A Technical Manager’s Perspective

My opinion and thoughts surrounding Social Media have really changed in the last 2 weeks primarily due to the revolution in Iran and the role that thousands of people played communicating the issues and letting the world know what was really happening in Iran.

Up until a month ago, I saw Social Media as a Marketing tool and often referred to Social Media as Social Marketing, however I can see now that I was wrong. The combination of Social Media tools like Twitter, YouTube and Flicker, and the engaged Iranians using these tools, kept the message coming out of Iran which helped to raise awareness to the rigged election and the the beatings, arrests and murders that followed the Iranian election. This stream of information was flowing out of Iran at great risk to those folks sharing the information and as the community of Social Media adopters embraced this and started blogging, tweeting and communicating the message, hundreds of thousands of people from many countries got involved and started covering and communicating this story. This message may have come to light in another way, however access to Social Media tools like Twitter, YouTube and Flicker allowed Iranians the opportunity to share their experiences with us as they happened.

As an active user of many social tools like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and Friendfeed, I saw my activities as Social Networking, and the activities of the Marketing and PR folks as Social Media. The fine distinction that I have come to realize is the Marketing and PR folks are using the same Social Media tools that I use, however their message is different and their desired reach and results are different, however they are still using the same powerful medium that I am using and therefore I will stop refereeing to Social Media as Social Marketing.

In my opinion, the message of the Iranians and the reaction and support from all non-Iranians proves the legitimacy of Social Media.

kmullins Social Social Media, Social Networking

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is over and I really enjoyed myself this year. I spoke with a lot people from Vendors to Enterprise 2.0 “thought leaders” and also with many folks trying to figure out how to implement Enterprise 2.0 and it’s professional collaborative tools and processes.

Along with a great list of Enterprise, Social and Community talks, there was a lot of hallway conversations and a great Twitter back-stream facilitated by the TechWeb folks with the www.e2conf.com website. The back-stream conversations included a chat room and a real time list of conference related tweets, along with a conference blog and a community site called my.e2conf.com. The back-channel communications were displayed on large LCD panels throughout the conference where chats and twitter content really kept folks connected.

From a vendor perspective the big players were there like IBM, Microsoft, EMC, and SUN, but there were also many other Web companies like SocialText, Jive, Atlassian, Connectbeam, Socialcast, Newsgator, Bluenog and many more. One common theme with these companies was the fact that they are all offering more features in their products than in past years. SocialText is a good example of this as they have expanded their offering to more than just wiki services and have intergraded with Sharepoint and Lotus Connections and expanded their base to include Social Messaging and Distributed Spreadsheets.

Real World Examples

Another great point was that there were many real world examples shared at the conference. Here is a list of companies that share their experiences in formal discussions at the conference:

• IBM, EMC, Deloitte, Microsoft, Electronic Arts,
• DOD, BOE of Minnesota, Genentech,
• cubeless, Sabre Travel Studios, Lockeed Martin,
• Volvo, US Army, NetAge, Booz Allen Hamilton

Open Enterprise 2009

This sharing of experiences and strategies was fostered by the efforts of Stowe Boyd and Oliver Marks in a preconference research project called the Open Enterprise 2009 which featured Enterprise 2.0 Case Study videos of business folks discussing real world implementations of Enterprise 2.0. After many months of interviews, research and study, Oliver Marks present the Open Enterprise 2009 Innovation award to Booz Allen Hamilton to salute their work embracing collaborative and transformative enterprise 2.0 tools. Congratulations go out to all who contributed to the Open Enterprise 2009 effort but especially to Stowe Boyd and Oliver Marks for their efforts identifying and documenting real world examples of Enterprise 2.0 tools, practices and processes.

Community Management

Last year there was little coverage of Community Management as it relates to the Enterprise, however this year Community Management was a frequent topic with many interesting examples sited. As we roll out more professional collaborative tools within the Enterprise, there is a need to better manage this effort to help leverage the social tools and behaviors within the organization. There where many thoughts and tweets shared at these sessions that can be found here… #e2cures and here… #e2conf46.

Now that the conference is over, one thought that is still in my mind was a quote from Oliver Marks in the Building Online Communities session:

Bring collaborative tools into focus around real business objects to achieve success with Enterprise 2.0 strategies and processes.

