Looking back at the E20SUMMIT, part 1: People

Enterprise 2.0 SUMMITOK then, it’s about time to look back on last week’s E20SUMMIT – and as community manager of the event it’s natural to start with the people that made this event special. This includes the team behind it all, ie. people that have worked to make this real (and who have already announced the date for the E20SUMMIT 2010, so save the date Oct. 26-28, 2010).

But even more importantly, this means the community that gathered in Frankfurt. I think we’ve had both lots of fun and an insightful conference. It was great to have you on board, thanks for your attention and interest and see you next year!

From my personal perspective I can say that I really enjoyed this get-together of the Enterprise 2.0 community in Europe. Add to this some global scale thought leadership (Dion, Gil, Oliver, Kjetil, Lee and Simon – that’s you) and it was poised to be a great conference. The field of Enterprise 2.0 as a whole is still evolving and this was the first time I’ve met Gil Yehuda and Oliver Marks in real time, though I’ve been following their writings since long and we’ve connected virtually before.

This is true for a lot of the people present in Frankfurt too – even for the community manager there’s a lot of first-time meetings (sometimes based upon a history of long-time blog reading and/or Twitter connectivity) and new-found blogs and friends. This includes folks like Rickard and Gustav from Sweden (see their blog), Torill from Norway, Mario (blog) and Massimo from Italy and Sean from London (who happened to be both in Varese and in Milano for Emanuele’s Enterprise 2.0 conference – yes, just like me and now we’ve met in Frankfurt for the first time, crazy, huh?).

PS. Let’s not forget the people who followed the conference from remote, eg. on Twitter or on the live-stream. It’s been quite a crowded back-channel at times, thanks to people like Susan Scrupski, Ana Silva oder Robert Lavigne from Toronto 😉

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Mid-stage evaluation of live Waving at E20SUMMIT

wavelogoI think our little experiment turned up some pretty good conversations and real-time collaboration success stories. Not all of the prepared waves got filled extensively, but that’s ok. Not all of the attendees are bringing their laptops to a conference, and among those that have, not all are on Wave. So I am pretty satisfied and think that this is an excellent add-on and complements the “behind the scenes” doumentation in the wiki, the live-blogging and -tweeting around the E20SUMMIT (and of course the provisioning of the presentation slides).

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Enterprise 2.0 SUMMIT – Day 2

Enterprise 2.0 SUMMITToday’s the second day of the E20SUMMIT conference, after yesterday’s full information blast (I counted over 500 tweets alone during the afternoon), it’s going to be a “social” day today, not least because there are three open space slots reserved for the afternoon.

These Open Spaces combine and bring together the people of track 1 and 2, ie. those that focussed on the strategic implications of Enterprise 2.0 and those that were looking for hints, lifehacks and experiences in the “Best Practices” track.

But before we’re venturing into the discussion space there are three more talks and panels on the slate, I am sticking to track 1 again, just like yesterday:

08:30 – 09:25 Discussion: Organizational Schemes for the Enterprise 2.0

The assumptions are sweeping – the next generation of co-workers that grew up with social tools will want a “social environment of work that reflect(s) the social context of the Web” (Gary Hamel). Social and enterprise experts will discuss the controversial question of how future work places will be organized.

Discussion: Dr. Peter Schütt, Leader Knowledge Management & Social Networking Solutions, IBM Deutschland, Mark Masterson, Enterprise architect, troublemaker, CSC Computer Sciences Limited

09:25 – 10:10 Discussion: Collaborative Infrastructures & Unified Communication

There is a strong connection in the underlying themes between cloud computing, unified communication and collaborative infrastructures. How this fits together will be addressed by this panel discussion of industry experts.

Discussion: Kai Gutzeit, Head of Google Enterprise DACH, Google Germany GmbH, Martin Buhr, European Business Director, Amazon Web Services, Simon Wardley, Software Services Manager / Cloud Computing Strategist, Canonical Ltd. Moderator: Wolf Ingomar Faecks, Managing Director Germany, Sapient GmbH

10:40 – 11:35 Enterprise 2.0 is more than Wikis & Blogs: BPM 2.0, BI 2.0 & CRM 2.0

Moderator: Mark Masterson, Enterprise architect, troublemaker, CSC Computer Sciences Limited

Then, the first open space is set to start, with the goal of collectiong issues and recommendations of the participants re: Enterprise 2.0. It’s called a “Market of Ideas” on how to proceed with the initiation, implementation and adoption of Enterprise 2.0 projects. Let’s see how that works out, we’ll have time to reflect this first round at Lunch I guess.

