About 6 months ago or so, some IBMers started what turned out to be a storm of tweets with the hash tag #stuffibmerssay. I as well as over 700 others tweeted our own ideas to this.
A few non-IBMers were interviewed in addition to the IBMers to gain some insight for the researchers about how Business Partners and customers see and hear IBM, Twitter and the meme.
Undoubtedly inside IBM it was viewed from 2 different sides as fun and collaborative for the vast remote users but also dark and not politcially correct by those less in touch with the realities of the world around them. It is not your old IBM, it is very much a new IBM.
Happy to see the Research Scientists were allowed to not only follow up on this but presented the findings in a report and presentation recently. The link to the IBM research page is here and Dr. Jennifer Thom's interview at SXSW about it, Data as Narrative, here.
Jennifer was helpful in letting us know when this would be live so we could blog about it. I was one of those interviewed and the questions were around the basics of why would we do this, what did we think would or would not happen from it, what we thought IBM saw it as (PR, Marketing, HR benefits, financially, competitive), why it went viral, also asked about the good and bad tweets and our thoughts. As a Business Partner, and prior IBMer, I pointed out that many were a cliche but when you think that a company of 300,000+ people with most working remotely or on the go and you will get the usual conference call references, corporate speak and such.
My interest was in the fact that it shows a number of IBMers are being social and using in this case Twitter although no doubt Facebook and Linkedin posts also were out there. What if this ran inside IBM, maybe it did who knows, and how many would do it inside? Would or did the majority of the company post an update or message with their own input? THAT would be really impressive to read about the report. And this happens every day for companies who have already instituted IBM Connections or similar products. This is power. More importantly it is what gels together your company as a family rather than as an Enterprise with no heart or soul for employees to believe.
This brings up the culture vs. management discussion around social business products and why people do or do not post to them. True the outside people follow IBM guidelines not to disclose secrets and such but are free to post their alternative and sometimes negative views of the decisions the company makes. Business Partners also do this and the repercusions to those on the inside and those on the outside continues still in various degrees. In order to fully be an open and social enterprise one must be willing to embrace all sides of a discussion. The human race is still far from being purely accepting but if your culture is still a silo, you will not likely be able to have as much fun as we did with #stuffibmerssay.
But you know you want to do it, right? So go ahead, your boss is probably not on Twitter anyway, who knows maybe you too will get an IBM Researcher knocking on your door.
R.I.P. Lotus Organizer+
Mon, May 20th 2013 7:00a Keith Brooks Sad to see and hear that the end of the line, officially, is coming to Lotus Organizer, Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Smartsuite itself on June 11, 2013 with support ending September 30, 2014.
Organizer was so far ahead of us when it came out, easy links to guide you directions, call from a contact and straight to a web site with one link, an awesome calendar and scheduling tool, and it connected with Lotus Notes and some people still leverage it that way.
All from one UI! I can't get anything to [read] Keywords: ibm
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The Art of Troubleshooting...The Video
Tue, May 7th 2013 1:00p Keith Brooks Live from IBM Impact in Las Vegas this was recorded April 30, 2013.
If you want the slides, they are here.
Thank you to Ryan for setting the Ignite talks up and Daphne for letting me know about it.
It was fun, 20 slides that automatically roll over every 15 seconds for a 5 minute talk. [read] Keywords: ibm
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What if Darth Vader won?
Sat, May 4th 2013 9:00p Keith Brooks May the Fourth Be with You!
Ever wonder what it would be like if Darth Vader won?
Could Darth Vader have won instead of the Rebels? Could it be that a strong network of Sith Lords could control the masses through social media efforts using The Force? These may be strong words, young Padawan.
There is an amusing Twitter account I follow called @DeathStarPR that brings my point forward. What if social media was used as an insidious effort to gain the upper hand against the Rebels? W [read] Keywords: connections
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I'm an IBM Champion Video
Wed, May 1st 2013 2:20p Keith Brooks The video from the IBM Impact keynote this morning that has all of the IBM Websphere Champions who could make it to the video shoot.
See me and my friends do a "I'm an IBMer" type commercial.
Thanks to Daphne and Justin for editing and making it all happen. [read] Keywords: ibm
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Day 2 of Impact 2013
Wed, May 1st 2013 10:40a Keith Brooks So what did I do on Day 2 of Impact? Today was The World in Motion.
Business calls most of the morning, bad wifi upstairs, bad wifi in OGS and the exhibit hall. A frustrating problem because if you needed 30,000 IP addresses or so, what would you do?
Duh, grab a Z series! Okay not exactly but it is a problem which should have been addressed Sunday.
Which brings me to what I did Tuesday, meetings, interviews, an ignite speech and a session I did with 3 other IBM Champions and a night cap [read] Keywords: ibm
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My Impact Ignite Slides "The Art of Troubleshooting"
Tue, Apr 30th 2013 3:10p Keith Brooks I gave my ignite talk today and when the video or you tube is released will post it as well.
Here are the slides from slideshare.
The Art of Troubleshooting from Keith Brooks [read] Keywords:
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Opening Day...of Impact 2013
Tue, Apr 30th 2013 11:40a Keith Brooks Today started out like every other day, you know phone ringing at 5am and 6 and 7. Went to meet frineds for breakfast and then went over to the OGS where Champions had prime real estate. 4th row center.
Today was Business in Motion day.
Opening was a drum set and horn section that were quite good and then the star attraction a white Ford took the stage and proceeded to talk to us all.
Just kidding, the car said nothing, didn't even start, but Robert Leblanc came out along with a Ford exe [read] Keywords: ibm
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My First Impact Conference
Mon, Apr 29th 2013 11:00a Keith Brooks As a long time
Lotusphere person, I am reminded of Bruce Springsteen after he played, and
won, the Academy Award in 1994 for his
song the Streets of Philadelphia and said this "And thank you all for inviting
me to your party."
I came out to
Impact not sure what to expect. At times Websphere is my friend and at times a
hard companion, but I found a great community of people here so far that rival
my friends in the Lotus/ICS world.
My journey to
Impact 2013 held in Las Vegas at the Vene [read] Keywords: ibm
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Blogging Time: Why it Matters
Thu, Apr 25th 2013 1:20p Keith Brooks My latest post over at the Social Business Insights Blog has been published.
What is it that makes people read one of my blog posts? I write two
primary blogs and guest write on at least three others, but then people
say to me, “You have way too much time on your hands”—presumably because
they feel I am just sitting here writing these blog posts for eight
hours a day.
Sorry to disappoint you all but I only spend seven hours a day writing them. Kidding, just kidding. For mor [read] Keywords: connections
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