Now that my blog is up and running again, after the recent debacle I have described in this other blog post, and that regular blogging, once again, has resumed, I thought it would be a good chance as well to remind folks about an important change that will be happening very soon and which may affect some of you as well: BlogLines will shut down its doors on October 1st. Are you ready for the move? You probably should! Specially, if you are one of the 200+ folks who are subscribed to this blog’s feed. After that date you won’t be able to get updates from it anymore. Time to prepare…

That’s right! According to the statistics coming from Feedburner, it looks like there are a couple of hundred folks out there who are subscribed to http://elsua.net through BlogLines and it may be a good time to prepare the transition into other RSS Feed Readers, if you would want to continue syndicating the content from this blog. My good friend, Jack Vinson, has put together a rather helpful and insightful blog post, where he has shared some of the alternatives that folks may want to consider, whether you would be interested in online or offline feed reading. It’s a good read and I highly recommend it.

You may be wondering what my RSS feed reader recommendation may well be, right? Well, I actually use a combination of several RSS aggregators, since I decided, a long while ago, to load balance the amount of feeds I’m subscribed to, so that it wouldn’t be that overwhelming time and time again. So under Windows (I still have a T400) I am using RSS Owl, which is nicely integrated into my flow with Lotus Notes (You see? *So* much more than just email! hehe).

On my Mac, where I spent most of my days nowadays anyway, I use a variety of them: Opera, Cyndicate and Vienna for my offline feed reading and specially for those RSS feeds behind the firewall. I use Opera and Cyndicate for the immediate daily internal reads and Vienna for the good-to-read-at-some-point, but-not-really-in-a-rush-at-the-moment. Also use Vienna for researching articles published by others that I know I may need to reference at some point in time.

For my external RSS feed reading habits I am currently using NetNewsWire (Offline) and Google Reader (For which I use a couple of user interfaces through iPad apps I have described already on several blog posts). I use the latter as well with two accounts: one with the essential newsfeeds I go through every day, and another one with the general feeds I have been following over the course of the years. Both accounts serve the purpose as well of having an online backup of the feeds, which allows me then to bring them with me wherever I may well go, which is when the iPad becomes indispensable as a powerful content aggregator. Not to mention as well how often I search for relevant content within either account, which I then include as part of my blog posts over here.

So, as you can see, perhaps a little bit too complex, but it works for me. It’s the feed reading habit that I have learned to grow and treasure over the last 8 years, when I subscribed to my first blog and the rest is history. It’s a system that works for me, and don’t expect anyone else to take it up for themselves. However, one thing I have learned throughout the years is to let go with that obsession of wanting to read each and everyone of them all and reach “inbox zero“ on my feed readers day in day out. Well, that’s no longer happening. Somehow, by immersing rather heavily inside my social networks I have learned to trust them over time quite a bit and a good chunk of my feed reading habits is already pre-filtered by them. They keep finding the really good stuff I am interested in, and, most importantly, they keep sharing it across! Probably just as much as I do with them (I would hope). So instead of focusing on striking another “inbox zero”, I just focus on the content that matters to me and the rest I just let it go. Yes, once again, that river of news and the continuous flow of the Social Web…

Ok, hope you may find all of that information useful and helpful, but enough with that diversion, don’t you think? hehe … Like I was saying at the beginning, BlogLines is about to shut down in the next few days and you may need to start looking for another strategy to get your RSS feeds elsewhere, if you are still using it. The one for this blog is over here, so if you would want to move it across to your new RSS feed reader that would be the URL address you would need to use…

Hope to see you on the other side, after BlogLines is there no more!, to keep up with the conversations… Oh, and a good bunch of folks out there are also subscribed to the blog via email with the wonderful service of FeedBlitz. That is, indeed, another option; remember email going back to its roots? A messaging and notification system of sorts? Exactly! So here you have got the URL address you can use to subscribe to the blog through email.

Thanks again for sticking around and hope the transition on October 1st, or sooner!, goes smooth for those of you who are still using BlogLines. Good luck!