In the afternoon, there will be two more open spaces:

13:00 – 14:30 Open-Space: Enabling Enterprise 2.0 – Roundtable discussions (ie. we will work in small groups)
and
15:00 – 16:00 Open-Space: Enabling Enterprise 2.0 – Presentation of Results (ie. we all will need to track down a designated presenter)

Shouldn’t be too hard, I assume that we’ll develop some cool ideas this afternoon, definitely looking forward to the discussion open space ..

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Enterprise 2.0 SUMMIT – Day 1

Enterprise 2.0 SUMMITToday’s day one of the E20SUMMIT conference – after yesterday’s small circle masterclass with Dion Hinchcliffe. This means that most people will show up for the first time today, meaning that I must hurry up to get down to the reception area to meet ‘n greet some friends.

Anyway I wanted to give you a brief rundown of my plans for today, listing up the talks and panels on the slate. First up and plain mandatory, it’s the keynote by Oliver Marks with two well known Enterprise 2.0 protagonists on panel – Bertrand Duperrin and Joachim Niemeier will discuss the internal value propositions for the uptaking of Enterprise 2.0:

The keynote panel discusses what needs to be included in an internal roadmap, as the core project specification and execution plan. It will address different case histories of successful strategic roll-outs, as well as giving insights from an international project at Sony PlayStation from a variety of specific European viewpoints.

With the following parallel panels it’s a hard choice for me – but while I am definitely interested in best practices I decided to hit track 1 today, ie. the one focussing on Enterprise 2.0 strategies. Sadly this means I’ll have to skip some panels and sessions moderated or held by friends – on the other hand they can give me an account on what they’ve said anyway and I can do them a favour by reporting my collected observations from track 1.

So what’s up for me in track 1:

11:00 – 11:55 Measuring Collaborative Performance: Due Diligence for Enterprise 2.0

Many Enterprise 2.0 projects are faced with the question of how to measure the success of the initiative. The panel discusses the concept of collaborative performance and its operationalization as a way to determine and quantify the achievements of E2.0 projects.

Speaker: Kjetil Kristensen, Principal Consultant, Kristensen Consulting

11:55 – 12:40 How-to Leverage the Power of Feedback and the Law of Participation

Participation as a means of gathering feedback from all parts of the organisation is a key element of Enterprise 2.0 projects. This panel focuses on how to best achieve this. Experts and practitioners discuss project structuring and feedback mechanisms, plus the pitfalls to avoid.

Speaker: Julien Le Nestour, IT Innovation Manager, Schlumberger, Moderator: Lee Bryant, Founder and Director, Headshift Ltd.

14:00 – 14:55 New Forms of Leadership in Decentralized Organisation

Enterprise 2.0 initiatives share knowledge more widely around the enterprise, so leadership through superior knowledge is less relevant. This panel discusses new forms of leadership for knowledge-based organizations.

Speaker: Lee Bryant, Founder and Director, Headshift Ltd., Moderator: Bertrand Duperrin, Senior Consultant, blueKiwi Software

14:55 – 15:40 Discussion: E2.0 Implementation Strategies

From purely bottom-up, towards a top-down deployment, and gradually an integration of both – different E2.0 practices show a wide variety of implementation strategies. Each strategy needs a variety of evaluation methods. This panel compares differents approaches to measuring results.

Discussion: Dr. Frank Schönefeld, Chief Operations Officer, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Bertrand Duperrin, Senior Consultant, blueKiwi Software, Moderator: Simon Wardley, Software Services Manager / Cloud Computing Strategist, Canonical Ltd.

16:00 – 16:55 Collaboration Challenge: Preparing Your Workforce

For the majority of people in the enterprise, the words “Enterprise 2.0” means nothing. Telling the staff about tools and technologies will just get them thinking that it’s some IT initiative they can ignore. This panel discusses ways to explain the value of contributing content, commenting on other people’s work, leveraging the ‘friend of a friend’ network, developing internal weak-tie-communities of colleagues.

Speaker: Gil Yehuda, Independent Analyst, GilYehuda.com, Moderator: Simon Wardley, Software Services Manager / Cloud Computing Strategist, Canonical Ltd.

16:55 – 17:40 Discussion: Enterprise 2.0 in European Corporations: A Multi-Cultural Challenge

In contradiction to the U.S., pan-European companies are facing specific issues in regards to the different cultural backgrounds of their workforce. This panel discusses best practices and strategies to overcome these multi-cultural challenges for enterprise-wide adoption.

