While IBM may not be the first to market, the least expensive nor the easiest to install/configure/manage, one thing they certainly do well is articulate the business value of social business. Every marketing message, product demo and customer case study is focused on why and how organizations need to transform themselves into a social business to remain competitive. My mantra for a while now has been to stop talking about "being social" and to instead focus on "getting work done" and IBM appears to be on that path.

In this article, learn to:
Create and configure printer sharing
Configure integration between Samba and the Common UNIX® Print System (CUPS)
Manage Windows® print drivers, and configure downloads of print drivers
Configure the [print$] share
Understand security concerns with printer sharing
Set up and manage print accounting

this looks to be an excellent way to engage those who need to understand Social Business without the technical and Notes/Domino bias of the Lotusphere event. It has often been difficult to justify a trip to Lotusphere to C-level or Director-level executives and managers in the past, Connect may be the first time that this is an easier business case than for the administrators and developers!

In the video, Richardson talks about the following myths:

Social is "new"
Social is a waste of time
Social will get out of control
You can prove social during a pilot
People love to share all they know
Social will replace email completely
Microblogging is useless
You know what your people want in a social solution
Social is just noise
Adoption is the measure of success

What’s keeping other companies from following their lead? Many executives recognize that social media is powerful, even if they still wonder in the back of their minds whether it’s just a time sink. Yet, even when they decide that there is potential, these execs get hung up on trying to figure how to apply social technologies to their companies, how to engage and empower their employees to participate.

Here’s the trick with social business: Focus on people and culture.

Content at rest = cost

Content in motion = value

That was the message that kicked off the ECM keynote

a summary of their 2011-2012 priorities:

Intelligent, distributed capture based on the DataCap acquisition
Customer self-service and web presentment of reports and statements
Rich user experiences and mobile device support
Whole solutions through better product integration and packaging as well as vertical applications and templates

Clients are interested in collaboration and have lots of adoption insights. We’re starting to see interesting case studies from clients. In addition to reporting excellent returns on their investments, clients shared qualitative feedback, such as stories of pilot groups who couldn’t imagine giving up the tools. Successful clients used executive support, communication plans, mentoring, metrics, incentives, role models, and other techniques to help people make new forms of collaboration part of the way people worked

IBM are in the process of putting together an amazing toolkit that will allow developers to build some petty amazing applications.  These tools are not unique to IBM Lotus Notes.  They can be used in conjunction with all the IBM social clients such as Connections.  These tools also support open standards allowing them to integrate with other products and services.  This also means the skills we develop building IBM social business solutions can be more easily ported to other platforms.  Most of us know how great a development platform Notes has been over the past 21 years.

The best thing that IBM can do is to convince customers that they have the tools for the future of what IBM calls "Social Business". (You did notice that the term 'Social Business' means something else to the rest of the world?) That success is not a given. In this country companies are not yet sold on "the cloud" and even less so on "enterprise 2.0/social business". I am sometimes involved in these discussions and pilots often end up as "Wohlfühlprojekte", which means you do them if you have time and money to burn.

