The machine?

To rebel against the system doesn't necessarily always mean 'refusing to do it' as long as it means 'doing it consciously'. Social Business is like that.  It doesn't necessarily mean changing everything you are used to do but it does mean doing what you do as a conscious individual. An individual that realizes it has the power, ability and responsibility to leverage, to transform, to improve and if necessary to even leave.

So is it really the 'system' that is holding us back in making our workplace a truly Social Environment or is it our own perception of what we think being a good employee is? Do we expect the companies to lead us into the social age or should in fact we shed our often self-imposed role as a quiet, diligent and opinionless workforce and take our companies by the hand and show them what social can really mean?

Luis Suarez writes in his last blog how employees have far to long been seen as mere 'resources'. He is right but is it just the companies task to start recognizing us as intelligent living beings or should we in fact ourselves first start realizing what our intrinsic value is?

After all isn't it really our own perception with which we empower the system and not the machine that has been holding us back in becoming truly social all along?

 'When they give you lined paper, write the other way' - Juan Ramón Jiménez

BLUG Session Slides: Get Social but not THAT social

Presention delivered at BLUG in Antwerp 23-3-2012:

"Company regulation versus personal individuality, how do you get your employees to be responsible partners in a Social Business and how do you weigh freedom versus restriction? The whole Social Business idea is based on the idea of each individual having an intrinsic value to the organization that isn't necessarily linked to its role within the organization alone. This begs the question of how to tap this resource without losing control and how to implement and regulate the changes that are going to be needed. How much of this can you regulate (top-down) and how much do you allow to evolve (bottom-up)? 
This session will highlight the difficulties and choices a company will face while making the transition into a Social Business and offer ideas and guidelines on how to do so".

BLUG 2012: Get social but not THAT social

View more presentations from Femke Goedhart

Silverside Kudos Badges partner

As of today Silverside is proud to announce that it has signed a partner agreement with ISW Australia for distribution of Kudos Badges software in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Kudos Badges, a solution that provides gamification for IBM Connections to stimulate use and adoption for social collaboration, is a product we feel can add significant value to any IBM Connections installation.

 To provide for our Dutch customers Silverside has been collaborating with ISW in creating a Dutch version of Kudos Badges allowing for better integration in Dutch and multi-lingual environments.

Yammer: a wolf in sheep's clothing?

Last week I talked about visiting the Yammer on Tour (YoT) event in Amsterdam. Somehow it is still playing my mind. Not that I changed my mind about it but mostly because I'm wondering why it is so popular among the Dutch. If the announced number of 500.000 payed Yammer accounts in The Netherlands is right that would mean Yammer has a more than substantial penetration of the Dutch labor market of about 8.5 million... A penetration most software providers would kill for and more importantly one obtained without much marketing.

So why is Yammer so popular here?

First of all I think the Dutch are very outgoing and adopt social tools at an incredible speed because of that. Having an opinion and speaking your mind is something that is embedded in Dutch culture and taught from a very young age. The whole social revolution just taps into that. Something that is clearly visible with the adoption of all social platforms, not just Yammer.

But there are other factors here too I think.

The Back-door-factor:

• As Yammer doesn't really need any IT department involvement to be kick started within an organization (anyone can just start a company community free of charge) you see a lot of instances where adoption is done bottom up. IT is not involved until a large part of the organization is already using it and is therefore put on the spot. Seeing it being used and accepted and not having had any time to investigate the need or workings for such an application they simply go with it and more or less accept it as is. All the factors and barriers that would otherwise have had to be passed in a software platform acquisition process are suddenly completely bypassed.

The gullibility factor:

• Yep, it isn't nice to say about my own fellow country men but I feel gullibility plays a big role here too. I don't know how it came to be but at a certain point some government institutions started using Yammer for their internal social communications. It didn't take long for more to join, and more and now several really big and important governmental institutions are using it. Institutions that are handling highly sensitive personal and financial information. The Dutch in general put a lot of trust in their government so other companies seeing this and thinking "Well if they use it it must be safe" joined in and before you know it you've got a lot of companies seeing this as a perfectly safe option.

 
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it isn't or that non of the organizations really investigated it. But I do get the impression a number of them really didn't look into it too hard.

