Microblogging, micromessaging …

In January I decided to start using Twitter (MinLii) …  My learning style is activist, so often I like to try out first, and them later to look in more details.

And now later has come.  I want to better understand how can microblogging, and micromessanging be used by global R&D teams, and what can be the possible benefits and possible dissapointments.

So first I checked our definitions from WikiPedia

• “Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web. “
• Micromessaging was not there yet – however people seem to use it alot.

And I realized that I have been micro-blogging with Facebook – for quite some time, used instant messging, and text messages for ages.  It seems to be that people take new communication practices in use – without knowing their definitions.  Well we live and learn.

Then I decided to use Twitter Search for finding related articles, blog posts etc. – and that was very successful, got some good, practical examples. All links are collected to my Delicious site – with tag microblogging .

So how could microblogging be used and help global R&D teams?

You would have to decide weather to use microblogging  application in-side your company firewall for your internal R&D team only, or would be benefial and possible to use open  microblogging system.

Here are commonly used examples for possible benefits of microblogging – applied in R&D context:

Emergency Broadcast System: – Messages of crucial errors & fast tracking of existing possible solutions & knowledgeable experts.  Active scouting among experts.

Knowledge Management: Sharing lessons learned & experiences among interested people – in serendipitous way.  Even if there are no problems/issues people can recommend each other examples, offer information, connections. With microblogging R&D people can combine their talent and tacit knowledge.

Training: Microblogging can help new team members to learn, offer communication channel for coaching, provide information of interesting new articles, research results etc.

Expert Identification: Microblogging can help to find experts and enables them to share their expertise. If they are willing to do so. Via microblogging existing solutions are not only shared the one that asks the question – it can quickly spread to wider user group. It also enables peer -review on the fly – if other team members are active. The messages can also be used and searched after wards. Using tags or other identifiers  (e.g. # in Twitter) can help.

Inclusion of External Stakeholders: in case of  working in open context, microblogging with external application can help work with external stakeholders. Widening your search globally.

This all would depend if  R&D people are  working as a global team, or are they rather isolated individuals focusing on certain detail aspect- who do not really benefit from sharing, but from being able to concentrate, think and work by themselves.

Microblogging can also be disturbing – the team would need to agree about basic principles for using  microblogging. If only few persons are willing to share & participate – the benefits will not be accomplished, social media tools need a group of active people to participate in order to work. Would R&D team members be willing to change they communication practices?

There are different kind of possible benefits for new, recently hired people, more experienced people, people with wide contact networks etc. etc.  Networking skills & positive attitude for knowledge sharing can help. However, the team itself will create the practices and see the benefits as well. How  could microblogging system to created in such way – that information would flow freely, create natural patterns?  The patterns in the ice are frozen… like information in databases. Microblogging systems are more dynamic – like waves…  Interesting theme – that seems come up again and again…

Have to think more about this…  I would like to develop a short, practical guide for R&D teams, how to set up a successful microblogging activites. Perhaps with a short reality check of their working context, then easy step-by-step instructions how to start, quickly and example of agreed ways of working, that could be modified… a sanity check after a while – does it work, or not, or what  …    and try it all this out with some global teams.

Global Business Scenarios for 2020

Yesterday I had opportunity to attend EVA - Seminar introducing Global Business Scenarios for 2020. While the near future seems to be rather turbulent for global business, companies and individuals as well, it is good good to stop for a while and consider alternative future scenarios.

In his opening speech Jorma Ollila -Nokia’s and EVA’s Chairman, reminded that no one has capability to foresee and predict the future, however we need to consider alternatives and choose our activities so that we can have impact toward desired directions. “In the current challenging economic situation we cannot allow fear to paralyze our thinking.” Wide group of people from Finnish companies, and other institutions had participated in the scenario process, while alarming news from global business world were creating dark storm clouds all over the world, making the work even more essential.

The report introduces 4 alternative global scenarios-

* West Re-invents Itself - quick economic recovery and strong linkages of Europe &  US
* Chinese Capitalism – Asia takes the lead in the global business world
* Battle of the Blocks - long difficult recession with slow recovery – linkages between Europe &  Russia strengthened
*Stimulus &  Decline – long, ever lasting , economic crisis, – international conflicts & crisis, decline of international co-operation

It was very interesting to hear description & reflections of these alternative futures. And think what could this mean for the future of Nokia. No matter how the world changes – there will always be business opportunities!

