by Bill Ives
February 17, 2009 at 11:29 am · Filed under
FASTforward'09
There was a lot of discussion of twitter at the FastForward 09 conference. Sitting in several airport waiting rooms on my return to Boston, I was reminded of when I worked for a large consulting firm and I would go to work on airplanes. On a number of assignments I would go to a large firm located in small places. This meant that many of the people in the airport waiting area were consultants from a variety of firms. I was always amazed that many of our competitors would openly discuss their client experiences and their sales approach to the client in the airport waiting area in a loud or, at least normal voice. Without trying, we could hear what they were doing. Now they could have been supplying misinformation but I doubt this was the case.
This also happens on occasion on cell phones in the airport and even on the plane itself. Now Twitter opens up a whole new way to give away your company secrets to anyone anywhere who wants to listen. I was talking with a marketing person who subscribes to his competitors Twitter feeds. He finds that they often discuss recent sales calls on Twitter. He can then forward the competitive intelligence on to the appropriate people in his sales force. Again, misinformation could be supplied but I think this would be counterproductive for a number of obvious reasons. This is the same type of blindness that the Ketchum PR guy demonstrated. However, it is magnified as there are even more audiences that you do not want with this type of information.
Now I am not against Twitter. I am starting to use it more and now use TweetDeck. I am just amazed how some people do not understand its power but then I guess it should not surprise me based on my airport waiting area experience.
Post script – The Economist recently wrote on How Twitter stopped a coup. One of the losing side said, “Be authentic on Twitter…But still keep a frickin’ secret when you need to.”
by Hylton Jolliffe
February 13, 2009 at 2:09 pm · Filed under
FASTforward'09
See below for a final update to the list of the excellent interviews conducted by Josh-Michéle Ross at FASTforward’09.
(Interested in more of the same or comparing commentary from years past to the interviews from the 2009 conference? Josh carries on the proud tradition of outstanding discussions hosted at FASTforward conferences – by Jerry Michalski in 2008 and David Weinberger in 2007.)
Geoffrey Cubitt, CTO, Roundarch
Jeffrey Dachis, enterprise social technology startup
Jørn Ellefsen, CEO, Comperio
Sue Feldman, research vice president, Content Technologies Group, IDC
Christian Finn, product manager, Sharepoint, Microsoft
Brooks Gibbins, Financial Services Enterprise Search Group, Microsoft
Rob Helm, director of research, Directions on Microsoft
Jon Husband, social computing thought leader and architect
Bill Ives, blog consultant and FASTforward blog contributor
Sandy Kemsley, BPM analyst
Kamran Khan, president and CEO of Search Technologies
Kirsti Kierulf, Director, The Fast Innovation Center and Director, Innovation, Technology, and Learning, Accenture
Peter Kim, enterprise social technology startup
Venkat Krishnamoorthy, Head of Investment and Advisory Platform Development, Thomson Reuters
Kirk Koenigsbauer, general manager, office business platform, product management group, Microsoft
Charlene Li, Altimeter Group
Jevon MacDonald, founder of Firestoker and FASTforward blog contributor
Jim McGee, managing director of New Shoreham Consulting and contributor to the FASTforward blog
Joe McKendrick, author, independent analyst and contributor to the FASTforward blog
Lynda Moulton, lead analyst for enterprise search, The Gilbane Group
Bjørn Olstad, distinguished engineer, Microsoft and CTO, FAST
Robert Paterson, social media consultant and contributor to the FASTforward blog
Bhupesh Pattni, search specialist with News International
Daniel Rasmus, director of business insights, Microsoft Business Division, Microsoft
Valentin Richter, managing director and founder of Raytion
Tom Rizzo, director of SharePoint product management
Euan Semple, independent advisor on social computing
Clay Shirky, author, consultant, professor
Matt Skone, senior software engineer, LexisNexis
Walton Smith, senior associate, Booz Allen
Perry Solomon, director, product management, Enterprise Search Group, Microsoft
Jared Spataro, director, Enterprise Search, Microsoft
Mark Stone, practice lead, Enterprise Search, EMC Consulting
Paula Thornton, experience design strategist and contributor to the FASTforward blog
Nate Treloar, search evangelist, Microsoft
Pekka Viljakainen, Executive VP of Tieto
by Joshua-Michéle Ross
February 12, 2009 at 12:53 pm · Filed under
FASTforward'09, FFC09 Interviews
Euan, who participated in the wrap-up panel discussion at FASTforward’09 with Jevon, Jon, and Lynda, discusses his effort at the BBC, as director of knowledge management, and since to put the emphasis on “connecting people and helping them have conversations with each other [rather] than about helping them search for other people’s badly written, out of date documents.” Euan touches on the sophisticated and subtle ways in which people search, find and use information, the “non-trivial” challenge of getting employees to engage, who’s often purchasing and owning the products that companies are using (and the attendant downside of that), and more.
BIO: Euan Semple is an independent advisor on social computing for business. He is a well known writer, thinker and public speaker on the subject and in recognition of his many accomplishments he was voted Information Professional Of The Year (2005) by Information World Review. Euan pioneered the use of weblogs, wikis and online forums while at the BBC and his work there continues to enable staff to work more effectively and more collaboratively across the entire organisation. While at the BBC Euan also worked on their award winning leadership programme and gained unparalleled experience in how to engage and inspire people with the possibilities of social computing as a business tool. Since going independent Euan has worked with wide range of clients including the NHS, BP, AIG Insurance, Bell Pottinger PR, ARM Processor Design Cambridge and Scottish Enterprise. He has also run workshops for The World Health Organisation, the UN and The British Council. He can be reached at euansemple.com and his blog is The Obvious?.
by Joshua-Michéle Ross
February 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm · Filed under
FASTforward'09, FFC09 Interviews
Christian weighs in, from a Microsoft perspective, on the rise of social computing in the enterprise and its implications for organizations. As he and others note, consumer adoption of social sites and tools have put pressure on companies to contend with new issues, think hard on how to provide such services to their employees, and wrestle with their concerns about losing control. But, says Christian here, the reality is corporations don’t actually work in that hierarchical construct and that it’s a false mental model to say they ever really did. He goes on to discuss the benefits of unlocking these tools and technologies, how social computer in the enterprise is enabling knowledgeable people within organizations to connect and surface useful information, and suggests that the theme of the conference – “Engage Your User” – might even be a “half-note” off… That it’s more about creating an environment where users can engage each other and help themselves and their organizations.
by Joshua-Michéle Ross
February 12, 2009 at 11:59 am · Filed under
FASTforward'09, FFC09 Interviews
Kamran talks about his company, issues of security as it relates to search, and how search can grapple with huge volumes of data being created by customers such as the U.S. government.
BIO: Kamran Khan is the President and CEO of Search Technologies. In addition to Search Technologies, he has developed and led international sales, marketing, engineering, and customer support units at ArtinSoft, Convera Corporation and its predecessor Excalibur Technologies, and PAFEC Ltd. before its acquisition by SER Systems. A native of Manchester, Kamran earned a B.S. degree with honors in aeronautical engineering from Manchester University.
