Earlier on this week, you would remember how for the weekly progress report for week #29 I mentioned that later in the week, yesterday, to be more precise, I would actually be spending a few minutes doing a Skype interview with the wonderful Nora Young from CBC radio show Spark, where I would be talking much more in detail about how to give up on corporate email for good and how I have been doing it for the last 18 months and counting…

And it looks like the interview is now available at the CBC Spark blog under the following title: "Full Interview: Luis Suarez explains how to quit email". You will be able to listen to the podcasting episode directly from that blog post or you could download the MP3 from here.

It lasts for a little less than 28 minutes and in it we had a great conversation throughout where I started giving some background on why I begun with this initiative over 18 months ago; the consequences and key learnings over time; the kind of responses I have been receiving all along; where I would go further from here, and, perhaps the much more interesting part, which is the one where I share a few tips that would help out everyone out there, who may be interested, how to perhaps not give up on email altogether in favour of social software tools, but certainly how to reduce quite a bit of that email clutter we have probably gotten too used to and, instead, make good use of social software tools to share our knowledge and collaborate with other knowledge workers.

I must say that being interviewed by Nora was actually plenty of good fun, because we eventually managed to talk about a good number of things I didn’t touch base in the various blog posts I have done so far, or the numerous conference events I attended last year or the ones I have been involved in this year so far. I was surprised about that, because I thought I had said most of the stuff around this topic of giving up on corporate email already, but it looks like Nora just asked the perfect set of questions to help me share a different set of insights on what it has been like living without email at work for over a year and a half now and still going strong…

So, I am going to keep this post on the shorter side of things, and leave it over here for now. And if you would be interested in listening to the interview I did with the delightful Nora (We surely had plenty of good laughs, too, on common misuses of corporate email! Hilarious some of them!), you can head over to the original blog post Dan Misener put together, or, alternatively, you could download the .MP3 file from here.

Hope you enjoy listening to it, just as much as I did participating in it. It surely was a blast and I would want to take this opportunity to give a special thanks to Tony Burns, who made the introduction with Dan possible in the first place and to Nora & Dan himself for having me in their show! Thanks ever so much, guys! It was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Tags: Tony Burns, Alumni, Dan Misener, CBC Spark, Spark, CBC Radio, Radio, Nora Young, Interviews, 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, Diversifying, Fragmentation, Email Clutter, Reducing Email Clutter, Radio, Podcasts

And so we did take part on these two different fun podcasting episodes, where we talked about a whole bunch of different topics, but always with some of the best highlights, in our opinion, of Lotusphere 2009 running in the background. Now those episodes are readily available for replay and I am sure you may be wondering what we did talk about actually with both Neil and Stu, right? Well, here is a quick synopsis of what you will find in both episodes, to give you a taster of what to expect:

Collaboration Matters 8 – Los Dos Luis (36MB download and running for 26 minutes in Spanish with Neil)

• Lotusphere – the excitement and the challenges
• Successes and challenges for Social Software
• Is Social Software "Mainstream"?
• A Year without email – working in different ways?

Collaboration Matters 9 – LS09 Connectr BoF Review (41MB download and running for 30 minutes in English with both Neil & Stu)

• What is a Connectr?
• Who was there and what did we discuss?
• Tools versus Enablement & adoption
• What Social tools are people using – injecting Social Software capabilities into the existing application landscape
• Actually using Social tools – asking questions and opening up the Silos
• Do Social Software Best Practices really exist?
• Who is driving social software adoption within organisations?

As you will be able to see plenty of really good and interesting topics where both Luis Benitez and myself shared our two cents on what we have been seeing in this social software space for a little while now and where we may be heading next. On episode #8 I even got a chance to talk about living "A World Without Email" and this particular episode may be more interesting to those folks who speak Spanish, since we had the entire conversation in Spanish! Funny enough, it’s probably one of the very few podcasting episodes I have done in my native language. Yeah, too funny!

On episode #9 you will be able to get a grasp of our first public reactions to the BOFs session both Luis Benitez and myself did along with Stu on the topic of Connectr. Perhaps one of the most engaging and interactive sessions I have been talking around the subject of Enterprise Social Software, adoption, social tools, the so-called "best practices" of social software (Priceless that one, I can tell you know, and something I will be coming back to shortly as well with a couple of follow up blog posts) that I can remember in a fully packed room.

