@maupuia sums up @brucesterling's 'controversial' #webstock09 how I heard/understood it:

http://io9.com/5157008/why-does-bruce-sterling-hate-web-20#c10987795

(excuse the title, it's how we early adopters tweet ;-)

I'm Not All Here

It struck me that a lot of you will be reading this via the RSS feed and therefore won't be getting the most out of the blog. Don't get me wrong the real guts of me, the real value, the real stuff is mostly* held in the blog posts but there is a stream of valuable and very pertinent information that you RSS readers may not be getting, namely ...

Shared Google Reader articles (link | feed)
It's rare that I actually post an article about an article unless it is so good that I am blown away (eg "saving time on your intranet is a bad metric" - YES!!! ) or that it encapsulates exactly what I was thinking (eg, It's Not A Blog If You Don't Have Comments)

So how do I share the great reads that pop up in my reader (about 3-4/day) - by popping on a special "enterprise20_share" tag and letting you all see them:

• Right-hand menu of the blog
• Whole special page just for my shared reads
• Subscribe to the articles as I share them
  

@miramarmike tweets (from Twitter :-)
The best "up-to-date" information I receive is via Twitter, from the Official Google Twitter accounts to many fellow "cloud computing" and "collaboration" experts around the world - here's who I follow, help yourself.

Twitter is, of course, the ultimate in backchat at conferences and I used it almost exclusively to make notes to myself at last weeks Webstock :-)


FriendFeed (miramarmike)
But there's much more out there and I scratch that surface at FriendFeed by seeing what a few (and it has to be a few, overload may not be new but it is a pain) are commenting upon. It's also a place to get the full me - all my feeds, all my photos, all trips, all my talks ... too much, possibly but you can filter what you don't want to see.


-------


But remember, YOU decide how much and from where you get your daily dose of MiramarMike.co.nz - don't let it overwhelm you :-)

Was this helpful? Leave me a comment ...

Are You Being Google-Clever About Information Relevancy?

Google is known for it's search engine, a search engine that no-one had to sign up for before using - it just worked. However, it doesn't work quite well enough - if it did it would return just one result, the one you were looking for. To do that Google needs to know more about you as this famous quote from the Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, highlights:

We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.

You see, relevancy - the more relevant they can make the search (& therefore adverts) the more you and I will see them as "useful information" and therefore click on them upping the ante for other search providers AND ultimately keeping the $$$s rolling into the Googleplex bank account. Yep, they're in this for the money folks!

Relevancy ... it's the key to all information providers be it a worldwide search engine or your team wiki. Make the information relevant to the user and you're sorted. However, relevancy is an eel of a concept though as it slips through time, events, moods and even surroundings. Looking for a person to contact about getting a piece of software installed at work will bump into these "relevancy factors":

• what software
• why do you want it
  
• what rights do you have
• where are you, geographically
• where are you, in the chain of command
• who is available
• when do you want it installed
• ...
  

If you can find me a staff directory that can lead me straight to the ONE person that can help me straight away then I'll be amazed. Probably you'll go to a human to sort out the relevancy via a "Help Desk" who will assign attributes of relevancy (priority, SLA response time etc) before dumping these same attributes by dropping your request into a dark pool with everyone else. Two weeks later, someone will call that can do the work but by then it's no longer relevant as you've moved on and no longer need the software.

So, if it's tough with a limited set of attributes can you imagine trying to garner relevancy for those searching "the worlds information". With internal systems though we can gain a lot of relevancy from what's out there about the person - we (probably) know who they are because they're logged and from that we can find out where they are in the chain of command and a whole stack of "company given attributes", things that you get when you turn up for day one of the job.

Google started with a similar approach - they know where you are in the world (roughly) via your IP, they may know what you've queried before if you're using the same computer and they can assume a whole lot more - all from an "anonymous" user (more ...). But this is no way enough for them to serve up the ONE result , they need to get information from us.

How did Google go about collecting this information? Did they ask us all to fill in questionnaire, complete a survey, be a part of a census ... hmm, whilst this is an approach most organisations take (hands up who's recently filled in a "Staff Engagement Survey"?) this isn't gonna work for the fluid and real world Google operates within. And, to be fair, it doesn't really work for organisations either as they never seem to acknowledge the "time" (when it was filled in) is as relevant as any other attribute.

