Portals and KM

Who Will Win: TV Sets or Computers?

As broadcast television and online video continues to converge, will we be watching TV shows on our computer or will we be surfing the net on our TV? Paul Graham places his bets on the computer in the post, Why TV Lost. He writes, “About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they'd produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers. It's clear now that even by using the word "convergence" we were giving TV too much credit. This won't be convergence so much as replacement. People may still watch things they call "TV shows," but they'll watch them mostly on computers.”

Paul attributes the victory of computers over television sets to four factors. The first reason is the open market place created by the Web. Anyone can build what they what so innovation and speed is on the side of computers. This make sense so far.

Second, is Moore's Law, which has worked its usual magic on Internet bandwidth allowing for fast access to video. (see my post, When Online Video Consumption Moves to Exabytes in 8 Years: Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge? and ReadWriteWeb, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes). One other winner might actually be the hand held device formerly known as the telephone.

Paul writes that the third reason computers won is piracy. Users prefer it not only because it's free, but because it's more convenient. YouTube has already trained a new generation of viewers (off all ages) that the best place to watch shows is on a computer screen.

He writes that these first three are predictable. The fourth, and less predictable one, is social media. I have already written about social media can enhance television (See How Social Media is Changing Late Night TV Landscape and Much More and Twitter Takes on Television Making It More Social. People like to discuss and share their views on shows and other things than appear on television such as political and sports events. Social media offers the means to do this.

He closes with an interesting point. Television shows will change dramatically when they come through the Web. He writes, “On the Internet there's no reason to keep their current format, or even the fact that they have a single format. We'll get whatever the most imaginative people can cook up. That's why the Internet won.”

Television through computers will basically be a new medium. The networks will no longer be gatekeepers but that is just the start. Radio first offered stage shows and television first offered radio shows until the new medium found its own capabilities. I wonder what “television” through computers will do?

Creating Information Architecture at Océ in the Age of Enterprise 2.0

This is the third in a series of interviews with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at Océ, about their Enterprise 2.0 implementation and adoption experiences. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. Earlier, I wrote out their micro-messaging and wiki experiences (see Implementing Enterprise Micro-messaging with Yammer at Océ and Implementing Wikis in the Age of Enterprise 2.0 at Océ). Samuel is located in the Netherlands and his responsibilities include both the information architecture for structured information in applications such as PLMS and SAP and the unstructured information in places such as email and knowledge management programs.

I really like this dual architectural role for both structured and unstructured information. It makes so much sense to have these two information sources under the same architectural leadership. Usually knowledge management and IT data management are siloed, limiting the effectiveness of both. This is the first time I have seen this and I commend the vision of Océ. In this post I go into more depth on their information architecture approach.

Samuel began by pointing out that in the US, the term information architect is often used to describe a web site designer. In Europe, it is more often used to describe a person who manages enterprise information within an architecture. At Océ, there are three levels of architecture: business architecture layer, information architecture, application architecture and infrastructure. The business architecture defines and manages the business processes. The application layer provides the IT tools and (network) security and the information architecture translates the business requirements into IT requirements and tool.

The information architecture is the glue that bonds business and IT components and it looks at both structured and unstructured information. The unstructured information can give context to the structured information. More on this soon.

The nature of security has changed in the current internet age. In the past, a company could simply build a firewall around all of its information and employees could interact with security within this firewall. Now the firewalls are opening up to share selected company information with partners and clients. Security needs to be more granular to support both multi-site and multidisciplinary collaboration. Information security is intended to be defined at the information object and transaction level, to facilitate global collaboration with other Océ sites and trusted partners. With multi-site Océ means: collaboration between multiple Océ and non-Océ sites. With multi-disciplinary Océ means: collaboration between mechanical, electronic, software and manufacturing engineers, purchasers, etc. Both are essential to remain competitive.

At the same time, the old concept for employees was to provide only what they need to know for their job as determined by management. Now with the greatly expanded availability of information over the Web, the concept has shifted from a top down definition of what each employee needs to know to letting employees make greater decisions about the information they need and providing assistance helping them filter the abundant information available to find what they need. The concept is that smart people are hired so they need to be given more power and freedom to take advantage of their capabilities.

To implement an information architecture where unstructured information can be shared and used to provide context to structured information, employees need more guidance on the available tools and where to store information. All knowledge workers switch regularly between structured and unstructured (information) processes. Up until recently there were no tools to really support this activity. Océ is implementing a common file sharing platform for project information and offering guidance on its use. The common wiki is used for process information, and the common blog platform is used for best practices, opinions and other cross-project and department information where conversation generated through the blog comment fields can be useful.

Océ distinguishes between four types of information that should be managed consistently and in context: product information, project information, departmental information, and process information. With project information every project starts by setting up a project collaboration site and a document plan. The collaboration site supports creating and editing project information, such as minutes, customer reports, tasks, calendars, etc. All project information is managed in the collaboration site, except for design information, software code, the product structure and related parts and specs and resource information. Within the collaboration site team members can also view designs, baselines, change status and product structures, although they are managed in other tools. All information in the collaboration tool can easily refer to the product structure and, if needed, moved to the product structure.

With product Information, designs are created in design tools for software, electro and mechanical engineering. The design tooling consists of functionality to create and edit electro, mechanical and software designs. As soon as designs need to be shared with other disciplines and/or changed in a controlled way (due to multi-disciplinary interactions) the design is pushed to the Product Data Management tool. The Product Data Management tool consists of functionality to create product structures, to create and manage change on parts, specs, equipment and processes, and to create and manage baselines.

Departmental information is stored in the collaboration site in a department section of the file sharing platform. Process information, such as working methods, process descriptions, etc. are shared and stored in wiki’s.