The study also provided some aspects in the future that will be inevitable, no matter what scenario will be dominant …

* Globalization will remain important
* Role of China & India will increase … also Africa
* Energy consumption will keep growing
* World’s population will continue growing exponentially
* Growing average age of population in OECD countries
* The importance of food production will increase
* Public sector will be challenged by demands of effectiveness
* Technologies will develop with increasing speed
* Role of information networks & Social Media will increase
* Ecological view & role of environment will increase
* More emphasis on security on global, national, and individual level
* Need for competencies & innovation capabilities will be strengthened
* The battle for talent will be more intense & number of mobile global workforce will rise
* Business models will be renewed

The report (in Finnish ) is available from here.

Real Living & Living Labs

Have been looking into Living Labs lately – want to understand what are the origins, main elements and interconnections.

What is the essence of Living Labs?  To keep it simple fundamentally important elements include:

• Living …  bringing in people, real people: users, consumers, citizens, community members, stakeholders …   into realistic context. Creation of a social system, with interaction, discussion & active human behavior, creating & testing out new ideas & concepts products and services, social behavior, piloting & sharing new experiences, enriching experiments…        ..sounds like a good party
  
  … like the very nice dinner with Jim Kijima and his students in Tokyo May 2008…

• Lab …    research & development. Action research – social  research approaches and methods – observation, user testing… Capturing user ideas, needs and feedback during the early development stages and implementing them very early on in order to build in quality and usability into products, services, organizations, ways of working etc.
  

And how easy it is to dive into the sea of information… collecting Living Labs links to my Delicious account, examples around the world, networks, projects etc. all at my finger tips.  From Slideshare I found rather good EU report Living Labs for User Driven Open Innovation , other good presentations too.

Living Labs combine user, real contexts and new technology development. The concept has been originated from MIT,  which also provides a good practical example of Living Lab – PlaceLab.

The phenomena  itself – connecting people & technology & context – is achient. After the Second World War in the Tavistock Institute Fred Emery and Eric Trist introduced socio-technical systems, and widely discussed context as well. Their work included early stakeholder involvement and systemic view into development, – and system sciences have been addressing human interaction & early involvement since 1960’s.  Related approaches currently have many names – appreciate system, appreciative inquiry, and also Sir Geoffrey Vickers addressed this theme.  Russel Ackoff addressed the theme in his research projects and published several books.

It is intriguing to look into “new” phenomena – and combine that with  “old” ideas, models and theories from social sciences.  Even web search is rather easy – building linkages to the past still requires more time, reading & reflection & thinking.

Special spaces & special patterns & contradictions

Special places and patterns can be very delightful.

In our holiday in South Africa – patio by Ivory Tree Game Lodge and peaceful place by swimming pool at Kristiina’s house offered special places for morning yoga.

The special places can be every where, but do we recognize them, do we take time to enjoy them and do we remember them ?

In Kristiina’s garden I spotted heart shaped “for-get-me-nots”,  like the one I found last summer in our backyard. Little special patterns can also be all around us, but do we perceive them, do we stop to enjoy the beauty – are we able to remember our past experiences.

Contradictions of summer and winter strengthen experiences – opposites of cold and warm, light and darkness. Lately we have been enjoying snow and winter, skiing, skating, making snowmen, long walks by the sea around the nearby islands.

Each season has their own specialties – places and patterns.
Appreciating and enjoying them enriches life.

Things have been a bit hectic lately – taking time to stop and think, percieve and feel, stopping for an experience, delightful sight, sound or smell is fundamentally essential for enjoable life and learning.

Skating Lake Bodom January 2009

Amazingly nice weather over last weekend. We went skating to Lake Bodom, in north Espoo, and the ice was so smooth and clear, that you could see trough it, and the reflections were so clear.  There were quite a few people, yet plenty of space for all.

The nature offered also artistic experiences – small, delightful ice
sculptures,  tiny dog & bird figures and bubbles, captured in the ice. Days like this – I remember why I love winter time, and actually the differences allow us appreciate & enjoy more each season.

In the area there is Oittaa Centre, where you can rent skates, and skiing equipment, and if you dare – have a swim in the icy water. Below is winter swimming area – very cool and very refreshing, sauna facilities and restaurant area are very nice.

Things will be rather hectic during this spring. However, as a new year resolution, I will try to find also time capture some special moments and thoughts in my blog.

This is the first blog post to this with the new computer Dell Latitude XT Touch  Tablet PC , the user experience is just wonderful.  After 6 years of using IBM Think Pad, I wanted to try out something totally new.  Still learning some things of touch UI and Vista … will take some time to get the best out of this new set up.  But now it seems, I would not like to go back to traditional laptop…  Yet it is  a bit annoying that I have  boot the thing rather often, but so far benefits have been exceeding the problems. Tablet is really great for  Social Media.