So, I am going to leave it there for now, and would encourage you have a listen to episode #8 where you can find out plenty more about social software at the same time that you can practice your Spanish skills , or have that rare chance where you can hear me talk in Spanish about some of the 2.0 subjects I have been really passionate about all along. On episode #9 you will be able to find out, first hand, what we learned from the BOFs session (Connectr) we did at Lotusphere.

From here I just want to take this opportunity to share a special thanks! to both Stu and Neil for their time and for their kind invite to the Collaboration Matters podcasting show and to my tocayo for sharing along all of the good stuff he has been doing all this time in the field of social computing and, more specifically, around IBM’s Lotus Connections. Thanks, guys!

Tags: Collaboration Matters, Stu McIntyre, Neil Burston, Connectr, 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, A World Without Email, IBM Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2009, Lotusphere2009, LS09, BOFs, Lotus Connections, Connections, Enterprise Social Software, Social Software Adoption, Best Practices

Moving onwards then!

Yes, folks, it is that time again! The Sweettt Podcast moves on further along and I am happy to bring you over here our next episode (Episode 11), where both Matt Simpson, my good friend and co-host, and yours truly spent a few minutes talking some more around the topic of Information Flow (Part II). You can download or play the podcasting episode from this location. And here are some show notes of what you may expect from listening to it that Matt already mentioned in the corresponding blog post:

• “What is more important, quality or quantity?
• Who you are in your blog is very different than who you are in a microblog.
• What constitutes a valid blog? Can a blog be trivial?
• When does your Twitter become a village? – See Laura Fitton
• How do you enter a online social village and navigate its streets?
• To achieve flow in the information space, how do you sample information?
• What is the alternative to managing content within the information space?
• How do you choose which new technology to use in the information sharing space?
• What kind of people try technology first? What does a bleeding edge early adopter look like? See Chris Miller
• How do you keep track of your new technology?
• What’s the ideal amount of technology for the majority of us?
• Which is the predominant future trend, increased technology fragmentation with more tools, or consolidation of technology into fewer tools?
• If services become specialized and exploited in other contexts (other web sites), what will be the incentive for the service to be provided, especially if people are not going to the homepage?“

And, of course, you will notice as well how we spent some time as well talking about living “A World Without Email” and our growing need to diversify our email inboxes; to fragment them so that it does fit a specific purpose versus all purposes, which is what is happening at the moment. Some fascinating conversations, indeed, which developed into other areas we will be exploring in future podcasting episodes.

Oh, yes, it is good to be back! Hope you enjoy the episode, just as much as we did

Tags: The Sweettt Podcast, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Modern Salon, Tertulia 2.0, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Conversations, Dialogue, Communities, Learning, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, Information Flow, Learning Trends, Learntrends, Elluminate, Micro Blogging, Micro Sharing, Quality, Quantity, Blogging, Blogs, Metablogging, Laura Fitton, Pistachio, Pistachio Consulting, Twitville, Chris Miller, Idonotes, Technology, Web

Indeed, last time I blogged about The Sweettt Podcast was in November last year! Ouch! That hurt! I cannot believe that it’s been that long already! Where does the time go, eh?!?! Not to worry, every so often we have been able to get together and record some amazing conversations with some really interesting folks in the area of Enterprise 2.0, Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration, plus our usual 1:1 conversations on whatever else is left out there …

However, I thought I would pick up the subject again, specially after talking to Matt and announcing we have fixed the issues with the iTunes store (Finally, you can now subscribed to our podcast by going into this link!) and let you know that since last time I blogged about it, we have got two more episodes for you to enjoy:

1. Sweettt.com – Episode 9 – Put Your Innovation Where Your Mouth Is – Part 2 of August 22nd Discussion
2. Sweettt.com – Episode 10 – Information Flow – Part 1

Plus plenty more that will get posted over the course of time. Yes, we know, we could be a bit more regular on our sharing of the various recorded episodes. And we are working on it! Eventually, we are also going to change a little the scheme we have been using when announcing those different episodes.

Instead of putting together rather lengthy blogs posts where we share extensive show notes, including some fancy tagcloud visualisations with the wonderfully crafter Wordle, we decided we don’t want to be the bottleneck, so from now onwards expect rather shorter entries, like this one, with one or two lines explaining the major themes we discussed on the podcast and from there onwards we are going to leave it up to you to go and listen to the various episodes and share your thoughts / comments to keep the dialogue going.

