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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But, hang on, before I dive further into what I will be doing at the Social Business Summit, just wanted to let folks know that I’m already on the process of putting together a couple of blog posts summarising my experiences from last week’s business trips, with keywords like lack of connectivity (Nothing new!), physical social networking for the win!, Social Enterprise, Collaboration, cloud computing, and a vision. Hopefully, I may be able to sneak them in over the course of the next couple of days and if not I will do so when I get back from London the week after this other event. So stay tuned! (For now, if you just can’t wait to hear about what they were like, check out the live tweeting I did under @elsua_b for a taster).

Right! So why am I heading next week to London, you may be wondering, right? Well, a few weeks back Lee Bryant, CEO and co-founder of Headshift, part of Dachis Group, invited me to participate on the upcoming SOMESSO / Headshift Social Business Summit that will be taking place next week, on March 18th, where I will be moderating one of the panels: the one on Internal Use of Social Software, where I will try to share some further insights on what IBM has been doing for nearly three years now with one of its most successful social software adoption programs: BlueIQ.

It surely promises to be a rather interesting one, since I’ll be moderating a discussion where I will be sharing some of the various good practices we have been putting in place to help IBM accelerate its own adoption of these social tools; I am sure the interactions and conversations from those folks attending such session will also be rather insightful, as I’m certainly hoping they will be adding their two cents of how their own organisations are tackling the important topic of adoption of social computing (Both inside and outside their firewall(s)). If there would be a single word I could use at this point in time without revealing too many details just yet it would probably be "Interactivity!". So that would give you an idea of where we would be heading… Oh, but let me add another one as well though: "Provocative!"

Good starting points, don’t you think? Well, that’s just the beginning! It will be a whole lot better than that! I tell you. If you haven’t seen it just yet, I would suggest you take a look into the agenda of the event and this other particular blog post that Lee himself put together and which would help set the context of what will be happening at the summit. From the agenda you will be able to see how both Jeff Dachis  and JP Rangaswami will be the keynote speakers, to kick things off to a superb start already, to then finish off with the invaluable contributions of the many delegates attending the three themed workshops (Internal Use Cases, External Use Cases & Market / Ecosystem Use Cases) helping establish and identify the necessary changes and actions, as well as challenges, to progress further into that "Social Enterprise" concept that a bunch of us have been talking about for a little while already…

Then at the end of the day, each of those three themed workshops will be reporting back providing a comprehensive picture of the current state of things and where we will be heading with social computing inside & outside the enterprise to define the next generation of interactions and models of engagement amongst knowledge workers, customers and business partners. As you can see, I just can’t wait for it to start! So much to share, so much to learn from, so many conversations and discussions to dive into; in short, now you know where my excitement originates from and why I am really looking forward to participating in this Social Business Summit.

More information details about the Summit can be found over here, as well as the agenda itself, which contains the details on how people can sign up for the event, if you are interested in attending (Got anything better to do on March 18th? hehe).

As usual, depending on how things go on the connectivity front, I may be able to live tweet some of the various sessions I will be attending and then share with you folks follow up blog posts with highlights from the event. I currently plan to be there on Wednesday, while I prepare the workshop itself, and staying till Saturday morning, when I get back home, so if you fancy getting together for a drink or two, or lunch / dinner, etc. etc. give me a shout and get in touch!

Can’t wait to see folks over there! … Just three more days …

Tags: SOMESSO, Headshift, Social Business Summit, Summits, Events, Conferences, Conference Events, Workshops, Lotusphere, LS10, LCTY10, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Lee Bryant, BlueIQ, Jeff Dachis, JP Rangaswami, jobsworth, Social Software, Adoption, Enablement, Social Web, Social Enterprise, Social Collaboration, Social Ecosystems, 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, Productivity,Social Business Summit, SBS, #sbs2010, sbs2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember that blog post that I put together a few months ago that talked about one of the highlights of the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston? Yes, the one about the lack of a decent, and accessible!, wi-fi connection throughout the conference? Well, that very same thing happened most of the week last week. Again! So that’s why you didn’t see any blog posts coming through from yours truly, and why my twittering was very much like the Guadiana river!

Ouch!! Once again, Lotusphere couldn’t cope with the demand of its thousands of attendees to provide a decent, and reliable!, Internet connection while the event took place during the course of the week. So those of us who came from abroad were left out in limbo land. Once again! Very disappointing!