In the past Océ could clearly distinguish the tools R&D and Manufacturing & Logistics (M&L) use. Only when data was transferred from R&D tools to M&L tools a joint responsibility existed. However, this led to silos and inefficiency. Now M&L needs more access, commitment and collaboration from R&D to be able to organize M&L in such a way to reduce such factors as lead time. There is a common product cycle management tool to help with this. Then unstructured information is placed in the common file sharing platform to ease access by all groups. The principal is that content should be entered only once and have the ability to migrate to other tools. For example, a wheel might be diagrammed in the design tool and the requirements described in a word processing document placed in the file sharing tool. But these two types of information are linked so the context is maintained.

Samuel said that the architecture will continue to evolve. The approach is to define information architecture principles and then convey these principles to management and employees so they will see the logic behind the approach. This is move away from rigid top-down rules. The implementation details will change faster than the principles and managers and employees will be able to make intelligent decisions aligned with the principles.

I think this approach is an excellent representation of the principles of Enterprise 2.0 with greater employee empowerment. There is a greater emphasis on guidance than rules and a willingness to explore, learn, and refine approaches. The approach of Océ is an excellent way to make better use of the powerful new information tools available today, especially in the area of unstructured information, and, at the same time, avoid getting bogged down in too much information out of context.

Margaret Atwood Takes to Social Media Marketing

The well-respected Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, is now using social media and other channels to promote her latest book. Of course I learned about this through social media via @digiphile on Twitter. Toronto’s Gblobe and Mail reported on this in: Atwood Plunges into Social Media.

This is a good social media marketing success story. In addition to the usual book-signing tour for her new novel, The Year of the Flood, Margaret also created an interactive website, used Twitter it, blogged it, flogged it on T-shirts and turned the book campaign into a contest on YouTube.

In addition to promoting the book, her website, yearoftheflood.com, functions as “a clearinghouse for environmental activism. Fans can also use it to download ring tones for the new-age hymns peppered throughout the book, which are being sung by local artists in each of the theatrical “events” coinciding with the release.”

After the first theatrical Atwood tweeted, “First YOTF event brilliant actors & singers, rocked roof! RSPB made ££, yay!!” Lisa Charters, director of digital operations at Random House of Canada said, “You won't be able to not have a digital presence as an author going forward. Social media is here to stay. It already has become a key ingredient in marketing campaigns.”

I think the same think applies to most businesses. I am seeing that companies are seeing doing Twitter and a blog as a given.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Gina Sicilia

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The closer was Gina Sicilia, a powerful young blues singer from Philly. She was wonderful. the best closer I have seen at Onset. She has the potential to be a national star. I especially liked her performance of Try Me.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Toni Lynn Washington

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The third act was Toni Lynn Washington, a great blues singer who often appears at Boston clubs.

25 Creative Twitter Applications

I wondered when people would get really creative with Twitter when I posted on some interesting Twitter apps from the New York Times. Now here is a useful post on some additional applications, 25 Creative Uses of Twitter. Naturally, I found this through George Dearing on Twitter.

The new list did include Kickbee, an elastic band with vibration sensors that his pregnant wife wore to alert Twitter each time baby kicked: “I kicked Mommy at 08:52 PM on Fri, Jan 2!” This app developed by Corey Menscher, was also mentioned in the New York Times article.

Others I liked include avoiding traffic jams through Commuterfeed. It aggregates tweets about traffic from people stuck in jams. By following your city’s feed, you can get updates about ongoing traffic tangles.

Now I drive less these days but here is one that my plants would appreciate. Botanicalls’ DIY Twitter watering project uses moisture probes to allow your plant to tweet you a message when it needs a drink. The site says: “What's up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love. “ Good idea.

Strawpoll lets you drop mini-polls into your Twitter stream. I will have to try this. You can also share your 140-character reviews with MicroRevie.ws, a mini version of the review site, Rotten Tomatoes. Twittytunes lets you tweet what you're listening, watching or reading, and Blip.fm offers a similar service. I have seen a lot of blip.fm tweets, including many from George Dearing. You can even find out who is swearing on twitter through Curse Bird. I think I will stop here. What are your favorite twitter apps?

Implementing Wikis in the Age of Enterprise 2.0 at Océ

Here is another in a series of interviews with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at Océ, about their Enterprise 2.0 implementation and adoption experiences. In this post I will cover their experiences with wikis and lessons learned. Earlier, I wrote out their micro-messaging experiences. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management technology and services. Samuel is located in the Netherlands and his responsibilities include both the information architecture for structured information in applications such as PLMS and SAP and the unstructured information in places such as email and knowledge management programs.

As I mentioned before, I really like this dual role. It makes so much sense to have these two information sources under the same architectural leadership. Usually knowledge management and IT data management are siloed, limiting the effectiveness of both. This is the first time I have seen this and I commend the vision of Océ. This excellent concept will be covered in my next blog post on Océ but the story today is about their wiki experiences.

Samuel said that part of his role is looking for opportunities for taking Web 2.0 social media inside the organization. He also supports efforts started by others. In the case of wikis, a software engineering manager began the first effort. This manager wanted to create an internal version of the Wikipedia to share best practices and refine processes in their R&D group. He wanted a method to collect, make accessible, and keep current their R&D practices.

This effort was a big success. Lots of people in the R&D group use it, if only to read the content. Samuel said this application is a great way to introduce wikis into an enterprise. He said that the use of a wiki with open editing privileges assumes that everyone in the enterprise is smart and can make intelligent contributions to the firm. Working together people can refine and improve processes in a bottom up way that creates a greater sense of engagement. This all happens at Océ.

People assumed responsibility for their areas of expertise. They often followed updates to their entries. When there was change by someone else, it usually started a conversation over best practices. Sometimes management was brought into these conversations to get support and offer guidance. Any differences have been resolved without edit wars. Some people put in original content and others are good at cleaning up the format and language of contributions by others.

