fingers crossed!

I think all the six points mentioned can be valid for any technology introduction, that is: if the introduced technology  is going to be used by humans . Do a check yourself, and you will probably agree. the reason that I say “can be valid” is that some might not necessarily be true for some occasions, and other points/rules might pop-up for others. My current employer has developed a methodology that structures the synergy that is required between People and Technology in order to achieve the desired business outcomes. So far, the methodology has mainly been put to practice for introducing the New World of Work in Enterprises, but due to its generic nature it can be used for any situation where the synergy between people and technology is crucial.

Agree / disagree? Let me know, I am interested in feedback on this …. !

best part is at the end ….”that’s not what iPhone is made for …. I’m loaded with technology”)

Creating the rule in Outlook

Follow this set of clicks to create the rule in outlook, start in the toolbar with Tools then – Rules and Alerts – New Rule – Check Messages after sending – Next – Next – Defer delivery by a number of minutes – click the ‘a number of’ link in the bottom windows – choose the number of minutes you want – click ok – click finish – click ok

Works for you as well? Other Ideas? Let me know!

Then today I came across this article with the title: “New York Times running on fumes“. And that article sketches that it is even worse than I had realized.

So, what’s next? Crash and burn? Or, will these publishing giants of the past still find a way back into the future? What do you think?

The video actually reminded me of a scene in Any Given Sunday, where Al Pacino does a motivational speech for the American Football team he coaches. Brilliant Speech! Never seen it: definitely check the link!

Nokia – Younghee Jung

Younghee had an inspiring story. The relation to social media and social strategies was less clear to me. She elaborated on a community design competition organized by Nokia Design.  The competition was held in real, physical communities (Dharavi, Jacarezinho, Buduburam). They basically researched Urbanization as driver for new requirements for mobile phones. I found the presentation interesting, and inspiring because the environment and social and cultural dimensions of these communities are way off from my day to day life.

Interesting was also how the MC (Menno van Doorn) challenged us to talk 10 minutes to someone and come-up with a design for a new mobile phone that would make that person more productive.  No shocking ideas resulted, although the idea of a beamer in a mobile phone sounded far off, someone in the audience (Stijn Grove) actually new that phone is already for sale on http://www.chinavasion.com (for only 257.98 euro )

After Younghee’s keynote, three enterprises got 10 minutes each to present their social strategy, and ask the audience a key question. The audience was divided in three groups that would work on these questions in the break.

Vodafone:  Listening to the groundswell – Arie de Zeeuw

The Vodafone presentation by Arie de Zeeuw was very inspiring. In my opinion they really made the right start in joining the online conversation: “start listening”. They made this start with an intern who got the assignment to listen for three months, and do no more than that. Their conclusion after these three months: ” we have been blind for a very long time”. Key question for much of the conversation they tap on the internet is ” what to do with it” . Many things really deeply touch their internal processes and are far from easy to resolve. Arie pointed out that CEO level commitment was critical to follow-through on the input they got. They have this commitment at Nokia, as they are on a quest to be the top mobile brand in the Netherlands (which is a challenge as there is very little brand loyalty for mobile operators in the Netherlands).

The initiative that started with an intern has grown into a 6 FTE Web Relations team. This team will not engage in online discussion, but will use a new internal process to trigger changes and formal responses from the Vodafone organization.

Their lessons learned sofar:

1.       No guts no glory. But, respect the web, learn the rules of the game (conversation / community) and stick to them

2.       Be Fast, this is what the online community expects. Fast as in: “faster than the normal internal systems”.

3.       Learn and improve. The online feedback offers ample input and opportunity to change the organization and its services for the better. These changes are often not simple, but the reward is high.

Sellaband: Embracing the groundswell – Pim Betist

Great start of this presentation. He made us listen to some music, asked our feedback. My opinion (and of many others in the room): really good music. His statement: you would never have heard this artist without the Sellaband Community.

Their model is simple and interesting. The community pays for the production of a CD: they essentially fund the artist, and get a copy of the CD and a share in the revenue. In the end Sellaband will save us from a world of Britney and Justin clones.

Their key question was a challenging one: how do we move forward? Pim explained that they see two key models in moving forward, that might be mutual exclusive: “Broadcaster”  vs. “Facilitator”. Essentially: do we solely facilitate the process, or can we also started broadcasting (marketing?) the things we really like in the music database that we are creating as Sellaband. My personal opinion: facilitate broadcasting by community members, turn them into DJs and Personal Radio Stations.

KLM: Energizing the groundswell – Hans Zijlstra

Hans explained Club China and Club Afrika. Two initiatives to create communities for starting entrepreneurs that are focusing on doing business in/with these areas. The value for KLM is improved brand engagement: loyalty, co-innovation, marketing effectiveness and organic word of mouth. I particularly liked the simple drawing that Hans had in his presentation. It showed how community insight would be the foundation on which profitable growth can and will be build (I will try and post that illustration later here). The key question for KLM was an obvious, but not a simple one: how can we further build and leverage these two communities in a way that will contribute to the bottom-line of KLM

Again, I am disappointed about the contents of this Web 2.0 whitepaper from a WCM vendor. It’s really unclear to me how this ‘whitepaper’  is going to help Reddot customers embrace the potential that the Web 2.0 might offer them. They center their story around social computing (which is actually a good start), but they loose me when I arrive at section 2.1: Business Objectives. Strengthening of relationships and creation of transparancy? Collect and publish information in the company? Sounds very Web 1.0, and, where is the link with the bottom line? It’s a very open ending to call these business objectives …..

No word of the key message brought by the Web 2.0: “It’s the conversation, fool!“.

Word of advice for any organization that wants to get started with Web 2.0: start by reading some good books on this topic. The thing is they won’t have Web 2.0 in their title. Some suggestions? The Cluetrain Manifesto, Naked Coversations, the Groundswell and Purple Cow. These 4 will give you a lot of ideas and insight. Want to get really started? Get a good consultant that lives and breathes this ‘web 2.0 domain’ ……….