It has been a while hasn't it?
The wheel continues to turn. I've added a new woonderful lifetime experience called a daughter and am still figuring out how to get rid of the pouch that I still carry around (while still delighting in eating the cake). I had been warned though. It would be tough. Tougher than open data in Malaysia? I'd like to think so.
I've been under house arrest. And enjoying it. I am mother first now, which I love, but there is a niggling aching feeling that I am slowly missing life on the fabulous lane of trying the near impossible. Giving public data to the world.
What is public data though? Who determines what data goes public? Is it all in the hands of the supposed shadowy hands of the government?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The journey thus far
So how has it been so far since the last encounters with the dumbfounded ones? Let's just say, that fortunately, we are still on a journey. Albeit a hairy one. I would like to think of it as a Big Fish adventure, with circus clowns, and loony village inhabitants of different shapes and sizes. Doesn't stray too much from the truth in realities.
We are still fighting for the right things to happen. It has been a slow rollercoaster ride, much like your Dumbo Disney merry go round but we've began to face less resistance and more openness from the right people. The sceptics? They are still around, and morph to take the place of your friends and then change right back to their original self.
We are still fighting for the right things to happen. It has been a slow rollercoaster ride, much like your Dumbo Disney merry go round but we've began to face less resistance and more openness from the right people. The sceptics? They are still around, and morph to take the place of your friends and then change right back to their original self.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
So this is how it feels
It has been a while since I last wrote anything.
I've been busy trying to address the e2.0 within my own realm. Here on earth, on the corner of a junction next to a street car who may or not be named desire, in an organization that should know better.
All this while I realised, it has been easier said, or written in my case, than done.
Is e2.0 impossible to do in your organization? Heck noo! You just need to make sure you still swim and have your head over water even with a school of sharks wavering above your shoulders. You have to make sure your project sponsor swims with you and has an army of tough dolphins to follow. And a little "gold" at the end of the rainbow, that beckons you to soldier on, despite the toughest of moments even if you really are a small fish in the deep blue sea. Think Nemo if you will. If he can do it, so can we!
I've encountered the problems faced by the many people I've cited previously. And they've all got to do with people. Perhaps it has been my own doing?
We chose to experiment with a relatively new idea, this thing called the web 2.0 to:
a)help develop small, agile projects for the use of our clients
b)develop small local players by engaging them on projects as defined in a)
and we did it all in a rather stealth manner, while divulging what important information was required to our overall support systems in the organization. All this to prove a point that it can work, and if it doesn't we didn't spend an arm and a couple of legs for it. While the industry we cater to cheered us on, our internal support systems looked on with utter disgust and discontent.
And although "Rogue" is a name I find terribly sexy and complimentary considering the environment in which I work in, it unfortunately suggests that we are good for nothing. It would be one thing if we did infact invest in a useless project. The truth of the matter is, we didn't.
I guess that is for us now, to prove it.
I've been busy trying to address the e2.0 within my own realm. Here on earth, on the corner of a junction next to a street car who may or not be named desire, in an organization that should know better.
All this while I realised, it has been easier said, or written in my case, than done.
Is e2.0 impossible to do in your organization? Heck noo! You just need to make sure you still swim and have your head over water even with a school of sharks wavering above your shoulders. You have to make sure your project sponsor swims with you and has an army of tough dolphins to follow. And a little "gold" at the end of the rainbow, that beckons you to soldier on, despite the toughest of moments even if you really are a small fish in the deep blue sea. Think Nemo if you will. If he can do it, so can we!
I've encountered the problems faced by the many people I've cited previously. And they've all got to do with people. Perhaps it has been my own doing?
We chose to experiment with a relatively new idea, this thing called the web 2.0 to:
a)help develop small, agile projects for the use of our clients
b)develop small local players by engaging them on projects as defined in a)
and we did it all in a rather stealth manner, while divulging what important information was required to our overall support systems in the organization. All this to prove a point that it can work, and if it doesn't we didn't spend an arm and a couple of legs for it. While the industry we cater to cheered us on, our internal support systems looked on with utter disgust and discontent.