Nope, Google does what Google does best. They give us a whole stack of useful tools and from that they (openly) collate the relevancy. For instance, they gave us GMail which was our first means of telling Google who we were because we had to login in. Who is gonna complain about having to login to get their email, no-one! The number of useful tools have exploded since that moment:

• Google Reader - what are you reading
• Google Docs - what are you writing
• Google News - what events are you interested in
• Google Search Wiki - what you think is more relevant
• Google Maps (smart phones) - where are you
  
• Google Sites - who are you collaborating with
• Google Chat - who are you talking with
• Google Latitude - where are you (again)
  
• Google Profiles - WHO are you

If at this point you are a) shocked; b) horrified then I think you need to stop, take a look around you and realise that the new world order is here and how much control you have over this is first gained by educating yourself about it.

So, in Google's quest to supply the ONE result they have given us a whole stack of amazingly useful tools into which we supply (knowingly) a lot about ourselves. And if you don't supply it someone else will, for instance as your mate explains what a 40-something white male in Wellington is interested in Google can start to infer from the little they know about you that you might be interested in the same.

So what about the Google Profile (mine) - is this about social networking, is this about going head-to-head with Facebook, is this about having the coolest toys? No - because we are all fundamentally lazy we have no interest in giving out the same information loads and loads of times, "Hey, Google I've already said who my friends were over in Facebook, and no way am I'm gonna do it all again!" And so Google has competition with garnering that information that it needs to get to the ONE result. And Facebook is NOT gonna share that information with Google.

Internally you have the same issue, "Yes, yes, yes I can see I can type in my interests, my current projects and the school I went to but ...". The "but ..." is your competition - it might even be Facebook, it might be that they told everyone at a staff Christmas party, they might ... they might, they might - whatever it is doesn't matter. It is your competition to gaining more about your staff.

Once you know the competition you next challenge is defeating it.
Do you have the technical and business competence to do be Google-clever and forgo the obvious and flawed response of one-off "asking the people to supply". Are you up for being Google-clever and giving your staff useful tools that also collect metrics? I know of no "enterprise" system that comes close to doing this - do you?

But remember the why you're doing this - to make your information more relevant. Give them the ONE piece of information that they need. Give them the ONE person that can install that piece of software right now.

Who uses the staff profile like that? Who is being Google-clever within organisations? - leave a comment ...



See also:

• 3 pillars of collaboration
• Knowing good info from bad - how do we?
  

Sticky Intranet - How NOT To Create One

I was talking with a fellow "intranet person" quite some months ago and she was describing how she was endeavouring to make her Intranet a "sticky place". By that she meant that it was somewhere where her companies staff would want to go and stay. Her ideas included topical polls, use of cartoons (no doubt copyright laden Dilbert) and social connectors such as a "buy/sell bulletin board".

I told her that I thought that the idea was fundamentally flawed (I think the word I actually used was "crap").

I explained that she was viewing her Intranet through the classic metrics of 'page hits', 'bounce rates' and 'time on page' which works well if your site (be it Intranet or Internet) is one of dispensing information that must (MUST) be read, internally digested and acted upon. Within most companies there is very little that can truly be said to be of such importance ... no, really, ask your staff what they really think of the latest update to the Workplace Safety Policy!

Oh, and if you're using your Intranet as an electronic workplace manual (policy, procedures, steps ...) then may I suggest you create a separate and targetted web-based application for such activites. One that stops being an "online book" and one that allows people to ask questions and get answers!

Most information on company Intranets are of fleeting interest to the majority of staff - fleeting in time and mostly fleeting in relavancy. Adding fluff to the content in a vain attempt to garnering interest is not an approach I would advocate  - if there's currently no interest from the staff TURN IT OFF! Hell, you'll save in electricity costs if nothing else.

However, there is a deeper issue with this approach. If the Intranet is viewed as a website to be consumed such as the BBC, Wikipedia, LOLCatz or any other "information based" site then it will only live up to a part of it's potential. An Intranet (or any other computer system within an organisation) has to be useful. It has to answer staff questions, supplying them with information, give them the tools for them to do their day-to-day jobs and actually be a place within which the business of the business occurs. Reading is only a part of being "useful".

