There are days like yesterday where one gets to experience mix feelings upon receiving certain types of e-mails or bumping into specific blog posts that you thought would have been totally unexpected. There are news items that you come across and have a strong sense they may be related to April Fools’ Day, specially if they happen on the day before or on this very same day. Yet, when you come to digest them properly, you realise they are not and you are faced with some interesting piece of news that you just don’t know how you it is going to sink in!

Well, yesterday I had one of those days. And that’s probably why I am posting this entry today, I suppose, as I feel it deserves much more than an e-mail reply or a blog comment to an internal blog post I know is not going to be seen any longer by the original poster. Yes, that is right. Yesterday was the last day at the company from Sebastian Thomschke.

"Who?" - you may be asking yourself, right? I know that for most of you that name probably doesn’t ring a bell at all and that is fine. For some of us though that name meant a before and an after in how we boosted our productivity in IBM as far back as 2001! Yes, indeed, I realise that it may still not sound very familiar, but allow me to spend a few minutes sharing with you why I received with mix feelings the news that Seb was moving into other pastures…

Back in 2001 we used to have an online real-time collaboration tool called IBM Community Tools that a whole bunch of us, early adopters, started to play around with knowing that it was that kind of Instant Messaging tool that would disrupt tremendously the way we collaborated and shared our knowledge with other peers synchronously. Such tool introduced a good number of very innovative approaches towards connecting and reaching out to other knowledge workers. Examples like what was known, still is, as the Broadcast Suite, are the kind of stuff I am talking about over here.

Well, IBM Community Tools started to grab, more and more, the attention of plenty of other different people, and one of those folks was Seb himself, who was the very first person who developed plugins for such nifty application. Plugins that although not initially part of the specific tool, little by little, they eventually made it into the final product. So for a good number of years Seb has been providing us with an incredible amount of plugins each of which increased our own productivity tremendously! And all of that without asking for anything in return. Seb just simply ventured into exploring the potential of an IM tool that was going to revolutionalise the way we connect in real-time and decided to share his innovative approach on how you would work smarter, not harder.

From there onwards, and not only for that application, Seb took things into the next level and started hacking some really really cool Lotus Notes databases that still today have got a huge traction, to say the least! I am still using a few of them to help improve my own productivity. And yes, they work for the Notes 8.5 beta client on the Mac, too!

And, lately, he was also working on a new, very remarkable Enterprise 2.0 approach on how to enhance the overall experience of both the Intranet and the Internet to help accommodate knowledge workers have faster access to information. Unfortunately, I will not be able to comment much more on this, since right now that particular application I am talking about is on a pilot phase and hasn’t gone public. But believe me, if it ever does you will be the first to know

Either way, that’s what Seb did to this company. If you would be asking me to define in one single word, or a couple of them, I think it would be rampant innovation without asking anything in return! Now you understand where the mix feelings are coming from, right? Well, not only that, he is also a wonderful person. After all of these years hanging out together in multiple various online spaces, testing out his productivity hacks, providing feedback, improvements, enhancements, and whatever other discussions, we actually never got to meet up face to face. Till this year. In Lotusphere 2008! Yes, I had the enormous pleasure of finally meeting up with him and in person he is even nicer than what he is online! And those who know him personally could certainly comment on that one!

Thus that’s why yesterday and today I have been going through a bunch of mix feelings, because even though it is a terrific event to see how one of your good friends moves into other pastures and decides to start a new adventure, I am sad that he is no longer with us in IBM. I do seriously wish him all the very best of luck and I am sure that we would eventually meet up again at some point. Now you know why I titled this blog post like I did.

"Hang on?" - you may be thinking - "Wait, he just developed a couple of features for an application that is no longer there! You must be kidding, right?". Well, not really. For those folks who may not know it, IBM Community Tools, along with Notesbuddy (And I will talk about this one some time soon as well) are the two main sources of input that were provided to come up with what nowadays you know as IBM’s Lotus Sametime (Both 7.5.1 and Sametime 8!). And, in fact, a good number of some of the features and hacks he put together are now part of Lotus Sametime Advanced 8!

That is correct! What it all started as hacking away in his free time and see where he could push the limits through innovation, a couple of years later, became a very solid IBM collaboration and knowledge sharing tool! And even more merit comes into place when some of the Web 2.0 concepts you will find in Sametime 8 come from what he did in the past! And all of that just talking about the kind of impact his rampant innovation did to such product line! Just amazing, don’t you think?

If you are not sure just yet what I am talking about, a good number of the folks I follow have been sharing their thoughts already on IBM’s Lotus Sametime Advanced 8. You may want to go ahead and check out some of those links. For me, you would see now why I thought that this blog post would do a bit more justice to Seb than an e-mail reply or a comment to his internal blog post where he mentioned he would be moving on, starting today!

From here, I just want to give my sincere thanks for everything!!! to a former colleague and a good friend, I am sure to bump into once again, who showed us all the way of how far a single employee can push the limits if they set themselves to it! Seb proved it and for that he will be missed. Wherever he may go next, they just don’t know what they got in their hands. I do.

