Closed mind
You sniggering pest I should find
Amidst vibrant hopes and fortitude
You crush me so, if only you could
With eyes that do not see
and a heart that will not hear me

Closed mind
You just suck big time!

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.

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

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.

• 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.

MDeC is pretty special. We like it when our vendors cater to all our whims and fancies because we're a quasi NGO, quasi government, quasi private, depending who's asking. :). There are some aspects of the standard enterprise 2.0 that we can work with, others may actually require some level of customisation embedded on an enterprisey application, which we are looking to do.

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..

• 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?

Market Intelligence and a lil theatre with AIIM

Enterprise 2.0- A State of the Industry Address

Speakers:
Carl Frappaolo, Book Author & VP, Market Intelligence, AIIM
Dan Keldsen, Director, Market Intelligence, AIIM


According to Frappaola & Keldsen:

The speakers will discuss on findings based on the first, or so claimed, in-depth study on Enterprise 2.0 including the results of a survey completed by over 400 Enterprise 2.0 users.

Questions such as, are Boomers sabotaging Enterprise 2.0? What makes Enterprise 2.0 initiatives a success and how Enterprise 2.0 initiatives justified are some of the questions that they will answer.



What I heard:

Download the free surveys on AIIM's website.
http://www.slideshare.net/dan.keldsen/enterprise-20-ftw
http://www.cio.com/article/390913/Enterprise_._Generational_Divide_Largely_a_Myth

Top findings: some surprising, others only confirm assumptions made

• Age does not matter – millenials 37%, boomers 38% feel that enterprise 2.0 plays a significant role in business. Boomers are more likely to say that they are champions of web2 .0.

Is age therefore a barrier to enterprise 2.0 adoption? Not any more it would seem. This would be consistent with the examples shared by other speakers during the conference.

• 44% of respondents indicated that Enterprise 2.0 is significant to corporate goals and objectives
• Another 27% positioned Enterprise 2.0 as having average impact on business goals and success.
• 74% stated they have only a vague familiarity or no clear understanding of Enterprise 2.0.
• Challenges to Enterprise 2.0

1. Lack of Enterprise 2.0 Education - relooking at web 2.0 beyond its social and entertaining benefits.
2. Best practices are also not currently available due to its "infancy". No one suit fits all.
3. Business objectives still lacking when implementing Enterprise 2.0

Implementation of enterprise 2.0 is spurred by the existing corporate culture on knowledge management. So if they are already used to sharing and open collaboration, they will be more open to the idea of using tools so often linked to web 2.0. for the same purpose.

But at the end of the day, enterprise 2.o is more than getting the best tools. Organizations have to realise that enterprise 2.0 should not help them look cool, but rather, help them solve problems and have real use cases. Most companies have no strategies when it comes to implementing enterprise 2.0. nor do they truly understand what it all means.

In my humble opinion, if we were to look at smaller projects when implementing enterprise 2.0 which cost a fraction of most customised systems out there, there is no better strategy than just doing it and giving it a try. We are all relatively new to enterprise 2.0 and the only way to know if it will contribute to our competitive advantage, or result in any other business cases, is if we were to implement it within our own organization. In a way, this also addresses the issue of educating users of the tools that can be used to enhance business productivity without the cost of formal training. You will be able to build upon new iterations and build a set of best practices for others in the future.

A walk in the park with Google: Cloud computing

Working in the Cloud: How Cloud Computing is Reshaping Enterprise Technology
Speaker:
Rishi Chandra, Product Manager, Google Enterprise

Janji-janji teh tarik kurang manis

Chandra currently leads the team that looks to expand functionalities on the Google Apps platform and drive success in the small business and self-service markets. He will discuss ways cloud computing is influencing the Enterprise IT industry and what this means for businesses. (Enterprise 2.0 Conference Guidebook)

Teh Tarik Secukup Rasa:

• Cloud computing definition:–computing hosted on the internet accessible using the web anywhere anytime


• Consumer markets, technologies have always overtaken enterprises. Why? Consumer market is darwinian in nature. (Individuals with adaptive characteristics are more likely to be selected to reproduce by the environment) They go direct to vendors and demand for it. In enterprises, choices are hardly given, procurement processes are slower, as with decision-making. Consumers are a greater base for testing for many technologies.


• Moving forward: a need for greater interoperability across many platforms and devices for collaboration and team empowerment. It is not enough to have great individual productivity.


• How do we do this? Chandra suggests the use of cloud computing which eliminates the need for geographical or language barriers and eventually reduces the cost of retraining among other things.