Thanks to all who shared their thoughts, strategies and feedback.

kmullins Enterprise, Enterprise2.0, Social, WEB 2.0 Collaboration, Community Management, Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 – Day One

Adoption of collaborative web tools and processes is growing and it is not always called Enterprise 2.0. The cost of the tools and IT management are the easiest part of an Enterprise 2.0 rollout with adoption of the tools, change management, and community management coming at a greater level of difficulty than just the tools. Also, a common theme in all sessions is an open corporate culture goes a long way toward adoption of 2.0 like tools.

Bill Ives published a great review of Dion Hinchcliffe’s Implementing Enterprise 2.0 workshop and Mike Gotta’s Enterprise Social Networking session. Both reviews were right on and a good read for the folks that could not make these sessions.

A new Term/Protocol that I learned about yesterday was XBRL which is eXtensible Business Reporting Language. According to Wikipedia, XBRL is an open standard which supports information modeling and the expression of semantic meaning commonly required in business reporting. XBRL was presented as a tool to help manage decentralized data that is spread out over many blogs, wiki’s, and RSS feeds.

I stayed for the evening session called “an Evening in the Cloud” which was a sponsored discussion by Google, EMC, Rightscale and IBM. Cloud solutions are getting better however there was a long discussion surrounding data compliance and liability which is one of the key factors when moving to the cloud. IBM and EMC are ok with you not going to the cloud but instead building that cloud infrastructure in your own data center.

In the vendor sessions after the talk I learned about a new product from EMC called Atmos, which is Cloud Optimized Storage for all organizations. This new product could be run behind the firewall or can also be deployed as a Cloud Service from EMC. EMC is wrapping the term Federation around this and many of their offerings, however I do not like this term as it implies Security and Authorization and I am not sure if anyone has solved the distributed federated security problem.

I spoke with Chris Richter from Socialware INC about their Socialware product that will provide recording and filtering for organizations looking to monitor and record the conversations between employees and others on social sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. When Chris and I started talking I was skeptical about the filtering aspect of this product, however after the data compliance discussion in the evening cloud session, I realized that this would be a good method of recording all external social bound traffic for auditing and compliance reasons.

Finally, connectivity was good at the conference, I did get dropped twice however I was able to reconnect quickly. I also saw a lot of full sized laptops, both PC and Apple and I saw one Netbook.

If you are attending the E2 Conference, please feel free to stop by and say hello.

kmullins Blog, Enterprise2.0, WEB 2.0 e2conf, Enterprise 2.0

The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is in Boston next week at the Weston Boston Waterfront Hotel. We have been talking about Enterprise 2.0 for over 3 years now, always trying to define and refine what it is along with the benefits that it brings to the Enterprise. Benefits like improved efficiencies thru improved collaboration and communications are often discussed, however how companies attain improved efficiencies varies from company to company and vendor to vendor, and that is one of the reasons that there is still a lot of talk about Enterprise 2.0.

Enterprise 2.0 vendors have been lining up with tools and products in support of efforts in the Blogging, Wiki, RSS, Bookmarking and community building space. The list of Vendors on 2009 Enterprise 2.0 Expo Pavilion page is a good starting place for those looking for Enterprise 2.0 tools and solutions however, another good list is from Bill Ives who pulled together a list of Enterprise 2.0 tools in 2007 and updated the list in 2008.

In a recent Enterprise 2.0 survey on the Enterprise 2.0 Blog, Enterprise 2.0 adoption is growing, and spending is predicted to increase 58% in 2009. The number one barrier to adopting Enterprise 2.0 is cultural: resistance to change (53%). Other challenges include difficulty in measuring ROI (43%), integrating with existing technologies (37%), and security concerns (31%).

This growth in adoption is good for many organizations, and is clearly evident by the number of documented Enterprise 2.0 cases. Also, the perceived threat of Google Wave will encourage Enterprise 2.0 vendors to add richer feature sets into their products, as they are forced to compete with Google in the coming year.

I will be taking a closer look at products with integrated feature sets and asking the following questions of many vendors at the Enterprise 2.0 conference:

1. How many E2 features are integrated in your product ?
2. How open is your product?
3. Which infrastructure platforms are supported?
4. Will your product complete or compliment Google Wave?
5. Will you provide integration with Google Wave?
6. Please identify your pricing structure.
7. Please identify your support structure.

