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

Welcome to the new @elsua!

Or welcome to the new Luis, for that matter! I guess there is nothing better than honest, constructive, candid, helpful feedback about your blog and blogging style, specially when it comes from people you respect and treasure for what they have taught you over the years in one of the areas you feel very passionate about; in this case Knowledge Management and blogging.

Yesterday afternoon my good friend Jack Vinson shared the following tweet across with me:

"@elsua I know I have mentioned this before, but consider getting an editor "

Of course, he was referring to this, my personal business, blog and my own blogging style, which some times tends to meander in and out quite a bit and become perhaps too verbose, making it almost impossible to go straight to the point at times and get people confused in the process.

Check! Guilty as charged! If you have been reading this blog for a while now, you would reckon it’s been one of those on-going challenges I have been wanting to address and fix, specially for those folks out there who can’t afford to spend lots of time reading through lengthier blog posts to then have difficulties finding out where the golden nuggets are. Yet, it’s been such a complex challenge to fix that Jack suggested, for the second time, I should look for an editor to help tame that storytelling flavour my blog posts seem to be permeating from all along.

Well, this is it, folks, this is a new beginning for yours truly, Luis Suarez (a.k.a. @elsua), as I am about to make one extra effort in order to accommodate that potential audience out there wanting to read and grasp those knowledge nuggets in the shortest time possible and move on. Not sure how it is going to pave out in the end; it will be, I guess, another on-going learning experience, but, if it helps, I’m surely willing to give it a try and then see how it may conflict with my usual self.

Earlier on this morning I had one of those wonderful and rather educational Skype calls with another good friend of mine, David Tebbutt , who saw my Twitter exchange with Jack yesterday and who kindly offered, during our conversation, some tips on what I could do to change some of the flavours that may be coming from those blog entries. I do know I just cannot pretend to be someone else I am not; I do know I am someone who isn’t too preoccupied with getting thousands of reads per article published.

I do know, however, I am someone who cares a great deal for those folks out there who may be following this blog (Or bump into it by pure chance) and who candidly provide lots of constructive feedback as a token of gratitude to help improve the overall content from this blog. So I decided enough with the meandering in and out, let’s cut to the chase, go straight to the point with what I would want to do, or say, because, after all, that’s what constructive feedback from folks you care about is all about: a continuous learning experience that helps you become better at what you do, i.e. that helps you become better at who you are!

So hello and welcome to the new @elsua! Feel free to drop by, say "Hi!" and leave a comment if you would want to improve that overall learning experience from yours truly. It will be very much appreciated… And a big thanks to both Jack & David for triggering something I should have done a while ago. Hopefully, it won’t be too late

Tags: Blogging, Metablogging, Renewal, Blogging Style, Blogs, @elsua, Feedback, Learning Experiences, Jack Vinson, David Tebbutt

¡¡¡Feliz Navidad 2009!!!

Yes, indeed, it’s that time of the year, once again, and whether you are out there about to celebrate such time, or not, I thought I would drop by to share a couple of quick words (Just in case I may not be able to later on today, seeing how things are starting to get busier than ever … hehe) to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and, specially, a very Healthy, Happy and Prospeous New Year!!

Hope you all have a rather peaceful and enjoyable time with your loved ones, treasuring those precious little moments that make it all worth it, all the way! And now instead of me sharing a bunch of words that will probably distract you from what you are about to embark on… how about if I just share over here a link to a short video clip that stars one of those 2009 characters difficult to forget and which has meant so much for a bunch of us not only on how to tell a good story, but also how to relate to it all the way from what we have been doing over the last few years …

Of course, I’m talking about "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections" (From Jean Francois Chenier) who wouldn’t leave us in such a special time just like that. After all, "sometimes, Web 2.0 is about being social"…

¡¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Tags: Navidad, Feliz Navidad, Christmas, Merry Christmas, Life, Work, Jean Francois Chenier, Lotus Connections, Connections, Best Wishes, Happy New Year, Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Bliss, Things That Matter, Special Moments, Joy, Fun, Stories, Storytelling

The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections – On the Business Case for Corporate Blogging

A few days back you would remember how I put together a blog post on the topic of "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections – On the Misuse of Email" where I mentioned a wonderful video clip that one of my fellow IBM colleagues put together detailing the misuse of sending files through email and how so much more efficient, and effective, completing that very same task would have been by using a file sharing Web site, like Connections Files, right? Well, it looks like Jean Francois Chenier is back for more!