• Why? Barriers to cloud computing diminishing:

1. Scalability can be assured (via Google). Services providers need to assure consumers of their reliability or their customers will leave. Unless you are an ardent fan of a particular service and will remain loyal even if the site goes crappy (up to a certain extent) as mentioned by , David Sparks E2.0 conference blogger.
2. Connectivity is less of a problem these days, unless you were at Westin Waterfront the week of the 9th of June. :). Well then, can't be as bad as getting stuck without Internet in the middle of the Sahara can it?
3. Users expect rich user experience with better UIs, in and out of the social networks. Need to transpose this into the enterprise environment.
4. Breach of security are mostly human made - revolves around trust. Putting your data on a cloud, ensures that your data is safe (subject to the above) even if your devices (mobile, laptop, blueberry, blackberry and other fruits) get stolen.
5. Offline access will be just as important. Users need to be able to work without the need of being online all the time (zimbra.com, google gears etc)

Conclusion:

Enterprises can start identifying smaller peices of the bigger puzzle to put on the cloud and test with these. Innovations in the cloud will happen. No point running! :)

Questions posed after the address:

What is the difference between cloud computing and social networks? Anwer: Its the same thing. Applications that have social networking will be using cloud computing.

What kind of data should be placed on the cloud? Answer: The sky is the limit. You, yourself, determine what you want.

Wikipedia untuk orang Cerdik Pandai CIA

From the Bottom-up: Building the 21st Century Intelligence Community
Speakers:
Don Burke, Intellipedia Doyen, CIA
Sean Dennehy, Intellipedia Evangelists, CIA

What it promised:
Speakers will brief the technical and cultural changes underway at the CIA and across the Intelligence Community involving the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 through tools that are being used to improve information sharing. (Enterprise 2.0 Conference Guidebook)

What was delivered:
As promised, although I am sure not all was divulged... But enough was said to give us an honest view of how enterprise 2.0 is working for even more complex organizations such as the CIA.

The focus was Intellipedia, a wiki used by the US Intelligence community to share knowledge on various aspects of spying, technology, occurences that may or may not have an impact on security in America, basically everything the American equivalent of James Bond would want to know. Spooks contribute articles that are fingerprinted and tracked which in some manner allow for some form of content validation. On top of the Wiki (platformed provided by Wikipedia), are nifty bookmarks and alerts to the latest changes on any particular article, videos, tagging a document management system. Of course, there are several access levels, from top secret, secret to Sensitive but Unclassified but all Intellipedia users are allowed to access and read contributions.

Lessons learnt from Intellipedia:

• Because of similar enterprise 2.0 type resistance, start small. Choose a project that is workable- topical versus organizational: Intellipedia started off with acronyms, as should any acronym loving organizations such as MDeC.
• Age is just a number. The idea of Intellipedia came about when there was a knowledge gap among the younger workforce and the "M's" , or millenials, whose extensive knowledge and experience were not properly documented and transferred. Intellipedia has been extremely appealing to the younguns, but some of its heavy contributors are also made up of the Ms - with a little encouragement of course.
• They had to "force" contributions at first. Populating the wiki was important to generate interest and voluntary contributions.
• Imagine trading top secret information! There were a lot of security concerns among the general community. Individuals were concerned with the rights of viewing and writing of certain information rather than on the idea that many heads is better than one (unless you work in Ramsey's Hell Kitchen)- again, some patience and persistence required.
• Replace an existing business process, don't make new ones which may result in greater resistance to change. If it means calling a Blog something else, then by all means do so. Call it report writing if you please.
• Touch the hearts of as many people as possible.

More information from the Enterprise 2.0 advocates themselves

Conclusion:

All in all, its about a cultural changes. Sikit-sikit, jadi bukit. You overcome the characteristics of the usual "must be reasonable and move with caution" individuals within the organization as stipulated by Burke and Dennehy, by taking small steps during implementation even if it accounts for smaller successes at the end. Many small successes is after all great too. Intellipedia helped them solve problems. Maybe help them catch Osama too? They were able to answer "business" questions that would not have been possible before, and within a much shorter timeframe. So now, if the US Intelligence Community and its secrets can do it, why not us ay?

FedEx keynote delivered at fedex speed

I would have preferred that the conference allowed for more question and answers. It felt as if we were bulldozing through a lot for the sake of keeping to time I guess.

The wireless network was awful. Note to organizers, ensure that there is enough capacity for all to use.

Conference Breakfast and the FedEx Experience

If I should take up a new diet plan, it really should have been at the conference, where salads were quickly replenished, healthy muffins sat invitingly on trays, bagels a plenty, all very fine and dandy (the croissants were wonderful - I thought I was in Paris with every bite) but I miss juicy meats in my lauk, and plump hormone induced chicken! haha

In any case, that was how I opened the conference. With a healthy dose of Continental breakfast, which lasted throughout the entire week. The conference was worth missing all the nasi lemak, capati, teh tarik and all the lauk in the world. At least, one weeks worth of Malaysian food-lah!