Samuel said that the open platform of the wiki has trigged a sense of empowerment by employees. He also said that it works better as resource for this purposes as you can see content immediately and do not have to open documents that may or may not be what you need.

At the same time, Samuel said that wikis are not the solution to everything. They have not been as useful for file sharing but that may, in part, be a limitation of the tool they are using. Samuel said that since they have other tools for activities such as file sharing and blogging, this makes the wiki better as it is only used for what it does best. He feels it is not a good practice to stretch wikis to tasks they are not designed for.

There are three types of wikis at Océ now. The first one was the R&D wiki just described. More recently, a corporate wiki has been established to provide wiki functionality across the enterprise. It has four main sections: expertise wikis, department wikis, product wikis and project wikis. The expertise wiki includes a subsection that indexes abbreviations used in the firm. This index was the responsibility of one person who felt it was better to crowd source the task through the wiki. It has been successful and is a good example of an ideal task for a wiki.

The product and project wikis were moved out the R&D wikis to provide greater access. One project wiki is used to collect materials for learning purposes and for exploring how a wiki can be used for this goal.

The third type of wiki at Océ is used to share information outside the enterprise. For example, Samuel set up a section here to share information within the Dutch knowledge management group. It contains people from large Dutch-based international organizations such as Shell, Heineken, and Unilever. They set up meeting agendas and share presentations in this wiki.

In the future, Samuel wants to explore ways to use semantic analysis to get a richer understanding of the wiki content. The content is all now within one wiki platform. At first, there had been separate wikis. When these wikis were integrated they discovered a number of teams working on similar efforts that were not fully aware of this. These teams were able to share useful information and learn from each other. Samuel would like to be able to explore relationships between content on an ongoing basis for similar results.

Samuel is also continuing to explore the relationship between wikis and other more formal tools in the enterprise. He wants to maintain a balanced approach where each tool is only used for the tasks is best designed for. At the same time, he would like the tools to better integrate and share content. For example, wikis are often used for collaborative editing of a document. Then the final version is placed into a more formal tool.

Océ has a traditional corporate intranet and Samuel is on the steering committee. The committee agreed that about 80-90% of the content of their intranet should be on the wiki or other platforms than the intranet. He feels it is process information and should easily be changed by the crowd. Samuel has suggested that they make a list of these pages and migrate them to the wiki or other platforms. At the same time he does not want to limit migration to the wiki. Samuel wants to tell intranet authors especially, and employees in general, what the options are for information sharing as he explained in this blog post, Where Do I Share and Store My Information? He wants to tell authors about wiki's, blogs, file sharing, etc. Then they can start to think about options and choose the best place for their information.

Samuel has also proposed an innovation wiki, together with a colleague. This proposal is still waiting for formal approval, but seems likely to be approved. Many managers support it and want to give it a try. He is waiting for formal approval, but could set this up in a minute. Because of the Océ culture Samuel wants formal approval first and commitment from the R&D board. He wants them to commit to actually pick up the good ideas that will be generated on the wiki, provide resources, so the ideas can realized.

Wikis have been successful at Océ because they were implemented in a thoughtful way that aligned with business needs, company culture, and the capabilities within wikis. They are not seen as a be-all cure but one more tool with specific capabilities that is added to the total mix of tools.

Will Yahoo's Changing Search Strategy Cause it to Pick Up Niche Services?

With the alliance with Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo's focus is no longer on the technology that powers search and trying to beat the competition with it - the "megawatt war," as Sam Diez reports at ZDNet. Instead, it wants to ride the back of Microsoft technology and channel it so users will want to come back to Yahoo every time they have a query. They want value added user experiences.

To accomplish this they need to offer value added niche content. One example, would the type of focused search experience that Tvissimo can offer, for example. Tvissimo lets you not only find what's happening on television, but you can also set up alerts for when your favorite shows, actors, movies, etc. come within a two week window so you will not miss them. That is a service that will keep you wanting to come back.

Sam concludes by wondering if "given the time and resources to focus on customer experience instead of back-end technology (Yahoo) gains some ground and starts building itself back up." Services such as TVissimo would help them. It can become a big factor in accessing television content, especially as it becomes available across computers and mobile devices.

Tom Wilde recent wrote in Search As Television’s Savior? that one critical need for the new multi-screen reality (when people use computers and TV at the same time) is “a new metaphor for programming, and this is where search can play a vital role.” He points out that users are increasingly in control of the content they consume so search is the perfect approach to delivering individualized content discovery. To be successful publishers need to be aware of how their content is discovered and organized across the multi-screen reality.

He goes on to outline some useful search optimization techniques. Having a robust search capability such as provided within TVissimo is another way to bring more control to users. Having both is the ideal way to go. Nielsen Research came out with interesting statistics on overall video consumption last week indicating that total TV consumption reached record levels when considering traditional broadcast video, time shifted video, web video and mobile video. People want to the content ad they do not want to miss what is important to them. The web gives them an increased desire for control. Search can put more of this control in their hands.

Is Management a Bunch of Social Media Lurkers?

There was an interesting study reported in the Communications Strategist blog on the uses of social media by management. In July 2009, Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law undertook a research study to look at how business leaders view social media and its role in their organizations – see Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risk. I blogged about it a bit on FastForward but here are more details.

The study found that fifty-one percent of executives surveyed said they fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, while 49 percent assert that using social media could damage company reputation.

Apparently with these fears in mind the following reasons that management uses social media were reported. The top reason is to read what customer might be saying about the company (52%). Next was to monitor a competitor’s use of social media (47%). Third was to see what their employees may be sharing, The fourth reason was to check on the background of prospective employees (25%). Thee reasons seems to bring in the vast majority of management into the social media space as only 16% said they use social media for personal use or not at all.

However, as the Communications Strategist noted, these were mostly defensive uses. For example, what about engaging in conversation with employees, customers, and the market in general. They also seem to display a lurker mentality. You really need to more fully engage to understand how social media might help the enterprise. The study also points out the many studies that show a rise in the use of social media should look closely at the reasons the various social media are being used.

