Some fresh thinking

It's Saturday and I've been working most of the day. So, I need some fresh insight. I am looking for a word (or words) that would be similar to portal or entry point (yes I've looked at Wikipedia and a bunch of dictionaries, etc. on the web). If you want to build a top layer to something, an overlay to organize a bunch of things beneath. This top layer would organize a bunch of disaggregated things beneath it to create an organized social network. Any ideas?

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Film crew in action

Sometimes we go to great lengths to bring our stories to life on the On Demand Business site. I recently sent a crew go to the Isle of Wight in the UK to film and interview Andy Stanford-Clark, Master Inventor, IBM UK. Andy has captured the day complete with photos from his perspective in his eight bar blog. An interesting behind the scenes look at what we do.

Why were we at Andy's? Andy invents interesting things that while they often have home use such as a mousetrap that advises you when it had caught something or a widget to keep tabs on his 14 llamas, these inventions are often the beginnings of exciting business applications. If you have followed some of our editorial in the last year or so, we are taking a close look at business transformation, innovation, how to grow your business etc. One lesson I think I find from the interviews and everything I've been doing the last year is that I think we have to find time away from the constand demands for our minds and our time in order for the innovation to occur. Given the demands on our life and time, there isn't enough time to "think"; to let our minds wander. In the current pace of business too many of us are rushing to put checkmarks against the "to do" lists rather than stopping to think if we need to change the list entirely.

I've been away from my blog for a bit of time for a few reasons. I had some personal loss with the deaths of my mother and brother just a couple months apart. Also, I was at a bit of a loss where to go with this blog. I was a bit bored with "blogging about blogging". I'm not sure where this will go but I'm thinking that this blog may morph into a conversation more about how to cut through the clutter of our business lives to get to the next level, how to work on the cutting edge or be on the beginning edge of business trends.

No promises yet... In the meantine, check out what Andy has to say. Something about living in a 400 year old farmhouse on the Isle of Wight while tinkering and inventing sounds like a pretty interesting mix.

Thanks for checking in with me.

New Blogging Book soon to be published

Debbie Weil is finalizing a new blogging book titled "The Corporate Blogging Book". Looks like a great new resource and I look forward to getting a copy. Also a thanks to Debbie for the Hat Tip by including my blog in her Corporate Blogging Resources list.

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Microsoft trying to be as cool as IBM?

I got a good chuckle from this post. The question was raised in the Complex Solutions to Simple Problems blog whether the Microsoft blogger list was "an attempt to say 'look we're as cool as IBM" Check it out...

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Response to BtoB article

In a recent article in BtoB magazine titled "Podcasting call lures advertisers", the author Carol Kroll writes how ... podcast has recently been replacing RSS feeds as "the hottest thing in the fast-moving digital media realm"... The article, quotes my IBM colleague Ben Edwards and mentions some of IBM's recent podcasts. The article goes on to say...

"At a luncheon put on by the Advertising Club of New York and USA Today last month called 'The Wave of Innovation' at which marketer panelists from America Online, IBM, Sharp Electronics Corp. and Xerox Corp. discussed marketing innovations and new media, not one mentioned podcasting."

Well since I was the IBMer on the panel, I of course found this statement very interesting. I really don't recall whether or not the word "podcast" was mentioned. If not, a strange oversight indeed since I have been producing podcasts for several months and do routinely create podcasts for delivering content on the On Demand Business site. Perhaps it was just in the way the questions were asked of the panel that podcasts didn't come up or perhaps at least for me, podcasts have just been another way to deliver content to my customers, I didn't give it quite the same headline as BtoB did. I do think that BtoB is mostly correct. Podcasts are a very important and interesting new way of delivering content. However, I still think that an interactive conversation and the ability for dialogue and collaboration as blogging and other social networks are providing will have a much bigger, long term and revolutionary change in how we do business. Check out our latest article on "What does an innovative company look like" where we talk with Irving Wladawsky-Burger and John Patrick about innovation and the roles of blogging, podcasts etc. in innovation.

In the interest of complete disclosure, Carol tried to interview me for the BtoB article. I'm not sure what happened but somewhere between Carol's deadline, my travel and the IBM team who organizes press interviews, the interview didn't take place.