Changing … sometimes it is sudden, sometimes is takes time

The environment can change so quickly – one day we had over 1/2 meter snow – and everything was changed. From the darkness to magical winter wonderland…

… and them after few days nearly all had melted, back to darkness, rain and slush.

So in the middle of this dark season – my old computer decided to retire, and demonstrated some serious signs and it was getting slower, and slower. Since warranty period was long gone, I got to order new computer. And now I’m so happy with my new computer. It is Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC – and it is so delightful and fun. But getting all things organized, it just takes time. Also learning new things related to Vista and Touch and pen UI  is experimental fun, yet time consuming.  This  is mostly exciting, but also frustrating at times.

One thing I noticed that really missed only after a couple of days, was my personalized Flock – browser. It makes web experience so much better, faster and more fun. And writing blogs easier …

At the same time when changing computers, I decided to improve some ways of working:  my personal information management practices, I promised myself to learn to use some new applications, and I’m even planning for some new years resolutions – trying out something new every day / week…  some many interesting things in social media, and so little time – lets see, how this will evolve.

This transfer period from old computer to new one seems to slow things down, maybe it is also good at this time of the year, when nature is slowing down as well.  There has been more time to think

The Art, Light and Darkness

This weeks seems to be celebration of light in its various forms. On Sunday night dinner, I noticed that one of the three candles looked quite special. This very small scale light show was over within few minutes. In pictures turned into amazing blue color.

On Tuesday evening I visited Irina Pått’s LumiDesign Gallery at Kaapeli.

It was dark, rainy, windy and cold November evening , and Irana’s gallery was delightful with variety of unique and beautiful lamps. Now one of them is bringing light and joy to our home. So here is my light art – Lumilyhty by Irina.

Wednesday by Tampere House – it was time for the first snow and special lighting made it even more special.

And today – in Kiasma the museum of modern art – there were 3 light installations – Green Light Corridor by Bruna Nauman, that turned large white exhibition hall into pink; Your inverted veto, by Olafur Eliasson, installation were change of light changed your perception of your context and Untitled by Dan Flavin, multicolored fluorescents light installation where the reflections of lights to each other are essential element of the whole.  Delightful and refreshing  experience!

In Kiasma there was an event organized by EVA - Finnish Business and Policy Forum – and theme of the evening was art, culture and business – new relationship of culture and business. Interesting discussions – one delightful example was Pilvi Takala’s Trainee with Deloitte. Berndt Arell, head of Kiasma, told that also Nokia will work together with Kiasma more intensively in the future. Looking forward !

EFQM Forum – Day 1 – Live Blogging

Here is link to the Live blogging session from EFQM – Forum Day 1.

Click Here

The conference site does not have WiFi – access so I will try out blogging with the 3G connection with my communicator E90.

Monday we had “Web 2.0″ dinner at K10 sushi bar at La Dome, after we had agreed about practicalities for Tuesday presentation. There were different dishes on colorful plates circulating around in a conveyor belt – and we tried out various dishes, and gave recommendations to each other.

It was fun and entertaining, each could select based on own taste and use recommendations of others if they wanted. All was priced based on colors of plates. Social event – social media – this time in face-to-face setting- yet elements of recommendations & voting, visibility, sharing were there…

Testing out a-live blogging with Cover-It-Live

I recently saw Roo’s posting from Virtual World London conference with Cover-It-Live – blogging application – so I decided to give it a try – I’m attending the 20th EFQM Forum conference in Paris – so I’ll be trying out live blogging here. Yet an other experiment …

Click Here

… to see my trial session. It seems to be easier than I thought …

Heart shaped stones – home is where your heart is

Heart shaped stones – from walks by the beach, from Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Tomi and I collected sea shells, small round stones, and heart shaped stones on long walks by the beach during summers 2001 & 2002.

The white stone is from Pikisaari, Lappeenranta. Close by where my mother lives, from walks around the island, summer 2007.

And I was so happy to find this picture of heart shaped stones in my favorite home decoration shop – Kokoro in Maplewood, New Jersey, while visiting friends there after 4 years we moved from there back to Finland.

So I was again so happy, actually thrilled to find a huge heart shaped stone in our backyard last weekend, for me it has such a special meaning and many good connected memories, from summer walks. Sometimes unexpected treasures can be found closer than we think. Home is where your heart is!

Tags: Life, garden