Remember that other blog post I put together as well a little while ago on The Second Coming of Blogging? Remember how I mentioned I was starting to see a second coming of blogging, whether on the Internet or whether inside of the firewall? Well, it looks like Jean Francois decided to tap into this very same thing as well and the second episode of "The Man Who Should Have Used Lotus Connections" is now based on blogging and the many benefits of having a corporate blog.

My good friends, both Luis Benitez and Stuart McIntyre, have already been blogging themselves about this second installment over here and here, respectively. And slowly, but steadily, it’s starting to get the rounds all over the place with dozens of downloads after just a few hours being out. I guess that’s what happens when you get to produce one of those video clips that you know is not only proving a really good point on the usage of social software to reach out and collaborate with other knowledge workers, while sharing your knowledge across, but at the same time it is hilariously funny!

If you can spare 3:40 seconds I would strongly encourage you all folks to have a look into "The man who should have used Lotus Connections 2", sit back, relax and enjoy the show! As you go through it, I bet you would be able to relate to quite a few things that Jean Francois included in the plot of various scenarios that we are all far too familiar with. Perhaps too familiar.

Over the course of those 3 minutes 40 seconds you would be able to see how he makes up for a really good use case on why corporate blogging is still as useful as ever, it not more! Not only as your Personal Knowledge Management system, or your brainstorming or collaboration and knowledge sharing tool on the stuff that you are passionate about and that matters to you, but perhaps one of the most powerful ones out there to help you work through improving your own personal brand. There is probably no better tool than that one, to be honest.

Just recently I participated in an internal online panel for New Hires on Choosing the Right Social Computing Tool and towards the end of the session the moderator asked us to choose which one would be our favourite social software tool from the ones we have been using all along. Funny enough for 3 of us, me included, our first response wasn’t Facebook, nor Twitter, nor Flickr, or Del.icio.us, but our own personal business blogs. For all of us!

In my own case, I wouldn’t have it any other way, to be honest. As I am on my way to make my sixth bloggiversary with my corporate internal blog, I just can’t help thinking that when times were really rough it was my own personal blog (With over 2.700 articles at the moment) that managed to help me make it through to the point where my last three jobs inside IBM were provided to me by my blog. Not my resume, not my previous work / experience, but my personal corporate blog alone where, even till today, I still get together, on a regular basis, with a bunch of other passionate bloggers sharing insights on what motivates us to try to make a difference.

Yes, folks, that’s what blogs are all about. That’s why while I may be a bit silent in various other social networking tools, blogging still is, to me, that core neuralgic focal point of entry that amalgamates all of my social computing activities. My preferred and default Personal Knowledge Management tool. One that everyone should have and one that Jean Francois nails it on why despite everything else, blogging, in 2009, is still as valuable as ever…

(A big and special thanks to Jean Francois for keeping the series running and for sharing episode #2 with us all and for teasing us altogether as he prepares his way for episode #3 of the series … I just can’t wait! Well done, Jean Francois! Looking forward to the next one!)

Tags: YouTube, Videos, Jean Francois Chenier, IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Connections, Connections, Files, File Sharing, Blogging, Blogs, Metablogging, Weblogging, Luis Benitez, Stuart McIntyre, Collaboration Matters, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Branding, Personal Branding, Brands, Personal Brand, Corporate Blogging, Enterprise Blogging, Web 2.0, 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