Collaboration "in the Wild": Some Observations

An Enterprise 2.0 dream scenario: implementing a complex project across multiple sites, in two different time zones, with a large team (well over 100). The team was reasonably savvy with collaboration tools; core team members were quite comfortable with Instant Messaging, and we have been relying on SharePoint for many months. A centralized, coordinated document [...]

Underwhelming experiences with Google Wave

Took some time today to work with the new communication meme – Google Wave. I wouldn’t call it a fundamentally new way to communicate – well, not yet. I think Google is safe to continue with a “preview” label – clearly not even “beta” yet. No horrible bugs – at least on the Windows platform [...]

Business Benefits of Social Networks Exist, but …

When I see / read articles like this, or hear the breathless claims of vendors, pundits, and True Believers, I’ll privately chuckle to myself. All of this stuff – social networking, collaboration, and innovation – are 21st century takes on good old Knowledge Management (KM), circa 1998. Do these sound like presentations from your recent [...]

Five Stages of Twitter Relevance

I’m already fielding internal (as well as external) questions about the application of Twitter in a manufacturing company, and I’m developing a reasonably good model, I think – one that will apply to the hard-core, salt-of-the-earth, manufacturing business leader that I’ve worked with at many organizations.
This “maturity model” approach has been used before; back in [...]

KM Overcomplicates: Heisenberg Impact on a VBA Quickie

Got a simple request from one of the folks in Operations; we’re sending out Excel spreadsheets for some quick data gathering, might we do a little basic input validation before they send in garbage that needs to be scrubbed? This person is very sharp, knows a decent bit about what is possible, and this is [...]

Back to the Future: Twitter "microblogging"

“That’s pretty good, Johnny, but that ain’t the way I heerd it. . . .”I recall when all this “blogging” talk started, way back in 1999 or so (thanks to Hallett for a decent history). The idea was to post thoughts and feelings, observations about technology, society, or whatever – anything from a daily diary [...]

Third Time’s the Charm? Blackberry Bold

I recently had to part ways with my Blackberry Pearl – some heartache, I suppose, but time and product innnovation march on. There is a lot to like about the Blackberry Bold – I am definitely happy to have made the change …

<aside> … although my inner conspiracy theorist sees a case of planned obsolescence. [...]

On the Road: Business Travel, Fall 2008

I don’t travel a significant amount in my current position, but when I do, it seems to come in chunks. I’m about half way through a round of travel this fall – mostly business, but with some personal travel mixed in. Six cities, three countries in less than four months. Some observations at the halfway [...]

Enterprise 2.1: Exiting the Trough of Disillusionment

“What will you do with that car if you actually catch it?”
– what the cat asked the dog (from the Chicago Reader, circa 1989)
So you’ve gone all “Enterprise 2.0″, spinning up a wiki, a blog, and a SharePoint or Drupal server inside your firewall. Now what happens?
The groundswell of interest in “cool tools” brings a [...]

Thoughts During a Power Outage

I am sitting in the cube outside my office, connected by wireless to our corporate network in an otherwise darkened office. The power is out – started around 3AM, and it is apparently affecting a large area, not just this building.

Kudos to the infrastructure team that strung up the wireless access points here – thanks [...]