Technorati Tags: BlogLines, Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, iPad, KM, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Mac, Personal Knowledge Management, PKM, Productivity, Productivity Tools, RSS, RSS Feed Readers, RSS Feeds, Social Capital, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Networks, Social Software, Feedburner, Jack Vinson, RSS Owl, Cyndicate, Vienna, NetNewsWire, Google Reader, GReader, Opera, Sunsets, FeedBlitz, Subscription, Aggregators, Productivity Tips, Syndication

Today has been one of those days where my social periscope has been down for most of the day. Meetings galore at work, on the one hand, and an intense heat wave hitting the Canary Islands at the moment, on the other hand, haven’t made things too easy for me so far in the external social networking spaces, so I decided that, for today’s blog post, I’m actually going to do a little bit of light blogging and reflect about something that doesn’t have much to do with the usual topics that I get to talk about over here and, instead, I am just going to spend a few minutes remembering and rejoicing around one of those magical moments in someone’s lifetime that one gets to enjoy from something, an unforgettable event, that took place a month and a day ago, exactly, and which still lingers around in our collective memory. At least, that one from a whole bunch of us. Witnessing the historical moment of Spain winning the World Cup Final for the first time!

Yes, that’s right! Today is exactly one month and one day since Spain beat The Netherlands in the World Cup Final 1-0 and, when one comes to think about it, it sounds like it all happened a few years back already! And yet, it’s just 4 weeks ago since it happened! So, still we have got another 4 years to enjoy, and savour, these moments of a unique experience that I am sure is going to be quite difficult to repeat. But, still, what an experience, don’t you think?

I am not much of a football fan myself (Have always been a basketball guy! hehe), but one cannot deny the tremendous sense of pride, and happiness, that one gets just remembering that evening on July 11th 2010 when my home country decided to surprise the world and become the world champion far far away from their homeland, doing what they do best: play football! I still get the shivers whenever I bump into an online video that shows and describes the tragedy and drama of scoring the winning goal in the last few minutes of the overtime (Thanks again, Iniesta!) when you knew that we were just this close from going into penalties to decide who was going to be the next champion. That surely would have been unbearable and rather difficult to watch!

As if we didn’t have enough suspense already, right? I mean, I have been waiting for nearly 40 years for something like this to happen. And when you just experience it, you just basically can’t believe that it is happening altogether! Do you know what I mean? It all still looks like it was all just a wonderful dream! One that you get to play on the playstation or something! And yet, it’s true. It happened. Spain eventually became the world champions of something that we have been pursuing for decades already! Well, not anymore. That’s it! We are now done! We finally got that wonderfully delightful little star on our camiseta roja (red shirt) showing all of that furia we have been accumulating over the course of the years. Now it’s our turn to remember and treasure the moment and enjoy that sense of pride every so often. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Which is why I would like to ask you folks to bear with me on this blog post I’m putting together today, since I realise that it doesn’t have anything to do with the usual topics I have been blogging about all along. But I guess you would have to excuse for this one time to just go, select one of the many many video clips on this topic, watch it, get immersed on that sense of pride, content and happiness once more and share it across with you folks, so that you can have a taster of the kind of emotions that we went through on that evening and which lasted for a few days more! For some of us, it’s still there; rather intense and profound, specially experiencing how such tremendous outcome can definitely influence and change the way a country comes together as a single voice celebrating what promises to be something that we would be sharing with happy smiley faces with our great-great-grandchildren as one of those littles moments in life where we sit back and ponder: Yes, I saw it. I was there. In spirit. But I was there. From across the globe, realising that such wonderful victory will always remain deep in our hearts with that warm and fuzzy feeling one cannot neglect, but embrace and enjoy!

Yes, we are still world champions! It’s hard to believe, for sure. But yes, we are still remembering as it was just yesterday. And that will be like that for many many moons to come. Whether that team manages to win more matches and the odd championship here and there or lose some altogether, there is nothing that will take away what they have already given us a month and a day ago: Yes, The Spaniards Finally Did It!

La Selección Española, Campeona del Mundo Sudáfrica 2010 (Resumen) from J. R. Ferrero on Vimeo.

Thanks for that! You shall not be forgotten … Ever.

