My Webcom 2009 in a few words

You may have a few ideas of what I liked at webcom if you followed my twitts yesterday, but before going deeper into each topic into future posts, here’s what I found really interesting. Some thoughts, ideas, favorites in a jumble

• Don’t refuse abnormality because it’s tomorrow’s normality. Cycles from the one to the other are getting shorter and shorter. Companies have to understand what something that is abnormal today means. It’s, once again, a matter of culture and its impact on decision making and organizational performance.

• “Open is the future”. Open stack, open mesh, open social.. But there are cases when, according to me, it can be counter productive. Anyway it’s the best (and only ?) mean to fight against personal fragmentation on many social platforms, private or corporate, and to turn into a platform centric world into a people centric one. Everything can be portable, not everything must be. Toward an “open governance” ?

• Turning the pyramid model into a network. Nice, I wrote about that this morning. But this just don’t happen by luck and a preliminary analysis is desirable. I was really impressed by Jessica Lipnack (Netage) presentations and the use of the l’Orgscope. According to me it’s an essential approach to design an enterprise 2.0 project, knowing that it as to articulate with the actual corporate structure and its purpose which is to produce, deliver processes. But it implies a deep understanding of how things are actually getting done today.

• Then came the “usual suspect”. Companies are facing challenges that will force them to adopt new tools. Even if there’s nothing new for those who know him, Claude’s approach, relying on demographic, sociological elements and cross-generation dynamics is still relevant. More than the “2.0″ dream that relies on unexpected serendipity miracles. Another traditional issue is open innovation about which Innocentive is still relevant according to its deep experience and their record of achievements.

• And a little “family touch to end. The very refreshing presentation made by Cyrille de Lasteyrie (CEO  Hellotipi) had two interests. The first was to show how a strong message could be delivered through storytelling without mentionning a product or service. The second is that he made us think about the sociological dimension of social media, about people’s concerns about privacy an about cross-generations dynamics that are made possible by massive social media adoption within the society. I have no doubt that businesses will have a lot to learn  to what will happen in these family networks because the person that walks though his office’s door is the same than the one who shares pictures of his baby with his family. Beyond constrained behavioral changes, his expectations and fears remain the same in his mind.

A last word about the conference itself. Wifi worked perfectly well what does not happen so often in such events. But it was a pity for all those who couldn’t attend that the streaming didn’t work (but all the videos will be put online soon).

It was my second time at webcom (always in may…I’m affraid of the weather at the november session ;-) ). I attend very few conferences to protect myself from the “bowl” effect : always being with people who think like you often makes you forget the “real enterprise”. Here, a lot of “real” people, looking for answers to their concerns, I really had the impression that something is transmitted instead of self-contragulating among “experts”. Of course, there were the speeches (interesting, no bla-bla that only highlight the speaker without any value for the audience), the business contacts…but also a human contact with the people, the city, I hardly find elswhere. A business event that makes you feel well is so rare…

It’s really worth crossing the ocean. Anyway, we don’t have such a “web, business and enterprise” conference in France. A real pity.

Entreprise 2.0, hiérarchie, innovation participative, montreal, netAge, open innovation, organigrammes, organisation, orgscope, réseaux-sociaux, web-2.0, webcom, webcom2009,décision,performance organisationnelle,

Webcom is next wednesday

After having been a speaking last year, I’ll be attending Webcom Montreal as “official blogger”. This year again the schedule is very promising.

I’ve almost decided what speeches I’m going to listen (some choices have still to be made because some of them will occur at the same time).

Since I’ve never liked live blogging (no need to write deep analysis, lack of hindsight), I think I will :

• Make a live coverage on twitter (make sure you’re follwing me at  http://www.twitter.com/bduperrin if not done already).

• In the following days and weeks, deeper analysis of things that grab my attention.

• Maybe some interviews of….whom I want

I’ll try to publish my own schedule on tuesday evening in order you know when you need to follow me…or not.

By the way, which speeches would you attend if you were there ? Which of them are right into you concerns ? Maybe your inputs will help me to make my choices…

Enterprise 2.0, Management 2.0, HR 2.0 and Culture 2.0 according to Jon Husband

As I wrote earlier, for most of Webcom audience, Jon Husband’s Keynote was the most impressive (actually it seems he enjoyed it too)

Jon had the kindness to send me his slides so I can share some of them with you.

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Webcom in review

Here are the key ideas I’d like to point out from the Webcom conference in Montreal.

Honor to whom honor is due, let’s start with Andrew McAfee. I’m not sure people who have been following him for years did really learn anything new. But those who just begin to try to get into the enterprise 2.0 must have had an excellent global overview of the new challenges their companies will have to face in the coming years.

Well, anyway there are some points I found interesting.

Perharps I’m being mistaken but it seems to me he improved if definition of enterprise 2.0 from “use of web 2.0 tools within the enterprise” to ” use of emergent social software within companies or between companies and their partners or customers”. I think it makles a lot of sense. First because “social” seems to be more relevant than “web 2.0 ” since they don’t define tools by their origin but by what they make possible. Second because including partners and clients is more realistic in a global context which force enterprise not to be standalone players anymore but make them a part a of global ecosystem.

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Let’s meet at Webcom Montreal on May 14th

That’s not a fresh new but late is better than never. I’ll speak at the Webcom Conference in Montreal on may 14th.Ca n’est pas une information de première fraicheur mais mieux vaut tard que jamais. Je ferai partie du plateau des intervenants lors de la prochaine conférence qui se tiendra le 14 mai à Montréal.

The schedule is very promising with generalist keynotes and three tracks dedicated to enterprise 2.0, marketing 2.0 and solutions 2.0. Note it’s the first time enterprise 2.0 has it’s own track at Webcom.

Speakers are also very interesting : I will finally have to see Andrew McAfee in the flesh, as well as Scott Gavin, John Husband or Brian Eisenberg. On the french side, Fred Cavazza, Xavier Aucompte and Vincent Berthelot will be there too.

You still can register,it think it’s worth the trip.

As good news never come alone, I’ll be on vacations at this time so I’ll have time to meet those who want (leave me time to go sightseeing…). I’ll be in Montreal from the 13 to the 18th. Before that I’ll visit my family in Toronto (8-12) and will take advantage of the opportunity to visit my “friend” Rex Lee.

It seems that Claude is planing a Yulbiz on the 13th. It would be a great idea.

This will be a very special day for me. As a matter of fact I started my french blog on may 14th 2005 and I was far from thinking it would take me so far… At this time I even didn’t new about the “Enterprise 2.0″ word and I was only focused on HR issues…serendipity makes wonders !