Blog Spot

Matt Henkes, editor of special projects at Sift Media, reports on the first day highlights of the Unicom Web 2.0 conference.

The enthusiasm in the room for social networking and all other things Web 2.0 was palpable on day one of this year's Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference, organised by Unicom, in October.

A high quality line-up of speakers delivered numerous nuggets of networking knowledge, extolling the virtues of social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, denouncing the time-wasting properties of email as a communication tool and educating a lively audience on the benefits for businesses of utilising networking systems internally. But participants didn't just have to take their word for it as renowned KM expert David Gurteen invited participants to constantly discuss and debate the findings among themselves and the experts.

Ex-BBC internet guru Euan Semple kicked the day off in a thought provoking manner, encouraging the audience to get their people "talking to each other about what they’re thinking", using social tools.

Semple towed the Web 2.0 line with both hands, lamenting businesses' common reaction to the term social networking. "Social shouldn't be thought of as separate from business," he said. "Business is all about relationships, meaning that any comparison of social versus business is a false juxtaposition."

Be aware of the digital divide between people who get it and people who don't, he added. "Be passionate about how you encourage your organisation to use social tools, but be gentle about how you suggest it."

Another notable presentation of the day came from Liesa Reichelt, who claimed: "Twitter is not a waste of time". Twitter allows users to post 140 character updates about what they're doing at any time, and allows other users to comment on their status. You can find KnowledgeBoard here.

It could be suggested that she was preaching to the converted but her analysis of how the not-quite-as popular-as-Facebook networking site has improved her life seemed to strike a chord with the audience, with everyone I spoke to afterwards vowing to try it out when they got home.

The charismatic Luis Suarez delivered a nice round-up of how he was confident enough not only to suggest that his IBM department ditch their use of email, he managed not to lose his job over it, and was even able to implement it. "Email is just another tool," he raged. "Not THE tool!".

In his own individual style, he explained how email is basically rubbish at keeping up relationships within communities. Note to self, if you want to reach Suarez, for the love of God don't try and email him - catch him on Twitter, you're much more likely to get a response!

The classic fear for large companies in allowing their employees to work like this is the loss of control over who says what to who. "But companies have to trust their employees," says Suarez. "They hired them because they're professionals, so trust them as professionals."

Perhaps easier said than done. But he also issued a word of warning for cynics of this message: this is how the employees of the future are going to communicate as youngsters today are experts in Web 2.0. "If you're going to be successful in the future, this is a train you're going to have to catch," he said.

You can learn more about speaker and independent social software consultant Suw Charman-Anderson's thoughts on solving the email problem here. Peter Bond has also put together a guide: Improved collective performance: Investing in Web 2.0.

Previous blogs:

- In Turning the page in knowledge transfer, Paul Corney, managing partner, Sparknow, has a fresh perspective on museums, libraries and archives when looking at the next steps in KT.

- In a time when the internet age has fuelled an information glut, Rendt Gorter discusses why he believes KM can lead to chaos.

- In an exclusive blog for KnowledgeBoard, Shashi Kadapa, CEO of activemuse.com, looks at our 'fast food' approach to KM... 

- Knowledge manager Mary Abraham discusses the hunt for 'star' workers in Building a Great Knowledge Management Team in her regular 'Above and Beyond KM' column.

- Let’s All Play the Brain Drain Game!, from Dr Dan’s Daily Dose, takes a wry look at the "process" to "capture knowledge".