The idea of information, in this case possibly even my personal information being discussed and shared over Yammer servers located in the US with the US data security regulations - regulations we all know do not necessarily comply with EU legislation - makes me twitchy at best. And as Yammer stated themselves, they are not planning to open any EU data center for the foreseeable future....

How delicate this is was demonstrated when at YoT someone, working for one of the these government institutions got up and asked "How do we control that information shared on the Yammer network stays compliant with the information in our regulatory systems, as we want to make sure our people are consistent in their communications to the outside world when using information obtained through Yammer?". The answer was (correctly) "Yammer is not for sharing the information but only sharing the location where it could be found".
The fact this question was asked though already shows that this really is an utopia.

I do believe that most people at all these institutions are probably using it responsible, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if this isn't just a short way out for a lot of these companies and institutions. They see the need (and yes, there definitely is a need for social business here in The Netherlands) and jump in at the first option they see swimming by.
If that really is a feasible option though remains to be seen. Yammer seems to be mostly a Facebook like tool and doesn't offer much more then a really nice way to start the internal conversation. Social business though is about more than that and gets its real value from collaboration. Something Yammer in my eyes still falls short at.
Not to mention the problems they could get themselves in for not complying with EU privacy act regulations.....

Not surprisingly thus that some of these major institutions, recognizing the sensitivities and lack of collaboration, are now turning to other tools like IBM Connections to handle their social business needs. How the smaller ones will fare though remains to be seen. It isn't easy changing social platforms once you've chosen one.

Yammer on Tour - Ehh...yeah....ehh

Yesterday I attended the Yammer on Tour business event in Amsterdam. Advertised as "an interactive, educational and fun event to learn how to harness the power of Enterprise Social Networks". As my knowledge about Yammer was fairly limited and I'm always interested in anything having to do with Social Business I saw it as a perfect opportunity to see what Yammer is and what it can do for an organization.

They definitely got the buzz right. Over 300 people attended and there was a definite vibe.

Some observations....

Conversation:

Trying to find out what Yammer can do it all kept going back to the main focus; the message feed. Now I've got to hand it to them, they've got that part right. It's easy to navigate, has algorithms to surface important and relevant conversations and allows for things like @-mentioning. Something I think is really very important for making real and collaborative conversation possible. 

The one thing I was missing though was collaboration. Yes they have 'Files' where you can share files, have some versioning and comments, but it almost seems to hang on.... not knowing what it's position is in the overall configuration. 

Similarly they've got Pages. Text documents that you can work on simultaneously with groups of people, co-authoring it on the fly. Again, nice but very limited and the result is not an actual document but a page posted to Yammer. So using it to work on a real project proposal or a spread sheet is out of the question as it's only basic text with some very limited formatting (bold, underline, italic, indent, strike-through and bulleted lists).

Yammer to me, is all about the conversation but still has a long way to go for the collaboration. 

Privacy & Data:

One of the slides shown was that of actual registered users. Apparently Yammer right now has about 4 million paying users, half a million of which are located in The Netherlands alone. Making it their top market right after the US. Still they do not support, or have plans in the foreseeable future, to host data centers in Europe (as stated by David Sacks, CEO of Yammer on being questioned about this). Something I think could really hurt them in the end as EU data&privacy laws are increasingly bogging down on privacy data security.

Partner integration:

As part of the event a showcase floor was set up  with stations around the room for people to see what Yammer & partners can do. Out of approximately 15 stations only 3 were from partners selling software that connects with Yammer and all of those were more or less just pushing notifications into the activity stream. All other stations were desks manned by Yammer employees. It did make me wonder how well connected it really is.

On asking I got told that up till now there is no interaction model. It’s simply feed updates that are being pushed into a object model. So even though the notification gets into the activity stream, any actions with that data (even a simple workflow) will still take the user out of Yammer. 

Mobile:

Right at the start of the event I was sitting next to someone who has been advising Yammer to customers and training them. He told me quite frankly he loved Yammer, but not on his mobile as the mobile apps were crap. Low and behold, one of the presenters asks the audience to participate in an little demonstration by life editing a page he has up. Of course I try this in the iPad app but simply can’t find the page. It turns out the mobile apps don’t support any of the other features apart from showing the feed. For other functionalities one has to rely on a browser.

Now that’s mildly ok on an iPad, but on a phone…. I was not surprised to see no more than 4 people out of a 300+ audience actually partake in that little demonstration. Yammer clearly has a long way to go there to fully leverage the ‘Mobile’ idea.