I know the demand for this year’s event has been huge, tremendous, probably too much, if you ask me (45,000 connections to the various access points on a single moment at the beginning of the conference?!?! WOW!), but I’m wondering whether it is the right time for that "Proposal for DIA (Decent Internet Access)". I mean, maybe it’s time to rethink how we put together the overall online experience for these kinds of technical conference events altogether, right? Who knows… The important thing is that we just can’t stop right there and "do nothing". Year after year.

I know it is not an easy solution, but folks like Eric Norlin (From Defrag) and the EventoBlog organisers have proved that you can actually put together a conference event and still keep the wi-fi up and running steadily and throughout the entire event. So why can’t the others follow those steps? Yes, like I said, it’s a tough job to do it right, but, in my opinion, totally worth it! I mean, can you imagine what Lotusphere’s Opening General Session would have been like if we would all have had a good and reliable Internet connection throughout? I am sure that, instead of the 4000 tweets that got registered, as mentioned during the event, we would have had several thousand more! But, alas, that wasn’t the case…

That is why you didn’t see much of me online, since, out of sheer frustration, I got rather de-motivated and, instead of letting it grow in me (Like it has happened at other events in the past), I decided to take a much more pro-active approach and, instead of doing online social networking, focus all of my efforts and energy on the physical, face-to-face, social networking interactions. Perhaps, that’s what conference events are all about: place the focus back on the real life social networking activities and forget about being online. I am sure we would all feel much better than having to raise our eyebrows, once again, because things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to in the first place.

Back at the Enterprise 2.0, I created an article where I was actively asking for that DIA proposal; I am still waiting… That’s why, next time around, I will be looking into things differently and come up with plan B (and perhaps plan C, too!). In fact, just as I was on my way to catch the plane to Orlando, my plan B arrived in the mail. I wish I would have had much more time to play with it, but since I didn’t, I didn’t put it into practice. However, I’m surely going to do it next time around. I will not comment on what it is, but suffice to say that it is going to change the way I enjoy conference events in the near future. So stay tuned for more updates to come through and you will see what I mean …

So, having said all that, you may be wondering whether I will be putting together a couple of blog posts on some of the major highlights of what the event was all about, right? Obviously, there won’t be any live blogging, but I will be writing down some further thoughts on what the event was like, specially now that all of the presentation materials are available for download (Thanks much, Volker, for putting together such stunning piece of work!). Thus I will be talking, very shortly, about the various different speaker sessions I attended, as well as what happened at the various Labs, networking events that I attended, Tweet Ups, etc. etc.

As a starting point, and to give you folks a little bit of a taster, have a look into this YouTube video clip from DJ Steve Porter, who did an inspiring remix of the event itself in under three minutes. Worth while watching it through:

Oh, but talking about Twitter, I didn’t get much of a chance to keep playing with my experiment on splitting personalities, so I hardly used my IBM related account (@elsua_b) to share with folks out there some other live tweeting that I would have wished I could have done. Okay, I will be addressing that one as well and deal with it by sharing some tweets from here onwards into that account trying to share some of the magic that we experienced during the event itself.

Thus stay tuned, because more belated blog posts and tweets will be coming through shortly, with links and everything. For me though there is one thing very clear in my mind; maybe a lesson learned, who knows. From now onwards I will definitely not have any single expectation that Internet connection will be available at conference events; if it is still there after the first 15 minutes, I will go ahead and use it. If not, I will stop complaining and whining about it, as well as I will stop getting stressed, frustrated, annoyed, exasperated, disappointed, etc. and, instead, go for that plan B I have just mentioned above… Life is just too short, don’t you think? Yes, I know… Intriguing, eh?

(Not to worry, in a follow-up post, I will be sharing some further insights on what that plan B will be like, especially, once I get a chance to play with what came in the mail the day before I left for Orlando and which, surely, is going to make my life *so* much easier… And not just for conference events!)