(Don’t worry, folks; I am not going anywhere; regular blogging will resume tomorrow, once again!  I just needed this nice and lovely break on a rather intense day )

Tags: World Cup, #worldcup, South Africa, Championship, Football, Soccer, Final, Spain, Netherlands, Campeones, History, Celebrations, FIFA, UEFA, Tiki-taka, Europe Cup Final, 2010, 2008, España, Orgullo, Pride, Leadership, Dream, Dream Come True, Special Moments, Things That Matter, The Smallest Things, Life, Remembering, Treasuring the Moments, Remembrance, Stories, My Stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Firmado
Red SOStenible

http://Red-SOStenible.net

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am sure that by now, if you are in the Enterprise 2.0 field, or are involved in some shape or form with social computing within the enterprise, you may have read about the tsunami of conversations that have been going on as a result of a rather thought-provoking and controversial article that Dennis Howlett has put together over at Irregular Enterprise under the now well known title "Enterprise 2.0: What a Crock" and which comes to question the validity of efforts behind such concept as that one of Enterprise 2.0.

I would think as well you have been reading further up on the huge number of reactions that Dennis’ article has generated in the last few days, so much so that you may think that almost everything may have been covered back and forth already with very little space to add some more into the conversations. Not to worry, from the very first moment I finished up reading Dennis’ article I decided there will not be another blog post on that subject where I will be trying to add my two cents. In fact, there is a good reason why I am not going to. And it’s not what you expect …

After having read through all of those links I have mentioned above, including Dennis’, I cannot help but recall how "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Most of you folks know that I come from a traditional Knowledge Management and Collaboration background going as far back as 2000. If you were involved with KM around that time, and three or four years before, you would probably realise how this recent discussion is just exactly the same one we had back then! Except with a different label. Enterprise 2.0.

Well, if back then we got hold of the wrong end of the stick by focusing on everything, but what we really needed to focus on (Processes and technology, mainly, over the people, i.e. the knowledge workers themselves), it looks like we are back at it again. Making that very same mistake! Again!

Fast forward to 2002 … where you will find a very interesting paper (On the nonsense of Knowledge Management) that James Dellow quoted along in the current discussion as one of the very few folks who connected the dots across time between both discussions. So we are not having this discussion as something new. It’s been there over a decade, like I said, with a different label, but the same end-result, or, so it seems …

That’s why I decided, from the very beginning, not to get involved, and stay away, from a conversation that seems to be heading in that very same direction (The wrong one, by the way!) we eventually ended up over a decade ago! Instead, I would want to point what I feel (And that’s just my two cents, so take them with a pinch of salt please…) is a much more interesting direction…

And that’s the huge (And shocking!) great news we all got exposed to earlier on today that surely have been making the rounds on a delightful set of follow up conversations: Dachis Group expands internationally acquiring Headshift, LTD. Massive!

Indeed, earlier on today there has been a exciting uproar on what promises to be the news of the year in the field of Enterprise 2.0. ReadWriteEnterprise, eventually, put it very nicely under this headline: "Dachis Group Acquires Headshift: Say Hello to a Social Business Consulting Powerhouse".

Why is this acquisition so exciting, you may be wondering, right? Well, to be honest, for a good number of reasons, but basically because of each and everyone of the folks who are, combined, part of the new Dachis Group. If the group before the acquisition was already amazingly talented and gifted, the Headshift’s merger brings up that talent into new heights, consolidating that powerhouse I can tell you right now would be worth while watching for in the near future. And that’s an statement falling short big time!

If you don’t believe me, apart from reading further on through some of the links I have mentioned above already, have a look into the announcement article that Lee Bryant shared a few hours back and be prepared to be wowed with wonderful, and very revealing, quotes like this:

"We are ready to move beyond the experimental phase to create real business transformation. Leaving behind the niche world of enterprise 2.0, we are ready to work with businesses at a senior level to run change programmes aimed at bringing their processes, internal IT and communications into the Twenty-First Century. It has never been cheaper or easier to collaborate online. It has never been easier to harness people power to drive business performance. It has never been easier to engage with customers and business partners. Yet, as we know, most companies have come to accept an overly bureaucratic, process-heavy high-cost model of doing business as the norm. They need credible partners who can operate across technology, organisational design and business analysis to help meet this challenge, not just evangelists or technology vendors. That’s our role." (Emphasis mine)

To then wrap it up with my favourite precious gem, which clearly establishes the unprecedented (And exciting!) challenges and goals laying ahead for the group (And for all of us for that matter!):

"We see great potential for addressing simple but important use cases at each of these levels of operation, but the main challenge in the short-term is how we can help second wave adopters make sense of the new world of social tools and networks, and this is something that keeps our feet firmly on the ground."

