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More sniffing around Twitter, Chatter and pheromones

[Note: This is my third post in a series I've been writing on this topic; the two previous posts immediately precede this one]. What I want to do here is touch on a few subjects that came up in earlier posts, where I didn’t really have the time or space to express what I meant [...]

Thinking more about Twitter, Chatter and knowledge worker pheromones

Introduction This post is a follow-up to one I wrote a few days ago; based on the twitter and mail feedback, and on the comments I’ve received via blog and facebook, it seemed worthwhile to continue discussions on this train of thought. Summary of previous post Let me first summarise where I was trying to [...]

Thinking about Twitter and Chatter: the knowledge worker’s pheromones

Introduction: Background and influences If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you’d have come across the name of Clay Spinuzzi. I’ve been following his work for about five years now, and had the privilege of meeting him for breakfast while vacationing in Austin in the summer of 2008. Clay introduced the term [...]

A lazy Sunday playlist

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted. So said the Bard via the voice of Lorenzo in [...]

Please buy this book: a book review with a difference

This is a post recommending that you buy a particular book. Now I’ve written many book reviews in the past, recommended that you read many books in the past. So what’s so different about this particular book? What makes it special? Well, first off, I haven’t actually read the book. There’s a good reason for [...]

Cometh the hour

  I’ve been to Japan maybe half a dozen times over the years, so I don’t really know Japan that well; this, despite the fact that I studied Japanese economic history while reading Economics at St Xavier’s College nearly half a century ago. Yet there is much about Japan, its people, its culture, its cuisine, [...]

Social objects in the enterprise: Part 3

Prologue Given the depth and nature of conversations on this subject, I think I’d better let this one run for a while. Many of you have commented in different ways, by writing in, by talking to me, by commenting on this blog, or on Facebook or Twitter, or even by writing blog posts and pointing [...]

Thinking more about social objects in the enterprise

Note: This is a follow-up from yesterday’s post. A quick recap of what I said yesterday. Businesses are morphing from customer-product hierarchies to relationship-capability networks. This is placing intense pressure on enterprise systems bases, which have traditionally kept the Fort Knox-like “systems of record” distinct and separate from the somewhat more promiscuous “systems of engagement”. [...]

Social objects in the enterprise: some early thoughts

Origins of “social objects” Nearly four years ago, Jyri Engestrom introduced us to the concept of social objects, and Hugh Macleod built on that theme, and what they said really resonated with me. As a result, I’ve been writing about social objects for a while, as you can see here from three years ago here, [...]

Tonic for the trance of compromise

A lovely turn of phrase. Not mine, though. It’s what Danielle LaPorte of whitehottruth.com, author of the Fire Starter Sessions, had to say about Hugh Macleod’s latest book, Evil Plans: Having Fun On The Road to World Domination. I agree completely with her. I got my hands on a copy earlier today, and it was [...]

Thinking sideways about the World Economic Forum and platforms

Beginnings: congregations and stories As long as humankind has existed, humankind has congregated. And whenever humankind has congregated, humans have used the opportunity to follow their passions and dreams, to tell the world their stories, to connect with others to make their dreams reality. Sometimes those dreams went against the grain of the society they [...]

Thinking more about un-nationalness

[Note: this is a follow-up to my post a few days introducing the theme of un-nationalness.] Krosno Odrzanskie, Poland. Dakar, Senegal. Greenwich, London. Uzice, Serbia. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cardiff, Wales. Praia, Cape Verde. Edinburgh, Scotland. Derry, Northern Ireland. Blaegoevgrad, Bulgaria. Guadalajara, Mexico. These are the birthplaces of the 11 who took the field in [...]

A sideways look at cognitive surpluses and knowledge “management”

Doc Searls used to keep reminding me of something he attributed to Don Marti: Information doesn’t want to be be free, it wants to be $5.99. Incidentally, talking about Doc Searls, here’s a bonus for Cluetrain devotees: the first time all four original Cluetrainers were together in one place, at Defrag in Denver last week. [...]

Thinking about social objects

You’ll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it’s gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It’s like you feel homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist. Maybe it’s like this rite of passage, you know. You won’t ever have this feeling again [...]

Musing about stewardship and software and noninvasiveness

My thanks to Franz St for the photograph of Melk Abbey in Wachau, Austria The National Geographic Society regularly reviews historic sites all over the world, seeking to recognise those that sustain their heritage, history and sheer ethos despite the passage of time and tourists. When I think of the word “stewardship”, I think of [...]

Once Upon A Time Time

Yes, it’s once upon a time time. Time for you to become part of Byte Night Bedtime Story, the world’s biggest bedtime stor, and help raise funds for the wonderful work done by Action For Children. Watch the bedtime story unfold via twitter, just follow @BNBedtimeStory. Share it with your children. Share it with your [...]

Thinking about waste

I am beholden to TS Holen for the wonderful photograph above, which he calls Ready-made Waste To repeat what I said yesterday, as most of you probably know, I was born and brought up in Calcutta. A busy, vibrant city inhabited by millions of people. Who create a lot of waste. While I lived there, [...]

Musing about learning by doing

My thanks to Dominik Hofer for the wonderful photograph shown above Did you ever get the chance to read Blink? In that book,  Malcolm Gladwell said something like the following: We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction. Now this is something I’ve believed [...]

What we share: Continuing to look at privacy, sideways

We now have a growing and fascinating array of tools with which to share information with others, “social” tools. Having spent some time recently thinking about why we share (posts here and here), I wanted to spend some time sharing my thoughts with you on the topic of what we share; in a few days’ [...]

Musing about “being evil”

If you’ve heard me speak at conferences over the last few years, then you’ve heard me say this: It took IBM 40 years to “become evil”. It took Microsoft 20. It took Google 10. It took Facebook 5. It took Twitter 2.5……. Actually nobody “became evil”. Becoming evil is not suddenly getting easier. What we’re [...]

Why we share: a sideways look at privacy

This is a follow-up post to one I wrote nearly three months ago, Musing About Sharing and Privacy. This time, I’m trying to focus on just one thing. What makes people share. Incidentally, while talking about sharing: if you’re interested in privacy I would strongly recommend you read this post by Danah Boyd and this [...]

More on the Power of Pull

The world keeps changing. There was a time when all the conversation related to a blog post could be found in the area around the post, the blog itself. Nowadays things are somewhat more complex. Today, if I want to find out how my post is being received, I have to do a number of [...]

How the ash came about

The crater, originally uploaded by Steingrimur. Wondering why there’s flight disruption in the UK and Scandinavia? Here’s why. What intrigues me is that the photographs were uploaded nearly a week ago. What happened in between? Do volcanic eruptions of this sort sometimes decide “No, we won’t spew forth any ash”? I felt certain that flickr [...]

The silent spring of the internet: cyberspace needs its stewards

Maybe it’s because of the events leading up to the Digital Economy Bill becoming an Act here in the UK. It’s been a bit like Chinese water torture for many months; then, more recently, as the BPI saw their chance to corrupt parliamentary process and took it, it felt more like being waterboarded. I have [...]

The Digital Economy Bill: Be Careful What You Wish For

Do you find it easy to be moderate about things? It’s taken me a long time to learn about moderation, about knowing how to leaven and temper my passion with patience. For most of my life I’ve been an extremist, either full-on about something or not at all engaged. As a result, particularly of late, [...]