And that’s it! I guess we are back in the game! The Sweettt Podcast feed is now finally fixed and we are ready to keep those conversations flowing. Are you ready to join us? Do let us know! Get in touch! We would be delighted to have you on the show!

Tags: The Sweettt Podcast, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Modern Salon, Tertulia 2.0, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Wordle, Conversations, Dialogue, Communities, Learning, iTunes

You may have noticed how over the last couple of weeks we have slowed down a bit. Like I said above already, it is in part due to my not being there for our weekly recordings, but we still get together and record the episodes which you can then listen and engage with at a later time, whenever we have got the opportunity to push them forward. And, as you may have noticed already, we are on Episode 8 already, this time around on the following topic: Inside and Outside the Firewall – Part 1 of August 22nd Discussion.

Matt already shared his show notes, which are an excellent read and a must go through, if you woud want to find out more on the essence of this particular episode, before you start listening to it. I will take the opportunity now, though, to recap and share my own show notes to provide you folks with an additional set of commentary that would help digest the content of the podcast or, at least, help venture what we have been talking about over the course of a bit over 35 minutes.

Thus here they are. I have tried to keep the same spirit and flow as with previous episodes, hoping to spark as well a smile here and there and hoping as well it would give you an opportunity to chime in with that special request that Matt mentions towards the end of the recording:

- Still lingering around on the awesome experience of the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, back in June.
- Robin Carey, from Social Media Today gets a mention. One of the many fine people we met while at the conference (*wave* Hiya, Robin! *wave*)
- Oh, and Mark Masterson gets another mention! We might as well make it with him on the show! Actually, we are!! Stay tuned!
- Yes, indeed, there is nothing that will beat face to face while at a conference, but then again, social software provides the perfect add-on to help augment that face to face experience and make it even much more intense! And relevant.
- Enterprise 2.0 social software within the corporate world *still* has got a place. Just because not many people are as extrovert as we think they are.
- Finding your own comfort zone would be key for that social software adoption. Even for something like sharing pictures!
- IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines get another mention along with the opportunity to have a protected environment where people can play with these social tools in a safe environment.
- Yours truly regretting the fact it took me two years!, before I decided to have my Internet blog(s)! Should have been a lot sooner than that!
- Yeah, don’t get too comfortable either or you will never move on / change! (Yes, I learned through the hard way!).
- WOW! Matt has been online for 17 years and all over the place!!! Where were you back then? (I was playing ball! ).
- (Did you know that Matt was probably the first person who introduced the concept of wikis inside IBM, way before the corporate world was even thinking about it?)
- Censorship is not healthy. Period.
- There is always a space to share stuff internally and externally. What would rule it? Yes, indeed, you got that one right! … Common sense.
- Little anecdote shared as well of how all my three blogs started with different content and because of having, each of them, different audiences in the end it all moved into cross-posting between all of them.
- Corporate blogging is *not* a waste of time! Why? Because a blog empowers employees to have a voice, both inside and outside of the corporate firewall.
- Even smaller companies can benefit from blogging. Meaningful content will still be shared and commented on. Remember, it is not about the quantity, but the quality of the blog posts!
- Ranting is not as effective as constructive feedback. Isn’t that right? heh
- (Although sometimes the odd rant here and there wouldn’t harm, right? Even in the microsharing world!)
- Another perk from corporate blogging: allowing you to find experts on a particular subject they are passionate about. Yes, sir!
- Injecting now one of my all time favourite thoughts I have been putting together all along: people will always be keen on sharing their information / knowledge just because they want to, not because they have been told so. It is a natural behaviour.
- Storytelling, anyone?
- Another perk of social software behind the firewall: a much lower barrier of entry. In most cases, it takes a matter of seconds to have a blog, a wiki, a podcast, etc. etc. No approvals required!
- Oh la la "The Emperor has no clothes!" coming back again! Always learn to be positive, don’t criticise, always suggest improvements. That’s how we have been taught (Wise words from Matt, indeed! Loved it!)
- You see? Constructive feedback & co-creation of solutions can do wonders!
- Not being afraid of bad news is key in the world of social software adoption. Be ready to take that feedback on what’s broken and help fix it! It cannot get better than that!
- Openness, transparency, public knowledge exchanges … Hummm, where did I hear that before?
- Go and read the main five reasons Matt has annotated that clearly explain why social software within the corporate world still has got a place. It always had and always will!
- Yeah, at the end of the day it is all about how your passion drives the stuff you do at work (And outside as well, of course!), but it is that passion that will make things easier to engage with others, and connect with them, specially if you share that common interest!
- Thus what is it that you are passionate about? Is that passion showing?