I always knew that both the Dachis Group and Headshift would be doing just fine on their own. And for a good number of years. After today’s announcement, I am 100% sure (And time will prove me wrong… or not) that the new Dachis Group is embarking itself onto one of the greatest missions from the 21st century: change the way we work in the corporate world and, for once, make things right … from the start!

Congratulations everyone involved and keep leading the way before we all lose our own tracks talking about labels and use cases in our echo chambers … Hello Executing Enterprise 2.0!

Tags: Dennis Howlett, Irregular Enterprise, Stewart Mader, Oscar Berg, Shel Holtz, Niall Cook, Oliver Marks, Andy McAfee, Thomas van der Wal, Gil Yehuda, Larry Hawes, Sameer Patel, Paula Thornton, Mike Lafleur, Euan Semple, Nevill Hobson, Dachis Group, Headshift, Lee Bryant, Livio Hughes, David Armano, Peter Kim, Jevon McDonald, James Dellow, ChiefTech, ReadWriteEnterprise, Consulting, Social Business Design, Business Design, Mergers, Acquisitions, Mergers and Acquisitions, Use Cases, Labels, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Knowledge Workers, Knowledge Economy, In The News, News, Announcements, Participation, Optimisation, Execution, Business Transformation, Change Management, Organisational Transformation

We are only just starting to savour the really good flavours left behind after the amazing IBM’s Lotus Knows IdeaJam (Which I talked about over here not long ago and which my fellow colleague, and good friend, Ed Brill, wrapped up quite nicely under "Thank you for participating in the Lotus Knows IdeaJam") that here we are again with IBM making its way into putting together the next massive online collaborative Jam event: Smart Work Global Jam.

Goodness! Indeed! No time for some breathing space and here we are again about to embark on what promises to be quite an event for 2009! There are already a number of conversations going on with regards to this subject and we are still a couple of weeks away from when it would kick off: 16th to 18th September 2009. You will find all of the various details over at the Smart Work Worldwide Videocast and Global Jam Web site and, as you may have noticed, the Jam itself will not be the only event taking place.

To kick things off, on September 16th, James Surowiecki (author of "The Wisdom of Crowds") and Jon Iwata (Chief Marketing Offer at IBM) will be doing a live videocast where they will be introducing the Jam itself with three thought-provoking statements that I am sure are going to create quite a stir. To name:

• "A typical organization loses 5.3 hours per employee per week due to inefficient processes impacting how they work
• The time we spend just looking for the right expertise and information to do our jobs adds up to two hours in a typical day
• Two-thirds of people believe there are colleagues who can help them do their jobs better…but they don’t know how to find them"

Wrapping up the overall theme of that live videocast with this rather inspiring quote:

"Smart Work is about creating a collaborative and connected business environment that empowers people, embraces change and ultimately increases productivity"

Not sure what you would think folks, but that quote and the three statements mentioned above are clearly various pain points within the corporate world that more and more Enterprise 2.0 and social software are helping out address and fix quite nicely and certainly provoke that knowledge workers continue to work smarter and not necessarily harder.