As a student in college, it was my dream to work for IBM.  Heck, maybe it was even earlier.  Mom took us on a cruise when I was a teenager, and one of the men seated at our dining table told us he was an "IBM executive".  He was of course fit, tanned, and living a good life, or maybe that is what my brain chooses to recall some 25+ years later.  For sure, I still vividly recall how much I wanted to work for IBM straight out of college, though it took me being part of an acquired company to actually get here. What I never imagined is that one day I would become a face of a faceless conglomerate.  Stuart McIntyre actually saw this before I did, noting that the ibm.com/software landing page now features five IBMers who we are encouraging customers to connect with, myself included. How times have changed, and quickly. When Ambuj Goyal was announced as being appointed general manager for Lotus, one of our PR managers chastised me for blogging even a hint about this to the outside world.  "We don't have celebrities at IBM, our solutions speak for themselves".  The old IBM fought mightily to isolate our public persona to just a few key executives, while everyone else worked anonymously below. Thing is, nobody wants to do business with a faceless conglomerate.  And the social transformation of Web 2.0 compelled IBMers to think differently about the value of unique voices in the marketplace.  Instead of appearing as a disciplined army, it was now time to project an image of more of an alliance of like-minded thinkers.  This fit the transitions in our overall business approach, with diverse offerings and solutions across hardware, software, services, consulting, etc. In the last few years, IBM senior executives have embraced the transformation of our company.  It was only a decade ago that at my brainwashing class for new managers, one of the VPs made the dramatic assertion to aspiring future leaders to "pack your bags....we make our money all over the world, but we make our decisions in Westchester County".  Today, I am living the dream -- as one of many leading this company forward.  When I started blogging back then, I would never have imagined the day that the home page of a business that generates tens of billions of dollars would be focused on how to connect with the company.   Blogs, communities, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter.  These are all tools that have made IBM more successful, and in turn we have envisioned solutions to help transform yours into a social business.  While some of the data in this article isn't quite right, the story -- and where it appears -- is pretty impressive.  MIT's Technology Review just ran a story headlined "Facebook for Work" which reports on how the real world is adopting this technology:Like Facebook, Lotus Connections doesn't just sit back and wait for workers to spread a meme. It actively suggests other users and topics based on shared interests: Who do you already know on the network? What do you look at? What do you comment on or tag? IBM's goal is to make these types of recommendations for coworkers within a big company, as well as across multiple companies that turn out to have common goals.With a customer result:Cemex uses Lotus Connections as part of an internal collaboration platform. With the help of the combined platform, "we were able to take a new product from idea to launch in four months," says Nelson Enriquez, technology innovation manager for Cemex. "That was unheard of before."As unheard of as having faces of IBM in commercials, on websites, and using YouTube.  But this is how businesses are more successful, more innovative, and more connected today.  Are you ready?

Ich glaube, daß es weiter einen Posteingang braucht. Dieser Posteingang sieht aber ganz anders aus als der, den wir heute kennen. In dem Posteingang von Morgen laufen alle Informations- und Aktivitätenströme zusammen, die für den jeweiligen Anwender relevant sind. In der Zukunft werden E-Mails mit  Aktivitätenströme aus SAP oder anderen Tools in zusammengeführt in einem universellen Posteingang, dem Posteingang der Zukunft und der Zukunft von E-Mail. Statt von einem Posteingang zum nächsten zu springen, von E-Mail zu SAP zu BPM Tools und relevanten News, werden die Nachrichten und Aufgaben nicht nur an einer Stelle zusammengeführt. Sie werden dort auch direkt bearbeitet.

That is what the open source movement is about: using the power of collaboration to accelerate innovation.

Emerging from the global economic slowdown, the attention of many organizations is turning to growth. But in today's hyper-competitive global marketplace, opportunities are often fleeting and elusive. How can companies build, allocate and deploy their workforces to capitalize on opportunities wherever and whenever they arise?

The term 'analytics' is the 'it' phrase of the year, and everyone has different assumptions re its breadth and use. Just like Marky Mark in the early 90's - 'is he a model?', 'does he just hand out in his breifs all day?' 'Is he part ape?'... 'is he having a baby with Britney?' I'm sure they're all regretting selling back their business stats book for beer money the day the received their National University MBA in the campus strip mall parking lot.

Die großen Player haben erkannt, dass es längst nicht mehr um die Bereitstellung von Informationen geht, sondern der nächste Megatrend und die nächste Killerapp eine Anwendung ist, die über alle Informationskanäle hinweg Informationen sammelt, sortiert, filtert und ggf. sogar aufbereitet.

We are a team of IBMers in Ghana and Germany, who are working on the Business Blue Project “Smarter Global Collaboration“. Our main goal is to facilitate transnational collaboration between small and medium sized companies around the world, particularly between mature and emerging markets. Apart from our own experience as an international, virtually collaborating team, we will like to share this platform with you to share ideas and information.