So there you go, another really interesting episode, we think, that we hope you get a chance to enjoy and participate from. Now, off to The Sweettt Show and engage in the amazing conversation that is going on at the moment! Will see you there!

Wordle of episode #8

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, Conversations, Robin Carey, Social Media Today, SMT, Mark Masterson, Social Computing Guidelines, Corporate Blogging, Enterprise Social Software, Common Sense, Constructive Feedback, Co-Creation, Ranting, Openness, Transparency, Public, Knowledge Exchanges

"In this episode, we really point out all the things that are wrong about the modern conference and presentation format. In our conclusion of our August 15th discussion, we contrast this old guard presentation style with a more refreshing approach in which the audience is a key contributor to the event. When people gather together within conferences, this is a knowledge sharing event, designed to maximize the sharing of insights and perspectives."

At first sight you may be pondering that what we are actually doing is talking about the "barcamp" concept. No, we are not talking about such concept. In fact, we are talking about how we feel regular conferences would need to do to move into the 21st century. Have a listen to the whole episode and you will see what we mean…

Matt already shared his show notes from this particular episode and you would be able to read them all over here. Now, it is my turn to give it a show and share with you folks what I got out of that episode and what I learn while recording it with Matt. Yes, we do get to learn a thing or two, as well! And even better when those new ah-ha moments kick in live, right there, right then, and you have got that sense of accomplishment very difficult to surpass heh (Yes, you can tell I am loving the show quite a bit thus far, eh?). Here we go!:

- Still musing on the superb presentation that Carl Frappaolo did on Knowledge Management 2.0 and how disruptive it was from the traditional breakout sessions you get to attend on a regular basis. Hang in there, we are not talking about barcamp events …
- I still think about it along the very same lines: "Main tent / Keynote sessions are a waste of time from a knowledge sharing point of view."
- With the huge amount of events on Enterprise 2.0 flourishing out there nowadays, we need to look for new models of delivering the message. Traditional events need to move into the 21st century and become much more engaging than what they are now!
- People at conference events appreciate quite a bit not being talked at… (Too true!)
- Two way conversations rule at conferences, why neglect them? What would it take to change the model of delivery. Webcast format(s) are just that, for the Web, not in front of real audiences, real people!
- One of the best keynote speaker sessions I have been to this year from the various events I attended, and which I thoroughly enjoyed for the innovative approach, was that one of Harriet Pearson, Chief Privacy Officer at IBM, at IBM’s Web 2.0 Summit, who got started with her session by asking whether the audience had any questions, way before she started talking on the topic of privacy!
- Now, that’s the way to engage with an audience as a keynote speaker and grab their attention from the very first moment! Oh, and check out Harriet’s Facebook profile to see what she is up to (It will surprise you!)
- Will upcoming conference events be up to the challenge? Will you be up to the challenge? heh
- Moving on … ahhh, the obsession of slides for every single conversation. Wonder what the world was like before slide decks took over?!?
- "Without your slides are you naked?"
- Wish people would start giving up on slides. For good. They are just a tool, NOT your message!
- [Check out Matt's show notes on this section... Couldn't have put it in much better words than those! W00t!]
- Dave Snowden gets a mention for being on of those rare folks who doesn’t use slides and gets away with it! Powerful! Wish more folks would follow his example …
- Lou Gerstner gets a mention as well as being on of those folks who doesn’t use slides either!
- [Too funny that in the course of about a month from now I will eventually be meeting up face to face both of them! -- Stay tuned for more updates coming up on that! ]
- Musing on how BIG people feel when they know they have got a bunch of slides behind them is probably as good as it gets on what needs fixing!
- We will probably cover this topic at another time, since there is so much more to talk about! But let’s move on …
- Brainstorming on the best way of engaging with the audience from The Sweettt Show. We have got the blogs where some folks have been commenting so far, but what would you want to use to engage with our tertulia and be part of the show! Share your insights with us! More than happy to accommodate … Remember, this is our – your tertulia!
- We will figure it out at some point, I am sure …
- Introducing the podcast at the end of the recorded episode?!?! My goodness! What’s going on with these guys?!?! Are they crazy? (Probably!)