As you may have seen already, I am pretty excited about the Smart Work Global Jam, not only because it will be another priceless opportunity to collaborate and share knowledge, i.e. bouncing ideas back and forth, with other knowledge workers on issues that surely affect the way we do business on a daily basis, but also because this time around that excitement is ever increasing from yours truly by reading further on what would be some of the various topics that will be explored in detail and which will include the following ones (I have highlighted in bold the ones I am surely looking forward to participate in accordingly and you will see what I mean, if you have been reading this blog long enough … ):

• "Government – How can technology help government encourage broader participation and facilitate business growth?
• Healthcare – What new possibilities to make health services more affordable, accessible, and personalized are taking shape as people, data, and processes become more connected?
• How can collaboration help business process management evolve to drive optimization for all parties involved?
• How do we maximize the talents of the @generation while transferring knowledge and optimizing our ways of working across generations?
• What does the future of teamwork look like as teams become more global, virtual, dynamic, and comfortable with technology than ever before?
• What will work look like in 2020? What ideas can we apply in surprising ways?
• What opportunities will emerge as we harness newly possible input and output from mobile people beyond the traditional boundaries of our organizations?"

Not bad, eh? Like I mentioned above, if you come to think about some of the challenges, pain points, growing pains, issues that Enterprise 2.0 is currently facing within the corporate world, you would have to agree with me that some of those are very well represented on those themes that the Jam will be covering. And that’s why I just can’t wait for it to get started! There is just so much to share, discuss and learn from one another!

September 16th to 18th 2009 cannot come up soon enough in my opinion! If you are interested in participating, like I am sure I will be able to do myself, although perhaps not at the level I would hope for since that timeframe will collide with another business trip to mainland Spain, as well as a few days off on vacation (But I am sure I will find plenty of spare moments to chime in accordingly … hehe), you can do so by going ahead and registering for the event here. Further details on the Jam can be found, again, over at this link and I am surely looking forward to perhaps share some further details on the event as time goes by…

But, for now, how about if I go and throw this questions … Are you ready to jam? I surely am!

Tags: IBM, Lotus Knows, LotusKnows, Lotus Knows IdeaJam, IdeaJam, Jams, Jamming, Smart Work Global Jam, Smart Work, SmartWork, James Surowiecki, Wisdom of Crowds, Jon Iwata, CMO, Chief Marketing Officer, Kickoff, Launch, Work Smarter, Knowledge Workers, Government, Healthcare, Future of the Workplace, Mobility, Flexibility, Social Networks, Communities, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Future of the Enterprise

While everyone is anxiously awaiting for Snow Leopard to hit the shelves (Apples’ latest upgrade to OS X 10) later on today, if not already, my attention is actually elsewhere. For the time being, I am not planning on upgrading till a number of critical applications I use on a daily basis on my MacBook Pro are fully compatible with it. But, like I said, my attention today is going to be elsewhere.

A few details are coming along already on another major announcement that I have been waiting for months to take place! And it’s finally here! IBM’s Lotus Connections v2.5 is at last available for download! Yay!! My fellow colleague, and good friend, Luis Benitez, has already been sharing some details over at Lotus Connections 2.5 Is Now Available for Download. I am sure there will be plenty of other folks jumping in as well very shortly with more information related to today’s announcements. And relevant information resources are starting to become available for everyone as well, like the Lotus Connections v2.5 Information Center repository.

I am certain, at this point in time, that you may be wondering why I am so excited about the announcement of this release from Lotus Connections, right? Well, there are plenty of them! But the main one is that, finally, I will have a great opportunity to share with everyone out there, interested in the topic, how Lotus Connections v2.5 is *the* main Enterprise Social Software tool that I use rather heavily on a daily basis to help me escape corporate email and live "A World Without Email".

Yes, that’s right! Most of you folks know by now that I have been making use of a social software tools suite all along to help me diversify and fragment successfully my email Inbox to the point that over 90% of my daily interactions happen elsewhere than through email. And of the 90% of interactions a good chunk, around 70%, perhaps, happen through Lotus Connections v2.5 and its various different components.

I have been using all of the new features and enhancements that v2.5 has been putting together and making available for download today for a few months now in our internal deployment and from the very beginning I have been commenting several times how without this fundamental release taking place this year I probably wouldn’t have been as successful in giving up on corporate email as I have shown over the last few months (See yesterday’s post as an example, for instance).

Thus the exciting thing for me for today is not just the availability of Connections v2.5 for everyone to download or upgrade to, but more the fact that from today onwards I will have an opportunity to share with you all, and show you!, how I am living "A World Without Email" by making use of my primary Enterprise Social Software tool: Lotus Connections.