Below is the list of companies that I would like to talk to at Enterprise 2.0 next week:

• Opentext, Atlassian, Awareness, Bluenog, Box, Brainpark,
• Connectbeam, Centraldesktop, Day, Dreamface-interactive,
• Igloosoftware, Kickapps, Newsgator, Ngenera, Opentext,
• Qtask, Simplefeed, Socialtext, Telligent, Yakabod

Finally, if you would like to touch base with me at Enterprise 2.0, please reach out to me on Twitter at @kmullins

kmullins Enterprise, Enterprise2.0, WEB 2.0 Enterprise 2.0

If you have not heard about Google Wave, this is something that you need to pay attention to. It is a communication tool that merges email, IM, documentation and social networking into one nice integrated tool. The demo was very convincing and really comes off as a nice shared communications tool that will help to increase collaboration.

Although the setup and configurations have not been revealed, it is built on HTML 5 which will not run on some browsers, however if this starts to take off, you will see a move toward HTML5 in all browsers. This is a tool that has great promise both behind and in front of the firewall, however I am curious how the Federation authorization will work.

Here is a link to the Google Wave Blog and Dion Hinchcliffe wrote a nice overview of the “Enterprise Implications of Google Wave” which is worth reading.

Finally, here is the Google Wave demo that was given at Google I/O:

kmullins Enterprise2.0, Open, Social, WEB 2.0

I have been thinking a lot about Social Media/Networking, Enterprise 2.0, Open Web and how to help organizations see the value that these tools can bring to an organization. For me the value is improved collaboration, which results in more folks talking about common issues, and this improved collaboration allows for access to data and solutions from a broader range of groups which leads to more efficiencies across the organization.

Now, all organizations are different, some more open and others with an older more hierarchical organizational structure, however the social media/networking tools of today help to break down that hierarchical control issue and provide improved communications across all layers of the hierarchy. I came across a great example of this from Best Buy and rather than pointing you to the link of the video, I thought it best to share the video with you. I found this video on Mike Gotta’s Collaborative Thinking Blog, but the discussion actually took place last year at the BIF-4 (Business Innovation Factory) meeting in 2008.

We have been talking about Enterprise 2.0 and brining Web 2.0 and Social Collaborative tools into the Enterprise for a while, and while most new organizations adopt these tools and strategies without thinking, many of the older more hierarchical organizations need to be shown the way. So, for those older more structured organizations, here is a nice example of a strategy that really worked and could be duplicated in any organization.

kmullins Enterprise2.0, Social, WEB 2.0

As I was flying to the Glue Conference in Denver this week, I was listening to a podcast interview with Eric Norlin who is the organizer of the Glue Conference. Eric spoke for reading the Cluetrain Manifesto written by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger and identified how engrossed he was in the book and on the subject of the Web and the Internet.

After the conference I went to audible.com and found the Cluetrain Manifesto, pulled it down, and then yesterday listened to the entire 6 hour audiobook while doing yard work and errands. I was also engrossed in the topics of Markets, Business, the Internet and the Web, and found it very relevant to the Social and Enterprise 2.0 movements today. The theme that resonated with me throughout the day was that of Organizations and Enterprises need to have real conversations with their employees, their customers and the media. Gone are the days when corporate communications controlled what is said and to whom, and that is so relevant today.

I paid for the Cluetrain in audio form, however you can get the book at Amazon.com, or you can Read the entire book online for free or download the PDF version or download the HTML version for free.

kmullins Enterprise, Enterprise2.0, Social, WEB 2.0

So Glue is over and I really enjoyed myself. Our panel on the Open Web went well however no one asked questions when we were done, so we either answered all of their questions or the audience was not engaged enough to care ? Either way I am glad I had the opportunity to participate and look forward to coming back next year. There were similar themes on most panels which touched on themes like Web Technologies, Openness, SAAS, Cloud, Identity and how they all integrate together.

It’s like we are all working on the similar issues to varying degrees. I really came away with an interest in exploring Identity and Information Cards at length. Another strategy that was really solidified for me was the use of Cloud Computing in one form or another. Back in 2008 I jumped into a number of cloud discussions and really investigate solutions in the cloud, however not being in a position to influence or implement a cloud strategy, my energies move to topics that I have more influence over. However, now that the hype is starting to subside, and after talking to listening to many at Glue, it is clear to me that in the next 5 to 10 years, the majority of our enterprise data processing will occur in outsourced cloud environments and the amount of locally owned server hardware will be drastically reduced.