Business Model:

Another interesting discussion I had was with a Sales representative who I asked about the sales model. Apparently an enterprise license is $15 a month a user. Now for that privilege you get the right to set up an unlimited amount of premium external facing communities (based on a mail domain or general) with up to 100 users each. So when I asked him: “Ok, so when I set up a mail domain with 2 users, register that for an enterprise license a 30$ a month, I then have the ability to set up a community for my 100 man strong company for free?”.… ‘ehh..yes’. “And will it do the same as the registered community?”.… ‘yeah’. “So why would I buy a full license at 1500$ a month then if I have less then 100 users?!?”…. ‘ehh’. 

I can’t really get my head around that business model yet.

Overall I can say, I liked what I saw. They’ve got the interface spot on. Clean, very 'Facebooky'. Easy to navigate and understandable to users with limited knowledge of social networks. They’ve really build an impressive internal social stream system. But to me that is it. As a collaboration tool it still has a long way to go.

The thing that really impressed me though about Yammer is the way it is penetrating the market. Their idea of offering anyone the freedom to set it up, free of cost and without requiring or assuming any ‘managing’ responsibility means that it is penetrating organizations from the bottom up and with an ease that is unprecedented. Instead of having to go through IT or management, employees can now initiate this completely on their own….. and they are doing it. Inviting and enticing co-workers as they go. 

I talked to or heard of at least 5 Line of Business managers at the event that were introduced to Yammer not by their IT department or management but by their staff who had already started using it and then simply invited them. All of them felt they couldn't ignore it and where there to learn more about it.

So interesting tool and certainly one to keep an eye on!

Trusting the social way

In 2009 I was on a IBM Redbook team, today I am again.

I love it. This is such a great opportunity to learn, to meet, to share and to get a glimpse into how other people topple topics like Social, Collaboration and connecting at the business level.

I've come a long way over the last few years. Back then I arrived in Cambridge, MA for a three week Residency not knowing anything about the people I was about to experience a very intensive three weeks with. Being hesitant and even feeling a bit awkward. Apart from their names I didn't have a clue who they were and what they did. Getting to know them took several days.

This time things are different, totally different.

Right from the moment I got my acceptance letter I started connecting. Googling the names in the mail, finding, following and interacting with them on Twitter, trying to get an idea who they were from their Social profiles and reading up on blogs and published materials. Now not all of them had an online (public) presence but in general you can find a lot. And so it was that when I flew out to Raleigh, NC on Saturday I'd already arranged to meet up for dinner that night through twitter and spent the rest of the weekend exploring Raleigh together.

No, not people I had previously met but people I only knew from twitter and who's only connection with me was that we were all going to be on the same Residency. By using social tools to connect we got a head start in talking about the things we were going to talk about in the Residency, getting an idea of each persons specialties, interests and areas of expertise and doing exactly what we where there for: Share & learn.
 
So when I tweeted about being in the ITSO Redbook facility with the Social Business Social Media team today and got this tweet reply:

@FemkeGoedhart LOL why does the "social team" need to get together in person...or even use email for that matter? #justteasing

I couldn't help but reflect on that. Because although I really love and 'live' the Social ideal, I also believe that it is NOT a replacement for face-to-face meetings in doing business. It's not there to take over or replace. Its simply a strategy to build stronger ties, be it active (by engaging with people) or inactive (by sharing so people can find you and learn about you). But more importantly it is about building trust. If you would have said three years ago that I would fly half across the world, arrive, meet up with this person I'd never seen or talked too before and had only exchanged about four 140 character messages with and go out for dinner 3 minutes later.....I think I would have declared you crazy.

Social has come a long way in making this possible and we're only at the beginning. It is about being out there and being true to yourself and your environment. It's about accountability that fosters trust and its about enjoying that human need for connection.

So call me an idealist but in a world torn apart by wars and mistrust  the 'Social' revolution clearly proofs that that fundamental need for a human connection is as strong as ever. Especially in Business.

Social seating

KLM yesterday (unofficially) announced that they are looking into ways to make the seating process more social by allowing people to upload their Social Media profile information on check-in. The idea is to have people pick a seat based on the profiles of people sitting next to them so that people can check beforehand with whom they will be spending their precious hours in flight.

