Blogging’s Evolution to the Entreprise

If I were to liken storytelling to the theory of evolution, Neanderthals would be those ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Cro-Magnons can be Gutenburg’s printing press and the Modern men are definitely blogging.

My job today is neither to focus on the discourses surrounding the origins of humans, nor to substantiate mutation of certain species simply evolving into another.  But evolution in this context thus refers to the advent of new and better world of mass media with blogs turning it on its head.

AT some point in my previous learning back home I have encountered the name Johannes Gutenburg— whose name may not immediately ring a bell to you especially to the later generation but journalism or communication students simply know him, I am sure, as the man who invented the printing press!

Credits to Seán Pòl Ó Creachmhaoil

As easy as setting up a blog account at WordPress or Blogger,  you can see a great difference when the price of publishing is practically nothing as long as you have three things; a computer, an Internet connection and an exciting literary concoction, then voilà!  You are now your own publisher.

Just like you and me, I am well-fascinated by the sudden community that sprung up and ever since the bandwagon jumping began even to corporations.  Now corporations either used blogs externally for the purposes of branding, public relations or marketing which take the name of corporate blogs, or internally to enhance the communication and culture within them.  The rapid growth of blogs spread like a wildfire as an indispensable tool in practically most clubs, societies and events.

CLEARLY, I for one am a believer of Johannes Gutenburg with his printing press—an idea of intelligent design that paved the way to the boom of publishing, and what later became as the start of information revolution.  Now another revolution made even better—BLOGGING in the Entreprise!

So there is NO reason why the event on my previous post—the 34^th International Geoscience Congress—would not benefit from a blog.  Primarily a blog can be used too as an interactive and collaborative bulletin board benefitting stakeholders ranging from prospective registrants up to the organizing committee level.

Well to start with, one can always choose to sign-up for premium subscriptions to open source blogging tools and publishing platforms like WordPress and Blogger.  Or even to the more tech savvy individuals or corporations—small and large scale alike—who would want to go beyond learning or hiring someone respectively to get a bespoke interface built on sophisticated content management systems and web application frameworks like Drupal and Ruby on Rails.

But for those people who like a less complicated life, like me, I would go anywhere for FREE and what’s more is that they have built-in features, including a plug-in architecture, and a ready-made template system. You know what I’m talking about, yes, WordPress (learning and loving it) and Blogger (by Google)!

■   WordPress provides a free online blogging service for the users who do not have a server or do not set up a server. In addition, WordPress also provides an open resource blog program which allows users to build blogs on their own servers. Below is my own dashboard which allows me to post and modify entries so I can deliver right on your computer screens.

One main feature of WordPress blog is its multi-authoring functionality which allows several authors to manage one blog, just perfect, so if we take the 34th IGC event for case study purposes, members of the organizing committee can access, modify changes and answer enquiries from those attending the Congress.

In addition, WordPress blog provides ‘Pages’ function. For example, an ‘about’ page provides the author to make an introduction of one’s self or business, and the same can add more pages if need be.  However, not most blogging tools provide similar function though. Yet it also offers an eclectic range of themes and page arrangement for authors.

■ Blogger, on the other hand, is Google-owned and its main feature is that it syncs in with your Gmail account; hence, a Gmail user can automatically own a blog. Blogger, as you can see on my dashboard, also has a crisp layout yet with a rather simple and clear interface. It, too, provides themes and handy page arrangement for authors.

Brief Comparison on WordPress vs. Blogger

WordPress and Blogger are both FREE and very easy to use. However, what sets WordPress apart—at least for me—is that it provides more functions than Blogger, like on the ratings and polls. In addition, WordPress provides blog analytics to show the traffic and trends of visitors. While WordPress only has the limited authority level for modifying page themes (only to premium account users), Blogger themes, on the other hand, can be modified using CSS as the authors wish.

“It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streams…Through it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men”
― Johannes Gutenberg

 

 

 

34th IGC—Geoscience ‘Olympics’ in Brisbane

Asia Pacific Cities Summit Ambassadors rendering service in the spirit of volunteerism last July 2011

For the international student that I am here, I could not just disregard the beautiful trajectory for Brisbane—Australia’s New World City—  last year and this year.  2011 saw Australia hosting a summit in July for Asia Pacific region and in 2012 still Australia will play host to another international event on behalf of Oceania.

Asia Pacific. Oceania. Wow! I know from a modest point of view (since I was never geek enough in the sciences) that they may seem just two orthographic projections playing in my mind. But how relevant then shall be our knowledge of the Geosciences today, when every so often we hear natural catastrophes occurring from this side of the planet to another?