And that would be it, folks, for this our 7th episode of The Sweettt Show on Conversations as The Future of Conferences. We hope you enjoyed it and get ready for the next one, because it is just around the corner! And it promises to be just as entertaining … we hope …

Oh, dear, I won’t let you go just yet … I nearly forgot to include as well in this blog post the Wordle (Thanks, Jonathan!) from this episode, so here you have it:

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, Conversations, Conference Events, Enterprise2conf, Carl Frappaolo, Bountiful Net, Dialogue, Barcamp, Harriet Pearson, CPO, Chief Privacy Officer, IBM Web 2.0 Summit, Facebook, Presentations, PowerPoint Obsession, Dave Snowden, Lou Gerstner

Matt already shared the details and the link to this particular episode and I can certainly encourage you to have a look into the initial description he put together, because it is rather descriptive of what you would find throughout the episode itself. Here is a short excerpt taken directly from his blog post:

"Engaging in meaningful discourse enables us to truly know what we think we know, by getting a chance to hear what we have to say. The ability to recognize certain facts and patterns is only an introductory level of understanding. However, when we can freely recall information & ideas, and actually generate language based on those concepts, this is an indication that a deeper, more thorough level of understanding is achieved."

I would also suggest you take a look into his show notes as you would be able to find a nice outline of what we discussed over the course of nearly 25 minutes and which I am sure you are going to find rather enlightening with all of the different links included.

At the same time, and also, to keep things going, I will go ahead and share with you folks my own show notes, so that you get a flavour as well of what I got out of this particular episode, where you will see that we are still touching base on our own experiences around Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, from back in June (And Yes! I still need to put together the highlights and share them with you over here, but doing it through the podcast is probably just as good, right?). So here you have got them:

"- Still on the "Age of Conversation"
- On the importance of Introduction on a podcast… Or not? Probably not, right?
- Forget that you are recording in the first place! You would be much better off, believe me.
- "Feelings inside of you are a tremendous source of information [...]", bunch of wise words, indeed! Glad Matt shared them with us!
- Ok, ok, no traditional Intro on Sweettt.com. Let’s bring it on! Natural conversations rule!
- Oh, oh, I think we just set up on an outroduction for the podcast.
- Nik Canvin, fellow IBMer and communitybuilder, gets another mention… Where is he nowadays? What’s he up to?
- Nancy Dixon gets another mention on describing how to get the most out of speakers. And it is not their speech or their lovely presentation, but something else…
- Facilitating a conference event is not an easy task, but certainly dominating your session would probably not be the right way, would it?
- The best conference events out there are those where dialogue and conversation take place. Not where people pitch at you whatever they would want to without allowing for interaction back at them! Doh! Any conference available out there following this format, please?
- No names mentioned, but those folks who were at Enterprise 2.0 may well remember one of the keynote speaker sessions doing it all along these very same lines and totally wrong. Right from the start, and right till the end of the *next* keynote session!
- Leaving your comfort zone can be a real challenge, eh? Are you willing to do just that?
- It is *good* to let control go, people! Specially if you are in the Enterprise 2.0 field!
- Ahhh, the power of the lobby!! That’s where the *real* conversations take place!
- Go out and seek out those conversations. Don’t wait for them to come around your way!
- Why is it that most Subject Matter Experts feel threatened when leaving their knowledge comfort zones? Are they still expecting, or expected, to know it all? Hallo?!? Not anymore! Welcome to the 21st century! Wake up! Move on and dive into the conversations. You are missing out!
- Instead of patronising the audience, next time around try by facilitating the session with the audience. See the difference!
- Carl Frappaolo, one of the speakers at Enterprise 2.0, gets a mention on how he got it right, from the very beginning!
- And his session was one of the best from the entire conference!
- *That* is just how you engage, as a speaker, on whatever session you may be providing: get the best out of the audience!"

And with that stay tuned for our next episode where we expand plenty more on this very same subject of engaging with your audience at conference events as the best, and most effective, method of knowledge sharing and mutual learning!

Oh, and if you thought I would let you go and listen to the episode directly or download it from here, it is not going to happen just yet. Why? Because I thought I would share with you as well the lovely Wordle (Thanks, Jonathan!) that Matt put together for this episode. Here it is:

Have fun!

