One such project last year was  Age of Conversation 2, a follow up to the original Age of Conversation. (I believe you can still purchase both.)

Now a third installment has been created “ Age of Conversation 3: It’s time to get busy!”. The wonderful contributors are listed below. I’ll remind you when the book is ready to order, because not only will you enjoy reading stories and tips from “over 300 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators “-  all funds raised from proceeds this year will be going towards the Make a Wish foundation.

This project is an example of what I like about social networking.

An open invitation to participate is extended to anyone and everyone
(via blog posts, Twitter, Facebook etcetera)
You can join in. Or not.
You can share something. Or not.
You can write something personal. Or not.
You can be part or something. Or not.
You can be ready. Or not.

Thanks to Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan for organising this three years in a row.
And to the publishers of AOC3 Channel V Books.

“Nancy & I met first online when we did a podcast around “blended communities” with Ed Mitchell (from the UK) and then F2F in Seattle last year.” Matt has seen the need for a workshop focusing on online communities emerge as the topic surfaced in many different areas over the last 12 months,  including learning, marketing and government.

Nancy White recently finished a book with Etienne Wenger & John D Smith called “Digital Habitats. Matt explains that  people attending the workshops can expect “practical tools to help them with online community management, based on many collective decades of experience from Nancy, Etienne, John & others. They’ll get a workshop session that will practice what it preaches in terms of interactivity & blended technology use. And finally, well, Nancy is a live wire – there will not be one dull moment (promise). ” (I believe you Matt, Nancy is on my “must meet in real life” list, especially after her inspiring contribution to WorldShapers pp 41-43)

Nancy White also shared what she hopes people will get out of the workshops. ” I’ll offer some of the frameworks we developed in the book – which have particular application I believe for work based groups, communities of practice and virtual teams.”

“I’d also like to put on the table some of the emerging distinctions between online group facilitation and something that, for lack of a better word, I’d describe as network facilitation, which in fact is new and emerging.”

If you’re interested in attending one of Nancy White’s workshops in Australia this November, check out the time and dates over on Innotecture’s blog. As somone who has experienced both the positive and more challenging aspects of participating in and moderating  online communities,  I’m really looking forward to joining in with her Melbourne workshop!

by neon.mamacita

by jek in the box

by leedav

from Jesshibb

There are some fun pics in the group Flickr pool. You should take a look-see.

Gavin Heaton in Australia and Drew McLellan in the US published this book with all proceeds going to  Variety, the children’s charity. Thanks to Gavin Heaton, The Age of Conversation 2 – Why Don’t They Get It? is now on Amazon. It was originally for sale on lulu.com (along with the original, which is also worth a read.)

Chapters include:

Manifestos – Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don’t people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?

Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation – With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets? What is the role of privacy? What about different personas and identities? Why don’t consumers understand that their online conversations are tracked and can come back to haunt them?

Moving from Conversation to Action – Talk is cheap, or so they say. What are the practical steps that businesses and brands can take to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business? And if it is so easy, why don’t they just do it?

The Accidental Marketer – People “fall into” marketing. They may study and qualify in a different discipline but somehow find themselves in marketing and advertising. What is the attraction? Or…have you known a company or brand who just seemed to naturally fall into marketing success? How do you think that happened?

A New Brand of Creative – With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these “creatives” look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?

My Marketing Tragedy – A topic only for the brave … Do you know a project that failed? Was it yours? What prevented success? What worked? And most importantly, what did you learn? Who didn’t “get it” — was it your client, your boss, the board, or (dare we ask) you?

Business Model Evolution – Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn’t “get it”. How do you measure “it” … and where will things go?

Life in the Conversation Lane — Bringing it all back to the individual – how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting our lives? What is the personal cost and what is the attraction? Is there a balance or are we just kidding ourselves?

I’m so grateful that Gavin and Drew made the effort to create this book, and that I participated in the creation of this book. Have you been involved in a collaborative project? What were the results?

more films available for viewing on the VCA website

I know some of you have a real passion for narrative therapy, creative programs for shaping youth and the use of social media for non profit programs amongst other innovative endeavours. Are you looking for potential partnership opportunities to discuss your area of interest? Are you curious about the role of the arts in “cultural democracy; community leadership and cultural citizenship; youth arts, creativity and urban culture; and the role of the artist in social innovation strategies?” Are you interested in the evaluation of the arts in community cultural development? With your dreams and skills in mind, would you also like to be involved in programs, conferences and alliances with the VCA Centre for Cultural Partnership (CCP)? Please let me know.

