Click here to view the embedded video.

The Ignite format uses 20 slides which auto-advance every 15 seconds making the presentation length a total of five minutes. The next Ignite/LA will be held on Monday, June 7th in Santa Monica. You can now register online.

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And the lifestream is precisely where Flavors.me excels. As they describe themselves, “Flavors.me allows anyone to create an elegant website using personal content from around the internet.”

I read (briefly) about Flavors.me in one of the feeds that I scan, but when I saw Bryan Harney tweeted about Flavor.me, I decided to check it out.

The service very simply and elegantly does what it sets out to do — creating a portal to your presence on various social networks. You can upload a background, tweak the colors and fonts and configure which services you want to connect to and share. There’s no direct interactivity, but in my view, that’s a good thing. If someone wants to comment on your Flickr photostream or retweet that clever quote, they can click through to the source service and do it there.

The best way to “get” Flavors.me is to poke around and try it, but if you’re timid about sharing, Flavors.me creator Jack Zerby has posted a terrific video overview.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now go check out my Flavors.me site, and then give it a try!

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If your business, web site or service is not leveraging social media, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to extend your reach. But what exactly is social media, and what can it do for you from a business perspective? The following slide show provides a clear, well-defined explanation.

Is your company using social media? How? Or why not?

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Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.

Scott Berkun provides a terrific overview of what Ignite is and why you should give it a try, and it’s in Ignite format (of course).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since I first learned about Ignite, I’ve been itching to give the format a try. Most of the presentations I’ve given in the past at conferences have been 30-60 minutes in length. The idea of using just five minutes to get your point across in a compelling way is exciting.

Ignite has finally come to Los Angeles with help from geek dinner, and I’m going to be one of 13 people standing up and presenting at the inaugural Ignite LA event. I’ll be speaking on something that I’m passionate about–nurturing virtual communities behind the enterprise firewall. Sexy, if you’re a social media geek in an enterprise world.

If you are in the Los Angeles area and want to drop in to check it out, you can RSVP here. Admission is free, and there will be booze and food available. Drink up. I’m much more entertaining after you’ve had a few cold ones.

Related posts:

1. Communities Behind the Firewall Last July, I spoke at the inaugural Ignite/LA on the...
2. Extra-Enterprise Knowledge Management Knowledge management is commonly understood as an enterprise initiative, usually...

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So what is Office 2.0?

For starters, it’s the name of the conference described on the web site as “…a collective experiment organized every year in San Francisco, CA and aimed at discovering the future of online productivity & collaboration. It is a unique gathering of visionaries, thought leaders, and customers using innovative online services for getting things done at the office, at home, and on the go.”

Wikipedia describes Office 2.0 as “…a marketing neologism representing the concepts of office productivity applications as published applications rather than stand-alone programs. The term leverages the Web 2.0 concept to conjure imagery of collaborative, community based and centralised effort rather than the more traditional application running on a platform locally.”

So just as Web 2.0 embraces the community and user-generated content, Office 2.0 explores new ways of working in a primarily online, collaborative environment.

I’ve seen firsthand success with collaborative online communities, particularly with the online, community-centric approach Fluor has taken with knowledge management. Distributed ownership, administration and accountability, coupled with a culture that encourages every voice to be heard has proven to be not only extremely effective, but essential to success.

In the spirit of “eating your own dogfood” the conference is paperless. Instead, each participant is given an HP 2133 Mini-Note running Linux, with wireless access to all of the tools necessary during the conference: Google Apps for email and calendaring; ClearSpace for discussions, blogging and publishing; Zoho for presentations and so on. On Wednesday, we will split into teams and respond to a simulated enterprise crisis in which we’ll put all these tools to work to solve the problem.

I’m looking forward to meeting others who are applying these concepts to support their business strategy, and learning innovative ways to stimulate similar success throughout the enterprise.

The Challenge

Probably the largest challenge to Office 2.0 is breaking down the barriers put up by IT Czars and establishing trusted, reliable ways to work outside the firewall and in the cloud. Most enterprises are leery, and rightly so, of putting their eggs in someone else’s basket. It will be interesting to see how other companies are tackling this issue.

Check back here and via Twitter, and I will keep you posted throughout the week from Office 2.0.

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One of the things I like best so far is the ability to auto-update plug-ins via FTP. It worked perfectly, and simplifies the process tremendously.

So far, the only plug-in that I’m not able to get running with 2.5 is also unfortunately one of my favorites: Ankur Kathari’s Gregarious social bookmarking plug-in. Everything else has worked like a charm!

