Joining Dots: Blog

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2010-03-01T08:54:00.002Z

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Did the clouds just get darker?

2010-02-25T09:00:00.000Z

In February 2010 three Google executives were convicted of a privacy violation in an Italian court and received suspended prison sentences. The reason for the trial and conviction: they allowed people to upload a video to Google Video showing someone being bullied. It was two hours before the video was removed following complaints.

"It is like prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post"

The BBC covers the story in more detail here.

The trial sets an interesting precedent and could have far-reaching consequences for social media and cloud computing services. In particular the costs to provide such services if content is supposed to be pre-screened and the viability for organisations to use them for business data. Will Internet Service Providers be held to the same level of account if an employee complains about data an organisation stores using online business services? China is not the only country with a government wielding local power to disrupt global Internet services. And although Italy is singled out in this example, Australia has been planning to introduce strict filtering controls that could restrict access to social networking sites. The UK is exploring how to prevent illegal downloads and considering blocking broadband access for those accused. The list goes on... Providers of online 'cloud computing' services will find more turbulence as they cross political borders.

References:

Google bosses convicted in Italy - BBC
[UK] Digital Economy Bill 'could breach rights' - BBC
Yahoo and Google raise doubts over planned [Australian] net filters - BBC
Cloud Computing - definition on Wikipedia

Image courtesy of freefoto.com licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

SharePoint and Windows Mobile 7

2010-02-15T22:24:00.001Z

Source: Gizmodo

Welcome to the new Office hub

Today, Microsoft finally unveiled Windows Mobile 7. To find out all about it, take your pick of the headlines on Techmeme.

Why am I blogging about it? Just one line matters (well, a few others are also quite interesting but this is the one SharePoint customers have been waiting for):

"You can access any document from your Sharepoint server with editing and creation functionalities on your phone."
- Source: Know Your Mobile

About flamin' time :-)

More details will be published on the Internet over the next few days now that the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) period is over. For now, headlines are focused on the toys and technical specs (good and bad: not much backwards compatibility - if you have a current Windows Mobile device, you'll need a new one to access all this stuff). But finally, Windows Mobile is added to the range of Microsoft's client devices and apps configured 'out of the box' to access SharePoint, albeit starting from SharePoint 2010...

Here's Microsoft's promotional video:

References:

Online Web Event - Managing SharePoint 2007 Site Permissions

2010-02-09T10:24:00.001Z

On February 8th, I delivered a free short online web cast based on my presentation 'Managing SharePoint 2007 Site Permissions'. Organised by Mark Miller at EndUserSharePoint.com, the event was recorded and is available for download.

To go into more detail about managing SharePoint site permissions and how to apply security in SharePoint, Mark has organised a follow-up 2 hour live web event. It is being held on 1st March at 13:00 EST (6pm GMT). I'll be presenting again but the plan is for this event to be as interactive and hands-on as possible. Each attendee will be given a SharePoint site to practice with. We'll be walking through how to apply permissions, best practices for deciding how to manage permissions and there will be plenty of time for questions about specific security scenarios and concerns. For this event there is a registration fee of $129 (approx £80) which includes access to a recording of the event on-demand for future reference.

References:

Presentation: Managing SharePoint 2007 Site Permissions
Download the recorded web cast (6.2Mb .zip)
Register to attend the online interactive web event (March 1st 2010)

(Originally posted on www.sharepointsharon.com)

US Olympic web site launched on SharePoint 2010 beta

2010-02-02T09:29:00.000Z

The United States Olympic Committee have launched a new Press Portal ready for the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver shortly. The portal is a public web site running on SharePoint Server 2010 Beta with Silverlight serving up embedded media:

I would criticise some elements of the user interface design. Embedding external links in the top navigation bar is not a great idea (first 5 links are for within the web site, from TEAMUSA.ORG onwards are links to external web sites - different font and background colour but not obvious). The Latest News would be easier on the eye to scan if there were a thumbnail for each (instead of author which is not necessary on the home page) and a bit more space between each news item. And there are three different search boxes on the page. Would be great to see an update post-Olympics to identify which one was used the most... But I'm being picky. It's a brave move to publish such a visible web site on beta software and the site demonstrates how much easier it is to make SharePoint 2010 not look like SharePoint. Congratulations to all involved.

For more information: Visit the USOC web site | Microsoft press release

The clue is in the I of iPad

2010-02-01T11:45:00.009Z

Image source: Ali Smiles on Flickr

...and it's I as in interaction, not information...

On January 27th, the rumour mill surrounding Apple’s tablet plans was finally put to rest with the announcement of the iPad. Whilst some have raved about Apple’s latest creation, others have been quick to voice their disappointment and reasons to not like it.

Why the marmite-like reaction – with some thinking the iPad looks great whilst so many of the normal Apple fan club disappointed? A few bloggers have already hit the nail on the head

“Most people who attended the iPad unveiling and are now writing about the iPad are misunderstanding its intended audience because they’re not in it”
– Mike Rundle ‘The iPad Is For Everyone But Us’

The iPad is the first PC-like device that puts technology and expertise in the background. It’s not about tinkering with the operating system or doing niche heavy duty graphics design work. It’s about quick and easy digital access to content, whether you’re reading, creating or sharing with others.

The mistake Microsoft made with its mobile phone software was making a mini version of Windows for mobile devices, assuming everyone would use a stylus to cope with the tiny weeny buttons for accessing apps.

Apple came along and treated mobile phone apps as different to the PC. Goodbye stylus.

The netbook market has been about a device that is an under-powered replica of a laptop, with all the same portable issues that laptops have. Using laptops whilst standing, walking or sitting anywhere without a flat table at a comfortable height to your body is difficult. Given you can get full powered laptops for the same size and battery life as a netbook, the only real advantage for the netbook in its current form is the price.

Apple has just come along and treated netbook apps as different to the PC. Goodbye physical keyboard.

I don't use an iPhone and am not a huge Apple fan, I use Apple products when they're the best fit for purpose which is why I have a 13" MacBook Pro. And it has one feature that makes me think the iPad will be a success. The touchpad on the MacBook Pro (MBP) has similar capabilities to the screen of an iPhone - you can swipe to scroll and pinch to zoom in and out. It seems such a little feature. Yet it is so comfortable, easy and quick to navigate content that I've started doing the same action on my other laptop and get frustrated when I realise it only works on the MBP. It's made me rethink the value of the touch interface for interacting with information.

From initial hands-on comments from others, the iPad isn't perfect but how bad are the flaws?

If it can’t do multi-tasking, that’s an issue if you can’t quickly switch between apps (the comments about speed suggest you can). I’d miss not having a small window of one type of app (chat, video) overlapping another app (note taking, reading docs) but how hard will it be to create apps that integrate multi-tasking a single view?
Lack of Flash support depends on what the future looks like without Flash...
Lack of ports for plugging in cameras or memory cards depends on if people continue to download pics and videos to their computer first instead of uploading straight to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook etc. Either cloud computing is the future or it isn't.
Can't plug in a printer - something makes me think the iPad is about anything but printing. It won't replace the PC or TV. I'll still need that MacBook Pro (required a lightweight 64-bit computer)

Scenarios where the iPad would work for me – everywhere you want to take a netbook/small laptop or wish your phone had a bigger display:

On the sofa watching TV and tweeting at the same time (I balanced my laptop to chatter about the BBC program ‘The Virtual Revolution’ last Saturday – the iPad would have been easier)
At a conference taking notes on a bum-numbing chair trying to balance the laptop on my legs, the iPad would be easier.
On a plane or train reading or preparing a presentation (if I need to demo, the laptop still wins).
Social environments for people who want to stay connected when not working. My laptop comes with me on holiday, albeit for light use. Sure I can do email on the phone but it’s not as easy and impossible to properly read through attachments or create anything. I would definitely take the iPad instead and leave the more expensive work kit behind.
In meetings of any kind. The laptop is still too invasive in a physical meeting environment. I always ask clients first if they mind me using a laptop to take notes. For certain industries – healthcare, witness interviews for starters – a device like the iPad could be a massive breakthrough. In education, teachers might get to see faces again.