Speaking at Usability Professionals Association

I'm off to speak again tonight. This time a the Usability Professionals Association Blog Seminar. I'm going to be sharing the platform with the wonderful BL Ochman who writes the whatsnextblog. I hope they don't mind that I'm going to change the topic a bit. It's that time of year. Time to think. I know we don't get enough time to do that and around this time of year is time to plan for the following year - so I finally have to force myself away from the day to day and think. Yes I've also been away from the blog. Sorry. At any rate, I'll write more about it later if the session goes well tonight but I've been thinking a lot lately that blogging is only a piece of what is going on. I know I've always said I think of blogging as including other things like RSS, podcasting, etc. but I now think all those things are part of a greater thing called Social Networking. So, tonight I will try out a very new thought that isn't fully baked (yikes that scares me a bit) but one that I think is bigger and more important than one of it's elements - blogging...

Hope to see you there.

Thanks for checking in with me.

Ad Club of New York and USA Today luncheon

A nice hello to all the people I met today at the Ad Club of New York and USA Today The Wave of Innovation luncheon. I've participated in several blogging seminars recently but I have to give a real shout out to the organizers of this meeting. Rather than focus just on the newly popular theme of blogging, the panel was questioned on a variety of new-age marketing tools like mobile marketing, search engines, old and new media, the challenges of building brands in a marketplace full of disparate channels.

The originally scheduled IBM panel member Deirdre Bigley wasn't able to attend and she asked me to step in for her. Thank you Deirdre - I had a great time. Other panel members included Lisa Judson from America Online, Bob Scaglione Sharp Electronics and Nancy Wiese with Xerox. At one point I found myself so engrossed in listening to my colleagues I nearly forgot the question we were supposed to be answering. Kevin Maney served as moderator and I learned that he will soon be starting his own blog for USA Today. So Kevin - we anxiously await your arrival. I wonder if Kevin would agree to an interview for the On Demand Business site - what do you say Kevin? Rick Bonti - really enjoyed our lunch time chat. I'll have to take your advise about Friday nights ;-)

Thanks for checking in with me.

IBMers resignation shows loyalty to employer and his principles

As a follow-up on this story that has captured quite a bit of attention - particularly outside the US, I wanted to share a really great post from Instapundit. After taking IBM a bit to task for allowing the employee to quit of his own accord, they've come back to say they think they were a bit harsh on IBM and provided a different view. They have posted an e-mail they received from an unidentified IBMer. I've quoted a couple of the paragraphs below...

"In fact Gaurav decided to resign because out of appreciation and a sense of loyalty to IBM. He wrote, "The second thing dear to me is IBM's well-being. IBM has been a good employer to me. I have no complaints about them. Even in light of these events, they did not pressurise me to go against my principles and hush the matter up. Yet, IBM was being dragged into this unnecessarily. It was being made a target of bizarre pressure tactics. If even one Thinkpad laptop was actually burnt, it would cause a lot of bad press and nuisance for IBM. So I did not want IBM's well-being to be compromised in any way."

"To me that is the big story, that any corporation can still inspire such loyalty in it's employees that they'd rather leave the company than see it get hurt is, these days, nothing short of wondrous. That there are still people like Gaurav Sabnis who stick to their principles, even when it means making the tough decisions, is marvelous. I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet the man, or work with him, as he's exactly the kind of person we need to keep."

I agree with this writer. According to Gaurav, he was asked by IBM not to leave and to rethink his decision to leave IBM. I am an IBMer and I do see that IBM seeks out people with the values demonstrated by Guarav and does try and keep people with those values at IBM.

I come back to the fact that this is "fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out". I am a self titled "blogvangelist" at IBM but this also makes me realize that not everyone everywhere is playing by the same rules and even more, it is sometimes hard to know the rules. My concern is that if it has thrown up a cautionary flag for me does it do so for others and does it make some people feel that it just isn't worth the risk to be playing in this "game". If so, it will stifle our open communications. That is a risk worth pondering.

Thanks for checking in with me.

Global twist in Corporate Blogging

Todd Watson who writes a blog for us on the On Demand Business site just clued me into to this one. This puts a whole new twist on a number of issues: Free Speech; Blogging and your job; strong arm tactics; protecting a respected employer from a PR scandal, etc. I'm not sure what to make of it other than to say it looks like he really fell on his sword. You have to read it for yourself at Vantagepoint. Gaurav (edited to correct spelling from Guarav to Gaurav - thank you Gaurav for pointing out the error) - you made a remarkable decision.

I guess it is just a reminder when we are looking at global blogging not everyone around the world is playing by the same "rules". We really need to be considerate when encouraging our people around the world to blog. The cost to them could be higher than we expect.

Thanks for checking in with me.