Already running an older version of WordPress? Here are the famous three-step upgrade instructions.

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read more | digg story

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Stephanie Booth has summarized the salient points on what keeps people from diving into the social software pool:

Low-level fear of social humiliation. How are they going to come across to their peers and bosses? Fear of making mistake. People don’t realise they’re afraid, they just feel a bit uncomfortable talking /publicly/ to their collegues. E-mail is different because it feels private, it’s 1-1 communication. You’re not exposing yourself as much. People become “shy” when you give them a very public place to work.

Also, some people aren’t comfortable in writing. Some are better talkers than writers, and are not comfortable writing in a semi-formal environment. E-mail is more informal. Blogs and wikis are perceived as requiring a higher level of writing skill. Again, people don’t admit to this.

This doesn’t happen in very open organisations, but often if permission isn’t explicitly given to use such tools, that will really get in the way. “Blogs as diaries”, etc — psychological mismatch. What the boss /thinks/ blogs are, and what they are used for in business.

Trust in the tool. “So you mean anybody can change my stuff?” for wikis. “Can I stop them?” Not comfortable trusting the content placed in such tools, and the tools themselves. “What if the tool loses everything?”

Will the tool still be around in one or two years? If we pour our data into this wiki, am I going to just lose everything if management pulls it down?

Many people just don’t see the point. See social software as something they need to do /in addition/ to what they’re already doing. Parallel with KM disasters.

As you can see, implementing a new work process is less about “the tool” (easy, free) and more about changing the culture of the organization. What’s the key to success? There is no single recipe for all organizations, but one of the most useful approaches is to make sure the leaders use these technologies themselves. People pay attention to what their leaders do. Of course, this implies that your organization has leaders, and not just managers.

Thanks to Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspirations for the tip on Suw’s presentation.

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read more | digg story

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Right now, the channels are somewhat limited, but if you’ve got the hardware to support Joost, you might want to check it out. And if you want to check it out, I just so happen to have three invites to the private beta.

Leave me a comment if you’re interested (you’ll get extra points for creativity!).

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Regardless of where you stand, Michael Agger has written an interesting little article at Slate titled What Are You Doing? The Allure of Twitter, the Latest Web Sensation. I still prefer Jaiku over Twitter, but the Twitter is where the people are.

Of course, if you check my Twitter archive, you’ll notice a downward participation trend. Maybe the wave has crested?

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It’s a fascinating way to watch the world spin right before your eyes. Go there now.

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Twitter is one of those up-and-comers that’s getting an inordinate share of buzz. Of course it doesn’t hurt when you have some rather high profile techies playing with it. Of course, I had to give it a test drive.

So what is Twitter? The story is best told from the horse’s mouth:

Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives.  Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away.  Curious people can make friends.  Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

Clear as mud?

In many ways, it reminds me of the rather crude shoutbox I’ve seen on sites for ages. The premise is that you tell your friends (or the world, if you choose) what you are doing — all in 140 characters or less. Why the character limit? Because text messaging is one of the primary methods of posting your activity. Of course, you can also use instant messaging, or the web site, or something like The Icon Factory’s Twitteriffic (if you’re running OS X).

You can also put a badge on your blog or website so others can see what you and your friends are up to. I’m using Sarah Issacson’s Twitter sidebar widget for WordPress — you’ll see it in the right-hand column under the heading What am I doing?

Aside from sharing what I’m doing (as if anyone really cares), you can also see what I’ve done, or what other people are doing.

Of course, Twitter couldn’t be a self-respecting Web 2.0 project without some dimension of social networking or community. Yes, you can link yourself with other Twitter users, establishing contacts, and following their activities. The activities of the people you are following (the language is eerily stalker-ish) are sent to you according to your preferences. They can be displayed on your blog via a badge, or sent via IM or even text message to your mobile phone.

You can also send private messages to your contacts, or nudge them when they haven’t shared what they’re doing in a while. Hmm… maybe parents could use this to keep tabs on their txt-crazy kids.

Twitter began as a side project at Odeo less than a year ago, and had grown by leaps and bounds. There isn’t any apparent monetization yet, although it’s easy to picture the updates including targeted, 140 character adverts. “Your friend Jeff liked this… you might like it too! Click here to buy now.” For now, they are building market share, and really creating a new market where none previously existed.

My friend Tintin in Shanghai took a look at Twitter and her initial comment was “What a waste of time.” And yet, she signed up. What’s the attraction? Equal parts of buzz factor, simplicity, and fun. After all, we all need to waste a little time now and then.

Take a look at Twitter and let me know what you think? Does it pique your curiousity?

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