About 7 years ago, Microsoft came out with a Tablet edition of Windows. Given I was working at Microsoft at the time, I was one of the many given a tablet to use and show to people. In many ways, I loved the tablet – it made reading stuff a lot lot easier on the plane and I was travelling around Europe on business at the time. Drawing diagrams for note taking was great but text input was a disaster. You had to use a stylus and the handwriting recognition was terrible (because my handwriting is terrible – I am a true left-hander). Tapping an on-screen keyboard with the stylus was ridiculously slow when I can touch-type on a keyboard. (My mantra to so many organisations – to improve productivity, teach people how to type!). The only kind of data input that really worked on-screen was filling in electronic forms. And if you lost the stylus, you were done for. The tablet screen was not touch-sensitive, it worked through a transmitter in the stylus communicating with the computer. Then there was the weight issue and short battery life, both making it unsuitable for carrying around all day. And finally, the start-up time, even from sleep mode, was too slow. A tablet should switch on in the same time it takes to open a physical notebook. Any longer creates awkward social situations.

It’s early days but the iPad looks like it will do the very things the Microsoft Tablet PC fell short on 7 years ago. That makes it interesting because the tablet as a device has potential in so many areas where netbooks and laptops have failed - where technology needs to get out of the way of interaction.

References:

p.s. that all said, I'm struggling to like the name... but can't suggest a better alternative :-)

SharePoint 2007 – How to Manage Site Permissions

2010-01-29T14:38:00.001Z

[Note: This post has been cross-posted from the SharePoint Guide web site]

The presentation below walks through how to manage permissions and control access to a SharePoint site. It assumes you are the owner of your own site, i.e. you have permission to change permissions:

Some additional notes and reminders:

Always check with your IT department regarding the policy for managing SharePoint permissions. They may prefer to create directory groups for you that can then be added to SharePoint groups. This approach lets you decide what permissions each group is given without having to manage the user membership. It's also great if you use a distribution list (a type of directory group) to send out email to everyone, as the same group can be used for both activities. IT can't stop you applying your own permissions (short of not letting you be a site owner), but a good identity management system makes life easier for everyone.
Do keep permissions as simple as possible. In most projects, I find people treat a lot of information as more sensitive than it really is. SharePoint is at its best when used for collaborative working. You can't collaborate when documents are kept secret. Be sure there is a good reason for locking down access.
To quote a good book, Don't Panic! It's easy to reset permissions by simply re-inheriting from the parent site. If you lock yourself out of your own site, after laughing for a while, IT can sort it all out using the SharePoint system account. Not ideal and they won't thank you for the extra workload but all is not lost.

This is the first post in a series I’m creating from a training course I have delivered over the last three years for various clients. Aimed at business users rather than IT, the course is very much hands-on with just a few slides, going from the basics of what is SharePoint through to creating and managing your first site.

This series will be organised under a dedicated web page – The SharePoint 2007 Site Owners Handbook where you can also download a copy of the slides presented here.

Analyse and Act on Social Media Trends

2010-01-27T12:18:00.000Z

How to monitor social media conversations, identify trends and act on them came up in a conversation yesterday regarding the role of internal communications managers. As serendipity would have it, just such a solution cropped up via Google Reader, thanks to Mark Miller (@eusp) over on his End User SharePoint site.

Microsoft has a proof of concept built on SharePoint - Looking Glass (must stress: It's a proof of concept (PoC), no mention of an actual working solution yet and Microsoft PoCs often have a dash of smoke and mirrors about them):

But wafting the smoke aside and stepping around the mirrors, the concept is sound. There are plenty of tools on the Internet for visualising trends from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. (Twistori is a pet favourite of mine for simply observing the world in a conversation) But few go beyond visual analytics. This video explores how to integrate ways that enable you to act on the trends uncovered, what happens next. Interesting stuff. Bet the Microsoft CRM team just love it!... ;-)

Amateurism can win battles

2010-01-23T08:02:00.001Z

This Monday’s Start the Week programme on Radio 4 included an interesting discussion about amateurism during World War II, or as it was titled: ‘The dodgy dossier that fooled Hitler’. The short version (I’d encourage you to listen to the podcast, details at the end of the post):

In 1943, allied troops were in North Africa waiting for orders to attack in Europe. If you looked at a map it was pretty obvious where the attack would start – Sicily. To try and gain the upper hand, an elaborate hoax was put in place to try and convince Hitler that instead of Sicily, the attack was going to begin from Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean and Sardinia in the West. This involved procuring a dead person in London, covering up the fact he had died of poisoning to instead make it look like he died in an air crash, dropping him in the sea to float ashore at a specific location in Southern Spain where intercepted messages suggested a particular German secret agent was operating. The false documents planted on the body should hopefully be discovered by said agent, be identified as real battle plans and hopefully be passed up the chain of command to the very top.

The whole idea sounds like some ridiculous plot in a work of fiction. There are far too many variables and dependencies that could go wrong. And worst of all, if the German secret agent was not fooled by the fake documents, it would beyond doubt confirm Sicily as the real location and likely double Hitler’s efforts there. In short, the plan had as much chance of making matters worse as making them better.

The plan worked.

Listen to the podcast to hear more about it, including “although World War II claimed more lives than any other conflict in history, finding the right dead body was incredibly difficult…” it’s a great conversation. But what’s interesting, and the reason for this post, was a comment made towards the end of the story:

“If Churchill hadn’t been such an enthusiast for this sort of operation and given them full rein…In a way it’s a celebration of amateurism, they were allowed to think what ever they wanted and try it out.”

An Admiral commented about the plan “You can rely on the enemy’s ‘yesmanship’ and ‘wishfulness’”

How many leaders today be prepared to take such a leap of faith? The preference is to rely on statistics and follow standard procedures over ideas and instincts. A simple example was reported this week. Somebody tweeted they were going to blow up their local airport. When discovered by the police, they were arrested under the Terror Act, have had their phone and laptop confiscated, received a lifetime ban from said airport, and been suspended from work until it is decided whether or not they will be prosecuted. The missing piece of context from this story: just before the alleged bomb threat, the person had been tweeting their frustration with the snow and how it was ruining their holiday plans because the local airport was closed. It was a stupid joke in the current climate. But really, how long should it have taken for someone to decide if this was a serious terrorist threat or not versus following the standard ‘send in the cavalry’ procedure. Our officials are becoming yes-folk. And that puts us at more risk, not less…

The danger in relying on process and statistics at the expense of ideas and instincts is you risk missing the threat in front of your eyes. Perhaps we should bring a bit of amateurism, or humanism, back into official processes.

For the rest of this week (until January 25th) you can download a copy of the programme via iTunes or listen using BBC’s iPlayer

References:

Start the week: 18th January 2010 – BBC Radio 4
Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest - The Independent (18 Jan 10)

Our connected future

2010-01-10T18:38:00.001Z

When you reach the giga, peta, and exa orders of quantities, strange new powers emerge. You can do things at these scales that would have been impossible before...

Kevin Kelly has talked about the coming age of data, oodles of the stuff thanks to the Internet and what we're doing with it. Here's a nice video visualising how all this data and the devices connecting to it will define the future, albeit at the scale of trillions rather than zillions...

...and the makers of the video have more details on their web site - MAYA Design - including a research paper for download (PDF).

Related posts: Tim O'Reilly's talk about The Internet Paradigm and Kevin Kelly's Zillionics Change Perspective

Crashing with the nose up

2010-01-10T16:14:00.006Z

"Most merit-pay systems share 2 attributes: they absorb vast amounts of management time and make most people unhappy"

The following information was presented by James R.Crow at the KMWorld conference in October 2001. At the time, it highlighted why so many knowledge management systems fail. These days, it's introducing social media to your organisation that faces the same old obstacles.