Discussion: Mark Masterson, Enterprise architect, troublemaker, CSC Computer Sciences Limited, Dr. Frank Schönefeld, Chief Operations Officer, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Bertrand Duperrin, Senior Consultant, blueKiwi Software, Emanuele Quintarelli, Partner and Enterprise 2.0 Strategist, Open Knowledge, Moderator: Craig Hepburn, Director of Social Media Strategy, EMEA, Open Text

I will continuously update this post with links to my blog posts covering these talks (update: can’t do it, blasted away with tweeting and waving, plus the occasional talking), that said I am not sure if I can manage to cover all of them extensively – given that quite some channels are competing for my attention and typing budget, Twitter is just a start. Whatever, it won’t do any harm if some more elaborate posts will be added during the next days …

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E20SUMMIT – Masterclass today

Enterprise 2.0 SUMMITIn a few minutes I will be participating in Dion Hinchcliffe’s E2.0 Master Class at E20SUMMIT. This isn’t going to be the normal talk, but rather an extensive workshop, ie. we will be working together as a small group for multiple hours and thus be able to discuss pragmatic and individual questions. Here’s the idea of it all:

[…] Enterprise 2.0 Masterclass will provide attendees with the knowledge and skills needed to begin an Enterprise 2.0 initiative within your organization. You will be shown how successful Enterprise 2.0 projects can be structured and executed using case studies, emerging best practices, collaborative group exercises, and involved attendee interaction. Real-world experiences, lessons learned, and solutions are presented throughout. Enterprise 2.0 Masterclass is taught by industry experts extensively experienced with corporate IT and closely involved with Enterprise 2.0 efforts.

The actual agenda is much more elaborated (and as I know Dion will cover it all, indeed my first time listening to Dion was quite packed with information, experienced european live-bloggers got blasted away and there were various cases of RSI-syndrome. Yes I am talking about his session at the first Web 2.0 Expo Europe in Berlin, 2007 😉

10:45 Principles about Web 2.0 in the Enterprise and Corporate Social Computing

  • Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0: A Working Definition
  • How and why Web 2.0 provides guidance
  • Key driving forces
  • Network effects
  • Peer Production
  • New Social Power Structures
  • Control Over Data
  • New Social Tools & Platforms
  • Self-Service
  • Increased Transparency & Openness
  • “Consumerization of The Enterprise”
  • Conclusion

11:45 Models and strategic pillars for the conceptionalization of Enterprise 2.0

  • Trends and Changes in the 21st Century Workplace
  • Benefits and Challenges of Enterprise Social Computing
  • Tacit Interactions
  • Enterprise 2.0 Defined: SLATES & FLATNESSES
  • Examining A Healthy Enterprise 2.0 Ecosystem

14:00 Succeeding in Enterprise 2.0 challenges: Adoption, IT issues and Governance

  • The Tools and Techniques of Enterprise 2.0: A Detailed Survey
  • Change Management Approaches for Social Enterprises
  • The IT issues: Security, Integrated Search, Syndication, Etc.
  • Governance: Policy, Legal Requirements, Moderation, Community Management

14:45 Implementation Model for Enterprise 2.0: The Three-Legged Stool

  • The Technology Stack
  • The Processes: Enabling Emergent Outcomes
  • The Culture: Moving Beyond Hierarchy – Influencers & Change Champions

15:45 Enterprise 2.0 Case Studies – Europe & North America
16:45 Current Enterprise 2.0 Best Practices and Lessons Learned
17:30 Questions/Closing Comments on Business Implications

You see, the agenda is packed and dense, please don’t expect too much live-blogging or -tweeting …

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Social capital RoI – preserving collaborative networks and work-life balance

I am in the midst of collecting interesting thoughts and remarks from the Enterprise 2.0 Conference this week in San Francisco (while preparing for the Enterprise 2.0 SUMMIT this week in Frankfurt) and this one caught my eye. Noticed this too during the life video stream from the conference, but it was only a side-remark then, and it’s more interesting in terms of RoI and “collaborative performance” than one sees at first sight. During a panel Booz Allen Hamilton VP Art Fritzson and senior associate Walton Smith shared their experiences integrating social and collaborative software into the BAH consulting business and argued like this (via Thomas Claburn at Information Week):

Enterprise 2.0, properly implemented, can create a barrier to exit.

[…] it can help companies retain valuable knowledge workers by weaving social bonds into the fabric of the workplace.

“People think twice about leaving and giving up all that”

Sounds a bit like “silk bondage” replacing the iron cask of lifetime-employment – but I wouldn’t be so negative, would I? It’s probably more about designing a workplace people enjoy and allowing the growth of employee’s social capital is good business practice with (hard to calculate but substantial) side benefits. Preserving functioning teams (and collaborative networks) by keeping people from leaving for good is one good benefit, OK.

Yet I wonder how this ties in with a caring for work-life balance – nurturing human-relations to colleagues, partners and bosses is vital, but this isn’t the social life of people alone. Entertaining a campus cafeteria, pet barber shop and sports facilities might be good for people with work-related friends mostly, but this is worrying me a bit. What’s your take, am I too negative and “german” again?

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