We need Intranets that are:

• Useful
• Places to work in 
• Replacements for/links together the disparate "collaboration" spaces we currently have

We also need a new name for "Intranet" :-)

Do we have the technical tools to provide this? Yes, we've got Google Apps, Microsoft Sharepoint, HyperOffice, Alfresco and Atlassian as well as a whole host of bolt-your-own approaches from the open source communities such as Mediawiki, 

And this is by no means a finite list - check out:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software
  
• http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=collaboration+software
  
• http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Intranet/
  

But the technology is NOT the issue, we are.
If we, Intranet-type people, define ourselves as those that deliver "read-only" systems and not "somewhere useful to do the day-to-day work" we will never deliver to our fellow staff the same benefits that the consumer web is daily handing out to everyone else worldwide.

So, was I being too harsh on my colleague ... what would you have said to her?

* Picture is a vain attempt to denote "useful", *ahem*. From maupuia on Flickr

Webstock 2009 - A Look Back In Anger

So, there we have it, Webstock 2009 is over and yet another success from the team - well done!

What did I think of it all, well there's really only two questions that people seem to want to know the answer:

1. Wow, what did you think of Ze Frank?
2. Crickey, what did you think of Bruce Sterling?

Ze Frank made me cry and I'm still not sure why.

He made a difference deep within that is still being worked upon.

Bruce Sterling made me laugh and think.

His talk was provocative but nothing that surprising as it's what he does. I was more surprised by the tweets flying around that were obviously challenged by his views and approach ... but that also made me laugh.

For actual write ups of the full conference you can do no better than any one of these:

• Kalena 'webstock' posts
• Ben's CloudAve 'webstock09' posts
• Ben's Idealog posts
• matt.geek.nz
• webstock '09: day 1
  
• webstock '09: day 2: when sterling attacks
• Robyn's I went to Webstock and I all got was a brown t-shirt
• ClickSuite 'webstock09' posts
• ... [ADD YOURS/MORE IN THE COMMENTS]

And how about catching up on the Twitter backchat that happened at Webstock09 ...

And in pictures we have the almost perfect Flickr 'webstock'

Oh, and I was fortunate enough to attend two top notch workshops earlier in the week.

Damian Conway's full day "Presentation Aikedo" was, as you can imagine, an insight. There was a lot of pulling back the curtain and seeing the wizard pulling the levers - brilliant. And allowing us 5 minutes to "give it a go" garnered a lot of quality feedback for myself and for all of us (Mike's opening of Webstock proper was a lot tighter!)

The other workshop I attended is slowly becoming my top takeaway from the whole week.

Michael Lopp of the "Mothership" took us though meetings and organising yourself at work. God it sounds tedious but he was full of creative, imaginative and insightful thoughts. Also, practical things to do. Basically, his workshop has made my life easier and for that, thank you!

In Martha style, here's my Webstock in bullet points:

• New bag
• Awesome notebook
• Confusing card game + Ray Gun Syndicate (tm) = fun (thanks Jayne)
• Oooooh, the massage chairs from *experience
• Free coffee / free ice cream / free food is only fluff on top of the speakers
• No need for a laptop as iPhone did the job
• It was a bubble protected from real life
• Symantic data rocked the geek within me - SPARQL
• The standard for conferences set by Webstock is nothing short of astounding
• Loved talking with Ben
• Ze made me cry
• Ze made me dance crap with enthusiasm so he could win a bet, *sheesh*
• It smelled of b.o. at the after-after-party at Vintage, it stopped me drinking more which was good
• Heather from Flickr was awesome and I think I fell in love
• Free WiFi rocked
  
• Free gloves and scarves for the first morning would've helped :-)
• Every single presenter gave me something
• It wasn't quite as OMG! for me as last year
• Unfortunate timing with Section92a rally but it still made a difference
• Yes, I will go next time (year?) but I'll be weighing it up much miore critically
• Tash's close was perfect

I leave you with my favourite (almost throw away) line from the conference as uttered by Ze Frank as he left the stage:

Remember, the little things are why we do the big things

This Website Is [No Longer] Blacked Out

[Updated: 23-Feb-2009]
As you've all probably read/seen the NZ Government has delayed the implementation of Section 92a. I'd like to congratulate Bronwyn and Matthew as well as all their CreativeFreedom.org supporters for an amazing effort.

Read more at many news websites, here's the low down from Radio New Zealand:

The Government has announced it will delay the introduction of a controversial new copyright law due to come into effect this week.

Last week the Government was presented with a petition signed online by more than 10,000 people against Section 92A of the Copyright Act.

It requires Internet Service Providers to disconnect users accused of illegally downloading copyrighted material, and opponents say people will be disconnected without evidence or court scrutiny.