What do the following systems have in common:?

Performance appraisals
Reward and recognition
Rankings
Contests
Quotas
Management by Objectives (MBOs)

They are all popular programmes used by management in the belief they will improve performance. They also create winners and losers, which is counter-productive to team work and makes it difficult for any knowledge management system to be effective.

The Performance Appraisal

Theory	Reality
Reward exceptional performers Identify poor performers Determine pay rates Feedback on job performance	Creates an internally competitive system Takes focus away from the customer Measures most recent performance People similar to the appraiser tend to receive higher appraisals

Reward and Recognition

Theory	Reality
Good performance should be rewarded Bad performance should be punished Motivate employees by tying pay to performance	Selection process can cause conflict within the group Money is not a motivator, it is at best a satisfier Any positive impact on performance is short-lived

Contests, Rankings, Incentives

Theory	Reality
We reside in a economy which is based on and benefits from competition We will benefit as an organisation by making competition the way we do business internally	Creates winners and losers - and there are always more losers than winners Ignores (and can damage) the interdepencies within and between internal systems

Quotas

Theory	Reality
Quotas increase sales because people will strive to meet them Without a quota, nobody will sell or produce anything	Sales tend to peak at the end of the month/quarter/year Sales reps tend to limit sales to slightly above the quota and use excess as cushion for next period

The objective should always be for the organisation to win, not component parts.
Management needs to move its thinking from individuals to systems and processes

Will we ever learn?

"Desipte the evident popularity of this practice, the problems with individual merit pay are numerous and well documented. It has been shown to undermine team work, encourage employees to focus on the short term and lead people to link compensation to political skills and ingratiating personalities rather than to performance."
- Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Six Dangerous Myths About Pay", Harvard Business Review, Spring 1998

References:

Original presentation by James R. Crow (workshop 13 in list)

Tags: people | productivity | HR

9 Brains Rules for Education

2010-01-10T10:15:00.000Z

Talk by Marja Brandon at Microsoft, December 2004

An amazing talk by an amazing woman. If only more schools could/would adopt these methods for teaching. This talk was originally posted direct to the library and has been moved to the blog. The following are notes taken from her talk given at Microsoft in December 2004.

Marja founded a school in Seattle - Seattle Girls School - because she decided the school system was failing girls and making it difficult for them to graduate in science and maths subjects. Too many distractions led to missing crucial phases of learning - mid School years (5th - 8th grade, equivalent to junior/primary school in the UK). By the time many get to college, their maths simply isn't strong enough to do science.

Designed a completely original curriculum - no text books! Based around teaching 4 core skills:

Critical and creative thinking
Problem posing and solving
Bold thinking - don't think outside the box, live outside the box
Community connectedness - connect everything they do to the real world

Step 1: Potential

Right from the start, the girls are told that the school's mission is to build the next generation of world leaders. The kids sit up straight - you light up their ambition and instantly they can start to vision it. Everyone's scores go through the roof compared to their 'expected' start points. They don't just sit back and wait for education to flow over their heads, they participate. They start to hold each other to that potential. (Not talking about 'gifted' kids, this applies to all <-- for related note, see 'Art of Possibilities' where Benjamin Zander starts the by giving his students an 'A' grade and the year is up to them to decide how they deserve it.)

Step 2: Anti-bias mission

The school encourages as much diversity as possible (race, religion, family unit structure, abilities etc.) - when you get different kids bumping into each other, each one of those bumps is a learning opportunity.

Step 3: Apply what we now know about the brain

We have learnt more about neuro-science in the last 10 years than in the rest of our history. There is now a giant gap between neuro-science and education. What are we waiting for? Traditional class day ends at 3pm - it was designed for the agriculture calendar: run home and do the chores. Methods were based on schools for boys - right back to the Greek system when it was 4 boys to 1 teacher. Class sizes are 30 and growing, and they're not just boys any more.

Marja included a big disclaimer at this point: No empirical back up to support what was about to be said. Don't have lots of lovely research to be shown. Seen the evidence in play - wanted to try it, apply it and see if it works... and it does! Marja desperately wants to take this model and apply it at a public school.

The 9 Brain Rules

Marja took 9 brain rules from what we've learnt in neuro-science, and built the curriculum using them. These rules are based on studies from evolutionary biology - if you don't believe in evolution (i.e. you're an intelligent design purist), you won't believe this stuff...

Rule #1: Meaning before detail

If you are on the plains of the Serengeti and a giant lion is hurtling towards you, you don't stop and count the teeth. You think it's going to eat you, you run first! Lesson: figure out the bigger meaning before the detail. This is applied to each year:

5th grade - 'all creatures great and small' - study what is life. Includes biodiversity, animals, organisms (hint: 5th graders + animals = good thing!) They have chickens at the school - project 'Chicks in the hood'.

6th grade - 'incredible machine' - study the individual. They look at themselves, start looking at simple things, tools, machines, how they work... they do the body, then they do the machine, then they do the intersection between machine and body, study biotechnology, nanotechnology, robotics, ethics...

7th grade - 'Seattle from the ground up' - study the community. Examine the whole area that is Seattle, cover geography, geology, tectonics (Seattle is in earthquake territory), forces that shape the earth, forces that shape the community. They study governance law, constitutional law. One of their projects is to do a mock trial at the court house down town. Finally, they look into the future. Their final year assignment is 'One month to change the world' and what they propose has to last beyond the assignment.

8th grade - 'The world and beyond' - the sub-theme is to prepare them for graduation to high school. They start with an aviation theme. Applying 'meaning before detail' means they start with ground school, weather school and flight school. Every 8th grader does 2 flights in a 4-seater plane - one as co-pilot (get to do take-off, missed approach, and landing), and one as a cartographer in preparation for their mapping project. When they get back to school, one of the labs has been built as a hangar and they build a full size kit plane (the kit was donated). They do everything - the flight systems, physics, all the algebra that's required for avionics, and they end up with a full size plane hanging out in the 8th grade lab. Amazing!

Back to meaning before detail - they flew first and then they came back into the lab to study, and it all made sense. What they were studying connected to what they were doing because they had experienced what it means to fly. Now that's real-world application of what you've learnt.

Rule #2: Every brain is different

There are lots of kids who are told they are 'learning-disabled'. Marja challenges that diagnosis. Every brain is different. Sure there are some 'syndromes' that can be identified, but a dyslexic child gets told they are different to 'everyone else' - these kids get the impression that their brain is broken. It affects their perception about what they can achieve.

Think of the brain as like a roadmap - we all have the same high ways and major junctions, but those little side roads, they are all different... All the stuff about learning styles - kinaesthetic, visual, linear-sequential etc. - it's not about style, it's simply how your brain routes information, what works for you.

When you have 30 children in a classroom, you have 30 different brains with 30 different routing preferences, and then there's the teacher's brain as well. As the teacher, you have to be working on a lot of different levels, and teaching in a lot of different modalities to engage all of those brains, and every one of those brains has something to offer.

Classic example: A girl comes home from maths class and she is really frustrated 'I just don't get it, forget it, I hate it, I'm so dumb, I'm never doing maths again'... and they become a humanities person. Girls have a habit of eradicating an entire subject based on one bad experience in the class room. Boy comes home from maths class 'Aargh! I'm so frustrated, I hate this subject'. Now, interestingly, they don't eliminate the subject from their curriculum, what do they do? 'That teacher is so dumb he can't teach his way out of a paper bag...' It's not as extreme as the girl's reaction, but neither responses are healthy.

What causes these clashes? Usually the teacher is using a modality that doesn't work for these children. A teacher who teaches by writing notes on the board - 'you write this too, and then I'll test you on what we wrote' - won't help someone who's kinaesthetic (easy to spot - will fidget a lot, take things to pieces and put them back together to understand them).

One of the meta-goals for the school is teaching children to identify how they learn, what works for them and what doesn't, and how to speak up when the method the teacher uses doesn't work for them.