We ought to stress that—as human beings living in this planet—we are in an unprecedented territory, just as we started to think that Mother Nature will leave us for a little while, it will always come back with a full force. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and other natural hazards are all inevitable—and all covered by Earth Science!

The International Geological Congress (IGC) is the leading global forum for the Earth sciences.

What is IGC?

The Congress, being held once every four years and typically attracts 5000 delegates from over 100 countries, has been referred to as the Geosciences’ Olympics.  Having been held first in 1876 in Paris, the IGC is one of the longest running professional sector conferences in the world.  It has been regularly held ever since with the most recent ones hosted in Oslo, Norway (2008) and Florence, Italy (2004).

Dr. Ian Lambert, secretary general of the 34th IGC Organising Committee, states that

“the IGC is really big and important…it is the premier global geoscience event.  It brings geoscientists from around the world where they freely exchange information, they give oral and poster presentations presenting their research. They also have the opportunity to go on field trips to look at geographical features in the field.”

With the theme “Unearthing our Past and Future – Resourcing Tomorrow”, the 34th IGC is being hosted by the Australian Geoscience Council (AGC).  The AGC is the peak representative body for geoscientists in Australia and consists of the following member societies, which represent specialty areas of the Earth sciences:

• Association of Applied Geochemists
• Australian Institute of Geoscientists
• Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• Geological Society of Australia
• International Association of Hydrologists (Australian Chapter)
• Australian Geoscience Information Association
• The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
• Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia.

IGCs are run under the auspices of the International Union of Geological Sciences, which facilitates international geoscientific collaboration and development of standards.

Many delegates are involved in cutting edge research. There will also be distinguished senior personnel representing national geosciences agencies, major resource companies as well as the extensive supporting contracting industry.  In fact, the 34^th IGC Scientific Program will feature a daily Plenary Session, 220 symposia under 37 themes in which distinguished speakers will give invited presentations on major contemporary themes in the geosciences.

One that I am particularly keen to meet for the day, if only we get lucky to have that same volunteering opportunity again just like last July’s  Asian Pacific Cities Summit 2011 (as student ambassadors for Brisbane), is a familiar face from my home country—Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum, Jr.—who has said in one of his interviews that “the Philippines has 20 earthquakes everyday on average. Having 20 earthquakes is a normal occurrence.”

 

WHY BRISBANE IN 2012?

IGC’s are held in host cities throughout the world. Countries that wish to host an IGC must bid for the event. The bid must demonstrate that the country has the expertise and resources necessary to run the event and do so at a cost that is reasonable to delegates who must pay fees to attend. Bids are submitted by numerous countries and are subjected to a competitive selection process. The 34th IGC is being held in Brisbane as a result of a successful bid against India and Morocco back in 2004 during a previous IGC in Florence, Italy.

Accommodation in Brisbane 

As released in the third circular of the 34^th IGC, there are discounted accommodation rates available that were negotiated particularly for IGC delegates only at an extensive range of hotels and accommodation establishments in central Brisbane. Booking your accommodation can be done when you register for the Congress via the online system or through the downloadable registration form.  Apparently since there is a heavy demand for accommodation in the city, expected delegates are urged to book accommodation as soon as possible.

The international congress, slated on 5—10 August, 2012 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, will also provide an opportunity for young scientists and students to engage with some of the best geosciences minds in the world. The YES (Young Earth Scientists) Network will hold its second Congress within the 34^th IGC.

This event is brought to you by Geoscience Australia, GNS Science (New Zealand), Carillon Conference Management along with academic partners Queensland Institute of Technology and the University of Queensland, while Vale as one of the major sponsors.  If interested, please register now by visiting its official website at www.34igc.org.

[Reference]

Lambert, I., & Gordon, A. (2011, September). Guest Lecture from IGC. In J. Watson (Professor), Entreprise 2.0. Lecture conducted from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD.

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Someone got even luckier on his last birthday to be granted an exclusive interview with a beauty queen whose interest lies in calligraphy, fashion, food and design, and who once said “I Just Got Lucky” in this one-on-one chat for a webisode that will take you to the changing skyline of her country.