And that’s the main reason why I am titling this entry as "Using IBM Lotus Connections 2.5", because that’s what I will be doing over the next few weeks, every so often, and, perhaps, as part of the weekly progress reports themselves, more than anything else to show and share with everyone a good number of use cases that you can apply to your day to day tasks and activities, so that you can see how embedding social software into your daily workflow is not as tough and difficult to achieve as most people would think.

Should be quite an interesting and fun journey sharing with everyone out there how I eventually work on a daily basis, pretty much like the fascinating blog post that Stowe Boyd put together a few days back on "being an onfovore" and which I can surely relate to quite a bit (A must read, by the way, if you are into social networking and social software in general).

For now though I am going to leave you with a couple of teasers of what you may be expecting over the next few weeks. And that’s basically by sharing with you a couple of very interesting resources I am sure you are going to enjoy. The first one is a screencast, divided in multiple chunks of a just a few seconds each and making a total amount of nearly 42 minutes, and titled "Using IBM Lotus Connections 2.5" and which you can find over here. It’s one of those very helpful resources that will provide you with a good solid overview of what to expect from Connections and a good rundown of the various new features.

And while talking about general overviews, you may also want to have a look into this other resource, which I think you are going to find very relevant as well. It’s a YouTube video that features the one and only, the demo master, Ron Sebastian, who over the course of nearly 7 minutes he gets to explain some of the new features folks would be able to find in Lotus Connections v2.5, including a live demo with some snapshots. You would be able to get the direct link from here or, alternatively, check out the embedded version below:

And that would be it for now folks. Enough teasing. Can’t wait to share with everyone out there how if I have been able to reduce my incoming count of emails by over 90% perhaps you could, too! Why not? The choice is ours, don’t you think?

Tags: Snow Leopard, OS X, Apple, Mac, MacBook Pro, Lotus Connections, Connections, Lotus Connections 2.5, Connections 2.5, Information Center, Stowe Boyd, Onfovore, Screencasts, Tutorials, Education, Resources, Training, YouTube, Ron Sebastian, 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, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, Use Cases, Business Value, Value Add

Do you remember the blog post I shared over here a couple of days ago on "Us Now – On the Power of Mass Collaboration, Government and the Internet"? Well, it looks like there are some really good news available out there. The film is now online! Yes, indeed, over at Vimeo! I just got alerted about it by my good friend Steve Dale (Great thinker, prolific blogger and thought leader on Communities, Collaboration and Knowledge Management you should start following, if not already!) who earlier on put together a nice lovely article on the topic, available at US Now film now online, which included a short introduction on what to expect from the film:

"In a world in which information is like air, what happens to power? Us Now is a documentary film project about the power of mass collaboration, government and the Internet.

Us Now tells the stories of online networks that are challenging the existing notion of hierarchy. For the first time, it brings together the fore-most thinkers in the field of participative governance to describe the future of government."

My first reactions to the film, you may be wondering, right? Well, none at this point in time. I haven’t watched it just yet. Weekend is just around the corner and my brain & body decided to make other plans for what’s left of this Friday afternoon. So I guess I will be watching it over the weekend or early next week, and at that point I may be taking a few minutes to share with you folks what I thought about it, but seeing some of the already existing videos interviews I sense I am going to like it. And quite a lot!

So, here it is. Hope you enjoy it (I know I will! ). Have a good one everyone!

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Tags: Us Now, Films, Movies, Steve Dale, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Government, Society, Humanity, Vimeo, Inspiration, Insights, Video Interviews

After a pretty intensive and eventful weekend, from which things have started to settle in quite a bit already, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on something I witnessed on Sunday morning, local Canary time, which will be rather difficult, if not impossible to forget. Or, at least, I hope not!

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

Continuing further with the series of blog posts on the recent blog template changes that have taken place over at elsua.net (Parts I & II can be found here & here, respectively), I thought I would continue with one more blog post, which perhaps is going to have the highest impact on my overall blogging style and which I thought was a good time now (With the upgrade and everything) to go for it.

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