Rule #3: People are natural explorers

We did not develop, evolutionary, to sit back and be lectured at. Back on that Serengeti plain, you explored, tested, tasted, watched, observed. Seeing a snake with black/yellow stripes bite someone, and watching that person die, causes a mental note - avoid snakes with black/yellow stripes. You didn't read the book on snakes, you explored, learned and acted.

So, we didn't develop to sit and listen all day, yet that is exactly what we expect children to do today. And their attention span just can't do it. We know from brain chemistry that your brain is more alert if you are moving - just getting up and stretching will create a more focused attention state. Research suggests we need to get the blood going every 9 minutes. When we sit down, our body assumes sleep cycle 'OK, rest time...' (note: traditional school uniform in the UK is not conducive to motion or getting dirty). This school is a project-oriented school. Children are in groups of 9, 12, 18. Teachers teach in grade-level teams - sometimes 1 teacher, 2 teachers... the children are constantly in motion, no lecture format (hence no text books).

Children don't want to be told, they want to do, they want to learn for themselves. Compare the difference: 'I'm going to tell you how things get blown up' versus 'I'm going to show you how things get blown up, and then you're going blow some things up to'. Compare 'We're going to learn about planes' versus 'We're going to build a plane'.

Rule #4: Sleep is important to the learning process

When you suffer from lack of sleep, it literally slows down your processing time, your attention to detail, and your recall. This is as true for children as it is for adults. From biology, what we now know is that children in adolescence (9th through 12th grade) go through a phase when their sleep cycle goes upside down. They are wide-awake at 10 at night. They can't help it. Telling them to just go to bed won't make any difference. As a result, their sleep cycle hits somewhere between 7 and 9 in the morning... the point when they are supposed to be off to school for the day... In addition, the mid-point between sleep cycles is the worst time of day. 12 hours from the mid-point of your last sleep phase you will hit a sleep cycle again - and that usually occurs around 2pm in the afternoon. This is the time to get up, take a walk, rest - it's dead time for you.
Children have the exact same thing. But we aren't letting them rest. They do school, they do after-school activities, they do homework, they go to bed, they get up and it starts all over. We aren't letting them get enough sleep.

Rule #5: Repetition is critical for memory

You need to hear it again and again and again, but within distinct cycles - just repeating something over and over again is not meaningful repetition, it has to be in critical cycles. The school's curriculum is completely integrated. You can't build an

airplane without the physics and maths required. Once they've built the plane, they then get to build to full-size shuttle simulators. Their culminating event involves groups being locked in a simulator from 4pm until midnight. Their project has been to design a complete mission to mars, and they then carry out the mission in the simulator. They've got it all figured out, all the tools they need, they know what's going to happen, they've studied everything (clue: that requires the same maths and physics as building the airplane.) But the teachers than throw in some problems, they've got a 'red-alert' button that can be activated, Star Trek style. The children have one line to mission control, and when things go wrong they can't leave. They've got to figure out what to do, and still complete their mission to Mars. They've got to apply everything they've learned... oh, and quadratic equations are perfect for aviation. There comes the same maths again... that's the kind of repetition that works.

Rule #6: We are visual learners

No matter what anyone says, 90% of the information we get is visual. Teachers have to incorporate this. Standing and lecturing doesn't work, you've got to capture the children. When you say take out a book and open it, actually pick up the book and open it to demonstrate. Connect with those routing modalities.

Rule #7: Focused attention states facilitate learning

You cannot maintain the same level of focus for 40 minutes. Studies suggest that your brain can focus for 7 to 8 minutes on something, but then you need to do something different - get up and do an activity. It's basic brain stuff.

Rule #8: Exercise aids learning

Already been demonstrated - if you've been reading this for a few minutes, get up and wave your arms about. Sit down, and you will find it easier to focus on the text...

Rule #9: Stressed brains don't learn well

When your stress level is high, your processing and problem-solving abilities slow down, as does your memory. If you are suffering from chronic stress - serious illness, divorce etc. - those effects will debilitate your immune system. You'll get sick more often, your sleep cycles will be affected. This stuff is true for children as well. Some children are coming from places where they don't know if they will get any sleep, food, dad just lost his job, parents divorcing, whatever... these are chronic stress events for kids.

Quote "There's a million miles from a kid's neuron to the blackboard'. Children are bringing all that stuff to school and you are telling them to pay attention. It's a pretty loaded statement - they can't just leave all that stuff at the door.

The 10th Brain Rule: Anti-bias

So they are the 9 brain rules. There are also differences for boys and girls. Different areas of the brain develop in different sequences, which is why a lot of times you'll hear that girls are better at language development and boys are better at structure and physical stuff. What typically happens? Each gender is encouraged to do what they are good at. What should happen? Don't just play to those early strengths - give boys more opportunity to work on language and writing, give girls more opportunity to play with structure.

Sociologically we tend to follow what the brain does first and not try to influence it to develop more. Kids get put into the boxes - girls, go sit at the art table, boys go to the building blocks area. From a very early age, girls will be complimented for how they look, boys will be complimented for what they do. This stuff gets fixed very early in life and introduces bias that will continue straight through school, college, work and life. People don't realise how embedded it is. (Side note: go watch your favourite TV show, watch the adverts - notice the gender stereotypes they are creating, targeting, confirming...)

Marja's 10th brain rule: you have to learn anti-bias work at a very young age. By high-school, you can still influence some but most are already set. Middle-school is the most flexible age. If you can build up self-esteem at that age and give children the words and confidence to not be stereo-typed, it will save them when they get to high school. And this is just as important for boys as girls - boys who don't fit their traditional stereotype face just the same challenges - they'll get eaten up in the playground and risk never achieving their true individual potential. This applies to ALL biases <-- related note: try Somebodies and Nobodies by Robert W. Fuller

Internships

Every Wednesday afternoon is dedicated to the internship programme. Internships are run as 6 week programmes - some taught on campus, off campus in the summer. The aim is to broaden the girls' horizons. They get to participate in craft skills, mock trials, HTML programming, code breaking, any subject where a successful person or business will participate and show the girls what it's like to pursue a passion and succeed. An advertising company participated and shut down their office on Wednesdays for 6 weeks - taught the children about the world of advertising, and gave them an account to work on for the project. They had to do a storyboard and come up with a pitch in 6 weeks. These are not mini-courses, they are intensive sessions and they breakdown those biased perceptions about what children 'should' do when
they grow up based on their initial 'standing' in life...

The Keys to better education

#1: It's got to be connected learning. In a typical school if, in September, you ask the 6 year olds what they are learning in Sociology, they will answer 'we're studying the Mayans'. When you ask why? 'Because it's chapter 1 in the book' That's why you hear that children lose 80% of what they learn over the Summer. There is no connection between learning and life. They are just studying to pass tests but they don't know why they are studying 'this stuff'.

#2: Applied learning: Learning by doing. If you watch a video showing you how to change a tyre on the car, will you really know how to do it when the time comes, 5 years later, parked up on a busy road with a flat tyre?

Everything at this school is about connected and applied learning. The children still have to take written tests, but they also have to do the practical to. For example, in 6th grade, the children have to answer questions on maths ratios. Then they have to go into the lab and build a 5:1 wheel ratio.

The national anthem for middle school 'when are we ever going to use this stuff' never happens at this school. They know when they are going to use what they've learnt - tomorrow, in the lab, building something practical from the real world... (Marja is currently looking for someone to donate a helicopter...)

...this system has yet to be tested in state education. Only the independent schools are allowed to do it because they can deviate from what the government dictates should be on the national curriculum (side note: the UK suffers this too). What does that mean? The usual trap of 'the rich get richer...' because many of the top independent schools provide this richer learning environment. Marja founded this school purely through donations. But we need to see this type of learning on a (inter)national scale, available to everyone.

If I lived in Seattle and had a daughter, I know which school I'd be fighting to get her into.