Prime Minister John Key says the implementation of Section 92A will now be delayed until 27 March to give the industry time to agree on a voluntary code of practice.

Mr Key says if there has not been agreement by then, the provision will be suspended.

If it is, a review in six months will determine whether the new law's working.

Mr Key says the internet is not the "wild west" and copyright holders are entitled to recognition or compensation for their work.

Copyright © 2009 Radio New Zealand

Internet BlackOut - Join The Protest Against NZ Section92a

Wow, Stephen Fry, Leo Laporte, VodafoneNZ and many MANY more are changing their online icons to a black square in protest of the New Zealand Government bringing in Section 92a (my previous posts). The protest is being lead by two totally separate groups: CreativeFreedom.org and ... wait for it, Peter Dunne MP.

Here's the opening stanza from CreativeFreedom - http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html:

----------

Join The New Zealand Internet Blackout to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law 'Section 92A' that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.

Join thousands of New Zealanders already against this law by blacking out your Facebook photo, your websites, your Myspace pages, your Twitter account, in protest against this unjust new law that may come into effect on February 28.

Just use this image (Right-click, Save-As) with the text:

(your name) is blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

Instructions for

• Blacking out FaceBook
• Blacking out MySpace
• Blacking out Website / Blog
• Blacking out Twitter
• Blacking out Bebo

Going To Webstock, Let's Meet (If Not, Why Ever Not - Get A Ticket NOW!)

If you intend going to this years most awesome Webstock - really, have you seen the most awesome speakers, seen how to write a business case for it and generally got your a-into-g and sort out a ticket!

... anyway, if you're going to Webstock (Wellington Town Hall, NZ) this year then please PLEASE don't hesitate to come up to me and say kia ora/hello as it's always a pleasure to meet those of you that take time to read this blog (thank you).

For those stalkers*** out there I'm gonna be at:

• Damian Conway's, Presentation Akido workshop all day Monday 16th
  (booked in for my 5 minutes of "constructive feedback" already, golly)
  
• Michael Lopp's, Managing Humans and Projects workshop on the morning of Wednesday 18th
• Conference proper, Thursday 19th & Friday 20th
  Not sure what actual sessions yet**
  
• Post conference 'cup of tea and a slice of cake' at The Embassy Theatre
  

There is also the Official Unofficial Webstock Before Party at the Southern Cross on the Wednesday (5:30pm+) which I'm unlikely to get to but you just never know as Webstock is only once a year! And if this conference brings you to Wellington for the fitst time then check out the Welingtonista's extra specially special Beginners Guide To Wellington.

Anywho - say hi in person or via Twitter @MiramarMike

And now you know where I'll be - where will you be?
... maybe we can do a deal ...

* Picture of me at theNewDowse in Lower Hutt for a Craft2.0 event - next one on April 11th
** Have asked the busy busy Webstock team for an update to their Official Webstock Google Calendar but ... we still wait
*** Stalkers, check out Google Latitude for all those stalking requirements

"I remember the old days, before all this damned collaboration" - A Timely Reminder

(further in the ongoing series of, "Don't forget all this shiny technology isn't actually doing anything new" )

Collaboration seems to be such a buzz word at the moment that you'd think it was invented 2 years ago ... um, no! The foll lowing two great phrases from the recent past highlight such a belief:

I remember the old working days, before all this damned collaboration :-)

Said in jest but displays an underlying seriousness.

More worrying was this from a self-confessed technophobe at a client site:

Don't get all techie on me in this preso by using words like 'blog' and 'collaboration'!

Crickey!

But remember everyone, collaboration has been around since the first human needed to kill an animal larger than themselves. Also, collaboration can be good or bad and is not a goal in itself - WHY are you collaborating, what is the desired outcome*?

Collaboration needs nothing more than good information, clear communication and active connections.

Collaboration does NOT need a computer ... however a computer can, if appropriate and designed well, assist with all facets of collaboration but it cannot "do" collaboration.

And so, much like the whiteboard comment from before, do not assume that Sharepoint, your favourite wiki, Google Apps, Alfresco or another collection of bits and bytes will solve your collaboration woes. 

The technology is the easier part, it's all about people and desired outcomes!

* Business outcomes come in only 3 types:

1. Increased revenue (how much and by whom?)
2. Decreased cost (who will cut their budget for next year because they don't need as much?)
3. Increased service (measured by what and owned by which business unit?)