3 Reasons To Go To The NZ SharePoint Conference PLUS The Agenda For Your iPhone/PDA/Outlook

[Updated] There is also a Twitter a/c to follow, @NZSharePoint, AND the Slideshare event (sign-up required, sorry). All with official hashtags of #NZSPC #SharePoint

The two days are a must for anyone currently using SharePoint, thinking of moving to SharePoint or considering SharePoint and, to be honest, if you're moving your Intranet/collaboration environment into something useful and a "doing place" you will be in one of those camps.

• Thursday 2nd / Friday 3rd July
• http://www.sharepointconference.co.nz/
  
• Register ($500/person - 20% for parties of 5+)
• Venue: Duxton Hotel, 170 Wakefield Street, Wellington 6110, New Zealand
  

And now the three reasons!

1: Two days of fantastic local and international speakers for only $NZ500
Really, there are some amazing speakers for you and, like Webstock, I am amazed how New Zealand manages to draw such talent to us - we must be so cool.

2: Your SharePoint peers from around New Zealand will be there

The best conferences happen in the corridors between the sessions. With all those people rubbing shoulders at tables, at the lunch tables and walking between the sessions it is almost impossible not to make a new contact that has the answer to your particular SharePoint angst.

And if you see me and want to talk just walk up and say hi!

3: I intend to stir up the crowd during my Friday 3rd, 1pm-2pm, "Bringing In The Cloud" talk

I can say no more except I intend to bring a little bit of "barcamp" to the proceedings.

Which is causing the organisers angst as I delay sending them the preso ;-)

* Here's the details around your awesome organisers amended from the official conference site:

The New Zealand Community SharePoint Conference is organised by three SharePoint MVPs from the New Zealand SharePoint Community. The trio of hard workers participate and support the community through organising and sharing their knowledge at user group events

Debbie Ireland, Mark Orange and Chandima Kulathilake

Being The First Is A Lonely Position

It takes courage, tenacity, a self belief when others are giving you a hard time but when it works all of a sudden those on the outside become the lonely ones. To those that we regularly drink with that are working in Wellington/NZ-based startups we'd like to say, "The dancers are coming!"

Thanks to Zoli at CloudAve for the video

How To Run A Birthday Party AND A Business

One of the well known analogies used by Dave Snowden to how knowledge management works well within companies/organisations/communities is the "Child's Birthday Party".

He recommends They did not respect or sit still for the devotional sacrifice as the 'definitive' reworking of that analogy (original here in a PDF).

In a nutshell:

... we have a birthday party strategy. The goal is for everyone to have a safe and enjoyable time. We have specific and measurable objectives we want to accomplish. We have identified the key milestones from now until the party. We have a timeline to follow, including a tabletop exercise. We are assuming a three-hour operational phase followed by a two-hour recovery. That evening, we will conduct a hot wash to identify any lessons learned to build into next year’s birthday party planning.

...

Socrates: It did not go well?
Glaucon: Let me count the ways. It rained for most of the day. More children and parents attended than we planned for. Some of the people arrived hours before we were ready. They brought food, gifts, and animals and changed our careful arrangements into utter chaos. Some of the animals went into my study and scattered my projects everywhere. Organizing the children was like trying to get puppies to march. They did not respect or ...

...

... make boundaries, create attractors, stabilize the patterns we desired and disrupt the patterns that threatened danger and harm.

Whilst we would like to think we can control outcomes using projects, task lists, review sessions and many many Word documents we know deep in our souls that they don't give the best result, a result that includes a satisfying outcome for all those involved and not just the 'stakeholders' ("those holding lumps of meat" as a colleague recently called them).

We could be forced into pipelines using officially sanctioned behaviours and language but I suspect we would all rise up and storm the HR/PMO pods within weeks. Or we would simply slag off the company and leave.

Of course the alternative is harder. It involves people (and not tasks, outcomes and budgets - which are factors but not the only ones). People are hard to control - as Jim Morrison would have it, "People are strange when you're a stranger" - if you don't know the people, their quirks, their likes, their dislikes then it's bloody hard. Getting to know people takes time and effort which isn't instantly rewarded and therefore justifiable in a 'time is money' organisation.