Well done, Seb!!

Tags: April Fools, April Fools Day, IBM, Innovation, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing, Online Collaboration, Knowledge Management, KM, Sebastian Thomschke, Synchronous Collaboration, IBM Community Tools, ICT, Notesbuddy, Broadcast Suite, Lotus Notes, Notes, Noes 8.5, Mac, Enterprise 2.0, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Social Media, Lotusphere, Lotusphere2008, Lotus Sametime, Sametime, Sametime8, Sametime Advanced, Lotus Sametime Advanced

Today has been one of those days where I should have probably taken the day off, seeing how busy things have been going from one meeting to the other and from one conference call to the next. Yuk!! Not the best way to spend what was starting, early in the morning, as a very productive day. And all of that because of me being a bit lenient with how I process meetings and conference calls for the last few months. That would teach me for the next time!! Perhaps now that I have been reporting on a weekly basis how I am processing work related e-mail I should go ahead as well and share with you folks how I eventually get to work with my weekly meetings. Quite an interesting approach, I can tell you, but that would be the subject for another upcoming blog post.

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

After being rather hectic the last couple of days, working on a couple of presentations for more upcoming conference events, plus my regular work duties, including meetings galore all over the place, here I am back again at the blog. This time around with something that I had the intention of blogging already beginning of the week but that Jerry Bowles‘ SMT Blogger of the Week - Luis Suarez, the Blogger from Paradise displaced till I could find a better time for it. And that time is today!

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

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!, to all of those folks who may be celebrating it today! I know that for plenty of the people who get to read this blog, today is a special day with plenty of things to celebrate and enjoy throughout. Well, you are not alone. I am, too! A day like today, 17th of March, back in 2004, my life, both on a work and personal levels, changed drastically! I came to live and work remotely to Gran Canaria, the place I once fell in love with about 12 years ago! Yes, that is right! Today is my fourth anniversary enjoying quite a unique situation: The Blogger from Paradise.

It is funny! Earlier on this morning, I had the intention of sharing with you folks something new I was going to re-introduce into this blog, as a way to celebrate these four years I have been living over here fully engaging with social software both inside and outside of the corporate firewall, and lo and behold, there I was having to postpone it for a few more hours, as I got alerted about something that I thought would be worth while sharing as well as part of such important celebration as today’s.

Yesterday late afternoon, I got contacted, through Skype, by Jerry Bowles, Co-founder and CEO from the Social Media Today collective, and he kindly asked me whether I would want to do an IM interview with him detailing some more about my role within IBM as a social computing evangelist as well as sharing some further thoughts on the impact that social software is having not only within IBM, but also with its various employees, like myself. Of course, I just couldn’t resist such an interesting offer and the result of it is SMT Blogger of the Week - Luis Suarez, The Blogger in Paradise.

In that particular article you would be able to read our Skype IM conversation on what kind of impact social networking has been having with myself and my various interactions with other knowledge workers, including my own boss, Gina Poole, who still keeps actively engaged with the internal blogosphere. Quite an interesting read, which clearly indicates how things are shifting within the corporate world, where employees may not longer be stranded in a fixed office in a traditional work location. On the contrary, with today’s pervasiveness of social computing along with the high penetration levels of broadband Internet connectivity, knowledge workers may be having the unique opportunity to decide where they would like to be working as their most motivating space to deliver on the job day in day out for an extended period of time!

Now, I am sure that everyone would understand that there are various different circumstances on how various knowledge workers get to interact with other colleagues, customers or business partners, but it is also very accurate to think that the traditional restrictions we once had about having to work from a fixed office work location may no longer be relevant in today’s distributed world. Such is the impact that social software is having amongst our current workforce where over 42% of the total population is now mobile; and I am surely glad to be one of those very very lucky guys who has got his dream job within such a large enterprise. And in Paradise.

Many people keep asking me what is the main business value from social software, and all along I have been saying something that certainly resonates with plenty of other folks out there as well. I am sure. In my own case, the main business value I am getting through social computing is the fact that the last three jobs I have had, have actually been given to me because of my corporate blogging activities, amongst several other tasks related to social networking. So, for those folks out there who may be thinking that that there isn’t value in social software, they ma need to think about it, because throughout my own experiences you can see that the impact can be tremendous, to say the least!!

What a great way to celebrate four years of coming to the place where I feel like home. Always have. Always will. And get to work on what I am really passionate about at the same time: Social Computing, Community Building and Knowledge Sharing! The picture shared below is just one of the thousands and thousands of reasons why I fell in love with the island four years ago and still am, just like in the first day …

Roque Bentaiga

Tags: St. Patrick’s Day, Saint Patrick, Patrick, Gran Canaria, Paradise, Jerry Bowles, Social Media Today, SMT, IBM, Blogging, Metablogging, Blogs, Gina Poole, Corporate Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Workplace, Virtual Teams, Online Communities, Skype, Mobile Workforce, Mobility, Flexibility, Work Life Balance, WLB, Working At Home, WAH, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Management, KM, Gran Canaria, Roque Bentaiga, Bentaiga, Mountains

First day at work today, after having enjoyed a wonderful week, last week, in Zürich, presenting at a couple of events and with various different meetings talking about social computing and social software, and one of the things that I keep thinking about, and reflecting some more, is the beauty of face to face social networking activities I experienced. Nothing like the human touch to nurture and work through your relationships to help improve your social capital!