This is especially important since despite their apprehensions, social networking is being viewed as a key strategy. According study, eight in 10 senior management, human resource and marketing executives believe social media can enhance relationships with customers/clients (81%) and build brand reputation (81%). Almost 70 percent feel such networking can be valuable in recruitment (69%), as a customer service tool (64%) and used to enhance employee morale (46%). The most popular vehicles being used include Facebook (80%), Twitter (66%), YouTube (55%), LinkedIn (49%) and blogs (43%). However, they seem to leave active participation to employees and simply want to monitor what is happening for various reasons noted above.

It was also interesting to read that, in fact, the majority of those surveyed who are not using social media on a corporate basis say this is primarily because they simply do not know enough about it. Again, the best way to learn is to engage.

So does your management use social media? If, so, how do they use social media? If you are management how do you use social media?

Great KM Cluster Meeting in Dallas on September 24

My friend Adriaan Jooste is hosting an interesting KM Cluster meeting in Dallas this week on September 24. The DFW Value Network and KM Cluster will be held in Irving, Texas, 10 minutes from DFW Airport.

The speakers include Adriaan covering KM Economics: What NOT to do in an Economic Downturn. Adraain is the Chief Knowledge Officer 
 Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP. Karl Wiig, 
Chairman and CEO
Knowledge Research Initiative, will speak on: Knowledge Futures: What can organizations and countries do to increase their knowledge competency right now? Nancy Dixon will discuss “Conversation: 
The Core Knowledge Transfer Technology.” Wilbur Swan, Co-founder
Contact Networks, and Deborah Roth Grabein, 
Chief Marketing Officer at Andrews and Kurth, will discuss, Enterprise Social Capital: 
Mastering employee contacts while optimizing privacy .

I have heard Adriaan, Nancy, and Karl before and they are all great speakers. I recommend this is you can attend.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: Ricky King Russell

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The second act was Ricky King Russell who I have seen many times. Once at the now closed Onset Bay Blues Cafe he did a nice request for me, Otis Redding's That's How Strong My Love Is. He was great as always. He is based on Cape Cod. Ricky is in the second photo from the left.

Onset Blues Festival 2009: The Mystix

I have gone to the last three Onset Bay Blues Festivals and greatly enjoyed them. I again attended the 2009 festival on August 1. It was great as always. The first act was The Mystix. They are a Boston based blues group seen below.

Open Text Adds Social Media, More Web 2.0 Features, and SAP Integration

Open Text is a relatively old player in the enterprise content management and collaboration space. It recently announced Open Text Web Solutions 10, the latest release of Open Text╒s Web Content Management (WCM) software. The new release allows ?organizations to intelligently manage and deliver a broad set of corporate information to users over the Web, and features extensive usability upgrades, a new technology foundation, and deeper and more comprehensive integration with the Open Text ECM Suite and the SAP NetWeaver¿ Portal component.? They also offer Open Text Social Media that brings together many of the current social tools such as blog, micro-blogs, wikis, communities, profiles, and social search

I was especially interested in this as I was involved in an Open Text based knowledge management implementation at a major telecom provider in 1995. It was very poplar and spread across several divisions in the organization. Ironically, while working with a different firm, I came back to evaluate it in 2002 as part of a plan to upgrade the software. The knowledge management system remained quite popular, despite the aging software platform. We were able to look at instances were call center people sued the system versus times that they did not. Those who used the system performed significantly better on a whole array of metrics such as cross-selling success and reduction in repeat calls.

Now it is 2009 and social media is entering the enterprise. It is nice to see Open text keeping up with the times. As the note the role of web content management has expanded from a place to store and publish external-facing content to a helping support organizational business goals in such areas as sales and customer support. It is more deeply embedded in work processes. So Open Text is bringing in a ?full Web 2.0 user interface to both the people editing content within the company and to the consumers of this content.?

Not only are they brining in social media components, but they are also offering tighter integration with legacy applications such as SAP. This will better support their work process integration. The new release allows editors to combine dynamic content from social media, the Open Text ECM Suite and rich media applications and reuse it across many target systems, including the SAP NetWeaver Portal. In addition because it is based on the Microsoft .Net technology, Open Text 10 offers support for Microsoft SQL 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

Other enhancements in Open Text Web Solutions 10 include a new search integration API, extended tagging support, creation of memorable URLs, and dynamic aggregation of personal content in newsfeeds. Its editor now uses RIA technology to provide more Web 2.0 capabilities. All of these enhancements are bringing it into the current times.

Blogging Remains a Great Tool for Small Businesses

Here are some useful statistics as reported in, Blogging: The Best SEO Tool for Small Businesses. Hub sport recently published a study on that showed companies that blog have far better marketing results. Those who blog see 55% more visitors to their website.

In addition, they get 97% more links to their website which is a primary factor in determining search results. If you want a higher ranking, get quality links to your site. They also get 434% more indexed pages – this is the number of pages that show up in search engines. Simply because you have a web site doesn’t guarantee it is being indexed and is thus findable by search engines. If some of your pages are in search engines it does not mean all of your pages are there.

This is useful evidence to support what I have seen over the spat five years. Blogs get you on the front page of Google and other search engines if you do them right. I first discovered also by accident when I saw that many of the various niche topics that I wrote about appeared on the front page of Google. I noticed this first by looking at the referring source and seeing that it was often a Google search. Usually the search had my post in the top returns so that people saw it and came to t the blog.

The results above show how a blog can boost a regular web site if they are connected in some way. I feel that it is better to have then as separate but closely linked, rather than have the blog embedded in the site. It tends to make the blog easier to find and have its own identity. What has been your experience?