I’m both flattered and excited to attend the first VCA CCP Advisory Committee meeting this week and would love to share your interest. This is a such a great opportunity for discussion and collaboration.

Do you have a passion for community cultural development? Who has inspired you? Which great examples have you had the privelege to participate in or view?

connecting a distributed workforce - originally uploaded by kolya

Physical spaces within large enterprises like IBM transforming to meet the changing demands of an increased mobile workforce. As employees work from home more often, or have a laptop and work on–site with their customer – they are less likely to have a permanent desk in the office. Groups of peers may be geographically dispersed. Additional demands in large global enterprises include:

• Global workforce
• Maturing workforce & retirees
• Gen Y attrition and retention

The greater sense of connectedness can occur through online communities. Individuals are enabled through access to social computing. They can create personal profiles on social networks and use social media to share and connect with others around the globe – behind the firewall and in the public domain.

Events provide opportunities for people from different teams and lines of business to connect. Virtual events, competitions and challenges give individuals the opportunity to innovate and use their skills. Online communities become a place for connection across the company. Communities may be based upon business unit, special interest groups, projects, skills or personal interests.

Online communities are enhanced with access to social media and social networking sites. For instance Secondlife, Facebook, YouTube, Podcasting, Twitter, Ning communities, Flickr, blogging, social bookmarking, BluePages and Fringe+1

Three key considerations for addressing the issue of segmentation:

Purpose. Workplace example – IBM Values, Innovation Jam events, Beehive (Internal Facebook) Events, Group projects.

• Decide on the types of initiatives for individuals, groups and larger events
• Determine the benefits to the organisation and the individuals
• Consider including strategic organisational issues and challenges for collaboration

Enablement. Workplace example – IBM Social Computing Guidelines. Give people access to the tools and and provide guidelines.

• Provide the tools/websites/learning environments
• Provide education “what’s in it for me?”
• Promote awareness

Facilitation. Workplace example – Voluntary social computing ambassador roles. Departments host and facilitate virtual and physical events.

• Nominate individuals as advocates and facilitators
• Decide on events
• Measure success of events

What do you think about the need for the creation of physical and virtual events, enablement and facilitation to connect segments in an organisation?

Now I certainly don’t mean to trivialise the issue in Beijing, but it was the first thing I thought of when somebody at work mentioned a company wanting to approve blog posts by employees. What does this mean for Enterprise 2.0 implementation and governance? Are you really letting people have their say, or are you just keeping up appearances of providing a platform to speak? Do you provide guidelines or do you provide a process? What message are you sending your employees about trust, tolerance and personal value – or even the values of the company? How can you sing out loud when you’re told to tiptoe?

image originally uploaded by TruShu on Flickr
From Reuters - The International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it would have liked to see protesters actually use designated protest parks during the Beijing Games.

Not a single permit for the 77 protest applications has been issued by Chinese authorities.

“We would welcome that these areas are generally used,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters. “(Other) Games organizers have used designated areas of the city for protests in the past.”

Weeks before the start of the August 8-24 Olympics, China had said it had set up three demonstration zones to counter criticism Beijing is crushing human rights to prevent disruptions to the meticulously planned Olympics.

Would-be protesters though had to a apply for a protest permit five days in advance.

No permits have yet been issued and park managers have not even made plans for handling demonstrators, because they do not expect any.

Anyway…this is what the project is all about.

It is not enough to build a university around the specialized needs of its academic programs; it also needs a collection of distinct gathering places that catalyze interaction and bring the campus to life -Wallsjasper, 2008

The project on Virtual and Physical Learning Spaces is a collaboration between IBM and The University of Melbourne and is investigating informal learning environments that are critical to the role and life of the University.

Alongside the University’s formal teaching spaces and buildings are informal spaces – inside, outside and virtual – that are often open to the public and support a range of learning activities, from individual study and informal group-work to socio-cultural activities such as exhibitions, cultural and community events. These activities are intrinsic to staff and student experiences at the University and are vital to the University’s role as a public education institution.

In December 2007, the project’s working group came together to consider a central question:
How can virtual and physical spaces be designed, integrated, used and understood to better support informal learning?

