and don’t feel comfortable using it then you might as well not have bothered. To get people to embark on this sort of culture change you have to gain their trust and they have to learn to trust each other. This is a process that has to happen incrementally and over time. Those charged with helping it to happen have to be sensitive to the powerful dynamics they are opening up and respectful of those they are expecting to engage" [Emphasis mine]

Once again, Euan nails it; it’s never been about the tools, nor the processes in place, but on the people themselves making good, and responsible, use of those tools as what they are, enablers, to help execute on each and everyone of those business processes they may be responsible for. It would be only then when things will really progress further in the right direction; that one of a very much needed change where those business needs will be finally matched up with the true, up until now hidden and ostracised,  talent, expertise, skills, know-how, experiences that knowledge workers have been accumulating over the course of time and which have been waiting all along inside that closet of command and control for far too long.

Euan, once more describes it much better than I could and, as usual, in his very suggestive and succinct way:

"The trick will be to move from “command and control” to "engage and support”. Building trust takes time. Becoming comfortable enough to be “social” takes time"

The remaining challenge though may well be whether businesses would be patient enough to wait for that more than worth it change to take place or whether, instead, they would prefer to do things the usual way: business as usual…

Tags: People, Trust, Oscar Berg, Control, Command and Control, Value Creation, Business Value, Personal Business Interactions, Euan Semple, infoBOOM, Time, Change, Change Management, Business As Usual, Support, Engage, Enable, 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, Productivity

Trips to Madrid and Barcelona to Present at Lotusphere Comes To You

Yes, indeed, it is that time of the year where very soon I will be on the road again for my second and third business trips of the year and already working towards finalising the last few details, before I embark on the not-to-be-missed and always interesting Lotusphere Comes To You events. That’s right! Next week Tuesday and Thursday, 9th and 11th of March, I will be in both Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, presenting a couple of times per event on the topic of the Social Enterprise (What else, right? hehe).

If you would want to find more details about the various Lotusphere Comes To You events around the world you can go and have a look into them over here, or at this particular link, where you will find the scheduling; in this case for Europe, but you could also access other geographies from there. The main Web site though for the Spanish Lotusphere Comes To You events can be accessed over at this link.

From there onwards, you can have a look into how you may be able to register for the event (If you happen to be around…), as well as check the agenda that has been put together for both events. Lots of interesting and rather relevant topics related to the main Lotusphere 2010 event that took place in January, as you may be able to see; I have now taken the liberty of sharing this screen shot of the agenda below so you can get a glimpse of what to expect:

You will see how in the agenda there is a key concept permeating throughout the entire event for both locations and that is the one on Collaboration. But not just collaboration for the shake of collaboration alone; more along the lines of Social Collaboration (i.e. The Social Enterprise) and Smart Work / Collaboration.

I will be speaking at two different time slots around the topic of Social Enterprise (One of my favourite topics as of late ) and the really cool thing is that in both cases I will be sharing the stage with a couple of very talented fellow IBM colleagues: Rafael Gallegos (Lotus Software Sales Manager SPGI) and Ed Brill (Director, Product Management IBM Lotus).

It will be the first time that I will be sharing the stage with both of them on a particular event, and I just can’t wait!, as I am sure it would be plenty of good fun! Ed and myself didn’t get much of a chance to talk while in Orlando, so it would be a good thing catching up, too! Plus it would also be a great opportunity to watch him deliver his session on "Smart Collaboration: la evolución del puesto de trabajo de colaboración" (I have already checked out his slideware for the session and I can tell you that you will enjoy it quite a bit! Lots of very similar topics to the ones I have been talking about over here for a while already …)

But don’t miss out the rest of the topics covered on the agenda, because there’re some golden nuggets out there as well worth while checking out, like "Modelos flexibles de adopción de las estrategias colaborativas" with David Gutierrez Serrano and Luis Sanchez Acera (Yes, another Luis! How many of them can you have doing very similar things in the same company, eh?!?!) and a couple of use cases / success stories of how IBM customers have been making use of Lotus Collaboration technologies all along.

Like I said, lots of good stuff! And I surely can’t wait to get there on Monday morning to go through the final round of details and get things going on Tuesday in Madrid and Thursday in Barcelona. Exciting, to say the least! As usual, there are a couple of online spaces that folks would be able to check as well to see how things go before, during and after the event. There are a Facebook and LinkedIn groups, as well as a Twitter ID. And from my side I’m hoping to be able to live tweet the event using my alter ego (Split personality) over at @elsua_b (And a few other tweets, coming through to you from the good old @elsua Twitter ID). Then I will be putting together a couple of blog posts with some of the highlights on my way back from both events, hoping to share with you what some of my main key findings have been during those couple of days.

All of that, of course, if I managed to have a good connection to the Internet, although having the events hosted in Spain is going to make things a lot easier this time around … Yay for iPhone tethering!!

If you would want to get together for a drink or two, or just basically drop by and say "Hi!", you know where you can find me, right?

Don’t forget to register, if you are going to be around during those dates! Look forward to seeing you all next week and exchange a thought or two on what a Social Enterprise is all about …

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere Comes To You, LCTY, #ls10, #lcty10, #lcty, Conference Events, Madrid, Barcelona, Spain, Agendas, Lotus Knows, Collaboration, Social Collaboration, Social Enterprise, Social Web, Smart Work, Remote Collaboration, Rafael Gallegos, Ed Brill, David Gutierrez Serrano, Luis Sanchez Acera, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, @elsua_b, @elsua, Registration, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, IBM, Lotus, IBM Lotus, Networking, Social Networks, Communication, Connections, Productivity