Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

Radio Silence - But Still Here

I've been neglecting my blogging duties of late... Sorry for that. Chalk it up to no shortage of exciting things going on. I was hoping for a lull following the oh-so successful EMC World 2010... No rest for the weary, I'm afraid ;)

One of the things keeping me busy is finishing up my story for next weeks Social Media Summit presented by Cisco and Ragan Communications. I plan to walk attendees through lessons learned during our journey to become a socially-savvy brand. Perhaps we'll see you there?

During EMC World, we managed to connect with some folks from the Worcester Telegram who were keen to learn a bit more about our just how much we've embraced and encourage the use of social at EMC. In contrast to other brands who have yet to begin their respective journeys, these folks were surprised to see Social Media as a very cornerstone of the EMC World event itself.

Much going on, and piles to share... Just a question of digitizing thoughts. Stay tuned ;)

EMC World 2009

My how the time flies. Seems like it was a few short months ago that we were talking about EMC World 2008. Well, here we are again - EMC World 2009 is fast approaching.

If you haven't registered yet, you can still take advantage of early registration discounts... A chance to connect with industry peers, chat technology and strategy with your favorite EMC'ers, and even take in a show with the Gin Blossoms. What could possibly be cooler? Well, I'm glad you asked!

We're considering creating a Bloggers Lounge for our bloggin', Twitterin', Yammerin, Utter'in, Friendfeedin'... crowd. A 'members only' place where passionate 2.0 types can get together, hang out in a comfortable and cool atmosphere, mix and mingle with like-minded folks and perhaps get some 'special perks' designed just for them.

The truth is, we appreciate the heck out of those who talk about the EMC brand... Those that blog about our products and services, or connect via Twitter or other tools to discuss better ways to innovate and collaborate with us. Our virtual network has exploded in the past couple of years, and we're in violent agreement that reaching out and saying thanks to these folks falls in the right thing to do category.

So, if you'll be @ World this year, and are interested in being part of our special little club, drop a line. You can leave something in the comments section or DM me on Twitter @LenDevanna.

I'll be there, and would VERY much like to connect and learn a bit more about you.

See you in Orlando!

UPDATE: More info on this... Come sing up for some cool here.

Future of the Social Web Roundtable

Last week, Jeremiah selected a group of 40 or so individuals representing both the demand and supplier side of the social web. A rather impressive list of brands represented, including EMC, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, Intel, Webex, Wells Fargo, Nokia, Cadence, Juniper and more. On the supplier side, folks from Jive, Google, EMC, Newsgator, Pluck, WebTrends, Biz 360, Telligent, Lithium, etc;. A shout out to the gang @ SAP for making us feel so at home at SAP Labs.

This was a rather unique event. Walking in, Jeremiah asked attendees to focus on three primary objectives for the day...

• Discuss, debate and collaborate to come up with four key predictions for the social web, as well as associated obstacles and solutions
• Drive discussions with vendors... This was surprisingly fun
• Through our discussions, help Jeremiah better understand our needs, desires and challenges

First off, the opportunity to get in a room with a group of vendors in this space and have an open and honest dialogue was phenomenal. Such discussions are generally held for more of a 1x1 setting with the vendor or at a booth at a trade show. I have to imagine that this was particularly valuable on the vendor side - getting such a cross section of the fortune 500 together in a room and getting unfiltered desires and directions had to be invaluable. I'd like to see more of this... I truly think it was win win for consumers and suppliers alike.

Having had a few days now to process the discussions, one thing really sticks out in my mind.. Check out Jeremiah's comprehensive recap of the event. Note in particular the four group predictions... Three of the four are all about corporate culture... Only one is a technology issue.

It's not that the cultural issues surprise me, we've talked about them here at great length in past posts. Rather, the depth and consistency from such a broad cross section of eBusiness leaders. Regardless of what stage of deployment you're in - regardless of how technically robust your community offering - corporate culture is the number one blip on everyones radar. 

It's hard to skip out of the office for a day... Harder to check the laptop and iPhone at the door and ignore the onslaught of inbound emails. But, these discussions are priceless. The opportunity to sit down with a large group of peers and discuss our collective challenges and how we're all working through them is invaluable. Jeremiah - thanks for pulling it together and we're looking forward to see how this information surfaces itself in your research.

The Changing Face of the Enterprise

I attended my first Office 2.0 event last week. Kudos to Ismael for orchestrating this three-day shindig. Safe to say there was no shortage of interesting people and conversations.

I was thrilled when asked to participate on a panel around 'The Changing Face of the Enterprise". Jive Software's Sam Lawrence moderated the discussion and I was joined by Greg Biggers (Chordiant) and Michael Pusateri (Disney).

Each of these companies are in different stages of deploying internal communities. What was most interesting to hear about was the specific challenges presented in each of the phases of community deployment... In a pre discussion, Sam suggested that we @ EMC were on the mature side of our implementation. I had to chuckle as, while we've done some neat stuff, there's still SO much to do and learn... Everything is relevant, I suppose. Chatting with some of the other attendees, I realize that we've indeed made a lot of progress - and are beginning to realize some of the benefits of 2.0 proficiency.

ZDNet picked up the clip below.

The entire panel is also available at the Office 2.0 site - but a couple of folks have reported problems with the video (likely firewall rules)...

Twitter as a Business Tool?

From past posts, you may know that we've been exploring different ways to leverage Twitter as a business Tool. We've set up Tweet accounts for EMCCorp, EMCWorld and a few others. We used Twitter as a tool to communicate with attendees at our recent EMC World event. As recently as this morning, I was discussing the validity of Twitter as a business tool with one of our senior executives.

I can certainly appreciate the complexities of introducing new tools, especially when adoption of said tool is quite high - perhaps beyond expectations. However, I've been experiencing more and more issues of late. Yes, I've been following the Twitter blog - and I know the team is working it. However, it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to tout Twitter as a relevant and legitimate tool while such issues continue to plague. I've seen the infamous 'over capacity' screen at least 5 times this morning.

Our EMC World experiment with Twitter was a good one. Twitter adoption among attendees wasn't as high as I would have expected, but there were enough to make the experiment interesting. We were fortunate not to experience any major issues during the week long event... But, if things had been as unstable as they seem to have been in recent days, I'd have considerable egg on face and would be backing away from my attempts to legitimize the tool in the enterprise.

The current state of the state may be fine for casual users... But really needs to tighten up if enterprise adoption is a desirable outcome for the team.

 

EMC World Begins

Today's the big day. Following a concert by the Goo Goo Dolls last night, EMC World kicks off in full swing this morning with an action packed agenda over the next few days. I'll be watching activities in real time via Twitter and following thoughts from employee and attendees alike via #EMCWorld @ Hashtags.org.

Some neat media is starting to surface. This one caught my eye and I thought you'd enjoy it. more to come over the course of the week. Of course, many more cool vids available over at the EMC Channel on YouTube.

MVP for a Day

I'm realizing more and more that physical internal events can really help build awareness around the opportunities afforded through Social Media. There's certainly no shortage of passion and interest - so the trick becomes providing the right level of information such that the energy is channeled in a productive way. We've been doing this through our Lunch n' Learn events - But took it to another level this week.

On Monday, we were fortunate to serve as host for Microsoft community executive and CEO/Founder of CGT Consulting, Sean O'Driscoll. I've been following Sean for quite some time, and consider him among the top thought-leaders in this space.

We'd posted an open invite to the event on our internal community platform - and it filled almost immediately. Based on strong interest from our global audience, we extended to a LiveMeeting and had healthy international representation.

I'd say the event was a huge success...