Opening remarks:

Unlike our counterparts back home, the opening remark was mostly made of information regarding the conference, its blogs, and other relevants services available to all participants. No protocol drill, no long winded way of saying "thank you for coming". In less than 5 minutes we were taken from A straight to B. Not A to C to E then J to B.

Points to note:

1. Clearspace by Jive Software, blog provider for the conference

• Enterprise collaboration tool that integrates communities through blogs, forums, wikis, IM chats and VOIP (clearspace) - will review this later.

2. Must pester AA (buggerrooo) for my lost or as they put it, delayed baggage - my 2 day baju stinking up hall and Boston looks too expensive for a shopping excuse

And as I sat between two giants, not that the hall was very small, this is what I got:

FedEx Enterprise 2.0 experience by Rob Carter, CIO, FedEx

Mr Carter gave us an overview of the history of networks. He then moves on to how at the end of the day, networks is about connecting the dots and being open to collaboration. By identifying trusted people and platforms, FedEx has enabled web services that integrates needs with easy to use, currently "commonly" used technology.

• FedEx Quickship - embedded into your Microsoft outlook, you will be able to track your FedEx shipment and contact staff closest to you
• FedEx MOBI -Mobile devices provide the best means of communication around the globe especially where Internet accessibility is lacking. By extending applications on mobile devices, you are essentially extending your networks. MOBI provides the same sort of features your Quickship would offer but via Mobile.
• FedEx Desktop - a widget of sorts that alerts you of your shipment status, as well as sends you alerts directly to your desktop
• FedEx's service integration with eBay
• Use of blogs in FedEx - giving power to people within and outside the organization to innovate and have a say on the direction of the company.

It hasn't been a joy ride for FedEx to start exposing their data for the greater good, but that reaping the benefits of extending their services beyond a single platform will eventually conquer all (interoperability)- patience and persistence does however seem key. They took pains to understand and analyse the demographics of their customers, so they may deliver services on technology that is best suited for the different groups, if any. It wasn't a case of, "OOohh, this is fashionable, lets get on the bandwagon!".

P.S.
I would definitely recommend that AA look into developing a tracking system of sorts for customers that are looking to pay a lil extra to track their luggage, even if missing luggages in the first place, should not happen! I wasn't the only one waiting in line at the Baggage Claim Services office.

Rest and a Masssaaasssh

What I should be doing at this instance, is start rolling with the reporting.
But I have had a long week, and there's nothing really I'd like to do right now than sleep in my hard smelly bed, with my babies right next to me.

I'd also really like to soak my feet in some flower infused water with a "same-same" lady massaging my tired feet and asking me if I want to get my back massaged because I looked "taayaard.. come come .. i give you goood massaaaassh". And within minutes, I'll be in lalaland for at least 1/2 an hour, only to be slapped by my son, who will coo his gentle words of "mama, nyak". That would be "mama, I want to breastfeed.. now!" in english. He'd give me a big 6 teeth showing smile and well...dive in?

Well, then. Here I am instead. At the lobby of the Radisson Hotel. Waiting for the 3 something cue to the airport. The couch's pretty comfy. I could sleep right now, if not for the 3 ladies behind the front desk, the travelling business man chatting on his IM, and the buzz of activity in and out of the hotel.

Here I am, also waiting for a friend who's flying in from New York.

but..

Ahhh Sleep..where art thou my love?

So the tea party begins..

(because this will be subject to utmost scrutiny by my bosses, I will try to refrain from making this blog a totally honest blog :)) Just kidding boss.

So was the enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston worth the 24 hour flight (or at least felt like it), delayed baggage, recycling the clothes on my back for 2+ days, having to buy new telephone charger when you already have one in your "lost" baggage and sleeping when everyone else is awake?

I'd have to go with a resonating yes. The city had its charm, I went shopping, I met with old mates and I dreamt of attending Harvard while I strolled down Cambridge and bought my nucleus family a Harvard tee each.

In between such personal adventures, was this knowledge filled conference which gave me an indepth view of the why, how and who of enterprise 2.0. In as much as the examples were USA centric, which is only natural given the birth countryof e2.0, our challenges with web 2.0 in enterprises were mirrored precisely. Malaysian enterprises, as well as the rest of the world, are on the same level playing field. The best still, that we are able to learn from their lessons of trials and tribulations and use these to our advantage.

I will therefore, be posting my account of the conference based on keynote addresses and tracks. Unfortunately, I was unable to cover all offered tracks. I'm totally against the idea of cloning 4 other versions of me and had to settle to going to one breakout session at a time. You could however, go to the conference's blog which probably did a better job of summarising everything : http://www.enterprise2blog.com/?p=620

The sandman has me on twitter and has notified me of my heavy eyelids. I'll be catching my zzzzzz's now, but watch this space! Its the blardy jetlag I tell you!