Ms. Tourism Vietnam 2011 Huynh Thi Ngoc Han tells it all in this webisode while the rest of the student ambassadors enjoy their day at North Stradbroke Island, QLD, Australia. Here is the sneak peek to that upcoming Au Courant’s Corner webisode…

 

Social Media Policy: ‘Watch Your Word’

I have always looked forward to writing something about what has been close to my heart—journalism.  And it might have been apparent already that I always tend to lean towards my journalistic nature or at least try to.  Well honestly I could not say that it had really been my bread and butter, but I am grateful to have amassed a wealth of information regarding the journalistic rules and ethics from my modest beginnings as a student all the way to marching through.

A trip down memory lane will take me to the very first day at the university where I first went to—10 years awhile back—I could vividly remember the old picturesque building I was at Silliman University (now celebrating the 111^th year since its founding in 1901 by Americans in the Philippines) and right at the very room, stood an imposing poster of the Journalist’s Code of Ethics.  That served mainly as our “bible” for writing news regardless of whatever beat (a term used in journalism to refer to a particular area or category of concentration) we were assigned to.

Though I could not say that everything is plain and simple but at least we always have those principles to guide us in our reportage whether it be in print, TV or radio. I might not have scrubbed every single word at the back of my cerebellum but at least I have committed to memory the key points underlying them.  So it’s never difficult to abandon the guiding principles that govern the separation of news from opinion, the appropriate use of language and tone, importance of fact and objectivity, and whatever hallmarks there are in journalism.

But then there came SOCIAL MEDIA, vigorous debates surround media personalities as to how, when to or when not to use it in the line of duty.  It’s amazing that so much had been drawn to discuss the etiquettes and pitfalls of using emergent technologies.  However, realistically it’s undeniable that international media companies now embraced it as an indispensable tool in carrying out what’s expected of them.  Most, if not all, have issued additional guidelines to safeguard them from unnecessary allegations of biased-reporting all due to their journalists’ personal point of views.

And there is one that personally caught my attention and it’s definitely because of its plain straightforwardness—the Australian Broadcasting Corporation through its managing director announced in 2009 the new social media guidelines to which their national broadcaster’s journalists and staff must adhere to accordingly:

1. Do not mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute.
2. Do not undermine your effectiveness at work.
3. Do not imply ABC endorsement of your personal views.
4. Do not disclose confidential information obtained through work.

In my own opinion, those four standards were founded on mutual respect to both parties: one, the company as an organization and, two, their people as individuals. Just because a person decides for the rest of his/her life to become a journalist one day does not entirely mean they abandon stating their personal views whether or not through the use of social media.  But of course they bear in mind that there are values that they need to strictly adhere to.

Now that blogging is my new medium, I was reminded that there indeed was a particular one that I have strongly committed by heart, truly a “campus by the sea” memoir—the 11th item in the Journalist Code of Ethics as adopted by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines which states:

 

“I shall conduct myself in public or while performing my duties as journalist in such manner as to maintain the dignity of my profession. When in doubt, DECENCY should be my watchword.”

 

Courtesy of http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/socialmedia

 

Social ‘Wisdom’ Strategy—Key to ROI

Today marks another milestone in my social networking life—and another one to boot—I now joined Google Plus, thanks to the invitation of a close friend who hails from Sri Lanka.

Needless to say that’s how engrossed I am with whatever’s gravitating around my web browsers.  And yes, perhaps you’ve guessed it—anything or any word followed by 2.0 (I know you’ve probably have had enough of me mentioning it).

As a matter of fact, the most common, if not only executive, response to hearing any word followed by 2.0 is “Huh?” or “Hmm…” and isn’t all this just about a workmate of yours or practically anybody “doing Facebook” on company time?  But really why should you care about Enterprise 2.0? To add more reasons to prove my point, some companies even thought the solution was just to shut down access to technology.

Let’s talk figures, according to AIIM 2010 State of the Industry Survey, they found out that staff access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instant Messaging is barred in 45% of organizations.  In addition, instant messages, Twitter feeds and blog posts are not archived in 80% of some organizations using them.  This is now the challenge and an opportunity.

Whatever those figures are suggesting, I would like to believe that if organizations aren’t connected to today’s emergent technologies, chances are they are not being as effective as they could be.  But surprisingly though from that same survey 54% of organizations consider Enterprise 2.0 to be “important” or “very important” to their business goals and success. That’s why I totally agree with what Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and Global VP Business Development for Huddle, said about the issue at the heart of the enterprise social software debate is CONTROL.

He explains further that,

By introducing the likes of wikis, blogs, podcasting and instant messaging into the work environment, IT departments are relinquishing their control over what users can and can’t do. However, by barring such tools in the workplace, an organization is sending out a clear message that it doesn’t trust its workforce. Banning such tools could also result in failure to stay ahead of your competitors.