Interessant, lesenswertes Interview mit Dr. Richard Straub, Senior Advisor des Chairman für IBM in Europa, dem Mittleren Osten und Afrika zum Thema Wissensmanagement. Hier ein Auszug. Das gesamte Interview ist lesenswert:Es müssen Entscheidungen im Management fallen und eine Antwort auf die Frage „Was ist unsere Managementphilosophie und Kommunikationspolitik?“ Wenn ich Web-2.0-Elemente zulasse, dabei aber eine sehr hierarchische und bürokratische Kommunikationspolitik habe, wird das nicht funktionieren. Die strategischen Fragen lauten: „Wie weit sind wir bereit, auf Managementkontrolle zu verzichten?“ „Und wie weit trauen wir den Wissensarbeitern zu, eigenständig zu agieren?“ Diesbezüglich hat sich durch die E-Mail schon einiges angebahnt, was Social Media noch einmal um eine Dimension verstärkt. Wenn wir das Beispiel IBM nehmen: Der Konzern versteht sich als Enterprise 2.0, hat aber auch eine klare Policy für die Nutzung von Web-2.0-Instrumenten herausgegeben. Man kann nicht einfach das Ganze auf die Mitarbeiter loslassen und sagen: „Jetzt macht mal.“ Die Mitarbeiter sollen wissen, was sie dürfen und was nicht.via community-of-knowledge.de 

Coworking ist also ein Stück
Wiener Kaffeehaus, ein bisschen „digital lifestyle“, etwas
postmaterialistische Individualkultur, Outsourcing von Arbeitskraft,
gemischt mit dem Preismodell eines Fitnessstudios – das Ganze als
vernetztes, globales grass-roots-Phänomen [2].
via t3n.de
Ein interessantes Posting, das das Konzept der Coworking Spaces
detailliert und fachkundig erläutert. Ich muß teilweise an meine
Arbeitsumgebung bei IBM (das IBM e-place Arbeitsplatzkonzept)
denken, auch wenn das auf den ersten Blick etwas absonderlich
erscheint. Wir haben ja keine festen Arbeitsplätze mehr, kommen morgens
ins Großraumbüro (oder besser in eines der IBM Büros), suchen uns dort
einen Platz und "stöpseln" uns ins Unternehmensnetzwerk ein (wobei
stöpseln im W-LAN Zeitalter schon der falsche Begriff ist). Trotz dieser
Freiheit des Arbeitsplatzes bilden sich natürlich soziale Netzwerke und
Gebilde, wo sich Kolleginnen ind Kollegen zusammenscharren, die oft in
einem Bereich oder an einem Projekt arbeiten. So ganz strukturlos ist
das also nicht.  

Noch nicht in den Sinn gekommen ist mir, diese Organisation eine
Wiener Kaffeehaus-Atmosphäre abzugewinnen. Ich muß auch zugeben, daß ich
sogar in weiten Teilen das Arbeiten im Home Office bevorzuge und mich
nur zu definierten Zeiten in den IBM Büros verabrede, zu Meetings oder
auch zusammen Mittag zu essen (oder einen Kaffee zu trinken). Persönlich
bringe ich meine Vieltelefonierei - Telefonkonferenzen sind wohl
Hauptbeschäftigung gerade amerikanischer Unternehmen - noch nicht mit
dem Lärmpegel und Nicht-Stören-Wollen in einem Großraumbüro zusammen. Da
ist mir mein Home Office mit drahtlosen Plantronics Headset und
Telefonieren auf dem Balkon oder an der Kaffeemaschine lieber und ich
organisiere bewußt meine sozialen Treffs im Büro, wohl wissentlich, daß
der spontane Plausch in der Kaffeeecke verloren geht bzw. elektronisch
per Instant Messaging, Telefon oder AdHoc-Webkonferenz geschieht.  