And although "Rogue" is a name I find terribly sexy and complimentary considering the environment in which I work in, it unfortunately suggests that we are good for nothing. It would be one thing if we did infact invest in a useless project. The truth of the matter is, we didn't.
I guess that is for us now, to prove it.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Breakout Session: Open Text - Candy and Aspirin
Building the Foundation of Enterprise 2.0
Presenters:
Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, Open Text
Daniel Kraft, President, RedDot, The Open Text Web Solutions Group
I thought I thaw a puthy cat..
My take on what was said..
Given that new technologies have been embraced by the global populace for keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing of fun stuff, rather frivolous matters really, some may wave them away with utter dissapproval over its use in a serious entity. But you see, why kill the messenger, when its all about defining the message and its objectives? Is there more to life than Facebook?
Setting the foundations of Enterprise 2.0 is a balancing act. According to Open Text, just add enough candy to excite, but with some aspirin to rid off organizational headaches. What in the world does that mean, one might ask. Well, then.
Web 2.0 is about people+content transmitted via new technologies that haven't yet been fully understood by most IT professionals. I'm sure we're all very excited about sharing our thoughts on the oil price hike with our entire network. I'm sure we love all the most recent pictures of our friends on the other end of the world , and we get alerts too when there are new stuff for us to see. The fact is, social networks, blogs, wikis under the pure "social" realm is personal and comes with the assumed disclaimer that the opinions placed are 'my own' and 'my own' only. Its suddenly a different ball game when you cross over to the enterprise environment.
Although electronic records (emails for example) are hardly new, people react cautiously when it comes to digitizing their thoughts on blogs and wikis in an enterprise. They ask the same questions the folks in Secret Agencies did? Who will see this? Will I get sued for posting this? What are its legal implications? All valid questions, but here's where the aspirin comes in. The same compliance policies and corporate governance must be applied to moderate the "candy" so its usage, doesn't hog bandwidth for example, or go overboard and get in the way of productivity.
Of course, corporations should not restrict every single thing with the web 2.0 stamp on it. Some corporations I shall not disclose, have blocked access to Facebook altogether much to the annoyance of their employees. (Based on a recent survey by IT services, more than a third of those between 18-24 would quit their jobs if Facebook was banned in their workplace. That number though falls to 16 percent for older peeps) Others have made Facebook an alternate avenue for soft selling, lead generation and brand enhancing activities. Which company do you think does better at the end? Debatable? Essentially, its about extending policies to content derived from Enterprise 2.0. Blogs and wikis will eventually become part of the business process as emails have today.
So how do you strike that balance? As mentioned several times, its all about getting your business strategies right first, technology second. What that actually means, I don't know for sure. There isn't a single solution for all I guess. Wish there were more defined examples though but that only means we're all on the same learning curve.
But once again, my guess is your organization must decide on the processes that can be E 2.0 enabled to achieve specific business goals. You will also need to manage the expectations of your internal users by consistently communicating with them on the usage of E2.0.
Here's another example:
Mash-ups are a great tool to aggregate relevant content from various sources, internally as well as those lying beyond the firewall to a single viewpoint. How then would you control content or service levels from other sources? Ensure your SLAs are in place. Your content providers would still need to adhere to their terms and conditions, which you would have to agree to etc. Nothing new there right? The same processes apply. This could also determine the types of applications as well as the number of applications to be mashed up.
Other questions to ask yourself:
How do we monetise social networks without violating content rights?
Will web 2.0 applications nested within a permission structure delay response time?
How do we deal with the digitisation of analog content? How do we get these ready for an HTML format?
Last but not least, we would have to seriously consider investing the right resources when implementing 2.0 and committing to its success.