London Turns to Social Media for Image Advice and Other Uses

Yesterday, I wrote about some ways that my home town, Boston, is using social media. I have also lived in London. The Greater London Authority is looking to social media to gather public input into consolidating its multiple identities into a more unified package. The official invitation, Creative development and design of a brand for London, hopes that contractors will help engage stakeholders in order to develop London’s narrative post-2012.

One London agency, Moving Brands, is already putting social media to work with its blog, A Brand for London, and Twitter account @we_are_london. These initiatives are designed to open up commentary on subjects such as London’s design DNA, architecture, and people who live there.

The branding event is just one of many social media efforts. Here is a list of upcoming social media events in London. There is also the Tuttle Club, a social media café.

I think the branding and cafe are great ideas. What is your city doing with social media?

Boston uses Social Media to Track Bike Thieves and Report Street Incidents

Last week I wrote about how twitter is like taking a nap, going to the water cooler or having a smoke and yesterday I posted on 25 creative Twitter uses. Here are some very different uses. Many cities are starting to use social media. In my town, Boston, police are using Twitter and Facebook to track down bike thieves. As Mashable reports, The Stolen Bikes Boston Community Alert initiative provides a simple way to let you report your stolen bike. The site notifies the police, bike shops, and local security, plus posts to the Twitter and Facebook accounts that have been setup within a matter of minutes. Citizens at-large can then follow the accounts and report sightings of the stolen bikes. I wish this was around when my bike was stolen a number of years ago.

The Boston police also tweet about incidents on the streets of Boston using @Boston_Police. Here is a sample tweet: “INJURED OFFICER: Officer from district 4 transported to Beth Israel Hospital, human bite to arm, suspect in custody.“ As Mashable wrote, Twitter is the ideal channel for the Boston Police dept. to show its human face.

In addition, Boston has an iPhone app that helps you get around its pubic transit system. Select a departure station and destination on your iPhone and find the best routes in Boston including:?- Fastest Route: based on minimum time estimation.?- Easiest Route: based on minimum connections. It is useful if you have luggage, or just prefer an easier route.?- Handicap accessible: makes all connections at stations with handicap access.

What is your city doing with social media?

My Favorite Tweets for August 2009

Here is the second in a new series of posts. Since I use my blog, in part, as a personal knowledge management system and Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month. These are links that I want to archive and share. I will repeat this once a month if that timing seems to work best. I may adjust the timing.

I tested the reduced shortened urls and they work. I hope this is also useful for you. Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

RT @darwindev Why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want from @slate http://bit.ly/3x7bJ6 (Aug 30)

Creating a Winning Corporate Social Media Policy http://sbne.ws/r/2E9a 2:22 PM Aug 27th from web

80% of online in US use #socialmedia http://bit.ly/9rMbY via @SBoSM 1:20 PM Aug 26th from TweetDeck

new #Mac operating system more business friendly http://bit.ly/UeaOj about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck (Aug 22)

RT @ariegoldshlager: @BillIves See also: Water Cooler Social Networks are Productive: http://bit.ly/yIvnm 4:24 PM Aug 21st from TweetDeck

Office Cubicles Reduce Collaboration http://bit.ly/lSOlo posted on @theappgap 4:05 PM Aug 21st from web

Basics of Blogger Outreach http://bit.ly/CPtQS excellent points 8:32 PM Aug 20th from TweetDeck

RT @GeorgeDearing: Liked "Daydream Believers - persistence of myths underscores need for relentless reporting." http://ff.im/-6PCNW 9:40 AM Aug 19th from TweetDeck

RT @jmcgee: excellent pres from @snowded. Good ex of "saying more than you can write down" - http://bit.ly/Xln5u 

(Aug 12)

from @immcgee review of Thinking in Systems: A Primer http://bit.ly/uGFJZ 

(Aug 12)

via @dhinchcliffe New Study Finds Grassroots Enterprise Social Media Often Works Best: http://bit.ly/3NoCth via @rhill19 5:58 PM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

Big gains in #socialmedia among older users > I am getting http://bit.ly/O0Mzj @via @SBoSM 12:54 PM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

from @joemckenrick Even Among the Tech Savviest, Social Media Starts ‘Underground’ http://bit.ly/nmztI 10:12 AM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

RT @dhinchcliffe: Gartner predicts 50% of OSS projects led by vendors. More upside here http://bit.ly/5ZiP0 via @mjasay 10:05 AM Aug 5th from TweetDeck

10 ways NH businesses are using social media successfully and strategically http://bit.ly/17pZYT via @SBoSM 7:16 PM Aug 3rd from TweetDeck

Why The FCC Wants To Open Up The #iPhone http://bit.ly/1ADyqS 7:44 AM Aug 3rd from TweetDeck

Tale of Two NOLA Breakfasts in Ashfield MA

First there was the Tale of Two English Breakfasts and then there was the Tale of Two Eggs Benedict in Quebec. Recently, I was back in the Amherst, MA, the scene of yesterday's post. My friend Don Lesser and I stopped at Elmer's Store in Ashfield on the way to art exhibit in Williamstown.

We were lucky as it was 11:45 and they were still serving breakfast. The chef, Nan Parati is from New Orleans and provides a great southern breakfast. So I could not resist her biscuits and sausage gravy with had browns. Don had the home made corn beef hash with eggs. It was made with pastrami and corn beef which Di on said gives a better hash. I tasted it and would agree. Here are the breakfasts.

Post script. Don and I went back and had two more breakfasts there on the way to visit the Clark Museuem in Williamstown. These include a traditional eggs. sausage, home fries and toast and one with cheese on the home fries. On the way back we ate at the Gypsy Apple in Shelburne Falls. Here is Don's review of the Gypsy Apple.

Photos from Amherst MA

I often go to Amherst to visit long time friends. Here are some flowers and architecture that you often find in old New England.