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

The last couple of blog posts that I have put together were actually detailing various different highlights from the trip to Switzerland I have been doing this week presenting at Lotusphere Comes To You, both in Zürich and Geneva, respectively. Well, this third entry will be the final post from the series where I will be sharing over here some of the highlights from the remaining of the week, Wednesday, Thursday and today Friday.

As you may well know, the original plan was to actually meet with a bunch of customers and conduct a number of different meetings and workshops around the subject of social computing and the kind of impact it is having within the corporate world. Not sure why, or what the reasons were, but all of those meetings have been postponed for later in the year and since I have got a non-refundable flight ticket I actually decided to stay over here in IBM Zürich, Vulkanstr., and enjoy some office time.

Mind you, I know that for a whole bunch of you, this may sound like something very common and not unusual, but believe me, for me it surely was. I have been working remotely from home for the last four years and my closest office location is over 1,000kms. So coming back to an office space after that long surely was going to be quite an interesting experience, to say the least.

What I enjoyed the most? I never thought I would be saying this, but the canteen! And big time! The choice of dishes and various different options is incredible compared to others I have been to in the past. What I enjoyed the most? Hummm, not sure I thought I would be saying this either, but actually being surrounded by a whole bunch of strangers who are my colleagues (Didn’t know any of them personally, by the way), yet didn’t know much more about them. I guess I have been spoiled by Twitter and its lovely ambient intimacy for just too long! Ha! There I said it! Oh, oh, by the way, have you checked out the awesome 2,5 minutes video put together by the Common Craft folks under Twitter? (Show it to your colleagues, friends & family, because I am sure they are going to love it and learn quite a bit where you have been hanging out all this time! And if you want to get them on board, make them watch it!! Yes, I know, it is that good!!)

Right, so after that little discrepancy of being more connected to my social networks online than to those folks who were sitting next to my desk (What a weird feeling! I need to fix that for the next time, specially if my hosts are not there Yes, I know, busy people with customer commitments, too!) I actually enjoyed the stay quite a bit.

I had the opportunity to witness how social computing is slowly, but steadily, taking over the day to day interactions over here. In fact, one of the coolest things I have been doing over here was to recruit social computing evangelists for one of the communities I am co-leading and which is part of my day job! I went from zero members from Switzerland to over half a dozen in a couple of hours! heh Yes, there is nothing like recruiting face to face over a cup of coffee and some great conversations! heh

It was so cool to be able to reconnect as well with some of the folks I used to work with remotely many many years ago and see how we have all moved through different paths to then reconnect again. And we used Beehive for getting together over lunch and get some conversations going. No e-mail, no IM, just purely Beehive! (Goodness, I love that social software tool! And hope to be able to blog about it very shortly as well, too!!)

The interesting part from this particular gathering was to actually get to hear first hand from a bunch of folks sharing with everyone what their experiences have been with social computing over here; the struggle, the challenge, the excitement of getting things done, the adoption rates going up, etc. etc. Till one of the folks being with us shared a hard copy of a newspaper article that I just found too funny! So much so that I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it with my N95: e-mail coming to an end (Article in German, by the way). I bet you guessed what we talked for the next few minutes, right? Yes, indeed, about fighting and challenging e-mail on the workplace! *So* re-energising, to say the least!

For the rest, and after having spent well over two hours of lunch (Yes, I heart those kind of lunches!! heh) we all went back to our desks and mentioned we would meet again when I get back, some time in April or June this year, we shall see. But one thing for sure is that I can’t wait.

From there onwards back to the desk in an open office with plenty of buzz and having to mute my phone while in conference calls because my team thought I was in some kind of party with all the noise in the background! (I wish! ). Overall, I had an incredible week meeting some really smart and passionate folks who live social computing, so much so, that before I came over here I thought it would be rather dead, and on the contrary, it is alive and kicking and very much so!! Just brilliant!

Finally, from here a special word of gratitude to the wonderful hosts I have been having throughout the week. They have made my stay incredibly pleasant and very indulging, so much so, that they all know I will be back!! And I can’t wait for it, to be honest! Zürich still is one of my favourite cities in Europe and when you have got special places in dodgy areas like Lily’s, event better!!

Till next time!!

Tags: IBM, Lotus, Lotusphere2008, Lotusphere, Lotusphere Comes To You, LCTY, LCTY2008, Collaboration, Social Networking, Social Software, Social Computing, Communities, Social Media, Learning, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Zurich, Geneva, Switzerland, e-mail, Office, Lily’s, IBM Zürich, Twitter, Ambient Intimacy, Commoncraft, Screencasts, Beehive, N95, Gratitude