From a social and conversational perspective, I met a number of cool people including Eric Norlin the Glue Conference organizer, Drummond Reed, Llyod Hailiel and Phil Windley along with a host of others. I felt welcomed and among friends for my two days in Denver and as conferences go, it was one of the better ones. I spoke with a number for different folks but would like to share two different conversations that I had with surprisingly enough, two different MIT alum’s.

The first conversation was with Dave Jilk who is a entrepreneur in a new startup called Standing Cloud. Standing Cloud in an Open Source, Platform as a Service Provider (PAAS) located in Colorado who is working on a gui based application modeling tool that will work with all cloud vendors. Dave and I had multiple conversations during the conference and I quickly knew that Dave and Standing Cloud had a great idea and wanted to share it with others.

The second conversation that I wanted to share was with David Weekly who is Chairman and Founder of PBworks (formally PBwiki). The second that I sat down next to David, we started an engaging conversation about Massachusetts, technology and MIT. David grew up in Massachusetts, two towns away from where I reside and we quickly hit it off. David took at shot at MIT calling it “The Institute of Agriculture” and that’s when I knew that he went to MIT. I have been using wikidot.com for a while but I am looking for an ssl based wiki and pbworks sounds like a great wiki.

Conversations and connections are two big things about conferences and I had a lot of both at the Glue Conference. My feedback to Eric and his team was to include a technical track in the form of a barcamp or unconference next year. A meeting of thought leaders and great panels along with a group of barcamp developers and hackers demonstrating the glue in web technologies would be worthwhile. I know that this may be difficult to coordinate and setup, however it would make for a great conference. Is that what Defrag is ?

kmullins Enterprise, Identity, Open, OpenID, Social, WEB 2.0, Web/Tech

I am in Denver at the Glue Conference listening to a number of different themes surrounding the evolution of the web and the strategies that will help us in the future. The main themes are Openness, Identity, and SAAS/Cloud. On Wednesday I am participating in a discussion about Implementing the Open Web with Drummond Reed from the Information Card Foundation and Lloyd Hilaiel from Yahoo.

Drummond, Lloyd and I have shared our thoughts and I thought that I would briefly outline them for you. Lloyd will be moderating our discussion, basically leading us down the path of what is the Open Web, how has the Web evolved, and what do we need to do to implement the Open Web.

My thought is that the Open Web is about using Web Technologies in a Open manner to share data and the Standards, Protocols, Tools and API’s that enable us to do this in a trusted way. For me, the Open Web is more than just Open Source Code, it is about our data, and how we choose to open and share our data.

Drummond is a member of the OASIS Standards committee and his thought is that you need to start with protocols, identity, and discovery for the Open Web. As a member of OASIS, Drummond has a lot of experience surrounding standards and and what it takes to get standards implemented, and he is very involved in the XRI and XDI standards surrounding discovery, so we can expect to touch on discovery in our Open Web discussion.

I don’t disagree with Drummond, but instead see protocols, identity management, and discovery as the tools to help up share, discover and distribute data on the Open Web.

kmullins Identity, Open, WEB 2.0

I am going to the Glue Conference in Denver Co on May 12th and 13th, 2009 and will be participating on a panel with Drummond Reed and Lloyd Hilaiel talking about the Open Web.  Glue is the conference that focuses on web applications, how they are changing and how they can integrate with other web applications and different parts of your business.

Along with my panel on Implementing the Open Web, there are many other sessions that I will be attending. I have a real interest in Web Technologies and here are a number of sessions that I hope to attend at Glue:

• OAuth, Open ID and Building Web Oriented Architectures
• Securing Cloud Infrastructure
• Platforms and Clouds: Building Out Web Apps in the Sky
• XMPP’s Role in the Future of Web Oriented Architecture
• Gossamer and Glue: Weaving the Loosely Coupled Web
• Data, Apps and Networks – What Glues Them Together ?
• Living in a Post Cloud World – Interop, Integration and Federation
• Leveraging API Infrastructure
• Information Cards: Identity Super  - Glue Works Right Before Your Very Eyes

If you have an interest in Web Technologies and want to participate in discussions on where the Web is going, then you should consider attending Glue Conference in May.

kmullins Identity, Open, WEB 2.0