References:

Seattle Girls School - Marja Brandon, Head of School
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander
Somebodies and Nobodies by Robert W. Fuller

Delicious tags: education | brain | talks

December 2009 Newsletter

2010-01-02T16:00:00.113Z

Here's a selection of links shared during December via Google Reader, Delicious and Twitter. Organised into ~~four~~ five categories: Systems and the bits and pieces that make them: People, Information and Technology plus Design makes an appearance this month. As usual, the categories overlap... Hot topics to end 2009 - social media (no surprise), lots of research published on how our minds influence our decisions (often more than the data presented in front of us) and search ends the decade showing as much potential for disruption as it did at the start. Enjoy!

Systems

Open source proves elusive as a business model (NY Times)
Harvard Study: Computers don't save hospitals money - because they're focusing on saving admin costs rather than healthcare improvements...
Collaboration is hot, why now? Forrester report comes up with some critical factors: innovation, efficiency, email woes and governance
Enhancing enterprise collaboration - the role of conflict and mediation <- met someone late in 2009 who specialises in project mediation, think they're onto a good idea
The lowest common denominator - when introducing social media into an organisation, you need to know what barriers to overcome (and if they can be)
The rise and fall of MySpace - expect it to become the norm, and OK, as social nets behave more like the movies than products (FT)
Trouble lurks in social media guidelines - FTC updates its guidance regarding advertising and endorsements in social media channels
Strange or friendly? The difference between Twitter and Facebook
Monetising your digital self - expect social networks data mining to be popular in 2010...
Blog post: Dell's B2B Social Media Huddle - Part 1 of a series of 5 posts covering the event
Enterprise 2.0 Study shows adoption is real - survey of 77 members with detailed statistics
Forbes: 2009 year in review - social media trends: consumers moved first, marketing and business are still playing catch-up
Year in review: social networks come of age - includes Forrester research and some good statistics covering the growth of different online services
Blog post: 2005 in review - looking back at trends from the mid-point of the decade and seeing if they are still relevant at the end
DIY Work Hacking - "When a 12-year-old can gather information faster, process it more efficiently, reference more diverse professionals, and get volunteer guidance from better sources than you can at work, how can you pretend to be competitive?..."

Design

Minimum desirable product vs minimum viable - business vs consumer focus to designing products and services (IDEO)
Technical Design Debt vs Product Design debt - interesting definitions, SharePoint definitely suffered from some type II technical design debt in past releases
Social Business Design - time to 'socially calibrate business' Logic + Emotion
Trend setters may only be visible in the rear view mirror - Duncan Watts report challenges the notion of the tipping point "They start with an existing trend.. and they go backward until they've identified the people...'" The hindsight bias
Time your attack: Oracle's lost revolution - why just because one company succeeds doesn't mean others with the same idea would have...

People

Being online: identity, anonymity - series of O'Reilly posts on the challenges to identity in our digital age
Of geeks and girls - how framing alters perception, context matters (Science Notes)
Don't feed the trolls - the challenge of presenting with real-time feedback, Danah Boyd's experience
Leaders get the behaviours they display and tolerate - Bob Sutton, Work Matters
Men are from Earth, women are from Earth - challenging myths about how the different genders use our brains
10 psychological studies worth knowing about from 2009
The consequences of faking it - interesting psychology research shows wearing fake goods can lead to dishonest behaviour
The lessons we don't learn - "An innovation economy may be able to save our nation, but not with the current crop of political leaders, regardless of party, who don't seem to be able to take any good idea and move it forward..."
People looked at me like I was an alien - "Danah Boyd talks about social networking, young people and how the web is more private than your home"
What Erving Goffman could tell us about social networking and Internet identity - 1974 study relevant today "The presentation of self in everyday life"
The [no longer free] sodas were just the wake up call - when seemingly rational decisions cause unintended consequences, they simply are the final straw

Information

User data easier than ever to phish on Facebook (RWW) - and there's even been a case of a start-up paying people to hand over their contacts' details...
Facebook game addicts 'paid' to oppose health care reform - the achilles heel of group behaviour can lead to manipulating the numbers
Facebook gets some flak for it's privacy changes (RWW) - and the good bad and ugly (EFF)
Microsoft on navigation queries and best match - discovery vs navigation in our search habits
Most popular Internet search queries for 2009 - Google and Bing search query statistics
How many words do we use to search? Useful stats but ignore the title of the post - whilst more than half of queries involve three or more words, 70% of all queries use three words or less...
Dealing with the data of the damned - the challenge when data doesn't match expectations and the tendency for scientists to ignore it in their research
10 non-PowerPoint tools to help create better presentations - from Presentation Zen
The World's 10 most profitable companies - great data visualisation demonstrates what's 'driving' government policies
World map of connectedness - another great visualisation, showing importance of being an hour to a connected city, physical location still matters
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) wins one of the worst ideas of the decade

Technology

Apple's App Store is a game changer - "smart phones have become the Swiss army knives of the digital age" (NYT)
Blog post: Google Goggles - augmented reality meets local search
Welcome to the machine - "Technology must be used as a way to augment real world interactions, not replace them"
Augmented reality: passive consumers vs creative contributors - ability to edit and view location-based notes
Natural user interfaces - Microsoft products in development including touch, surface and Natal
International location-based social networks workshop - MS Research report
The economics of Amazon web services (AWS) - by Amazon
Royal Mail heading to the cloud - Postal service plans switch to Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (SharePoint and Office online, basically) to be managed by CSC
Merissa Mayer interview - on the future of search and the importance of language
Chris Caposella interview - on Google, Twitter and that infamous blue screen of death
Microsoft's PDC 2009 - review by Steve Clayton
Machine translates thoughts into speech in real-time - brains going online trump non-organic versions?

And finally, to finish the year, a beautiful short film with a great message tucked in: The Butterfly Circus

Reviewing trends from 2005

2009-12-30T11:15:00.019Z

This blog has now been running for over 4 years. I dithered a fair while before setting it up. Back then, starting a blog was usually an indicator that you're about to change your job. (I was.) These days, it's increased activity on LinkedIn that gives away an impending move... :-)

I'm not a fan of predictions. Nobody predicted Google or Facebook or Twitter etc. Most predictions are just expanding current trends into a more mature form. And most are 50:50 in accuracy when reviewed (and that's with rose-tinting). Instead I thought I'd start an annual review of the past and see if what I was waffling back at the mid point of the decade bares any relevance now we're at the end of it.

Here are seven of my favourite blog posts from 2005 that I think are still useful today.

What does Web 2.0 Mean?

Still my most linked to blog post and one that went global in references, from Le Monde in France to Computer Weekly in Vietnam. The image was even used as a background on MySpace pages. (Lesson learned: stick a watermark on your images, the source is always lost.)

"Blogs and wikis are still immature technologies but they will influence the design of future content management systems and collaborative workspace technologies"

Looking back over the post, there isn't much I'd change about it other than the slight leaning towards Microsoft which was inevitable since I still worked there when I wrote it (was my last week.) And I'm not surprised that, 4 years on, the workplace has yet to fully embrace the changes brought about by Web 2.0 technologies. I would be surprised (disappointed) if it were still the case in 10 years time.

Seven Productivity Tips

...that don't come packaged with the software.

Who does the typing?
Avoid micro-management
Vaccinate against cc-itus and reply-all-itus
It's good to talk
Let people enjoy their work
Practice versus process
Avoid work

Looking back over these tips and the reasons given, I'm disappointed how many are still an issue today. Many organisations frown at the idea that people come to work and might actually enjoy themselves. I'm convinced in one hundred years time, our future generations will look back on horror at these weird notions...

From Data to Knowledge and Beyond....

A datum is a statement accepted at face value (a "given"). Data is the plural of datum.
Information is a message, something to be communicated from the sender to the receive, as opposed to noise which is something that inhibits the flow of communication
Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning
Wisdom is the combination of experience with knowledge to distinguish between the possible and the plausible
Cleverness is not wisdom. Wise people focus on the plausible whilst clever people get too caught up in the possible

Yes the title of the post was a hat tip to Toy Story. The post itself went through the definitions of data, information, knowledge and wisdom. It came about because in many meetings I found people couldn't agree on a definition for knowledge (which was a bit of an impediment if you wanted to implement a knowledge management system).