What’s directly shocking to me as a mass communication/journalism graduate is that newspaper readership continues to decline, 106 million people read at least some of their news online, 70 million read actual newspapers online, and 88 million people use a social networking like Facebook or MySpace.  Sixty million bank online, and 55 million now read blogs (yehey!), creating an explosion of new writers, readers, and new forms of customer feedback that did not exist before.  (Pew Internet and American Life, 2009).

Adding to this mix of social media, allow me to cite Vistaprint as an example for us to grasp on developing a social media strategy, opportunities and increase the digits along this three letters—ROI.  With some assistance from a previous research conducted by Jacob Morgan, author of “TwittFaced: Your Toolkit for Understanding and Maximizing Social Media,” let’s pick up some lessons learned as to why it’s important to put into place a strong emphasis on the “wisdom of the crowd”:

“Vistaprint is an online supplier of printed and promotional material as well as marketing services, and is one of the fastest growing printing companies in North America. Within the enterprise 2.0 space, Vistaprint currently focuses on two things: an enterprise wiki and an internal ideation platform powered by Inutit. The ideation platform was focused around improving the customer experience; the wiki was focused on knowledge sharing and information.”

For the wiki, the lessons learned can be broken down into 4 key things as Morgan has mentioned:

1. The collaboration and knowledge sharing problem was not a technology problem.  It was a people, process, and culture problem (and thus needed change)
2. Whatever platform/tool you go with needs to be frictionless and people have to love it
3. The technology solution that is going to solve your business needs must be fantastic
4. People who say they are too busy to edit or contribute to the wiki really aren’t, they just think they are.  Everyone always have time for micro edits and inputting bits and pieces of information at a time.

Briefly, it’s a new world of doing business, one that will greatly affect your future business career.  Along with the changes in business come changes in jobs and careers.  No matter whether you are a finance, accounting, management, marketing, operations management, or information systems major, how you work, where you work, and how well you are so compensated will all be affected by… (thinking of that word ending in 2.0 again?) …emergent outcomes—see Web 2.0 Framework—where most interesting becomes visible, personalized recommendations, meaningful communities, relevant content easily found, enhanced usability and COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE!

 

SO FINALLY, no more “Huh?” for me as it could only be “Hmm…” for I now have a real definition of what “wisdom of the crowd” ought to be!

 

(Let’s see, sounds like I’m going to get some of that wisdom at Google Plus—do you think?)

 

 

 

[Reference Used]

• Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. (2011). Essentials of Management Information Systems. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

 

The Enterprise 2.0 Phenomenon

If Tim O’Reilly is the father of Web 2.0 after having coined the term, Andrew McAfee, on the other hand, is the champion of Enterprise 2.0. Both terms have garnered more enthusiasm in recent times. But how are they exactly relevant these days is what we will delve deeper.

True enough that time and technology does not stand still, we all know someone, some place, at some time or another is going to figure out a way to advance online computing. I couldn’t agree more, and yes, that time and place is here and now.

It had not taken a while until people have started realizing this particular advancement now. From O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 concepts, now let’s examine further as to how this can be engaged in the enterprise. The prime mover of this realization was Harvard Business School’s McAfee when in US Spring of 2006 he coined yet another emerging term to refer to this concept as ‘Enterprise 2.0’.

This burst sprouted from his article in the MIT Sloan Management Review called ‘Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration’ (McAfee 2006).  A principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McAfee has this definition:

“Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers.”

Allow me to share this interview courtesy of OracleVideo, for us to get it straight from the horse’s mouth:

What we are exactly doing now as bloggers, like you and me, is contributing content that is worthwhile and even just by reading articles such as this one is already an example of reaping the benefits of Web 2.0. But this time let’s go a little further by discussing how we can effectively share in allowing organizations to leverage social media for success like maximizing return on investment (ROI).

When I say maximizing ROI in this one, as in my understanding, I’d like to refer it this way as having all the things we love about the web and combining it now with all the things we love in a business table (well I hope to get one later when I have my own business).

Having said that, it’s also interesting to learn that a PhD student of Queensland Institute of Technology, Mr. Sirous Panahi is doing just that (a perfect example) as he is investigating the impact of social web technologies by looking at how clinicians or clinical care teams can share tacit (understood or implied without being stated) knowledge whilst using social networks—which I reckon is supporting a pathway to enterprise 2.0 success in the clinical health industry.