An innovative idea and certainly something that got them some attention but I must say I wonder whether it would be a success. Especially among the business travelers they are aiming this for.

As a business traveler myself the one thing I do when on a flight is trying not to have to socially engage to much with people next to me. You're in each others space already and for the next 8hrs of so you can't get away. So the last thing I want is to start a conversation that I can't politely get out off if it turns out to be not what you expected...

it's not as if you're making friends for life. So apart from a polite 'Hello' and 'could I pass you for a moment' I generally don't engage at all. I read my e-book, watch a film, prepare some work or sleep. That's it. The last thing I want is people rambling on for hours about how they love tulips and windmills because they read on my profile I'm from The Netherlands.

So what would I use it for.... Well frankly (and I really don't want to offend anyone with this, simply stating the obvious) to check if the person next to me is big. Yes, you heard it. I'll admit that is my worst nightmare on any flight and the first thing that came to mind when reading about KLM's initiative. Because space is already very limited it gets really frustrating if you have someone encroaching on that. Even though they can't help it and go out of their way not to, as they find it just as embarrassing. Because let's face it, most airplanes (especially short haul carriers)  have an absolute minimum of space alloted to each passenger and do not cater to the current situation in which at least 1/3 of people in the Western world is overweight. 

So from a personal viewpoint I think making the flight experience more 'social'  would be accomplished much better if they gave each passenger a bit more space, not by sharing our profiles... Still, I love and commend KLM for trying to think about ways to make the flying experience more social and will certainly give it a try if it gets activated.

Social calendar

I found this great blogpost on what 'Social Business' is. Read it its worth it.

What prompted me to actually search for it was that I lay in bed yesterday checking my calendar for this weekend realizing it was empty and that I was happy with two days of no obligations and appointments. It made me very aware of the fact that for the last year or so I've been really busy. With work, with friends, with running but mostly with being 'social'.

True, I've always been somewhat of a workaholic, checking my mail day and night, happily responding to messages at all hours of the day. But as most people (unlike me) shut their mail down when they go home around five it meant that the number of messages outside of office hours was limited.
That changed however when I became more socially active. The difference is that unlike mail, social micro blogging isn't confined to work only. People micro blog about everything from work to hobbies to kids to personal challenges. Not just during office hours but at all hours of the day. Offering an inside glimps to who they are, but more importantly: Humanizing them. And that is a real revolution.
I now sometimes meet customers and relations I've never seen or talked to before but that feel like old acquaintances simply because I've interacted with them in chats and on social platforms far before they even got to be of interest business wise. And because it's two way you are more familiar to them too, taking away normal barriers that are put up in business relations. Yes, you make yourself vulnerable but what you gain is trust and a deeper relation and that to me is totally worth it.

I immediately hear the 'but....' coming from all corners here. Because how does this improve your business?!? and How do you make socializing cost effective??

Well read that blogpost I mentioned at the start, I'm not going to repeat what was said in there but two of the poignant things that really hit home for me were:

"The historical [...] separation between the inside and the outside environments of a company is loosing importance"

"The ultimate reason of existence for the [social] corporation is no longer to generate value for its traditional stakeholders but to maximize the exchanged value between the company and the entire ecosystem". 

 Hello world! Its no longer about just making big bucks and putting up a nice facade to the outside world its about really working together at a personal level. Putting the individuals in the center of the process, not just the mechanism of work. Respecting that we all are part of the process and that each of us, whether you are a customer, contractor, relation or supplier, has a personal as well as corporate gain. And that by realizing and utilizing that we ALL stand to win.

Why? Well because when you see and respect that everyone involved has more to offer than just what was said on their job description, you suddenly end up getting much more value for your money. Suddenly you find that people are more than just output machines but that they are human beings with creativity, ingenuity, knowledge and intuition. Some of which might not even be related to work at all. But that by bringing all that together you end up getting something that is much more valuable and stronger than what any individual, even 'Guru' could realize. It's no longer internal vs external, contractor vs client its teamwork.

So how does that make it cost effective? Well sometimes you have to 'give a little to get a little' but in general working together like this enhances the products, improves employee involvement and builds stronger business relations making the difference in getting future projects. And that to me is making my work a real joy. I'm a people person. I love to connect to people. And for the first time I'm seeing that that part of me is not just something I do because I like it but something that is actually becoming an integral part of my job and can help drive revenue.
 