Reviewing those definitions 5 years later, much as I love social media tools like Twitter, I think they have trapped us all into becoming a bit too clever for our own good at times. Politicians, social media pundits and authorities regulating air travel seem particularly susceptible...

Knowledge is personal

A trolley train comes hurtling down the line, out of control. It is heading towards five people who are stuck on the track. If you do nothing they face certain death. But you have a choice...

Whilst I would write some parts of this post slightly differently, it's a healthy reminder of why knowledge is still such a hard concept to pin down. It tends to be different for everyone. The post includes a couple of tests to demonstrate how context and personal views influence our decisions and always will, as long as we are human.

KPA - the new KPI

Imagine organising a birthday party for a group of young children. Would you agree a set of learning objectives with their parents in advance of the party? Would those objectives be aligned to the mission statement for education in the society to which you belong? Would you create a project plan for the party with clear milestones associated with empirical measures of achievement?

A post describing alternatives to key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring success. Instead, how about the kids party approach (KPAs)? This was from an excellent article by David Snowden. And is this the missing piece of the puzzle for implementing social media in business? Until people can accept an alternate form of measurement, knowledge-based systems continue to struggle to demonstrate why they matter.

A portal won't slay the dragon

"There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path..."

My attempt at using a story to convey what a technology can and can't do for your business (the pre-empt for setting up Joining Dots). And a lesson learned in not closing comments too soon. I received feedback via email from some excellent people instead - lost link love.

Dashboard Dangers

It has to be said, the overall theme of many of my early posts was concern with the over reliance on statistics when making decisions. In this one, reviewing data for a 2 year period reveals a fairly low linear growth. But review 10 years and you reveal an exponential growth curve. In 1993, would you have acted? In 2000, you'd be kicking yourself for not.

There we have it. Seven posts from 2005 that wouldn't change all that much if they were to be written today. With systems, technology only ever gets you so far... that's why you need to join the dots ;-)

Dell B2B Social Media Huddle Part 5 - Roundtable and Close

2009-12-29T21:42:00.034Z

This is the 5th and final post from the Dell B2B Social Media Huddle held at Dell's UK Headquarters on 9th December 2009. For previous posts, read: Part 4 - Case Studies, Part 3 - The Business Case, Part 2 - Community Matters, Part 1 - Social Media Trends.

Roundtable discussion - Integrating Social Media

The roundtable discussions were held under the Chatham House Rule meaning no names can be quoted and I'll focus on my own opinions.

The topic of discussion was asking why businesses are so reluctant to integrate social media here in the UK, given the financial cost is so low. Virtually all case studies of note are coming from the US. What can be done to change the situation?

One argument put forward was that time was an issue - social media is a slow implementation, it takes time and effort before you see results, and those results are hard to quantify up front. I disagreed with this position. Businesses have no problem investing in lengthy IT projects with questionable benefits in the short, mid or long term, when they are required to.

The challenge for social media is no different to the challenge knowledge-based systems have always faced in business - competing priorities. Back at the beginning of this decade, portals and collaborative workspaces were the trends. They came up against Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory legislation. Lack of compliance could lead to a jail term for the chief executives. Lack of a portal...? No contest.

The case studies in the UK will almost certainly come from organisations with someone in a sufficient position of power who finds the time to just get on with it regardless of what the outcomes might be. If they are successful other organisations will use them as a best practice thanks to the hindsight bias, our tendency to look back at events and view them as more predictable than they actually were. One thing is for certain - those who don't wait will reap the most rewards. That's why they become the best practices and not those who follow...

There was some debate about what sorts of businesses are most likely to benefit from social media, and what industries are less likely to be affected. There was no clear cut answer. A local builder might wonder what the fuss is all about. Yet his competitor might already have a Facebook Fan page that amplifies local word of mouth. Back to a previous quote from the day:

"10 years ago, few businesses thought having a web site mattered..."

The repeating tips throughout the day:

If your customers, prospects or competitors are using social media, can you afford to ignore it? (And keep asking until the inevitable time comes when the answer is no...)
You don't need a significant budget to introduce social media - use whatever tools are currently available, they will change again within 12 months
You do need to give your people the time to contribute on a regular basis - compare it to the sales cycle
Set very low expectations, leave the high targets for projects with high budgets
Be careful what you measure - number of followers does not necessarily correlate to number of new customers...
Always be learning - your strategy and approach will evolve as you discover which elements of social media are most appropriate for your organisation
Don't plan much (see 6.), spend the time training people instead. Put guidelines in place And then just do it!

Finally, to give one example of a company that has earned a significant chunk of revenue thanks to social media, a hat tip to the host of the day, Dell - $6.5 million in revenue and counting

To wrap up what was an excellent day, here is the flyer for the event including biographies of most of the speakers during the day. A big thanks to Kerry Bridges and Nevill Hobson for organising. It's not many events that justify a series of 5 blog posts to cover a day of conversation (and the posts barely scratched the surface).

References:

Other blog posts covering the event (if you spot others, please add links to them in the comments and I'll update the list):

Dell B2B Social Media Huddle Part 4 - Case Studies

2009-12-28T17:26:00.002Z

This is part 4 in a series of posts from Dells B2B Social Media Huddle held on 9th December 2009 at Dell's UK Headquarters. For previous posts, read Part 3 - The Business Case, Part 2 - Community Matters and Part 1 - Social Media Trends.

Social Media Case Studies

The second half of the day consisted of various breakouts delivering case studies in social media. Some great companies presented but I could only sit in on a couple and not all slides have been shared.

Salesforce.com - Jamie Grenney

Jamie's was one of the session's I sat in on. He gave a great presentation about how Salesforce.com has approached social media. Here are some soundbites captured on the day:

"To buy the word 'Cloud Computing' on Google [Adwords] costs $14 which is expensive. Creating a cloud computing video and publishing it on YouTube shows higher potential RoI"

YouTube is seen as the most beneficial social media channel for Salesforce.com. Why? Because the videos have the potential to go viral. Twitter activity accounts for less than 1% of YouTube views. But most interesting is seeing YouTube become more valuable than what has now become traditional Internet advertising.

"Having a 'Contact us' button at the end of a video is more effective than having a form to fill out at the start."

Salesforce.com analysed site statistics and found that making someone fill out a form was impacting the likelihood of viewing the video. It has proven far more effective to have an easily accessible 'Contact us' button that people can choose to click at the end of the video. Again, as has been seen in other posts, this approach is sales driven rather than cold call marketing.

"Write about what you know. If you're not a product manager, don't write as though you are"

Salesforce.com have put a lot of effort into staff training and have clear guidelines for what to do. This includes identifying yourself as a Salesforce.com employee. Social media guidelines are available publicly on their web site. They are even concerned that customers should publicly disclose they are customers when talking about Salesforce.com

"We are still quite new to this - only have 7,000 followers across all channels."

A healthy reminder that social media is still in its infancy for most organisations. And again back to previous posts in this series - think big, act fast, start small. The financial investment should be tiny. The time investment is another matter entirely...

LinkedIn - Henry Clifford Jones

No slides this time unfortunately and I'm not sure if the case study is public so I won't name the client referenced.
LinkedIn analysed their membership database for a pharmaceutical company and provided some interesting statistics:

"On LinkedIn, there are approx 3.7 million people globally in the healthcare industry. 6,000 groups about healthcare. Profiling down to job roles, there are 121,000 doctors..."

How useful is that data? At the very least, people are talking healthcare. If healthcare is your business, do you join in or ignore it? How easy is it to build a target audience to evaluate a new product? Could a group on LinkedIn make it easier?
Whilst the potential is there, there are challenges. When Henry asked us all what we thought of groups, there was unanimous animosity and comments about groups being barely more than a badge on your profile, that the group itself is full of spam dominated by job adverts. Seems this hasn't gone unnoticed and LinkedIn have already released a newer interface and have some interesting improvements in the pipeline.

