Bookmarks for January 6th through January 10th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

  • A Democracy of Netbooks – "We have produced a democracy of netbooks. And the geek in me can't wait to see what happens next. "
  • Thingamy with ESME points to where enterprise 2.0 is heading – "I believe the combination is a big step forward for Sig's solution, as well as representing one of several approaches that signpost the direction of enterprise 2.0, or enterprise collaboration for 2010. It's all about linking collaboration to process."
  • ESME – "enterprise microsharing in a process context"
  • Legislation needed for local government to reduce costs by sharing back office functions – "Local authorities will not reduce costs and make significant savings by sharing back office functions without further government legislation, finds a new report. The obligatory introduction of regional or multi-local authority shared services would remove the need to build political consensus and address cultural resistance to the concept, says Deloitte."
  • MPs’ Expenses Consultation – Great work by @harrym and team
  • ongoing · Doing It Wrong – "The community of developers whose work you see on the Web, who probably don’t know what ADO or UML or JPA even stand for, deploy better systems at less cost in less time at lower risk than we see in the Enterprise. This is true even when you factor in the greater flexibility and velocity of startups."
  • BBC College of Journalism – Skills – Video Journalism – Tips on using video for journalism from the Beeb.

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious.

Formspring

Formspring seems a neat little service.

Formspring

It creates a profile for you on which people can ask questions, either anonymously or by logging in.

Questions don’t become publicly published though until you decide they are worth answering, so there is the possibility for a bit of quality control there.

Also what’s neat is that you can integrate it with a few different social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook, so you can ensure people in those spaces get to see your answers.

What’s more, you can grab some embed code so people can submit questions to you from any website or blog.

I can see a potential use for this simple technology for politicians to answer questions in public from citizens. Am sure there are plenty of others too – any ideas?

Here’s my profile. Feel free to try out asking a question on it. I might answer, if you aren’t too rude 😉

Social processes

The following presentation was linked to by Dennis Howlett, who said:

The…slideshow from Mark Masterson makes the point that when dealing with exceptions, the best tools available to us are the knowledge that resides in people’s heads. Ergo – the argument goes: implement social software as a way of capturing that information for current/later use. I don’t have a problem with this except that as currently iterated, most of the tools represent yet another IT silo outside the process flow. Even so, I’d encourage folk like Mark to keep refining their thinking so that critics like myself stand a chance of being persuaded.

Being up to date

James Gardner has a good post on staying up to date. His point is that if you don’t bother to follow the latest developments – which might mean doing so in your own, not work, time – then you’re going to be left behind:

2010 is going to be a performance – not an experience – competition. That’s why I said the other day that I think people who are connected are going to get all the rewards this year. It’s going to be about making things happen, and that means you need an in-between.

‘In-between’ is James’ term for the time spent doing kind-of worky stuff at home. That might be reading work related books, or blogs for example. It could be tinkering with stuff – or it could even be just thinking.

This resonates with me. When I had a proper job in local government, I’d do my job, then get home and spend at least a couple of hours a night reading, scanning the web for new, interesting stuff and blogging about it. I’d play with technology, trying things out – most of which didn’t work, but some things did.

When talking about using the web as a tool to improve government, a response is often that people don’t have time to engage with all the content that is online. I usually make up something conciliatory as a response, that perhaps if something is useful, then you find time – or that you replace less productive activity with the new ways of working.

But the brutal truth is that if you don’t find the time in your schedule, which may or may not be when you are at home, or perhaps on the train, or whenever, then there is a chance you’ll be left behind. Someone will be doing it, and they will know stuff you don’t.

This could well end up being a problem for you.

Bookmarks for January 4th through January 6th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

  • Enterprise 2.0: Totally Unacceptable – I don't agree, but the challenge is good: 'Too often I hear Enterprise 2.0 positioned as a technology set that represents a better way of getting things done. It doesn’t. Despite what mavens may say, it never has and never will. That’s because of itself and even with technology adopted, you gain nothing of substance without context and process. All you gain is more content. That is why I have always argued that content without context in process is meaningless.'
  • Phil Bradley’s weblog: A digital native in a wooden world – A marvelous post on change and the need for people to innovate and improve, told through a compelling story. Great blogging from Phil Bradley.
  • Legal halt for Easy Council plans – "Running an airline, however, is possibly less complex than navigating a few hundred years of local government evolution and legislation."
  • Top Intranets Embrace Mobile Accessibility and Social Networking – ReadWriteEnterprise – Intranets are becoming a higher priority for organizations. Intranet teams are growing in size, and the best of them are embracing new trends such as mobile accessibility and social networking.
  • oneDrum – "oneDrum is a free, lightweight desktop application that can turn any application into a rich, collaborative environment."

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious.

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