Vermutlich fehlt mir auch ein wenig die Kollaboration und Kreativität
im Großraumbüro. Alle arbeiten doch mehr oder weniger verbissen an
ihrem wenn auch Temporärschreibtisch herum. Wahrscheinlich geht es oft
auch nicht anders, aber manchmal würde ich mir eine alternative,
lockerere Arbeitsumgebung wünschen. Generell sind e-Places und Coworking
Spaces sicher gerade für projektorientierte und kollaborative Arbeit
geeignet, natürlich mit Unterstützung der entsprechenden IT-Werkzeuge,
vor allem aber vor dem Hintergrund einer entsprechend akzeptierten
Arbeitskultur:

Im Angesicht einer hierarchisch
organisierten Unternehmensstruktur bedarf es schon einiges an Mut,
gewisse Auflösungserscheinungen in Kauf zu nehmen, die bei der Öffnung
und dem Empowering der Mitarbeiter zweifellos auftreten. Die Frage ist
also nicht: „Wie kann ich als Firma einen Coworking Space eröffnen?“,
sondern sie lautet eher: „Wie wird meine Firma zu einem Coworking Space?
via t3n.de

 Themen wie Crowd Sourcing werden Coworking
hier eine zusätzlichen Schub erzeugen. Jedoch sollte man bei aller
Flexibilisierung von Arbeitsplatz, Arbeitszeit und Arbeitgeber auch die
soziale Komponente - von gesichterem Einkommen bis familienfreundlicher
Arbeitszeit - nicht aus dem Auge verlieren. Coworking und auch
Crowdsourcing bieten Chancen und Risiken. Ein bewußter, sozial
verantwortungsvoller und intelligenter Umgang damit ist gefragt.

P.S. Und ich glaube das Betahaus in Berlin wäre ein guter
Zwischenstop bei unserer IBM Lotus JamCamp Bustour 2011 zum Thema
Smarter Work. Mal mit den Verantwortlichen reden.

Warum ist das Unternehmen 2.0 nicht aufzuhalten? Vier
Megatrends verstärken sich gegenseitig und reißen die traditionellen
Mauern der Unternehmen (und Verwaltung) nieder. Zu den Trends einige
Beispiele aus meinem Arbeitsalltag bei IBM und wie ich die Megatrends
nutze. Die Idee für diese Präsentation, die ich u.a. in verkürzter Form
auf der Fachmesse DMS Expo in Stuttgart halten werde, ist auf unser Lotus-Anwenderkonferenz, der DNUG, im Juni 2010 entstanden.

Die Mauern werden fallen - Unaufhaltsam auf dem Weg zum Unternehmen 2.0View more presentations from Stefan Pfeiffer.

Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fstefan63.posterous.com%2Fvon-empfehlungssystemen-und-der-facebook-opti

They remind me a little of past experiments with IBM Lotus Sametime 'bots' that could be used as a simple interface for querying data or pushing information to the right person at the right time through instant messaging. However, these new tools that Jevon has identified are designed to be more than simply passive or reactive interfaces - instead they are part of the stream of activity, interpreting or responding to activity in an intelligent way.

Of course, even integration of data to and from the stream can be useful. In the comments, Socialcast point out that Socialcast Ease offers integration with other enterprise and Web 2.0 systems through its API. I'm also reminded of Attensa's Streamserver, although while this isn't traditionally treated as a microblogging tool it offers some similar activity stream capabilities and also offers an API.

Incumbent collaboration vendors will look to drive social technologies into their existing collaboration offerings. You don't have to look far to see the strategy from IBM/Lotus with regard to Connections, Microsoft in bringing social capabilities to SharePoint and Novell's play with Pulse. While each vendor differs in regard to the level that their social capabilities are bundled with other collaboration offerings, all offer a vision of a highly integrated collaboration offering that has the ability to integrate external data and processes. Look for Cisco and Google to jump into the fray as their collaboration offerings mature and take root.