1. Technology: Friend or Foe for Work/Life Balance?

    Thursday, 30 Apr 2009 1 Comment Posted by:

    I like technology, not love, but like.

    I like technology because it has afforded me the flexability to work remotely. But at the same time technology can tie you to your work. A great site  with ideas on work + lifestyle with technology is digitalnomads (disclaimer, while I was at Dell, I was involved in the design and operation of digitalnomads).

    crackberryWhat I struggled with for years was how to put down the technology that tied me to the office – at Dell it was my blackberry, aka crackberry. First is was my friend, it enabled me to read and reply the hundreds of emails I received every day. It was never stated being issued a blackberry meant you work 24/7, but when you work for a global organization, someone around the world was awake and working. And having a blackberry in your hand kept you wired to the world – mostly email.

    Now that I have left Dell and working at Ants Eye View, I work remotely, 2 time zones apart from majority of the team. We connect via Yammer, texting, email and some phone calls. We have not formally estabished “working hours”, but are aligned about taking time for our families, and are comfortable raising a concern if family is getting sacraficed.

    My recommendation for those still on the crackberry with your jobs is to talk with your manager about expectations when you are on call and need to be reached. The technology is not the problem. The problem is human behaviour and the unspoken expectations at work. At Dell, I was pretty direct with my team about email and checking email late at night, on weekends. My philosophy was if you receive an email after 6pm local time, then respond the next business day working hours. All because I might be on email at 10pm, should not dictate you read and answer immediatly.

    In a recent survey of 627 employees across multiple industries, 42% said they believe being given an electronic device means they need to be available to the company 24/7, while 57% said they prefer clear boundaries between work and non work. Additional thoughts from survey conducted by Human Resource Executive Online

    Wether you use a Blackberry, iphone, or any technology device, know your boundaries. I am a recovering crackberry user, now chained to an i phone, so I don’t always practice what I preach, but always hopeful to make improvements in this area. If you have suggestions, please share them with me.

  2. Tax Day – Community Help?

    Wednesday, 15 Apr 2009 No Comments Posted by:

    taxes20logoDeath and Taxes – 2 things you cannot escape.

    I submitted my taxes a few days ago, so April 15 deadline not as tramatic this year for me. One thing I also try and do is get advice before I even start my taxes. I tend to do this offline via network of family and friends. But then I started wondering if any online communities are equipped to answer questions about taxes without trying to sell tax preparation services. Can Online Communities really help beyond the preparing our taxes ?

    Some quick observations and recommendations:

    H&R Block offers digits Community. Which amounts to FAQs, some blog post and questions to H&R Block about prep services and personal accounts. There are a lot of personal questions, but not seeing public answers. One suggestion is to take the questions that appear more than once and answer them, put them at top of the page. Users are in need of help/advice so they are posting questions in comments section of a blog post on Stimulas Package.

    Intuit has a great offline and online community for Small Business. Taxes being one topic with a small business, you can find a lot of resources/help. But you have to search a bit for community content that can help the 100 million individual tax payers.

    I believe there is a community opportunity beyond online FAQs or forums with Q/A on tax preparation. Every few years our Fed government stares at each other and reiterates that taxes are complicated, unfair, and need to be overhauled. Will the IRS open up tax codes to determine suggestions/improvements? Probably not.  What about wisdom of the crowds to put forward ideas on taking the sting out of taxes? By sting, not saying amount of taxes alone, but also the beauracy and time to plan and file taxes. President Obama – Put the greater community behind this problem. Lets see what we come up with. And if wisdom prevails, next Healthcare.

  3. Is Obama’s Puppy (Bo) similiar to Online Community?

    Monday, 13 Apr 2009 No Comments Posted by:
    Bo Obama

    Bo Obama

    Puppies are cute and the Obama girls are getting a Portuguese Water Dog, to be named Bo . One day this puppy will grow into a big dog.

    Too often most of us get enamored by the prospect of something new (puppy, kitten, car), but sometime later the charm wears away. Maybe it is when the new puppy chews on your expensive pair of Ferragamo shoes. But with patience, feeding, caring, and ongoing engagement the puppy grows into a happy, active responsible dog – “man’s best friend”.

    Online Communities have the same potential as a new puppy. A lot of companies get excited and convince themselves that getting an online community will be  fun and flourish. The company spends time and money on design, taxonomy, maybe even plan some valuable content. The team high fives each other on day of launch – life is good, now the company has a community online site.  Now the real work begins…maintaining and growing the community requires daily care and feeding just like the puppy. You can expect to provide your community with some basic requirements:
    • Reading and responding to the content your users share on the site
    • Listen and act on feedback. Sometimes your action/response is No, but your community deserves a response even if not want they want to hear.
    • Add value. Nourish your community with latest product info, solve customer issues, connet users with similiar passion. Let the community talk and join them, again to add value, not push your company agenda.

    Be patient. The puppy and the community site will grow with the daily care and feeding.