In addition, since we are talking about clinical or medical— according to Paul F. Levy, president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center he opines:

“Andrew McAfee coined the term Enterprise 2.0 to describe a phenomenon that has changed the way the world does business. Now, he takes it a step further. Whether your firm is already deeply embedded in Enterprise 2.0 or you are trying to communicate its value to your staff and your customers…”

In conclusion, this new platform—in my humble opinion—as imposed by Enterprise 2.0 is now creating “silos” but perhaps what we ought to equip this said platform with is our better understanding of how to put forth proper control, reliability, stability and security in existing companies and organizations, hence, providing them a better tool to collaborative participation.

 

Blogging—The New Frontier

SINCE this blog has considerably served it’s time, at least for the past few months (but will still do), as a modest chronicler of ideas of what Web 2.0 is all about, it is about time to tackle another emerging and equally  becoming popular term in this fast-paced world—Enterprise 2.0

As a frequent blogger about the life here in Brisbane, it is imperative that this new commitment of mine to create blog posts should now run equally, if not, deeper than my PASSION to be a conduit of information not only of anything about Australia’s New World City but also about today’s emerging technologies.

With that new found passion, allow me to embark on another journey with you and head onto the next level up by exploring the wonders of blogging and how you can reap benefits from it in the enterprise world.  As I see fit, I will try my best in the next series of posts to do so NOT in a hodge-podge approach—but rather in a more organized manner.

Blog-hopping has now personally been my favourite mode of daily transport (in the Cyber World of course!).  And I must admit everything is now happening here.  After few months of finally blogging again since my first blog post ever in 2005, I reckon maybe it’s time to get serious or haven’t I been?  It seems that I’ve gotten myself caught in a web and I don’t know how to get out.

Okay first things first, need I not mention that this cyber world I’m talking about is known to you as a place where users have the mechanisms in place to transact any business or personal activity as easily and freely as they can transact them in the physical world. We are now seeing an eclectic range of whatever market have you. Say, from the simplest gadgets, to sports gears, to the luxurious sports cars or DotA-inspired merchandises for MEN, or the unimaginable accessories, overpriced cosmetics, to the never-ending fashion for WOMEN. Seriously, anything can be blogged about NOW!

What is a BLOG then?

Matisse.Net defines the term BLOG (from ‘Web Log’) as:

“Basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.  Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.”

People ASK ME, why do I blog? And I try to explain, hang on a second—but why wouldn’t I?  A fellow Filipino and now Toronto-based is currently making waves as far as Enterprise 2.0 is concerned. In fact, she’s literally living an awesome life working for a top company’s operations in Canada and one of the world’s computer giants, IBM.

This lady by the name of Sacha Chua inspires me to blog further as it does also make me think clearer and even true to her words that:

Blogging doesn’t have to be about building a personal brand or improving your search engine ranking. You can write as a way to learn, understand, remember, share, and save time.

As of 12:26 pm, 18 August 2011

To my surprise, I was even happy to learn from my Live Traffic Feed courtesy of FeedJit that she (Chua) did pay a visit here after our brief Twitter conversation.  So who will not be more PASSIONATE about blogging with that?  Thus proving something at least, that with the advent of—Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0—social technologies can help us work and connect more effectively!

Perhaps when it comes to blogging, it is also important to bring out the POSITIVITY in you as the world reflects back as to how it perceives you.  This is especially vital when you want your readers to keep coming back for more and eventually collaborate with you.

On positivity note, Henrik Edberg shares 16 lessons he has learned on how to build a somewhat Successful Blog whilst explaining it with details on his “The Positivity Blog”.   

Allow me to succinctly re-echo these nuggets of wisdom and even if you are not a blogger yourself, you can still apply it in other areas of your life:

1.       Provide value.
2.       Market your blog.
3.       Learn from more experienced people.
4.       Optimize.
5.       Be patient.
6.       First impressions matter.
7.       Formatting is pretty and important.
8.       People aren’t just angry or hostile online. Quite the opposite.
9.       Don’t think about what everyone else may think.
10.   Making posting a CHOICE, not a must.
11.   Future posting is your friend.
12.   Don’t spend too much time checking statistics or other blogs.
13.   Blog consistently.
14.   Expect a slump after a few months.
15.   Don’t clutter your blog.
16.   When you get a big traffic spike, be prepared.

At the end of the day, blogging for me is truly a new frontier.  A new place that is untamed and untainted by the rest of the world.  It will be like a fresh start on a whole new planet or continent, similar events set in motion by the adventures of the Spanish Conquistador Ferdinand Magellan to the PHILIPPINES!

Welcome to the New Frontier and my OWN CHOICE…