It also takes acting/thinking from the emotional side of our beings as well as the intellectual (where the "ToDo" list is held). It's both the centre path and collaboration between these two facets of our selves.

This is hard for a middle-manager who sees themselves as a 'cog in the corporate wheel' to do, the environment/culture "provided" doesn't allow for such 'fluffy thinking'. Of course the concepts don't have to be sold as 'fluffy' and the language used to talk around how this might be a way of working is key to being able to progress such an approach.

Also - it's hard, but then again most leadership is.
But so worth it for your 'self' and for those that are affected by your behaviours. I ask you to think passed the project deadlines (false as they generally are), think more on what people really want, how you can "influence" it (make boundaries, create attractors, stabilize the patterns we desired and disrupt the patterns that threatened danger and harm) and letting them get to it. As we've recently heard from Creating Passionate Users:

... support people in doing what they're trying to do, and stay the hell out of their way

Bailing Out Your Business with Open Source

A great slide deck I've just stumbled over looking for something completely unrelated which answers all (well, OK, some) of the questions non-Open Source fanboys typically ask.

(as an aside, Slideshare made this sooo easy to post - one click, an authorisation as it was my first time and type this in without once having to go over to Blogger, very me/user-centric)

Bailing Out Your Business with Open Source

View more Keynote presentations from mjasay.

Plain English - Write A Letter Of Support + Nominate For The Awards

Speaking and writing "plain English" is such a fundamental to open information that the idea of having to promote it seems plain weird! But heh, not all policy analysts, business analysts or internal communication advisers agree with me and the desire o use 20 business wanky words when 1 or 2 plain English words will do seems insatiable.

Not that I am advocating the dumbing down on English, if there is a word that fits, use it and then people can use Google ("other search engines are available") to find out what it means - always good to be educated.

But, we obviously do need to advocate for plain English as tweet examples/outbursts from my immediate circle constantly highlight :-) And advocating has never been so easy - write a letter/email and nominate best use of English - voila, done, sorted, in the bag :-)

1: Write A Letter In Support of Plain English Power

This from Rachel of Plain English Power:

Update on our lobbying efforts

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On 18 June four of us will sit down with the Minister of State Services, Tony Ryall, and put our case for plain language in government communications. We're delighted

he has agreed to meet with us. We will ask him to champion the Plain Language Act 2009 within Cabinet and steer it through the legislation process.

This is Step One of Plan A. We'll keep you posted with progress.

How you can help us right now

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At this stage we would appreciate letters of support, especially from organisations—but also from you personally, as an individual.

Many thanks to those who have already written to us!

Whatever you have to say is extremely valuable. You see, our credibility depends entirely on support from organisations and individuals. Collectively we are strong.

So please do take the time to send in a few words, either by email or on paper. If you speak for an organisation, please use your organisation's letterhead. Members of

Parliament need to know what you're thinking about the benefits of plain English.

Your letters will make a difference. We will pass them on to the Minister on 18 June.

Please send a letter of support to:

The Chairperson

Plain English Power

PO Box 19184

Wellington 6149

or

contact@plainenglish.org.nz

Warmest thanks for your support so far.

Rachel McAlpine

Chairperson, Plain English Power

2: 2009 WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards

Pop over to http://www.plainenglish-conference-awards.org.nz and nominate your entries and be in to win an award presented on 18th September 2009 at the Museum Building, Wellington:

Category 1: Plain English Champion

• Best Organisation
• Best Project
• Best Individual or Team

Category 2: Best Plain English Document

• Public Sector / Non-Government Organisation (NGO)
• Private Sector

Category 3: Best Plain English Website

• Public Sector / Non-Government Organisation (NGO)
• Private Sector

Category 4: Best Sentence Transformation (the easiest one to enter!)

Category 5: People’s Choice

• Best Plain English Document
• Best Plain English Website
• ‘Brainstrain’ Document
• ‘Brainstrain’ Website