Come to Webcom 2009 in Montreal October 22

Webcom 2009 will take place in Montreal on Thursday October 22 from 8Am to 6PM. I look forward to seeing you there. There is a great agenda of speakers. Shel Holtz leads it off with a session on Tactical Transparency: The Value of Access to Information. Then there are four tracks on: Enterprise 2.0 & Intranets, Marketing 2.0, Solutions 2.0, and Media 2.0.

I am pleased to be speaking twice. First, there is a Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 Blogging in the Age of Twitter. Here is the description. "Blogs were one of the initial social media, emerging on the political scene in 04 and business in 05. They were the first social media to make it into Gartner’s “slope of enlightenment.” Now Twitter has emerged as the hot new social media tool on the Web. Does Twitter replace blogs? Have blogs seen their day? This session will cover the state of business blogs in 2009 and attempt to convince you that blogs and Twitter are natural partners that make each other stronger. It will focus on blogging outside and inside the enterprise."

The second session is a brief discussion on Twitter for Business is Not an Oxymoron. In this discussion I cover "how Twitter is another of the long line of Web 2.0 consumer tools to cross over to the business world. It has emerged in the past year as a new communication channel that augments, but does not replacing existing ones, including blogs. Hear a wide range of business applications for Twitter from a skeptic turned convert. Case examples will be provided and discussion encouraged."

My colleague at Darwin Development Corporation, Thierry Hubert will cover how Collective wisdom is emerging from Web chaos. In this session he will demonstration the Darwin Awareness Engine ™ and discuss its capabilities. Our friend, Claude Malaison will discuss Twitter & the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: How to scoop CNN.

There are many other interesting speakers and topics and you have the wonderful city of Montreal.

When Online Video Consumption Moves to Exabytes in 8 Years: Will Phones, TV, Music Player, and Computers Really Converge?

Good thing I got my iPhone. According to ReadWriteWeb in 8 Years, Online Video Consumption Will be Measured in Exabytes. Of course, I learned about this on Twitter. They say that one exabyte is a billion gigabytes. Oh well, I should have gotten the 32 gigabyte model. Coda, the U.K.-based research firm claims that mobile broadband users accessing the net via laptops and netbooks will consume 1.8 exabytes of video per month.

ReadWriteWeb says that the bandwidth problem will get worst before it gets better, but it will get better. They go on toe argue that bandwidth speeds have accounted for many of the major revolutions the internet has seen including the abundance of high-speed data connections in 2005 that made the video-sharing site YouTube a hit. Then by 2007, Hulu, was launched as a video-streaming site for commercial content in an effort to compete with pirated peer-to-peer downloads as well as iTunes, which by now was serving up TV shows and full-length movies. Next, in 2008, the launch of the 3G iPhone brought the high-speed internet to the mobile phone and my iPhone.

Ironically, the major use for my iPhone so far, besides being a telephone, is a greater mobile music player. I now use it instead of a car radio or CD player and now have music wherever I am with no need for electricity or wifi. I no longer bring my iPod an d speakers on trips, the iPhone is my music player, just as my laptop is the music player while I work. I have my entire iTunes library on the iPhone. I should have gotten the 32 byte version, then I could do movies and downloaded TV shows better.

Now they predict that by 2017 with the promise of 4G, the mobile phone could deliver things like live streaming HDTV. It will really no longer be called a phone and the convergence of computers, TV, and telecom will be close to complete. We may look back at today and wonder what it was like when these devices and channels were separated.

My Favorite Tweets for July and Late June 2009

Here is the first in a new series of posts. Since I use my blog, in part, as a personal knowledge management system and Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month. These are links that I want to archive and share. I will repeat this once a month if that timing seems to work best. I may adjust the timing.

I tested the reduced shortened urls and they work. I hope this is also useful for you. Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

RT @dhinchcliffe: Managing beyond Web 2.0: http://bit.ly/43jhUW McKinsey says wrap up the 2.0 and starting preparing for Web 3.0. (July 25)

@theappgap rise and rise of @socialmedia http://bit.ly/kcZXj. (July 25)

20 Brands & Products that Died in 2009 http://bit.ly/KLuh0 via @psfk (July 25)

RT @dhinchcliffe: My first impressions of Google Wave on ZDNet: http://bit.ly/31xDt 1:52 PM Jul 24th from TweetDeck

Special issue of SCIENCE on Complex Systems and Networks http://bit.ly/1NMUlJ via @valdiskrebs 9:59 AM Jul 24th from TweetDeck

Has Twitter become more important than Google for traffic generation? http://bit.ly/IA5bt 3:19 PM Jul 23rd from TweetDeck

Study Shows #SocialMedia Investments Pays http://bit.ly/SjiAJ via@SBoSM 12:37 PM Jul 21st from TweetDeck

RT @digiphile: @amcafee "Crowdsourcing Works, When It’s Focused @NYTimes http://bit.ly/13D6VE | Good piece on collective intelligence (July 20)



Harnessing Crowds: Mapping Genome of Collective Intelligence via @panklam http://bit.ly/403GAM 9:02 AM Jul 19th from TweetDeck

RT @mfauscette: some interesting data on #socialmedia use http://tinyurl.com/l5szhx 8:13 PM Jul 18th from TweetDeck

RT @jlipnack: A twitter tips post that makes sense: Thx Stowe Boyd via Twitter. http://bit.ly/k2Ad2 1:36 PM Jul 18th from TweetDeck

40 Examples of Social Media Employee Guidelines http://bit.ly/XRVVV 2:13 PM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

Look out - Advertisers Are Watching Your Every Tweet http://bit.ly/194VO0 via @SBoSM 1:54 PM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

RT @digiphile: 137 SMB Twitter Tips from @SmallBizTrends http://bit.ly/NvcBO | PDF: http://bit.ly/2ovThn | HT @Tamar 10:55 AM Jul 17th from TweetDeck