Dell - Richard Binhammer

Missed Richard's session but from his contributions during the roundtable and closing, I can guess it was a pretty good session and the slides have been shared.

Coming next: Part 5 - Roundtable discussion and closing thoughts

References:

Salesforce.com presentation on Slideshare
Salesforce.com Social Media Guidelines (bottom right of the page)
Jamie Grenney on Twitter
Dell presentation on Slideshare
Richard Binhammer on Twitter

How to make a smile

2009-12-27T19:17:00.006Z

Dance! :-)

It is insanely difficult not to smile whilst watching 'Where the hell is Matt?' Was sure I'd blogged this in the past but it's not showing up on my site search. So if I did, blame Google. Thought this would make a nice post (and a break from the serious stuff) as we head towards the end of 2009.

And also worth watching, the outtakes. Keep going right to the end... Enjoy.

Dell B2B Social Media Huddle Part 3 - The Business Case

2009-12-12T12:53:00.013Z

This is part 3 in a series of posts from Dell's B2B Social Media Huddle. For previous posts, read Part 2 - Community Matters and Part 1 - Social Media Trends

The B2B Social Media Business Case - Benjamin Ellis (@benjaminellis)

Benjamin gave a very grounded and detailed breakdown of how to build a business case for implementing social media as part of any communication strategy. Here's his presentation on Slideshare:

Plenty of content in the slides to take note of. Here are some soundbites from the day, again originally shared via Twitter.

"Barely 10 years ago, some businesses didn't think having a web site mattered..."

A good grounded start to this talk. Whilst social media may seem like a buzzword to many right now, it is simply a matter of time before it becomes just an accepted norm for doing business. In the meantime, for some it will be a steep learning curve...

"Your legal team become your new best friends."

This comment could easily cause panic. The harsh reality is that the Internet is a very public place to be having a business conversation. For large companies and established brands, social media is going to feel like a risky activity. It is. But the alternative is no less so: "What's the cost to your business of ignoring social media? What do you lose out on?" The big RoI questions is:

"Are you customers, prospects or competitors active on Social Media? If they are, not being there is like not having a telephone..."

2009 has been the year where some businesses started to leverage social media and achieved significant business benefits. Will 2010 be the year most businesses can't afford not to be?

"$15K mailshot = 200 new customers"
"$7.5K billboard = 300 new customers"
"$0 on Twitter = 1,800 new customers"

Benjamin quoted @garyvee and how he grew the family business from $4 million to $50 million, highlighting that social media is not expensive to implement. But financially cheap doesn't mean easy. To achieve success through channels like Twitter requires lots of effort and oodles of personality. It takes time.

"Your social media effort should match your typical sales cycle."

A simple measure to highlight that a business strategy for social media does not mean a 140-character soundbite once in a while. It's a marathon not a sprint and if you stop after 100 metres you may as well have not started. The key message is that social media cannot be treated like advertising or traditional PR communications. It should be considered an integral part of your sales and support cycles.

"Think big. Move fast. Act small."

"Be careful what you measure."

Two simple pieces of advice that should underpin any business case for introducing social media. Whilst you should think big in terms of what you want to achieve, the essence is in moving fast, not dithering over what tools to use. Act as small as possible - use tools that are free or cheap and put the investment in time rather than finance. Set very low expectations, at least initially - easily justified when the financial investment is negligible. But above all else, be very very careful what you measure. Having 100,000 followers on Twitter isn't what matters. Seek conversations, not content...

Coming up next: Part 4 - Case Studies

References:

Technorati tags: DellB2B | Social Media

Dell B2B Social Media Huddle Part 2 - Community Matters

2009-12-12T08:25:00.025Z

This is part 2 in a series of posts from Dell's B2B Social Media Huddle. See also: Part 1 - Trends.

Uncommon Sense in a World of Technology and Social Media - Steve Lamb (@actionlamb)

Steve shared some observations from his experiences within Microsoft, where he moved from a technology role into PR at a time when traditional PR is being challenged by social media. This session was all about the importance of community over tools and content. Here's Steve's presentation posted on Slideshare:

And here are some notes captured on the day. These were all shared in real-time on Twitter using Dell's hashtag #dellb2b.

"Don't obsess over tools, they'll change."

I see this a lot in organisations. A decision is made to introduce a new way of working and the first step is focusing on what tools to use. Often choosing to purchase 'enterprise-ready' tools in preference to leveraging free online alternatives. The first step is to simply get started. Because the tools keep changing and what works best today may not be so tomorrow.

"No matter how big you are, you cannot hire all the smartest people. Doesn't mean they are inaccessible"

This is a great reason to be using social media. No matter how big or small you are, no one company 'owns' all the best resources and often there are many great people willing to share their expertise online. The book 'Wikinomics' by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams highlighted this potential using Goldcorp Inc. as the case study. Goldcorp was a struggling gold-mining firm, whose fortunes were dramatically reversed when they looked outside the organisation for expertise in locating new gold deposits.

"Are you the company robot, the juvenile deliquent or (hopefully) somewhere in between?"

Steve talked about 'The Personality Continuum'. Some people will always sing the official company tune. Some people will always have something negative to say about the company they work for. But the reality is that most people sit somewhere between the two extremes. They talk common sense and will sound authentic to any audience. And yet often access to any form of social media is banned at the company firewall. Why? It's not hard to get around the ban. A low-cost 3G-enabled netbook or smartphone will do the trick. It's back to the trends in part 1 - if your external contacts (customers, competitors, partners) are using social media, why wouldn't you? A key issue seems to be a lack of trust in employees.

"listen, engage, be interesting, be useful"

Simple tips for businesses engaging in social media channels. Getting the balance right isn't easy and the only way to achieve it is to get started and keep learning. There are typically 3 human reactions: enthusiastic, hostile and passive (inside and outside the organisation). Can you afford to ignore any of them?

Coming next: Part 3 - The business case for social media

References:

Technorati tags: dellb2b | Social Media

Dell B2B Social Media Huddle Part 1 - Trends

2009-12-10T16:00:00.010Z

On Monday 7th December 2009 I attended Dell's excellent B2B Social Media Huddle at the UK headquarters in Bracknell. About 60 people attended the event and there were some great conversations. Here are some highlights. This is part 1: Social Media Trends.

Social Media Trends - Neville Hobson (@jangles)

Neville shared some trends that cannot easily be ignored by any business that needs to communicate. Here's his presentation posted on Slideshare:

And here are some of notes captured on the day:

"Customers are co-shaping your reputation every day"

Any organisation that is public-facing to some degree is likely to be being talked about by their customers, whether the talk is good or bad. And it's happening regardless of whether the business chooses to leverage social media or not. If the choice is not, why?

"You know which types of social media are preferrred by your customers"

If you take any interest in current news, it is unlikely that you will have never heard of Twitter or Facebook, MySpace or Wikipedia, Amazon or eBay. Most people are aware of mobile phones and text messaging. These are all social media tools, used to communicate and share information, often before purchasing something or making a decision. Which channels are your customers likely to go to? Are you active on those channels? If not, why not? What do you risk losing by ignoring your customers?

"Why block employee access to tools that your customers are using?"

Neville highlighted the common frustration - businesses blocking access to tools they deem irrelevant to employees work and believe will be a drain on productivity. It's a false assumption. You may as well ban email because for sure people will be sending irrelevant emails during the day. Instead, provide the tools but have clear policies regarding their use and the consequences of their misuse.

You can spot trends by monitoring ...but only monitor what would cause you to act

There are a growing number of tools out on the Internet that enable you to monitor keywords and track conversations. From simply searching the name of a product to plotting trends on a service like blogpulse.com. However, it is more important to identify how you would deal with situations once you become aware of them. If you discover customers are criticising your product, what do you do? You need an answer if you are going to find out.