Examples mentioned during the talk:
National Aquarium of Baltimore- gets the information in your context.
I find the online travel planner very cool, E2.0 or not
Alberta Goverment, Canada - currently uses social networks for outreach programs
Presenters:
Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer, Open Text
Daniel Kraft, President, RedDot, The Open Text Web Solutions Group
I thought I thaw a puthy cat..
My take on what was said..
Given that new technologies have been embraced by the global populace for keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing of fun stuff, rather frivolous matters really, some may wave them away with utter dissapproval over its use in a serious entity. But you see, why kill the messenger, when its all about defining the message and its objectives? Is there more to life than Facebook?
Setting the foundations of Enterprise 2.0 is a balancing act. According to Open Text, just add enough candy to excite, but with some aspirin to rid off organizational headaches. What in the world does that mean, one might ask. Well, then.
Web 2.0 is about people+content transmitted via new technologies that haven't yet been fully understood by most IT professionals. I'm sure we're all very excited about sharing our thoughts on the oil price hike with our entire network. I'm sure we love all the most recent pictures of our friends on the other end of the world , and we get alerts too when there are new stuff for us to see. The fact is, social networks, blogs, wikis under the pure "social" realm is personal and comes with the assumed disclaimer that the opinions placed are 'my own' and 'my own' only. Its suddenly a different ball game when you cross over to the enterprise environment.
Although electronic records (emails for example) are hardly new, people react cautiously when it comes to digitizing their thoughts on blogs and wikis in an enterprise. They ask the same questions the folks in Secret Agencies did? Who will see this? Will I get sued for posting this? What are its legal implications? All valid questions, but here's where the aspirin comes in. The same compliance policies and corporate governance must be applied to moderate the "candy" so its usage, doesn't hog bandwidth for example, or go overboard and get in the way of productivity.
Of course, corporations should not restrict every single thing with the web 2.0 stamp on it. Some corporations I shall not disclose, have blocked access to Facebook altogether much to the annoyance of their employees. (Based on a recent survey by IT services, more than a third of those between 18-24 would quit their jobs if Facebook was banned in their workplace. That number though falls to 16 percent for older peeps) Others have made Facebook an alternate avenue for soft selling, lead generation and brand enhancing activities. Which company do you think does better at the end? Debatable? Essentially, its about extending policies to content derived from Enterprise 2.0. Blogs and wikis will eventually become part of the business process as emails have today.
So how do you strike that balance? As mentioned several times, its all about getting your business strategies right first, technology second. What that actually means, I don't know for sure. There isn't a single solution for all I guess. Wish there were more defined examples though but that only means we're all on the same learning curve.
But once again, my guess is your organization must decide on the processes that can be E 2.0 enabled to achieve specific business goals. You will also need to manage the expectations of your internal users by consistently communicating with them on the usage of E2.0.
Here's another example:
Mash-ups are a great tool to aggregate relevant content from various sources, internally as well as those lying beyond the firewall to a single viewpoint. How then would you control content or service levels from other sources? Ensure your SLAs are in place. Your content providers would still need to adhere to their terms and conditions, which you would have to agree to etc. Nothing new there right? The same processes apply. This could also determine the types of applications as well as the number of applications to be mashed up.
Other questions to ask yourself:
How do we monetise social networks without violating content rights?
Will web 2.0 applications nested within a permission structure delay response time?
How do we deal with the digitisation of analog content? How do we get these ready for an HTML format?
Last but not least, we would have to seriously consider investing the right resources when implementing 2.0 and committing to its success.
Examples mentioned during the talk:
National Aquarium of Baltimore- gets the information in your context.
I find the online travel planner very cool, E2.0 or not
Alberta Goverment, Canada - currently uses social networks for outreach programs
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Demo Pavillion and a vege out, literally
Lunch! hurrah. Was getting pretty hungry after my fruit full morning. Had a veggie meal again. Will request for kosher/muslim food to be served the next time around event organizers. Must remember.