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, Highlights, Lotus Knows, Lotus-Knows, LotusKnows, #ls10, Twitter, Micro-blogging, Micro-sharing, Live Blogging, Live Con-blogging, DIA, Decent Internet Access, Events, Conference Events, Wi-Fi, Internet, Connectivity, Eric Norlin, Defrag, EventoBlog, Opening General Session, Volker Weber, DJ Steve Porter, Steve Porter, 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, Connections, Productivity, Orlando

My BlueIQ team and myself have submitted a couple of abstracts, as well as a BoFs session on Social Software Adoption in a large corporate environment as that one from IBM, and, unfortunately, none of them got approved We know and understand how tough it is eventually to get a speaking slot on from what’s already a rather crowded and rigorous selection, so next year we are going to try harder and be back for more! Hopefully, by then the committee behind the approval of abstracts would be much more interested around the topic of Social Software Adoption in general (Hint: If you noticed, there isn’t a single session within the social software set of abstracts that made it through dedicated to the rather important subject of moving beyond the tools and their deployment and focusing on extracting value from a successful social software adoption strategy … Oh well … )

Either way, we know and understand how tough it is to get on the agenda, so we are committed to try much harder next year and see if that time around we can make it. Ok, but that doesn’t mean that we would not be doing anything during the course of the event, right? Of course, not! Like I have been saying already for a few more days, my entire team is going to be there and we got a bunch of different unevents piled up that we hope folks interested in the subject of social software adoption would be willing to participate and share some more insights with us exchanging experiences, know how, lessons learned, good practices, etc. etc.

Thus we will eventually be hosting a couple of lunches under the heading "Adoption and Value", both on Tuesday and Wednesday from noon EDT to 1:30pm EDT. You may be wondering what kind of conversations we would be having with those present both my team and myself, right? Well, here is a short blurb that describes what we thought about:

"Learn how to conduct social software advocacy in the enterprise – a chat with IBM Software Group’s internal adoption team.
 Look in the lunchroom for balloons marking "BlueIQ" tables
"

Now, you would remember how in the past I have been talking in this blog about the program I am part of and what my team does, right? BlueIQ, indeed! But you may be wondering what do we do exactly beyond helping accelerate the adoption rate of social software at IBM. Basically, some more specifics on what it is to drive the social software adoption inside IBM and for 500k employees.

Well, here is another short blurb that may help out a bit addressing those questions:

"Code-named "BlueIQ", this internal program coordinates the IBM Software Group adoption of social tools like Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, and Rational Asset Manager, as well as pilot work developed in IBM’s Technology Adoption Program and research labs. We provide both high-level value analysis as well as deep-dives on the technology; and we’re called on to provide training worldwide, engage with clients, and speak at conferences.



BlueIQ’s methodology for social software adoption combines task-focused education materials, jumpstarts, metrics, motivational activities, and enablement social tools with our most valuable asset: volunteers. 



Over 900 BlueIQ Ambassadors voluntarily carry the message of “productivity through social software” to the furthest corners of the company. In exchange, they’re the first to learn about new technologies, receive specialized content to share with their clients and peers, and grow their careers through an internal network of like-minded experts.



Through reverse-mentoring, we also pair subject matter experts with executives in order to provide task-focused social software education tailored to their unique needs"

That’s just not too bad, eh? Finally, I have found a chance to share with everyone out there what it is that I do on a daily basis while at work in my role as a Knowledge Manager, CommunityBuilder and, specially, Social Computing Evangelist. That’s why we are really excited to move forward with these unevents so that folks who may be interested in these topics would have an opportunity to come along and exchange plenty of ideas and experiences with us in order to make it a mutual learning experience, which, I guess, is what matters the most. Always! I mean, the learning experience heh

So, if you are a fellow IBMer who is interested in finding out what it is like helping accelerate such adoption of social tools, or if you are within Sales and would want to find out plenty more about how these social tools could help you, your customers and business partners, feel free to bring them along and let’s get the conversation going! Alternatively, if you are none of the groups mentioned above, BUT still with a keen interest in exchanging some more ideas on these topics, by all means, come on up, too, join us and let’s get the dialogue going!

In fact, that’s the whole point of having these kind of informal unlunches with the BlueIQ team I belong to; learn plenty more around the art of doing things right while helping your entire organisation, or business unit, adopt social software tools, so you would have an opportunity to show them how these social tools can be effectively business tools that would certainly help you, your team and your communities improve your / their day to day productivity.