Coming next: Part 2 - Community Matters

References:

Technorati tags: dellb2b social media

Google Goggles

2009-12-10T09:30:00.002Z

Found via David Weinberger and agree with his comment - this is just too cool. Early days but a glimpse of what could become the norm in the not too distant future

November 2009 Newsletter

2009-12-07T10:30:00.000Z

Here's the November 2009 selection of links plucked from everything shared during the month via Google Reader, Delicious and Twitter. Organised into the usual suspects of Systems and their bits and pieces: People, Information and Technology. No big theme this month. Augmented Reality dominates the technology links but in part due to us having an R&D project running in this space at the moment.

Systems

'Normal Times' - wanting a system to be normal usually means abnormal
The Clues From a Firm's Reception Area - 7 tips from Nicholas Bate
What's on the mind of Chief Marketing Officers - Forbes CMO Summit
European Goverments can ignore social media... or not? - they can try
Lubricating the wheels of social media - some things never change
What the web will look like in 5 years time - Google's Eric Schmidt's opinions
Volunteers log off as Wikipedia ages - the inevitable rise from network to hierarchy
What is ultimately possible in physics? - And with the virtual, does possible matter?

People

Dunbar's number isn't just a number, it's the law - the magic 150 boundary for effective social networks (business and social)
How to create advocates for your business - creating an engaged passionate group of people
Technology isn't killing our ability to write, it's reviving it - our brains aren't dead yet
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - how a 1959 book offers lessons for today
Social networking discipline - you need it
Depressed woman loses benefits over Facebook photos - organisations getting savvy with social media
Genies still stuck in bottles - the computing difference at home vs work

Information

The Future: Embedding Data in the Everyday
Business Intelligence and Process Analysis hot topics at IBM Information on Demand Conference
Managing online information flows - Email + CRM + LinkedIn + Twitter...
Infotention - video series by Howard Rheingold (Smart Mobs) on attending information
The unclicking 84% - would you advertise a right-handed product to a left-handed audience?
Interview with Google Analytics Evangelist and Customer Insight guru
Color: The next limited resource - limited by what our eyes can see

Technology

Cloud Computing: Where to next? - Good write-up including Gartner hype curve
Web 2.0 and your vendor relationships - Interesting landscape
Five interesting things about Microsoft's Office Mobile 2010 - Microsoft Watch's take
10 things about Microsoft's PDC 09 - good, bad and ugly from Microsoft's developer conference
The complete guide to Google Wave - ping me if you want an invite
There is no 'Osborne Effect' in web services - secrecy vs transparency in product development
Your Augmented Future: Notes from the recent International AR Symposium
Augmented Reality - hype or potential? Mixed views
Augmented Reality: not that real yet - BusinessWeek weighs in on the act

And finally a bit of fun... During November, Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void made a great comment:

"The web has made kicking ass easier to achieve, and mediocrity harder to sustain. Mediocrity now howls in protest." @gapingvoid

And here is an example - an amateur animated film that trumps many professional efforts (took over 5 years to create a 6-minute film)

Same but different

2009-11-23T16:00:00.001Z

A while back I posted a video Microsoft had commissioned from Common Craft: SharePoint in Plain English. Here's that video again:

Not long after, Jack Vinson posted a video on his KM blog, from IBM explaining Lotus Connections. Not as slick as Common Craft but looks kind of familiar:

Which made me wonder, has Google got anything similar? Oh yes, and wisely created by none other than Common Craft too:

Three vendors with three products/services touting a similar story. What are the differentiators that make you choose one over the other?

Side note: whilst many seem to be copying Common Craft's style of presenting, I don't see any coming close. The Common Craft web site is well worth checking out.

References:

Joining Dots: SharePoint in Plain English (August 09)
Knowledge Jolt with Jack: State the problem, not the solution (September 09)
Common Craft web site

Did You Know? 2009 Edition

2009-11-22T11:01:00.005Z

For the past few years now, we have seen various videos uploaded to YouTube visualising the trends that have emerged thanks to the Internet and mobile devices. You can find older versions by searching YouTube for 'Did you know' or 'Shift happens'. Here's the latest one, updated with 2009 news stories:

Hat tip to friend and former colleague Steve Clayton, I spotted this one through his excellent blog. Normally I try to tag videos onto newsletters unless I'm putting a commentary around them. But I've already got a queue and this one deserves to stand on its own :-)

October 2009 newsletter

2009-11-21T17:45:00.021Z

Here's a selection of October's shared links captured via Google Reader, Delicious and Twitter. Organised into the usual suspects of Systems and their bits and pieces: People, Information and Technology. No one core theme this month. Quite a few product announcements (from Microsoft, Google and Amazon). Related trends: smart mobile devices meet the real-time web with people as the filling in the sandwich. Enjoy:

Systems

Internet Trends in depth - Mary Meeker's annual update at the 2009 Web 2.0 summit
Why Email No Longer Rules - and what it means for the way we communicate
YouTube: We're bigger than you thought - 10 billion views in a single month!
The Doers Club - how DIY can help transform Africa
Is the Internet Age creating a utopian or dystopian UK - from Microsoft's UK CTO
How local businesses can benefit from mobile social networks - help your community
Search vs Recommendations - Authoritative and related sources in a graph
How high will real-time search fly? Is there a business model behind instant news?
The Dark Side of Extreme Customer Service - being fair is better than great
Antisocial - Why corporate America (and most places) keeps rejecting social media
The power of tweets - a new age of democracy or a danger to free speech?
Strategy and social computing - interview with Microsoft's Lili Cheng
12 new cities built from scratch - interesting how our future is time-locked to the current.

People

The value of visual thinking - captures attention, saves time
The 4 ways sound affects us - TED talk with food for though in open plan offices
Neuroanthropology - why you can't separate brain and culture, it's all in the mind :-)
The Fun Theory - replacing play with (home)work fails to realise potential
When is multitasking not multitasking - can we really do more than one thing at once?
Building a hacker culture from within - Mark Zuckerberg on the importance of long-term horizons (compares MS to Netscape in the browser battle)
Lessons learned from innovators - the importance of play, connections and role models
Introducing Google Social Search - why friends and contacts are a key part of life online

Information

Not a faster horse - Google CEO Eric Schmidt on information
Facebook analyses how happy we are - tracking positive and negative words. Remember, nothing gets deleted...
The future is big data in the cloud - ability to tackle massive amounts of data will determine winners and losers
Blog post: Introducing PowerPivot - analyse massive amounts of data
Blog post: From PowerPivot to Pivot - another tool from Microsoft for analysing big data
Data visualization in Second Life - adding another dimension to images of data
Tweets from the jury box - controlling information even harder thanks to the real-time web
Would dolphins yawn at this? Scientists discover a magnetic current that could store and transmit data
Useful spreadsheet of all TED talks - only needs browser to view, so far all talks to end of Oct 09

Technology

Cleverly simple - sales of normal mobile phones down, sales of smart phones up
Blog post: Energy efficient web site design - will OLED change our use of black and white?
Enterprise Search from a collaborative view - Google, Box.net and Microsoft SharePoint
Blog post: 5 simple search tips - to improve relevance with SharePoint 2007
Describing SharePoint 2010 - by the product team building it, good screenshots
Engineering SharePoint - how products get built at Microsoft (and my how they grow)
Blog post: SharePoint 2010 products and services - outline of versions and licences
Microsoft Office Web Apps review - first looks by ITPro magazine
Integrating Google apps with virtual worlds - virtual reality for geographical distribution
Back to school with Google Docs - the benefit of not being tied to infrequent product releases
Google Wave's Best Use Cases - collaborative uses of information
Amazon introduces a cloudy database - Amazon RDS and opinion on it
Free PowerPoint Twitter Tool - see and react to tweets in real-time in your presentation

And a couple of finally's. First: a more humorous video of the future than normal: The Ambient Life - a flavour of augmented reality:

To finish, Dilbert discusses the hidden strategy behind introducing workflow :-)