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Tertulia, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, Conversations, Conference Events, Enterprise2conf, Nik Canvin, Nancy Dixon, Facilitation, Facilitator, Carl Frappaolo

As you may have read in a previous blog post, we are not on episode #2 of the series, but on #5. It was, indeed, the second episode I co-hosted the podcast with Matt, but he has been working already on Sweettt.com for a little while and in reality we would be talking about that #5 I just mentioned. Thus we haven’t chewed on three consecutive instances of the podcast. I just caught up myself with the total amount of episodes available for tuning in! And yes, we are on #5!

Second item that I would want to touch base on is that if you have listened to that last episode shared you would be able to find out how we are still searching for the identity of the podcast and we may have reached it already! We are probably getting very close and we are going this time around with "The Sweettt Tertulia". We both like the term & the concept quite a bit and may stick with it for a little while more, as we explore some more options, but so far, it does seem to resemble that whole purpose of what we envisioned for the podcasting series from the very beginning: A Tertulia of a couple of friends with some other friends coming along and engaging in conversations on topics we all feel very passionate about!

Thus with all of that said, you can go ahead and check out "Sweettt.com – Episode 5 – How to Make a Great Podcast", from where you can listen to the podcast episode directly from there or, alternatively, you could go ahead and download the .mp3 audio directly from here. As usual, Matt put together a few show notes, which will give you an idea of what we talked over the course of roughly over 30 minutes. And at the same time, he included the lovely Wordle (From Jonathan Feinberg), which I am also going to include over here, so that you can get a bit more of a visual image of what we talked about:

Oh, and if you would want to have some more text, apart from all of what I have already mentioned over here, check out my show notes from the episode, where I have also tried to keep that informal flavour from previous chapters:

Show Notes #5:

- Still recovering from the SMACK found from episode #4. Boy, *that* was hilarious! Tummy still hurts!!
- Ahhh, those good old times while at high school. Remember them?
- Sweettt Tertulia is born! And with a special 2.0 flavour!
- Yeah, I like it … "The Sweettt Tertulia Show". Think we just nailed it!
- Moving on with the topic of Conversations (Yeah, we know, our favourite subject!)
- Finding the identity of a podcasting series is not as easy as you would think! Specially striking for the magic formula!
- What makes a good podcast? Yes, that’s what was in our mind and we think we are getting pretty close …
- Whooops! 113 downloads, not episodes, Mr! What were you thinking?!?!?
- Doug Cornelius, one of our favourite KM bloggers gets a mention, while discussing podcast consumption, while commuting.
- Time flies when you are having fun and you completely forget you are recording!
- 30 minutes of goodness! Is that the right length?
- 30 minutes may be a good measure, but why cut off the conversation when it is really engaging? Keep it rolling, baby!!
- Slicing it all may well be the final solution, while learning from others how they do it. Why re-invent the wheel, right?
- Matt Moore gets another mention for how he manages the podcasts he produces and distributes them in multiple parts of the same long episode. Nifty!
- Fun, fun, fun! The power of Show Notes! It isn’t your typical TOC, eh?
- Want to engage with us on the conversations? Get involved, drop a comment, whether it is text or audio! We’ll grab it from there and bring it on!
- At the end of the day… a podcast is still a podcast! Regardless what people may say!
- Oh la la, as a result of this episode http://sweettt.com has gone through a major re-design. SWEETTT!!!

Hope you enjoy this episode, just as much as we did recording it! And stay tuned, because there are plenty more to come!

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt Tertulia, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Identity, Tertulia, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, Doug Cornelius, Matt Moore, Innotecture, Engineers without Fears

Yes, that’s right! In this, our second episode, we actually discuss, pretty much like in every beginning, plenty of stuff with regards to the identity of the podcast, its own branding and where we would both want to take things with it. Rather some interesting discussion that folks new to podcasting may find rather revealing on the trials and tribulations from getting things going at the initial stages.

This time around the episode is a lot shorter than the introductory one, lasting for a little bit over 20 minutes and I can guarantee you that if after listening to that episode you haven’t laughed your b**t off, you won’t ever! We had a very unexpected guest who decided to become the star of the show. Towards the end of it, actually.

Just like in the first episode, I thought I would go ahead as well and share with you over here the different annotations that both Matt and myself put together while listening to the episode and describe the train of thoughts that went through our minds all along:

"00:30 Welcome & Introduction – “The Age of Conversation”

01:50 Silly Baboons – Matt sends Luis a photo of the two of them with a caption “Silly Baboons” Who said that podcasting is not fun?