A Think Tank, comprising key university staff and senior IBM personnel, identified six ‘critical issues’ that should be considered in the project. These issues provide the foundation for reflection and discussion over the coming months of the project and are:

• Architectural Determinism
• Fragmentation and Recombination
• Segmentation and Integration
• Community Engagement
• Teaching and Learning Boundaries
• Control

In November, each Working Party will be invited to present at a Public Forum on Informal Learning Places jointly hosted by IBM and The University of Melbourne. It is expected the ideas presented in the Public Forum could be used by different communities in the own practices and endeavours.

social computing input and output survival considerations

Were you wondering what was on my mind?

Noise & Focus

1. Identify the noise in your digital life.
2. Take time out and step back. Then you can pinpoint the noise.
3. Distinguish the “must read” vs “nice to read”
4. Determine what your focus is.
5. Have fun exploring and using social media, but have a goal if you don’t want to drift off into the ether.

Invest & Reward

1. Assess whether your time online feels like an investment (in yourself or others)
2. Make each moment count.
3. Consider what reward you want from your time online?
4. How is your online conversation time spent and how valuable is it?
5. Reward yourself. Make time to relax, and enjoy the conversation

What do these words mean to you in a social media world? Do you take time to reflect on the way you use the tools and time?

a) encourage people to think “out of the box”

b) provide the right tools and process

c) apply innovative thinking to everyday work (not just specific projects)

Although there may be times where teams are set up and dedicate themselves to specific research or projects, there is a wonderful opportunity for organisations to tap into ideas – globally – using web2.0 collaboration tools and techniques. In addition, employees could be better encouraged to see themselves as innovative workers and apply creative thinking to everyday problems.

Image courtesy of Alice Bartlett

Irving Wladawsky-Berger summed it up nicely in a post on Innovation Teams 2.0 this week.

“In today’s fiercely competitive, global world, how can you afford to take your best people out of their jobs for a chunk of time to work on innovation, no matter how important that might be? Many line managers will be against such a program. They need their best people doing their jobs, running operations, dealing with clients, developing products. They cannot afford to let them go for weeks at a time. They may even argue that if they let their people participate in such programs for the good of the company, it could seriously jeopardize their ability to make the quarter.

I think that we can address these valid concerns in a kind of Team Challenge 2.0. I have become convinced that most highly talented people, – especially those destined for high management and technical positions, – are essentially ambidextrous when it comes to their work. They are able to do their day jobs with flying colors, while simultaneously participating in innovation activities, as part of virtual teams working with their equally talented colleagues across the business and around the world on complex, strategic company problems.

In general, the teams only need to meet physically two or three times for a few days – when the project is first formed, when presenting the final recommendations to top management, and perhaps once in between, – but the rest of the time they are collaborating over the Web, while continuing to do their normal job.

Where will overworked employees, already straining to keep some semblance of work-life balance, find the time for these additional innovation activities? This is another valid concern, but in fact, most talented people are already involved in multiple work related activities. They somehow make the time to participate in professional organizations, go to conferences, give speeches, and make a name for themselves in their industry and discipline, while continuing to be top performers in their day jobs. It is a big part of why they are on executive and technical resources tracks. It is why they get noticed, both within their own company as well as by competitors that will undoubtedly try to hire them.

Talented people are full of innovative ideas anyway. That is what makes them so good at their jobs. The key question is whether their companies will be smart enough to provide the right environment to help harvest all this creative energy. Will the company capture and take advantage of all this innovation by providing the right technologies, tools and platforms, as well as a disciplined, well organized innovation process, along the lines of X-Teams or Team Challenge?”

I was also reading about an interview with AG Lafley of Procter & Gamble in the New York Times (hat tip to Rick Singer)

Q. And yet only half of your product innovations succeed. Why isn’t the rate higher?
A. I don’t really want it to be. Human nature is such that, if we push our people to drive the batting average up, they’ll try to hit more safely, take a shorter swing, go for the singles instead of home runs. But we try to set milestones that innovations must meet at every step along the development process. As soon as they miss one, we allocate the resources to another product moving through the funnel. That’s another difference from the old days, when P.& G. let bad ideas go too far.

Do you think innovation should be part of everything we do? Should we always be considering (risky?) new approaches, techniques for improvement and even radical changes to existing solutions?