March 2009 Archives

I love my iPhone. But it has some deep flaws. OK, so cut-and-paste will be available with the 3.0 operating system – that’s good. The lack of a video camera is annoying and strange – rumors are that the next iPhone released in the northern summer will have video capabilities.

But the thing that really gets me is that you cannot use an external keyboard on the iPhone. Unlike the other issues, there is no way you can argue this is a technical problem. Apple has deliberately crippled the Bluetooth functionality so external keyboards can’t be used.

The whole point of a smartphone is that it can be your central hub when you’re on the move, increasingly obviating the need to carry a laptop around. If the iPhone had an external keyboard, I could use it for a large proportion of my needs when I’m on the move or travelling, including email, working on documents, blogging and more. For now I have a choice of carrying a laptop, or taking a Palm and external keyboard with me in addition to the iPhone, just so I can write.

Tomorrow I am giving the opening keynote at the Direct Selling Association of Australia Conference 09 which is on the theme of 'Defining our Future'.

The slides for my presentation are below. As always, these are intended to accompany my keynote, not as stand-alone slides.

The presentation includes a diverse range of examples of markets that are currently growing:
Guitars
Home renovation tools
Home gardening
Books
Cookware
Lipstick
Quality jewellery (in the case of my wife's business www.victoriabuckley.com)
Brain fitness
Clean energy
Robots
Aged care
Mobile applications
Events (done well, in the right sectors)

I'll write more soon about the array of growth markets that offer great opportunities at the moment.

Social media commentator extraordinaire Des Walsh attended Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, and did a number of short video interviews with speakers at the event.

The first three interviews including both the blog posts and the videos are below.

Chris Lampard, Corporate Express

Des Walsh blog post on Chris Lampard interview

In the wake of our recent launch of the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, we are providing a number of free sample chapters. For full details and all the sample chapters go to the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 website.

Chapter 2 on Web 2.0 and the Enterprise uses our extremely popular Web 2.0 Framework as a foundation.

New content includes:
* Table covering Web 2.0 tools with examples of both open web and enterprise use
* Key issues in adapting Web 2.0 tools to enterprise use.

We are keen for input into the next versions of the report, so let me know your suggestions!

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 - Chapter 2

My readers will have seen a massive focus on Enterprise 2.0 in this blog for the last few months, as I have been preparing, promoting and running the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney and Enterprise 2.0 Executive Briefing in Melbourne, and writing and publishing Implementing Enterprise 2.0, which is rapidly becoming the reference in the field. Moving forward I will continue to be deeply involved in Enterprise 2.0 through my client work, and will also be releasing a lot more content from the report.

However I am now in the process of shifting gears. Last year I realized that a large proportion of my interests could be encapsulated in two key themes:
The future of the enterprise
The future of influence

The first examines how organizations will evolve and what they must do to be successful in an intensely complex and competitive world. The second looks at how messages disseminate when traditional media is being trumped by social media. Together they bring together the inside and the outside, the twin domains in which open communication is transforming business and society.

Having focused deeply for a while on the future of the enterprise, for the next period my attention will shift significantly to the future of influence.

I have studied and worked on influence networks for much of the last decade. Among other activities, I wrote about influence networks in Chapter 6 of Living Networks and published what was then the first detailed study of influence networks in B2B marketing: How Technology Purchasing Decisions are Really Made. However so far I haven’t written up most of my ongoing research and work in the space.

A centrepiece of our recently launched Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report is an Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Framework. Click on the image below to download the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Framework pdf, which includes references to the relevant chapters for each of the action steps. Some of the chapters referred to are available for download from the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 downloads page.

The central aspect of the framework is that it is iterative. Where you begin on the cycle depends on your organization. Some will begin in the upper left domain of Understanding Drivers, by understanding the drivers. Others will start in the lower right domain of Supporting Initiatives by identifying and supporting existing initiatives that people have begun of their own initiative.

We have just launched our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, encapsulating in a neat package (almost) all you need to know to create massive value with Enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches in your organization.

Our www.ImplementingEnterprise2.com website includes a number of free chapters and resources, which I’ll feature in more detail here later, as well as ordering information.