And it's not just my work that is changing because of this. It's my personal life too. As stated above I've always spend lots of time on my work and people have accused me of having no personal life at all. Maybe they were right for a while there.... I've always been good at my job, but although I'm ambitious I never saw myself as a 'guru' and for years that made me feeling insignificant and holding back. I had trouble defining who I was and what I had to offer.
What changed is that I started realizing that I didn't have to be a 'guru' to contribute and that just being me in all it's uniqueness as a human being was more then enough as that made me a valuable part of the process and of the teams that I operate in. Both personal as well as professionally.

'Wisdom of the crowds' already described how crowds know so much more then individuals but its the Social revolution that is giving a platform to those crowds to actually leverage that wisdom. So bring it on! I love this new era in business. It's daunting and challenging and we are destined to make mistakes but as long as we do it together I'm sure we are on the right track.

And in the mean time I'm going to enjoy my busy calendar and Social activities and live life to the fullest. Because for the first time in my live I can truly say that my work is my hobby and NOT feel insecure about it.

IBM Social Business social media residency

You know that Redbook Residency I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.....?

Well I got accepted! So for the next three weeks I will be in frantic mode to get everything arranged, book flights, reschedule appointments, rearrange work and concentrate on Social Business. Fantastically exciting times! Will of course keep everyone posted about it through this blog, Facebook & Twitter.

But in the mean time don't hesitate to point me to relevant topics and information to take along for this residency. It's called the "IBM Social Business social media residency" so what better way to start than to involve my Social network!

IBM redbook site

No email day - The conclusion

Today was 'No Email Day' and I decided I had to put it to the test. So last night I activated my Out of Office with the following text:

'Global no email day' Go Social!

Today (11/11/2011) is 'Global No Email Day'

A day to see if we can live outside our mailbox.... I think it is possible so I'm giving it a try for a day! What does this mean? Well that I will try not to use my email today. Will that mean I'm not available? No, I'll be available, just on alternative communication channels like Sametime, Skype, Twitter, LinkedIn and ofcourse through my phone number or texting (SMS).
So if you want to connect to me today then try using one of the channels I'm listing below. Give it a try, you'll see it's an experience! Or if you don't want to, then don't worry. I'll try to at least scan my messages once during the day for urgent matters and otherwise I will be back to my mailbox on Monday.

Up for a try? These are the channels where you can find me:
http://twitter.com/#!/FemkeGoedhart
http://nl.linkedin.com/in/femkegoedhart
Skype: search for my email adress
Mobile phone/Texting (SMS): +31 (0)6 xxxxxxxxx
Sametime: Search for me on Greenhouse, LotusLive, Bluextend or Bleedyellow Sametime communities

Hope to connect to you!

For more information about 'Global no email day' and about living 'Outside the inbox' check out the following sites: 'outsidetheinbox'  & 'No email day' Or contact me, I'd be happy to tell you all about it! Femke

Broadcasted my intentions to the world and started the day with all the right intentions of not using mail.

To be honost, it was hard at first as it just is second nature to me to react to each #PLING# from my mailbox. But after realizing this, I simply muted the sound and from then on it was more or less plain sailing. Being at a customer location, in my car and at a dinner with friends helped keep my mind of it and as I kept other channels like my Skype and Sametime open as much as possible I kept connected to the world.

The only real hickup I had was when I found I didn't have access to Sametime/Skype. Which I solved by activating them on my iPad through a Mobile connection. In itself not a problem were it not for the fact that I've got a dual SIM with a single number that I use for my BB & iPad. I conveniently forgot that only one can be activated at a time...

So what was the conclusion at the end? 
I recieved 37 emails of which I only read 2 (urgents). I did not send any email myself. I used Skype & Sametime as well as Facebook. I send out some tweets but less then other days (simply to busy). I couldn't use my phone most of the day due to my own stupidity but still managed to have some valuable calls done after I figured out my mistake.
Most importantly though I had some great discussions on using the Social Business strategies and on Document Management.

I now have 35 unread messages in my inboxes.... It's tempting to read them (it's past Midnight) but will leave them for tomorrow. I know, It's weekend, I should actually leave them for Monday but lets take this one step at a time...

I totally love social but I'm also still hooked on my email #PLING#!

Living outside the Inbox

IBM Benelux launched its "Outside the Inbox" campaign today with an inspirational video by Luis Suarez about working & living without being consumed by email. Must see for everyone!