    An online community can be an invaluable platform for a company to connect with customers. Your committment is the same in both cases – you are committed to the dog for life – no give backs, same with an online community – you launch it, you own it.

    Make your online community your best friend.

  4. Is Obama's Puppy (Bo) similiar to Online Community?

    Monday, 13 Apr 2009 No Comments Posted by:
    Bo Obama

    Bo Obama

    Puppies are cute and the Obama girls are getting a Portuguese Water Dog, to be named Bo . One day this puppy will grow into a big dog.

    Too often most of us get enamored by the prospect of something new (puppy, kitten, car), but sometime later the charm wears away. Maybe it is when the new puppy chews on your expensive pair of Ferragamo shoes. But with patience, feeding, caring, and ongoing engagement the puppy grows into a happy, active responsible dog – “man’s best friend”.

    Online Communities have the same potential as a new puppy. A lot of companies get excited and convince themselves that getting an online community will be  fun and flourish. The company spends time and money on design, taxonomy, maybe even plan some valuable content. The team high fives each other on day of launch – life is good, now the company has a community online site.  Now the real work begins…maintaining and growing the community requires daily care and feeding just like the puppy. You can expect to provide your community with some basic requirements:
    • Reading and responding to the content your users share on the site
    • Listen and act on feedback. Sometimes your action/response is No, but your community deserves a response even if not want they want to hear.
    • Add value. Nourish your community with latest product info, solve customer issues, connet users with similiar passion. Let the community talk and join them, again to add value, not push your company agenda.

    Be patient. The puppy and the community site will grow with the daily care and feeding.

    An online community can be an invaluable platform for a company to connect with customers. Your committment is the same in both cases – you are committed to the dog for life – no give backs, same with an online community – you launch it, you own it.

    Make your online community your best friend.

  5. eModeration expands their services

    Tuesday, 17 Mar 2009 Comments Off Posted by:

    Picture 4.png

    My friends at the fantastic moderation company, eModeration, have launched a new suite of services that are worth checking out.

    Setting up a new community
    This is for companies that want to create a new community, or add to an existing community – for example, launching a new virtual world experience to an existing site, or relaunching an existing site, with a new community strategy. Some of the services that eModeration provide as part of this package include: objective and strategy creation; market research; defining community products and tools; seeding programmes; moderation tools; advising on tone, culture and content to fit brand values; writing user guidelines, help information, community rules and FAQs; and best practice consultancy.

    Strategic analysis and health check – for existing communities
    This is for companies that have an existing community, but want to make it work better for them. eModeration will: assess what is working and what isn’t; evaluate the community goals; create or enhance a community integration strategy; evaluate and recommend community tools and products; evaluate and advise on tone and culture; and lead the overall change management process.

    Ongoing community management
    This service allows companies to outsource their ongoing community management to eModeration’s team of community experts. The key aim of this service is to encourage positive participation by users in the community; and to assess progress and success of the community. The ongoing community management package includes: hosting communities, including seeding message boards and encouraging discussions and contributions from users; daily checks to ensure the community is functioning properly; continual feedback on how to improve how it is working; integration with a brand website; writing community newsletters and creating content from user contributions; keyword tracking and buzz monitoring; beta testing for new features; and ongoing analysis of trends, competitors and industry insights.

    You can learn more about eModeration at their Web site. Tell ‘em Jake sent ya.

  6. Another win for internet privacy

    Tuesday, 10 Mar 2009 Comments Off Posted by:

    Always good to see positive legal rulings:

    Operators of newspaper Web sites, blogs and chat rooms that allow readers to post anonymous comments using pseudonyms do not have to readily reveal the posters’ identities in defamation suits, Maryland’s highest court ruled yesterday, further shaping an emerging area of First Amendment law in the Internet age.

    The Maryland Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling and ordered that NewsZap.com, an online forum run by Independent Newspapers, does not have to disclose the identities of forum participants who engaged in an online exchange about the cleanliness of a Dunkin’ Donuts shop in 2006.

  7. 15 years is a milestone worth a quick blog post…

    Thursday, 11 Oct 2007 7 Comments Posted by:

    15 years ago I joined Microsoft.  I’d like to say I was 12 at the time as the milestone makes me feel a little old!  What an amazing 15 years.  When I started we were still selling DOS.

    My first job was in the call center – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said: "Thank you for calling Microsoft, this is Sean, how can I help you."  I remember once answering my home phone like that on accident!

    I’ll save trips down memory lane, but I will say "thank you" to Microsoft.  I know for me, this place has been incredible and I’ve had the opportunity to work on amazing projects and with incredible people.  It’s also a place that responded to my personal moment of truth – having to step out for almost 3 months due to my own medical emergency without once being concerned about my job or how I would pay bills or even when I had to be back – that part was simple: "come back when you are ready."

    So, for all of that…Thank you MS.

    At a group meeting this week a photo was taken to commemorate the moment…that’s me just to he right of center.