Thus we hope to see you there! (Remember to re-read the text above on how you can find us on the huge lunch room and don’t be shy; come and say "Hi!" and share lunch with us for a few minutes. I promise we won’t bite … )

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, Lotus Knows, Lotus-Knows, LotusKnows, #ls10, BlueIQ, Social Software Adoption, Unevents, Unlunches, Informal Conversations, Dialogue, Sharing Experiences, Lessons Learned, Good Practices, Value, Business Value, Adoption, Lotus Connections, Connections, Social Tools, Metrics, Task Centric Computing, 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, Connections, Productivity, Events, Conference Events, Orlando, Florida

A bunch of the folks I usually interact with online through various different social networking tools are going to be there and it’s going to be great seeing them again and continue, face-to-face, with the various conversations that we have been covering on line for the last few months. However, some other folks have reached out to me and mentioned that they won’t be able to make it this year, yet they would want to know what online spaces they would need to keep on eye on in order to get a glimpse of what the event will be all about…

Well, this is one of those blog posts that will try to address some of that. This is also one of those entries that will try to cover a little bit where all the hot action of event will be taking place for those folks who may be attending the event live. Lotusphere, as most folks who may have attended it already would know, is a huge event. So, if you’re not well prepared, there is plenty of the stuff that will go by without you not knowing much about it all. So this post is an attempt to help folks channel through some of their attention into what may well be some of the most relevant resources available out there.

By all means this is my list of suggestions; definitely, not the most exhaustive and comprehensive that you will be finding out there, but certainly it could well be a good start for those folks who may be interested, especially, in the area of social computing, knowledge sharing, learning and collaboration. Basically, most of the stuff I would be interested in myself. Yes, that’s right, this is going to be an article where I will be sharing with you folks the list of online resources that I will be paying attention to while I am of the Lotusphere event in Orlando starting to January 17th.

If you think that I may have missed a key important online resource that we should all be paying attention to, don’t be shy, go ahead and leave a comment below and let us know about it. The more comprehensive that list of online resources is, the better it will be for all of us. So go ahead and let us know what will you be paying attention to while Lotusphere takes place in the next few days…

So here is the list of online spaces that I will be checking on a regular basis during the course of the Lotusphere event:

• The Lotusphere Agenda: which you can find at the main Lotusphere Web site, but that this year comes together in a whole bunch of lovely formats. Going from IntraVision’s lovely mobile Lotusphere Web site, to Turtle’s super nifty iPhone application (Available at the Apple Store for free) or Genii Software’s helpful Lotus Notes database, amongst several other options. Really nice, don’t you think?
• Planet Lotus: for those folks who may be looking into what the blogosphere may be saying about the overall event I can certainly recommend Planet Lotus; that incredibly powerful online resource where several hundred bloggers, I’m sure, will keep (live) blogging away non stop from the beginning to the end of the event. A special mention will be going as well to my good friend, and fellow IBM colleague, Ed Brill, who, another year, I’m sure would continue to channel through plenty of that energy from the overall "yellow" blogosphere.
• Another blog worthwhile taking a a look at, and which also gets a special mention from me, is the Lotusphere Blog, for obvious reasons, but don’t forget to also keep an eye on Lotus Knows itself, because I’m sure is going to thrive with plenty of activity as well, as well as plenty of goodies!
• Ok, now, if you didn’t have enough with those various links I just mentioned above to keep you going, let’s have a look into what I think it is going to be really hot this year at Lotusphere… Twitter, of course!

  Yes, indeed, last year Twitter was used already quite a bit, but I have a feeling that this year is going to go crazy, more than anything else because of the sheer increase in the number of twitterers attending the event, as well as plenty of them wanting to share plenty of the excitement as they have become more and more comfortable with the medium. So, to start off, I will keep an eye on the hash tag #ls10; at the same time I would also check out the tweets coming through from Planet Lotus, @Lotusphere, @LotusKnows and all of the various Lotus related Twitter IDs.

• As you will see, apart from all the blogging and micro-blogging/-sharing that would be taking place, there will also be a Posterous Web site that anyone can post items to, as well as a couple of Facebook groups and a LinkedIn one that people can drop by to see what’s happening, and a specific space over at Slideshare where people can share their own presentations used while at Lotusphere.

Not too bad, eh? Well, those are the main online spaces that I will keep an eye on over the next few days to try to get a glimpse of what’s going to happen before, during and after Lotusphere 2010. Like I have mentioned above, I am pretty sure that there are plenty of other good, and worthwhile reading, resources that can help you complete that overview I just try to share with you folks in this post. So if you think I have missed any, feel free to comment away and let us know. We would greatly appreciate it.