Social Media Stats: Who is doing what? http://bit.ly/gXv6P 4:06 PM Jul 16th from TweetDeck

Twitter for Business FAQ http://bit.ly/LXir 11:41 PM Jul 16th from TweetDeck

10 things you should cover in your social networking policy http://bit.ly/306yr 5:37 PM Jul 15th from TweetDeck

How to Get Most from Facebook Fan Pages http://bit.ly/4etwR 9:15 AM Jul 6th from TweetDeck

KM becomes KS at IBM thx @johnt http://bit.ly/iPH8v 9:39 PM Jul 4th from TweetDeck

Guide For #SocialMedia Polocies http://bit.ly/s3pSy via @SBoSM 3:09 PM Jul 1st from TweetDeck

Top 10 Ways to talk to #search engines thru Twitter http://bit.ly/adRQO 12:34 PM Jun 26th from TweetDeck

blog is still foundational component to healthy social-media strategy http://bit.ly/3nHEbd 9:29 PM Jun 25th from TweetDeck 

 
 

 



Mac Operating System Gaining More Business Capabilities

I am a long time Mac user so I was pleased to see 10 Reasons Snow Leopard Is Ready For Business. Now I started using Lisa before it was announced to help develop some of the training for it. Then I used the early desktop Mac. After a long break forced by several employers, I am now back with a Mac as I make the buying decisions for my enterprise of one.

Here are some of the ten more reasons to use a Mac for your business (from PCW) that I like.

In Windows data restored from the Recycle Bin is automatically restored to its original location. With Snow Leopard restoring to the original location is now an option on the Mac as well.

Snow Leopard adds the ability to sort Spotlight search results for more efficient searching. You can sort search data by name, date modified, date created, size, type of file, or label.

When printing Snow Leopard displays the printers that are detected nearby, enabling you to identify and configure the best available device for printing your document.

When a printer is connected Snow Leopard connects to the Internet and downloads the most current driver for the device

The menu bar item for AirPort displays signal strength for all available wireless networks so you can choose the strongest possible connection.

Snow Leopard has native support for connecting with Exchange. No need for Entourage. This last is not an issue for me but I know a number of people who will be pleased with this.

Thanks to Tony Bradley for supplying this overview.

My Fast Forward Posts for August 2009

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in September.

New Study Finds Social Media Becoming Mainstream on Corporate Intranet

Jakob Nielsen on Enterprise 2.0 Adoption

Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Study from AIIM

Eight Issues to Consider in Your Enterprise?s Internal Social Software Policy

Ross Dawson on Implementing Enterprise 2.0

Is Management Focusing Too Much on Social Media Lurking and Monitoring?

Tale of Two Eggs Benedict in Quebec

I was recently at the Ripplecove Inn in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. I had eggs Benedict with salmon the first day and more traditional eggs Benedict with ham the second day. They were sided with great fruit both days and the great view.

Interesting Small Videos from Liz Sweibel

I have written about Liz Sweibel's art before (most recently see Many Kinds of Nothing Creates a Nice Art Space and Liz Sweibel’s New Art Web Site and Blog). She has now extended the exploration of small spaces displayed in the Many Kinds of Nothing exhibit with a series on videos on her web site. You can find them on her Liz Sweibel web site under the little videos.

I especially like the ones that show movement within her small constructions. They fit the small video format and cause you to look more closely at the small things in life. I often see many art works embedded in the visual experiences I encounter during the day. These small videos will prompt more of these experiences. I came away thinking about the visual world in an enriched way, which is the objective of most art.

Post Script: Liz has added new work under Play on her site. There are 5 interesting photos of her small works with parts in and out of focus. Her interest is in the connection between these photographic images that suggest movement and the little videos that actually move but are more like kinetic photos. I think there is a strong design element to these images under Play. I especially like photos 1.3, and 4 where I see this design element. They could be abstract paintings that still have elements of reality. Once again, they invite you to look at the visual world in a different way.

Is Twitter like Taking a Nap? But More Productive?

This week I posted on whether Twitter is Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? and asked if Twitter is like Going Out for a Smoke? How I found an interesting study from Arie Goldshlager on Freedom to surf: workers more productive if allowed to use the internet for leisure. Is this break just what many need to recharge themselves and get good ideas at the same time. The study found that people who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t surf.

Before reading further I was reminded of a study reported by the BCC, Sleeping on the job, that found ““Some 30% of people have their best ideas in bed compared to just 11% who have them at their desk, according to research by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA). It is calling for companies to install beds in the workplace, in an attempt to change the way we work for the better. According to the authors of The Art of Napping at Work we live a "napaphobic culture", but attitudes are changing and the bed could soon become part of the office furniture. Bill and Camille Anthony say workers are "nap ready" and often sneak a snooze anyway.”

Now back to web surfacing. Twitter is only one form of web surfacing so we have to be careful about over generalizing here. The study found that in the study of 300 workers, 70% of people who use the Internet at work engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ or WILB. Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about product and reading online news sites. Twitter was not in the top activities but it could serve a similar purpose.

The report went on to say that the attraction of WILB can be attributed to people’s imperfect concentration. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored.
It’s the same in the work place. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

So web surfacing can work like naps, except that you might gain some useful information while zoning out if you do it right. Here is more from Slate on why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want. They say that, "the restrictions infantilize workers—they foster resentment, reduce morale, lock people into inefficient routines, and, worst of all, they kill our incentives to work productively." Some unchain your workers. Maybe they will browse instead of nap at the their desks.

However, I do get a lot of great ideas when I take a nap. I also get great ideas from Twitter. Sometimes the two work together as I realize the significance of what I read on Twitter while taking a nap. However, like napping you need to do Twitter and other forms of web surfacing in moderation and return to the workplace ready to take on your challenges of the day.

Is Twitter Like Going Out for a Smoke?