Link to the official site here

Bye bye email?!?

The Social Business revolution is here. We are living in a new world and one of the 'old' relics being under attack is email. Email a relic?? Yes in the eyes of some, it is outdated and in need of retirement. Nowadays it's all about new forms of communication. more direct, more interactive, less static...and all kinds of initiatives like 'Global No Email Day' and IBM's 'OutsideTheInbox' are started to get people to realize this.
I can totally relate to this idea. Mainly because it seems that lately it isn't us that is consuming mail but the mail that is consuming us. More importantly: consuming our time.

Ok, so I agree, but then I started thinking. How many mails do I actually get in a day.....? 
I've got 5 email addresses. One for work, one for friends, one for non-work-non-friend related stuff I deem important and 2 for spam. I use those last two when I need to register on some obscure site and I never check those two unless I'm looking for something specific. So those don't really count towards my email consumption. The other three gave me a total of 12 messages today, 7 of which were notifications from other systems.
Now that isn't extreme! That is actually pretty low if you consider I work in IT and was working at home today. I know people that get hundreds of messages, especially while working at home. So why don't I? Does this mean I don't work, don't communicate.....?? No, I actually communicated with several of my colleagues and customers today as well as had interactions with several people around the globe. So lets analyze this....

I started the day with an email notification from Quickr about a document I'd put up for review. It was reviewed by a customer in the USA and she'd updated the document in the Quickr environment and used the notification option to let me know. As I noticed the customers project leader was online on Greenhouse Sametime I used this to have a short discussion about the review.

I then proceeded with opening our new IBM Connections test environment that we set up specifically for demonstrations to customers. To get some filling all employees were asked to fill out their own fictional profile as well as provide some fake content. While doing this I noticed some problems with the test installation. Instead of using mail I put a message on the Administrators notice board, telling him about the problem.

He responded back on the board which was promptly shown in my Status Update widget in my Lotus Notes client.

Now I could just as easily have used our internal Tweet application as well but as it was Connection related it seemed logical to respond within the environment itself. Using mail didn't cross my mind once.

Roughly at the same time I was invited into a Skype call by another customer. During this call I had to verify something with a co-worker and with a Partner of us. So I used LotusLive Sametime to connect to my co-worker and set up a second Skype chat to ask my partner contact. He wasn't up yet (Canadian) so I just left him a message in his chat to pick up when he returned.

While all this was going on I was also setting up a test environment for a migration project. It was not exactly going as planned and I used Twitter and Facebook to vent some of the frustrations with getting the thing to work. Apart from the fact this helped me to vent some of my frustration it also delivered a handy tip from a guy that responded to my tweet and sent me a helpful link.
Through the social media app I use I also noticed a new invitation request on LinkedIn that turned out to be a business relation that wanted to connect. As I'd been wanting to talk to this person for a while I used the opportunity to send him a direct message in LinkedIn and set up a phone call.

For the rest of the day I made several phone calls to customers & relations, used text messaging to make an appointment with a good friend, had a lengthy call with a co-worker on the server I was trying to set up and congratulated my niece with her birthday on Facebook.

So looking back on my day and talking about the 'Less mail' initiatives, I can honestly say I'm actually doing pretty well already. I'm not email-free yet (nor do I want to be, there's always something that is better done through mail) but in general I can definitely say I'm not being consumed by my inbox.

There is however another side to this. Remember that Skype chat I started with the Canadian guy that wasn't online yet? He did get back to me but by that time it was evening here. And that is the whole crux in this story....

Because one of the downsides of using more interactive forms of communications like Social Media, Skype and Sametime is that it is stretching my day. Timezone differences mean I have to adept to other peoples day regimes if I want to speak, chat, Sametime or Skype with them and that means I tend to spend a lot more time at night behind my laptop, sometimes stretching well into the night.

So are these forms of social communications the future? Yes, definitely! It allows you to not just  communicate  but to really build a relation with the other person, something that email just didn't do. But I don't think it will put email out of business yet. If not for the fact that lots of people still are hooked on mail then for the sanity of those that need to sleep....

Redbook recidency

In 2009 I had the honor of being chosen to be a part of the last formal Redbook by the Lotus brand. It was the "Self Assessment and Strategy Guide for Migrating from Domino Document Manager" Redbook. A Redbook that tried to help customers on DomDoc make their choise as to how to migrate of that platform as it was being discontinued.