For now though, I am going to leave this blog post here and finalise another one I’m working on, where I will share some further insights on what I plan to do, and use, myself in order to relate most of what I would be exposed to, including hanging out virtually, as well as face to face, with those folks I usually hang out with already and who I know will be there as well. Oh, this upcoming blog post will be a rather interesting one as well, because it would introduce the one other experiment I just started for  2010, and which I have mentioned briefly in a couple of articles already … Thus stay tuned for some more!

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, Agendas, IntraVision, iPhone, Mobile, Turtle, Genii Software, Apple Store, iPhone Apps, Applications, Planet Lotus, Ed Brill, Lotusphere Blog, Lotus Knows, Lotus-Knows, LotusKnows, #ls10, Twitter, Micro-blogging, Micro-sharing, Live Blogging, Live Con-blogging, Posterous, Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, 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, Connections, Productivity, Events, Conference Events, Orlando, Florida

For the third consecutive year, I am just wrapping things up and prepare for what seems to be one of those events that will surely leave quite an interesting and endurable mark in 2010. I just can’t wait for it to get started! You may be wondering why I’m so excited about heading over there once again, right? Well, I guess that if you check the various different blog posts that I have put together from the previous years’ events you could get a short glimpse of where the excitement comes from.

And if that is not enough, I am sure I will have an opportunity to share with you folks over the next few days (I will be flying to Orlando this coming Friday), and the entire next week!, some of that anticipation and energy. Perhaps, starting even today! I am not certain whether you may have seen this or not, but, if you haven’t, I think it would be helpful to get things going …

Take a look into the following article published by my good friend Stuart McIntyre (From Collaboration Matters) over at The Lotusphere 2010 Podcast blog that features a short podcasting episode we recorded earlier on today and where we spent around 18 minutes talking about the Lotusphere events (Both the ones from previous years and this year’s, of course!) and what to expect from it all as well.

In that specific recording you will be able to listen to some of the things that I have enjoyed from the previous events I have attended, as well as a whole bunch of different hints and tips on how to get the most out of the overall event experience itself (Of particular interest I would say for those folks who may be attending Lotusphere for the first time ever as well).

At the same time, in the first few minutes you will be able to listen to some of the stuff I have been involved with inside IBM for over two and a half years with regards to the social software adoption efforts from the BlueIQ program I belong to. Basically, a couple of minutes explaining what it is that I have been doing helping facilitate, and accelerate, the adoption of social software for fellow IBM colleagues both inside and outside of the firewall.

So if you’re wondering what to expect next week from Lotusphere, as well as a whole bunch of different tips on what to do and how to keep up with all the events happening all over the place, or whether you are interested in finding out some more what my day job is like I would suggest then you have a look into "The Lotusphere Podcast 010 – Share Your Story – Luis Suarez" and enjoy the listening (Just as much as both Stu and myself did with our conversation).

I know you may be wondering as well what would be the best way for you folks out there to take a look into what’s going to start happening in the next few days, if not already!, as the event kicks off on January 17th, right? Well, we talked about that as well; and although we touched base on a good number of different resources I think I’m going to share quickly another blog post where I would talk about those online spaces that you may want to have a look into over the course of the next few days. Thus stay tuned for more details coming up shortly!

However, now on to the fun part … for those folks who may be lucky enough to attend the event in person, you may want to get the show started earlier than expected and read all about the upcoming Lotusphere Tweet Up event that will take place on Sunday evening and from which you will find all the details heading over to my good friend Luis Benitez’s blog and read "Lotusphere Tweet Up – Details for your calendar".

That’s where most of us will be on Sunday evening… And that’s where we hope to see you, too! Will you be there? (I surely hope so! Sign up here!)

(A BIG and special Thanks! to Stu for inviting me to participate in this podcasting episode and, of course, for the lovely conversation. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I guess you figured out already who’s going to pay the first round of drinks, right, Stu? -I am really looking forward to seeing him, as well as a whole bunch of the good old friends that I have been networking with online for a long while already… Yes, indeed, I can’t wait!! … Can you?)