02:30 We’ve not far from the apes

03:10 Great Photos – Chris Brogan getting a mention for his incredibly good photography skills, amongst many other things! heh

04:00 Our Name & Brand – What should be our name? Should we include Elsua in the brand? Finding an identity for The Sweettt ELSUA podcast? Excuse me? (hey! “Sweettt Elsua” hmmmm) Branding? Podcasting? Is there such a thing? Excuse me?

Surprise, surprise!?! We can’t comment on that one yet! (But stay tuned!)

04:45 A future Elsua Podcast, in the making… ELSUA going solo podcasting! YAY!!! About time, too!

05:00 Interviews & Conversations in the Enterprise 2.0 podcast space – On the importance of Enterprise 2.0 interviews… We can’t get enough of them? Fancy being one of our guests?!? Let us know!

Sebastian Thomschke getting a mention, too!

06:50 Getting ready to bring more discussants on board

07:00 Mark Masterson – is interested in joining the discussion (actually, Matt broached this with Mark back in Boston)

07:00 Jon Mell – is interested in joining the discusion

08:00 Mention of Dogear Nation and their dynamic fast-paced style of conversations. Wooohooo! Dogear-Nation getting another mention! (We highly recommend subscribing to that podcasting series, if you haven’’ done so already!)

10:00 In depth discussion is the goal, just like a decent long chat over coffee. Entering the Age of Conversation and on the power of coffee! What’s the right length of time in a podcast? The one who figures it out gets the big prize!

12:13 Tertulia – Luis teaches Matt a new word. And then “Tertulia 2.0″ was born!

12:50 A loud SLAP is heard

13:15 An intellectual gathering… Babbelfish translates “tertulia” into ‘Social Gathering’… It’s like a Salon. Now really getting into the “Social Gathering” thing. Boy, did we have some good fun or what?

14:11 What is a Salon?

14:30 Tertulia definitely has a strong intellectual component, highly social, intense discussion, very intellectually stimulating

15:30 A cocktail party among the cogniscenti. This is a Salon. Tom Short, former IBMer and good friend of ours, gets a mention when talking about the concept of “Salons”. Yes, we are still in search of that identity for the podcast!

16:50 The kind of discussion that Mark Twain would be found within. Oh, oh, we are now about to get in trouble. Mark Twain coming up on the show, too!

17:40 Agreement, disagreement… Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Maybe we just nailed the identity of The Sweettt ELSUA Show: Tertulia 2.0!

18:20 Luis attacks a poor defenseless creature.

18:40 And THAT’s how you share knowledge!! BAP!!!

19:15 Finish"

Oh, and if that is not enough, we have put together as well something that we know is getting more and more popular by the day and which we both love dearly: a Wordle (Thanks much, Jonathan! Remind us to invite you for drinks whenever we would meet up face to face, please!). Yes, that is right, if you are more into the visual side of things, that same set of annotations will transform into this:

Thus, without much further ado, here is the link where you can play the file directly, or, alternatively, you can download the .mp3 audio file from here: The Sweettt ELSUA Show – Episode 2 – On Finding an Identity.

We hope you enjoy listening to it, just as much as we did recording it, and, I tell you, like I said above, if this episode does not make you laugh, nothing will! … (Wait till the end!)

Have a good one everyone!

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, The Sweettt ELSUA Show, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, email, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, E-mail Abuse, Visibility, Awareness, Think, Re-purposing E-Mail, Dogear-Nation, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Enterprise2conf, E2.0, Mark Masterson, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Paradise, Identity, Conversations, Sebastian Thomschke, Jon Mell, Tertulia, Tertulia 2.0, Salon, Mark Twain, Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg

Yes, that’s right, from now onwards and, on a weekly basis, I will be the co-host, along with Matt, of The Sweettt Show and over the course of about 30 minutes we will talk about various different subjects, in most cases having to do with Enterprise 2.0, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Social Software, Knowledge Sharing, Personal Knowledge Sharing, Communities, Collaboration. Indeed, the usual stuff both Matt & myself have been blogging about all along…

To get things going, and without much further ado, last Friday we sat down and got busy recording the first episode of the podcasting series, which, as you will notice, is a rather long one, a bit over 86 minutes!, but it gave us the perfect opportunity to detail what would be some of the main topics we will be discussing and touching base on in in much shorter future episodes as we move along.