    DSC00141 (3)

    Sean

  8. “To Blog or not to Blog” Part II

    Friday, 27 Jul 2007 6 Comments Posted by:

    A few months ago I blogged about Blog policy in "Does your company support employee blogging" – for some reason that post struck a cord and was picked up quite a bit by others.  As one of 3-4K Microsoft employee bloggers, I’m often asked about our blog policy and the road we’ve been on to transparency.  How’d we get management support?  How did we get employee interest?  How would I do it if I was trying to repeat the success in other companies?  This last question got me thinking, how would I implement a blog strategy in a company that didn’t have one in place already?

    First off, let me say that individual blogs are GREAT and should be broadly supported for anyone who wants to go down that path – I’m an example and advocate for that as core to a blog policy/strategy.  Frankly, I think not embracing employee blogging in today’s world would make you an unattractive employer for anyone entering the workforce from Gen Y.

    Having said that, what I haven’t seen as widely spread is a formal commitment to group blogs.  Individual blogs are often challenged by loss of interest by the blogger, change in role at a company, change of place of employment.  These churn issues clearly create risk in continuity.  There are plenty of group blog examples out there, but let me take this one level deeper.  What I’d really LOVE to see is group blogs where the bloggers crossed functional roles in their companies – someone from product, from marketing, from support, from sales, from professional services… This is the type of blog I’d like to read as a user.  Southwest Airlines does this where you see posts from a wide range of contributors in very different jobs at Southwest (Communications, Captains, Executives, flight attendants and mechanics).  It makes for a much more interesting read and as a non-tech company, creates a much easier model for participation for employees.  This approach mitigates the risks associated with churn, drives internal cross group communication and collaboration and better represents your customers end to end experience.

    Of course, I still say it is critical to keep continuity in a few of your core bloggers on the site and allow their personalities to come through very clearly – this, after all, is part of what actually makes it a blog!

    Am I the only one who loves this idea?  What do you think?

    Sean

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  9. "To Blog or not to Blog" Part II

    Friday, 27 Jul 2007 6 Comments Posted by:

    A few months ago I blogged about Blog policy in "Does your company support employee blogging" – for some reason that post struck a cord and was picked up quite a bit by others.  As one of 3-4K Microsoft employee bloggers, I’m often asked about our blog policy and the road we’ve been on to transparency.  How’d we get management support?  How did we get employee interest?  How would I do it if I was trying to repeat the success in other companies?  This last question got me thinking, how would I implement a blog strategy in a company that didn’t have one in place already?

    First off, let me say that individual blogs are GREAT and should be broadly supported for anyone who wants to go down that path – I’m an example and advocate for that as core to a blog policy/strategy.  Frankly, I think not embracing employee blogging in today’s world would make you an unattractive employer for anyone entering the workforce from Gen Y.

    Having said that, what I haven’t seen as widely spread is a formal commitment to group blogs.  Individual blogs are often challenged by loss of interest by the blogger, change in role at a company, change of place of employment.  These churn issues clearly create risk in continuity.  There are plenty of group blog examples out there, but let me take this one level deeper.  What I’d really LOVE to see is group blogs where the bloggers crossed functional roles in their companies – someone from product, from marketing, from support, from sales, from professional services… This is the type of blog I’d like to read as a user.  Southwest Airlines does this where you see posts from a wide range of contributors in very different jobs at Southwest (Communications, Captains, Executives, flight attendants and mechanics).  It makes for a much more interesting read and as a non-tech company, creates a much easier model for participation for employees.  This approach mitigates the risks associated with churn, drives internal cross group communication and collaboration and better represents your customers end to end experience.

    Of course, I still say it is critical to keep continuity in a few of your core bloggers on the site and allow their personalities to come through very clearly – this, after all, is part of what actually makes it a blog!

    Am I the only one who loves this idea?  What do you think?

    Sean

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  10. Thank you Forum One for organizing the Community Unconference…

    Thursday, 7 Jun 2007 2 Comments Posted by:

    I had a great time yesterday "peering" with a lot of super passionate people focused on online communities at the Forum One Unconference.  This was my first unconference and I really liked the semi-structured approach of open space events.  Not familiar with unconferences, check out this site.

    There were lots of good sessions, but as usual the best take-aways were meeting people doing what I do from lots of other companies.  I got to lead a spirited session on Engaging Influencers through Recognition programs.  It was great fun to talk about some of what we are doing and talk with so many others interested in creating their own programs focused on community leaders.  This session included a great conversation in particular about the benefits and challenges of reputation management systems.  I owe a post on my overall views on this topic soon…so stay tuned.  ROI was another very spirited session…and I guess a hot topic based on traffic here to my recent blog post on ROI.

    The session we didn’t have, that I will host next time, is to gather those of us doing this work at large scale.  It was great to meet people from Cisco, Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, Disney and Intuit – I think we could have really benefited from grabbing a room and wallowing – this is a must do for next time.

    That’s it for today!

    Sean

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