Tags: Lotusphere, Lotusphere 2010, LS10, Lotusphere2010, 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, Productivity, BlueIQ, Events, Conference Events, Orlando, Florida, Stuart McIntyre, Collaboration Matters, Podcasts, Podcasting, Episodes, Lotusphere 2010 Podcast Blog, Hints and Tips, Stories, Luis Benitez, Tweet Up, Twitter, Lotus Knows

Yay! Indeed, it looks like the yo-yo effect that you folks are seeing with my recent blog posts over here has got to do with the fact that holidays have taken their toll and have managed to keep me disconnected and away from everything online for a little while. Then when coming back to work things are rather hectic, as usual, trying to catch up and, before I know it, it is nearly two weeks that I have been away from this blog. Whoah! (Again!)

Anyway, I am now back again into the full swing of everything online and, as such, regular blogging activities will resume in this blog from here onwards. Just my usual self. In fact, next article is going to have an interesting observation I have been pondering about on what, to me, seems to be *the* real barrier towards full adoption of social software within the enterprise. And, in this cases, just before you jump into the wrong conclusions out there, it hasn’t got anything to with work, enterprise nor business. (Interesting, eh? Well, coming up shortly!).

To get things going though, and to resume my regular blogging activities, I thought I would share with you folks a few words of where I have been over the last few days (Although I have been back at work for a couple of days already!). As you may have noticed, for a good number of months, I have developed that habit of sharing a picture every time that I put together a blog post over here. Most folks have realised that those pictures are actually rather special to me.

Yes, they are all pictures I have taken myself from the island I have been enjoying tremendously for the last five and a half years: Gran Canaria. Each of them has got its own story; some of them are even related to the article I publish next to them; some of them just bring back so many good memories from when they were taken; most of them are dear to my heart making me realise how lucky I am of living where I live.

Either way, beginning of December, I decided to finally put an end to something that I almost felt embarrassed about: the fact I have been in Gran Canaria for nearly six years and I didn’t had the decency :-O to go and check out some of the other equally stunning Canary Islands. Yes, I know! Shameful! So I thought it was a good time to put an end to that and a couple of weekends ago I decided to spend a long one in the other one island that has been attracting me for a while now, right from the start almost: Tenerife.

That’s right! I decided to jump into the ferry and spend a whole weekend of disconnectedness and just pure unwinding! And wildly successful, in my opinion! Why? Well, you may want to pop over into my Flickr account to get a taste of it, but mainly because of breath-taking, mind-blowing and incredibly humbling experiences as this one:

Or this other one:

Or how about this other one?:

Not bad, eh? Well, I could tell you a whole bunch more of the stuff I went through, constantly being wowed with full unbelievable emotions and experiences, but I think I’ll just leave you with those pictures for now letting you know I will be adding a whole bunch more over the next few hours into a new set I created a couple of days back … As stunning and incredibly amazing as this one:

Like I said, regular blogging activities will resume from here onwards, as usual, but that weekend I spent in Tenerife surely made me wish I would have taken on photography when I was a lot younger, because these pictures don’t really make justice to some of the stunning sceneries and magnificent landscapes I got to witness over those four days of intense brilliance!

Thank you, Tenerife! I will be back again! One day. I know. For sure!

Tags: Holidays, Weekend Breaks, Breaks, Unwinding, Disconnectedness, Disconnected, Work, Life, Balance, Work Life Integration, WLB, Work Life Balance, Spain, Canary Islands, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Mount Teide, Teide, La Rosa, The Rose, Flickr, Pictures, Photography, Humbling Experiences, Landscapes, Brilliance

For now, let’s get started with the progress report from last week, week #27, i.e. the latest one (Since you can find weeks #23, #24, #25 and #26 in my Flickr account already), so you can have a look into what happened in those weeks:

Whoahhh! As you would be able to see, it’s been quite a roller-coaster ride so far! Started with week #23 hitting over the mark of 30 emails received then going down to 22, then 19 (Way on target this one!); then a whopping 47 and, finally, 15 emails received last week. Yes, I know! Quite a ride! Going from the highest number of emails received in a single week for this second year of giving up on corporate email to the lowest number so far in 27 weeks and counting!