The demo pavillion had both the large corps and smaller start ups. Although, I had expected many more considering the increasing size of the Social Sofware market especially in the US. I dropped by booths of a community server provider, SocialCast, Zoho, OpenText, IBM among others. I guess in the next conference, I would expect our local players to have booths here too. Next September guys?
Differences between vendors? Depending on what you are looking for.
The social networks for entreprises look very similar to each other. From the Lotuses to the SocialCast.
The demo pavillion had both the large corps and smaller start ups. Although, I had expected many more considering the increasing size of the Social Sofware market especially in the US. I dropped by booths of a community server provider, SocialCast, Zoho, OpenText, IBM among others. I guess in the next conference, I would expect our local players to have booths here too. Next September guys?
Differences between vendors? Depending on what you are looking for.
The social networks for entreprises look very similar to each other. From the Lotuses to the SocialCast.
- SocialCast combines traditional intranet with social networks.
- Zoho does some swell document collabo, notetaking, presentation, project management, some both on line and offline among others.
- OpenText started off as an Enterprise Content Management provider at the University Waterloo in 1991 but has evolved to include social apps in many of its products and services.
SocialTexting with Mayfield
The State of Enterprise 2.0
Speaker:
Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President & Co-Founder, SocialText
Une Promesse, je te le jures..
(based on the E 2.0 Guide)
Enterprise Software is 5 years old! Although slower to innovate compared to other industries, it has challenged preconceptions and created innovative products. As with organizations, it has caused the evolution of use cases and new practices in the use of technology in businesses. The speaker will look beyond the tools, strip them bare, and ask you to get back to basics. Get naked everyone! *smirk* He will also share with participants, his experience and insights on E 2.0.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but. definitely..maybe
What I've learnt..
Speaker:
Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President & Co-Founder, SocialText
Une Promesse, je te le jures..
(based on the E 2.0 Guide)
Enterprise Software is 5 years old! Although slower to innovate compared to other industries, it has challenged preconceptions and created innovative products. As with organizations, it has caused the evolution of use cases and new practices in the use of technology in businesses. The speaker will look beyond the tools, strip them bare, and ask you to get back to basics. Get naked everyone! *smirk* He will also share with participants, his experience and insights on E 2.0.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but. definitely..maybe
What I've learnt..
- Start from the bottom up. Target the mass.
- Move over Techie dude! Features should not become central. Focus on the business cases that E2.0 will help create more value for the organization.
- Take into account the behaviourial changes as a result of E2.
- Be prepared to learn AND unlearn - unlearning is tougher!
- Determine your use cases before jumping into the deep blue.
- Embed current relevant business processes with E 2.0. - in other words, work in-the-flow as opposed to above-the-flow, where you will, definitely, maybe, have to force your colleagues, employees to spare some time and go beyond "stipulated" workscope and time for a little reflection and knowledge sharing. I would say for example expediting report writing and sharing through blogs, and have this process recognised by friendly parties as I am doing right now. Or use collaborative or 'social' spreadsheets instead of bouncing off emails to your entire department. Ok boss? :)
- Take an AGILE approach to product development. Be prepared to learn from your mistakes, identify the successes and work on the next iteration.
- Best practices are based on experience. Ask and learn from others, start your own discussion forum. If we are the only one in Malaysia implementing E2.0 whats stopping us from communicating with our friends in the US? We can also go ahead and send Nini over there for MORE conferences! HURRaaaHH!
- Don't leave your customers out. They will have ideas from an external point of view. Engage them too!
- The goal is not to automate everything but to lower costs where possible. Asking the question, will enterprise 2.0 help lower costs?
- Aim for participatory knowledge. We sneakernet already. Same difference.
Challenges
- Cultural change in organizations is always a hard thing to do. It ISN'T impossible though. Focus on increasing productivity. Enterprise 2.0 is not only about technology.
- How to structure unstructured data - tagging?
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