One of the key aspects of the report is that it is versioned. Version 1.1, available on Amazon.com, includes just a few small fixes from the 1.0 version that we produced for a limited audience. Now we can get down to the more significant modifications that will eventually see this as a highly refined and revised version 2.0, 3.0 and beyond.

That evolution will be largely based on feedback from readers. We will soon introduce a feedback forum on the report website to gather suggestions and input, though we’re always keen to get ideas in any format.

Last week mX newspaper in Melbourne (the city’s largest free newspaper with readership of over 300,000) had a little story on Blogs to conquer the office based on an interview with me. The article was originally intended to cover the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 Executive Briefing which was run last Thursday in Melbourne, though the final article just covered some of the forthcoming shifts in the workplace (slightly mangled in the journalistic process).

Hopefully these kinds of messages will eventually filter through this kind of mass audience to help accelerate these trends. Full text of the article below, or click on the image for a scan of the article.

Blogs to conquer the office

Blogs, wikis and social networks are the future of the Australian workplace.

Organisations which block employee access will be punished for their lack of vision within five years.

And email, which transformed workplaces late last century, will be a thing of the past.

Futurist Ross Dawson, chairman of Future Exploration Network, said companies embracing Web 2.0 – interactive internet use and web-based applications – would result in unrecognisable workplaces within five years.

Graduates and tech-savvy workers were bringing blogs, virtual worlds and social networks into the workplace, which improved communication, efficiency and productivity, Dawson said.

“I am not saying that if you use blogs you will be more successful, but those organisations that try to avoid any use of Web 2.0 in their organisations are going to find it far more difficult to attract talented people and to be competitive,” Dawson said.

At the expense of email, blogs and wikis are becoming popular methods of project management.

“If you use a blog or a wiki, (anyone) can update the most recent info and, at a glance, can see what has been done most recently by who and be updated using RSS (web feed Really Simple Syndication),” he said.

Yesterday as a prelude to the Transformations in Scientific and Cultural Communication conference I’m speaking at today, the Directors of Australia and New Zealand’s largest museums and libraries gathered for a boardroom session. I joined the group to give a presentation on social media in organizations and was very interested to hear their perspectives.

The general tenor of the afternoon was examining the rapidly changing environment, perhaps most notably changed expectations from audiences in how they interact with exhibits and content.

One of the directors commented that institutions that are often over a century old and perhaps by definition embedded in tradition can find it hard to change. However in the course of the afternoon I saw some fantastic examples of what is being done by museums today. It made me think that perhaps the underlying mindset of (some) museum directors is one of engaging people, and thus seeing the openness of the web as being an opportunity to fulfill their role of ‘democratizing knowledge’ .

At Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum last week the event hit #1 on Twitter globally, reflecting both the frantic Twitter activity at the event and the degree of interest and discussion from people following the event on Twitter around the world.

If you want the full richness of the discussion on the day, go to the complete Twitter stream for #e2ef. To make it a bit more accessible, we’ve created a quick summary of around 250 of the most interesting and useful Twitters on the day, sorted by topic. Apologies if we missed out your favorite tweets in our scan!

The Twitter summary is divided into categories:
* OVERALL COMMENTS
* ABOUT TWITTER
* IMPLEMENTING ENTERPRISE 2.0 REPORT
* CASE STUDIES
* JP RANGASWAMI
* IBM
* SOCIAL NETWORKS PANEL
* DAVID BACKLEY
* WORKSHOPS
* ROSS DAWSON
* CLOSING PANEL

OVERALL COMMENTS

chieftech: hat tip to @rossdawson for the facilities - wifi and power available at each table! #e2ef

PRIANational: Thanks to @rossdawson and the team for the enterprise 2.0 conference was fantastic... #e2ef

trib: @jkerrstevens you'd be enjoying #e2ef if you were here

GWhiteOz: #e2ef this event is a good reminder why it's important to still do things in person and not sitting behind a screen

LeslieCBarry: Excellent day at #e2ef - thought provoking, great speakers and loads of food for thought. Well one, Ross and team!