I'd always hoped to be a part of a Redbook team but never really thought I made a chance and when the number of Redbooks being publiced for Lotus products diminished so was my hope of ever being part of one...
So that Friday morning in 2009 when my boss sent out a message asking if there was anyone interested in doing a Redbook I lept at the opportunity. I never even hesitated and just replied immediately. This was my chance, and I had to take it! Two weeks later after a couple of hectic weeks arranging things, I boarded a plane for a 3 week residency in Cambridge, MA.

It was everything I hoped for. The discussions we had as a team and with product specialists, developers and Brand managers of IBM. The opportunities we got, to see new developments, test them and write on them and the feeling of being able to create something that would help thousands of people do their migration... It was better then I had hoped for.
But it was hard work too! The 3 week residency itself was only the beginning. After that a 6 month period of writing, revising, rewriting and discussing (skype) started. All of which happened mostly at night or in weekends as my daily job didn't stop either. Part of my task was to write a chapter on the comparison between Quickr and DomDoc and a chapter that outlined a step-by-step actual migration using a migration tool. I think I did at least 50 test migrations for that one alone. There were times that I got really fed up by it all.

So when the postman finally came to deliver that hard copy of the Redbook with my name on it. I was sad and happy at the same time. It had been hard work but it was so rewarding. Most importantly it showed me that I had something to offer. Be it small, I could actually help other people. For someone who used to be very shy and insecure that was a real eye opener. Since then I've become more outward going, wrote blogs and articles, spoke at conferences, became very active on Social Media and connected more to other people in the professional community.

No wonder that when I saw this on facebook last night....

....I couldn't help but jump for it again. It might not be a Redbook in the way I did it before, it does incorporate everything I love and do so I would be crazy not to! At the same time I'm aware that this Residency is going to be really popular and that my chances of being picked are slim at best.
But if there's anything I learned from my Redbook experience it is that you have to grab any chance you get! Besides, even if I don't get picked I still got the thrill of reliving the great times I had again.

So if you are considering nominating yourself but not yet sure?... I can say only one thing: Go for it, take that chance! This could change your life. It did for me!

Social Media Myth Buster

Great video by Louis Richardson on Social Media Myths from a keynote he gave in Danmark. Worth taking the time to look at if your company is wondering why it should become 'social'.

Tech war winners & losers of the week

It has been an exciting week so far!
Lotus Notes 8.5.3 got released with some nice features and an entitlement for using Connections Files & Profiles greatly improving the future of Lotus Notes as part of the Social Business Strategy. The new XWork server license model was introduced by IBM to allow the selling of xPages without having to have it 'Lotus Notes'  branded. And Apple revealed their new iPhone5....ehhh..... Nop, sorry not yet we'll milk out the old one first with the iPhone4S.

Furthermore IBM passed Microsoft on the inside in market cap and Apple revealed..... ehhh..... nop.

Ok, week isn't over yet. Let's see what else comes up but so far I like it!

Demo of Lotus Notes 8.5.3 integration with Connections:


Ok, is my view colored? Yes. Am I biased? Yes but hey, aren't we all..!

Social Media Week & IBM's new approach to collaborative intelligence gathering

It's Social Media Week! Did you know? Ok, I'll admit I didn't either until it was pointed out to me. But there are some really interesting experiments going on this week around the topic 'Social'.

IBM is joining in and performing a Smarter Commerce Scan.
An experiment where they are trying to see if it is possible to gather intelligence by posting tantalizing topics around different aspects of Social Commerce to the Social grid. Each day a new question is posted and by the end of the week an Executive summary will be made highlighting key themes and trends as well as top responses.


The first question posted:

One of the central tenets in the emerging idea of “social business” is that people do business with other people, not companies:
How should all aspects of commerce — selling, buying, providing service, developing products and marketing them — become more human? More centered on building and maintaining relationships? More personal and personalized?

Wanna join the discussion?
Check the IBMSocBiz on Tumblr site for daily topics & responses and follow the hashtag #IBMSocBiz. Answer through Tumblr or use the hashtag #smwQ1 ('Q1' for the question of the day) in your social streams. There's even an app for iPhone & Android (see tumblr site).
Make your voice be heard, Social is the way to go!