Yesterday I wrote about Learning to be Productive at the Water Cooler based on a post by Arie Goldshlager and a study by MIT’s Alex Pentland and Benjamin Waber. The quick answer, water cooler discussions increase productivity and Twitter is the new virtual water cooler. Then Gil Yehuda, in response to the water cooler issue, brought up the question for today’s post, what about smoker networks. Stewart Mader’s tweet back to us, “is Twitter modern equivalent of going out for a smoke?” I tweeted back that the answer is yes and no and it would take a blog post to answer so here is my answer.

Gil wrote about an experience at the beginning of his career in IT in Lessons from New York Smokers. Eric, a team member, “was always more informed than anyone else. When someone had a question, he’d know about someone in some other group that we could ask and get help. The reason he was so well connected was simple: he was a smoker. Smokers developed an informal employee social network. They spent nearly an hour a day chatting with other smokers in other groups about all sorts of shared interests. Eric was pretty junior, but he hung out with some of the more senior managers too – those who smoked, that is. Eric knew about people and initiatives that we never heard of. He was our eyes and ears, and was invaluable to the team.”

This prompted him to understand the value of social networks and the need for them at the work place. He concludes that Enterprise 2.0 types of online social networks make this social networking easier, especially when you work in multiple locations, and you do not have to risk lung cancer. Now I have experienced similar situations. When I worked on projects, I always knew how to talk with people normally hard to reach, if they were smokers. So is Twitter like going out for a smoke?

In a more limited way it is but fewer people go for a smoke than a drink of water so you are dealing with a more limited subset. On the other hand, there is likely more camaraderie amongst beleaguered smokers than the water drinkers. So there is likely more egalitarian communication between different levels in the organization in the smoker’s group. Enterprise 2.0 also lets senior and executives have more direct communication with employees at all levels.

So if implemented right it is more like the smoker’s group without the health risks. With Twitter there is also the timing factor as to whether your paths will cross which also applies to the water cooler. In both cases, the smart networker will know the patterns of his or her prey and look for the right times to engage. Since the smoker group is together for longer periods of time, there are also more likely to be established rules of contact than the newcomer needs to learn to be effective. Smoker’s groups might be more likely to meet at certain times. There are also patterns of high Twitter use to observe.

In all cases, Twitter, smoking, having a coffee, and visiting the water cooler, you are often taking a break from focused long-term work and are open to short exchanges, especially if they are entertaining and helpful to your work. Putting yourself into a water cooler mode might help make your tweets more useful and appreciated. It is like the elevator speech, another place of change encounter. Except people are less open to elevator talk, especially when you do not know everyone on board.

We could on analyzing the different chance encounter places. I remember what seemed a strange behavior during one of my first visits to a client location as a new consultant. All of the client people would bow as the passed the stalls in the men’s room. I wondered what this ritual was until someone explained, they were checking to see who might be there to over hear their conversations. They wanted to be sure they were DMing each other.

I know a number of organizations that opened coffee rooms to encourage communication between departments and they usually worked. At a major British utility I worked with, the implementers exchanged best practices over their morning cup of tea while they waited for the day's assignments. Taking this away by having people work out of their homes seemed to reduce productivity.

Like many virtual collaboration tools Twitter gives you both more and less control then its real life equivalents. Keeping in mind lessons learned from the real world conversations will help you in the virtual world of Twitter.

Is Twitter Like Stopping at the Water Cooler? Is this Productive?

Arie Goldshlager recently posted about the two views of the productivity of water cooler conversations. First there are the dire warnings about workplace productivity lost to water cooler chats. Arie said that in 2008, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated productivity lost to NCAA March Madness in the U.S. would cost the economy as much as US$1.7-billion. Idle chatter, it seems, is an expensive waste of workplace time. That may be if it is idle.

In contrast, he links to a study by Alex (Sandy) Pentland of MIT and Benjamin Waber, a doctoral candidate at the MIT Media Lab, who found that workplace chatter, even the idle kind, increases productivity. I would have to agree with these MIT guys. For years I used to quote a study that showed that the vast majority of employees said that the vast majority of their learning occurred in the water cooler rather than in formal classes. I wish I could remember the source. It may have been IBM.

We used these results to design learning activities that were more like water cooler discussion than formal classes. Now Twitter can serve that purpose, especially for people like me who work out of their home. I find much of what I write about on the various blogs I contribute to through the “water cooler” of Twitter. Rather than a waste of time, it is a useful supplement to more formal news sources. And it is interactive. In fact I learned about this study through Twitter as Arie posted it in response to my tweet on how office cubicles can reduce collaboration. These studies are not contradictory. In fact they point out the need to leave the cube and go to a common social space to increase collaboration. So among other things, Twitter is the virtual water cooler.

Then Gil Yehuda, in response to the water cooler issue, brought the question for tomorrow’s post, what about smoker networks. Tune in tomorrow to see my answer to Stewart Mader’s tweet back to us, “is Twitter modern equivalent of going out for a smoke?”

My App Gap Posts for August 2009

Here are my App Gap posts for August. In addition to the Fast Forward blog (see side bar for links), I am writing in another Corante blog, the App Gap, sponsored by QuickBase, The posts began toward the end of January 2008. In this case, I am primarily doing product commentaries with a few other things thrown in. Below are the ones for June. There will be more in September.

NewsGator Offers Social Sites ™: A Comprehensive Enterprise Social Networking Suite

LongJump Provides Comprehensive On-Premise, Private Cloud-Based Application Platform

EchoSign Provides E-Signing to Take Out Last Analog Vestige in Business Processes

Implementing Enterprise Micro-messaging at Océ

Socialcast Moves Toward Providing a Unified Activity Stream with Its New API

Manymoon Provides Enhanced Collaboration Capabilities and Greater Google Apps Integration

Jobvite Integrates Social Media and eRecruitment

Novell Teaming 2 Brings a Richer Collaboration Feature Set