Thus what happened? Why was such a massive roller-coaster ride effect taking place, specially last week and the week before? Well, if I would have to summarise it in a couple of words it would be "A moment of weakness from yours truly!". More than a moment of weakness an entire week of weakness!! Jeez! … Here is why…

Week 26 I lowered my arms (Probably way too much!) and started giving in by engaging with my colleagues using email when replying to their threads. Yes, I know! I shouldn’t have done that! I should have known better! But then again I thought my efforts of trying to escape corporate email  during the last 18 months would have payed off to some extent by now, and eventually I found out they didn’t. At least not as much as I would have hoped for!

People started to send me emails much more frequently than before, as opposed to reach out to me through the standard social software channels we established together a while ago. And I guess I understand it. Sending an email is still far easier than any other form of online interaction. Unfortunately, we are not there yet fully embracing social software to collaborate and share our knowledge with our peers.

However, just like 18 months ago, I’m not ready any longer to turn my Inbox into "a todo list that anyone in the world can write to" (I just *love* that quote from a fellow IBM colleague in Australia: Rene Cunningham), so I decided to fight back! And get tougher on engaging back with colleagues using email. I just didn’t! And the result of that was receiving the lowest number of emails in a single week this year! Down from 47 to just 15!

That, to me, is a good enough reason to understand that it’s still going to take a while for folks to perhaps change their work habits (And to start embracing some of these social software tools); and for me, of course, to keep putting up with that healthy fight and keep taking back control of my own productivity. Because, like I have been saying all along, if I don’t take care of it myself and re-gain that productivity at work back again, no-one else is going to do it! Thus I might as well keep going at it. After all, can you imagine yourself receiving 15 emails in a single week?

Well, I just did that last week! Yay! And after this short moment of weakness I went through a couple of weeks back, I can now say I have fully recovered from it and feel like I am back! Back into my usual self: demonstrating it’s possible to work in a corporate environment, as effectively, if not more, as ever, making use of social software tools as opposed to traditional "collaborative" tools like email, amongst others.

And one of the biggest culprits of that statement I have just mentioned above has been my number one social software tool behind the firewall that has helped me tremendously in achieving that: IBM’s Lotus Connections, which, by the way, just announced today the official Connections v2.5 planned availability for August 28th 2009. A new massive release I will be sharing plenty of details about in upcoming blog posts as I will try to detail how it is helping me escape the email beast, or, at least, keeping it under control with 20, or less, emails a week… Making up for a total reduction of my incoming emails in the last few months by over 90% … Not bad, eh? Indeed, not bad at all!

Tags: 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, Moment of Weakness, Rene Cunningham, IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Connections, Connections, Announcements, Connections 2.5, Lotus Connections v2.5

So what I will be doing over here is just list those different links with the title of the original posts, and that way you can decide whether you would want to go ahead and read it or move on. Certainly, this particular entry will become my single reference from now onwards on future articles I may be putting together on posts related to the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Thus let’s go and do it!

• Trip to Boston to Attend Enterprise 2.0 Conference Event
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference – What to Expect – The Pre-Event
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference – What to Expect – Day 1
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference – What to Expect – Day 2
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference – What to Expect – Day 3
• My New Business Card for Enterprise 2.0 in Boston – Did You Get Yours Already?
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking – Part II
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Networking – Part III
• A World Without Email – Year 2, Weeks 15 to 21 (#e2conf Update on “Thinking Outside the Inbox!”)
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – The Pre-Event Workshops
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – A Proposal for DIA
• Enterprise 2.0 Highlights – Towards Living Intelligence
• Enterprise 2.0 Highlights – Think Differently, Work Differently
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – Day One
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – IBM Blogger Q&A
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – Day Two
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – Day Two (Continued …)
• Enterprise 2.0 Conference Highlights – Day Three

Like I said, this list of links related to previous blog posts I have put together on the Enterprise 2.0 conference held in Boston a few weeks ago won’t be the final version, as there are still a couple of other articles I would want to put together as well, but more as a follow up conversation of what I was exposed to and which I think would be worth while sharing across, but that would be the subject for another blog post(s) coming up shortly …

Hope you have enjoying reading through them all, as well as the live tweeting I did over at @elsuacon . And till next time around! Time now to move forward with some more blogging on other interesting and relevant topics…

Tags: e2conf, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Boston, Agenda, Conference Events, Events, Conferences, Reality Check, Twitter, 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, IBM, Enteprise Social Software, Highlights, Summary Links, elsuacon, Live Tweeting, Blogging, Metablogging, Con-Blogging, Conference-Blogging