However, to give you a sense of what you will be able to find on this first episode I have put together the following TOC with some additional commentary that I am hoping will certainly spark your interest to listen to it and, why not?, perhaps come back or subscribe to the entire podcasting series. You are more than welcome to leave your comments over here or in at The Sweettt Show and rest assured that we will be covering them in future episodes, so if you have got any questions or items you would want to bring up to our attention, go ahead and share it with us! Oh, and before you ask, we are both in Twitter as well, in case you may want to leave a comment or question that way as well. Here are our IDs: elsua (Yours truly) and Matt Simpson.

Thus, here is the TOC you will find on our first episode of The Sweettt Show:

- Introduction of the podcast, Matt & yours truly as co-host of the weekly show and how we got to know each other back in 2001!
- Communities & history of IBM Communities with CommunityBuilders & Babble.
- Openness in communities to let them flow freely wherever they may want to go…
- CommunityMap – Index of IBM Communities behind the firewall.
- Communities and the role of collaboration, knowledge sharing and social software tools as enablers.
- Of course, giving up on e-mail & what’s meant for me over the course of the last six months!
- Attending conference events and how face to face interactions are the purest form of social networking at its best.
- Glimpse of the networking activities while attending Enterprise 2.0 in Boston. Both Matt and myself were there (Yes, I know, my highlights are still coming up! Not to worry. I haven’t forgotten! heh)
- Mark Masterson, Rosario Sica, Emanuele Quintarelli all get a mention
- Origins of Knowledge Management, back in the days of the (in)famous pyramid of tools, processes & people, as well as the umbrella concept of something called KM.
- Knowledge Management vs. Enterprise 2.0: Are they one and/or the same?
– Personal Knowledge Sharing vs. Knowledge Management.
- On the ease of use of knowledge sharing as the way it should be. Natural. Flowing.
– Simplicity rules when collaborating and sharing your knowledge with others. On lowering the barriers of entry & engagement.
- Of course, once again, giving up on e-mail in favour of other 2.0 interactions in an open, public and transparent Enterprise 2.0 world.
- On Social Software Evangelism at a large corporation like IBM and describing what it is like (i.e. I am co-leading a community of over 400 evangelists inside IBM helping accelerate IBM’s adoption of social software – BlueIQ Ambassadors, as part of BlueIQ).
– On passion & finding the dream job …
- Communities as major catalysts of social software adoption within the corporate world.
- Still think that social networking is all about goofing around? You may need to think again!
- Having fun at work? … What’s that?
- What kind of role should trust have in the corporate world with the emergence of Enterprise 2.0?
- Accelerating the adoption of Social Software inside IBM through a community effort. Getting things started with recommendations on SmallBlue, a.k.a. Atlas (Who would have thought about that, right?)

Phew! I know! Pretty intensive 86 minutes! But we surely had fun and we hope that you would, too, at least, just as much as we did recording our first episode together! You would be able to listen to the podcast live over at New Cohost . We’re Going Enterprise 2.0 or, if you would prefer, you could download the podcast right away from this direct link.

Hope you enjoy it & till next time!

(Oh oh, and not to worry, there is still one other surprise I have got reserved for you folks, actually two of them, but those may still take a few days before I can talk about them over here as I am still finalising them Stay tuned though for more info details coming up!)

Tags: The Sweettt Show, Sweettt, Matthew Simpson, Matt Simpson, Podcasting, Podcasts, Episodes, Series, New Media, IBM, Collaboration, Remote Collaboration, e-mail, email, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Computing, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Conversations, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Collaboration 2.0, Communication, E-mail Abuse, Visibility, Awareness, Think, Re-purposing E-Mail, Dogear-Nation, Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Communities, Learning, Innovation, Twitter, CommunityBuilders, Babble, CommunityMap, Enterprise2conf, E2.0, Mark Masterson, Rosario Sica, Emanuele Quintarelli, Traditional KM, Personal Knowledge Sharing, PKM, Ease of Use, Engagement, Simplicity, Evangelists, Ambassadors, BlueIQ Ambassadors, BlueIQ, IBM SWG, SWG, Passion, Fun, Play, Fun@Work, Play@Work, Trust, SmallBlue, Atlas, Lotus Connections, Connections