Adam Gartenberg's Blog

I'd like to say a big hello to everyone reading this from PlanetDB2!

For those of you to whom I may be a new face, please allow me to introduce myself for a minute.

I recently joined the IBM Data Management group as the team lead for Social Marketing initiatives.  In plain language, this means that I, and the people I work with, are looking at how we can help foster a community for businesses and practitioners that use and rely on our Data Management solutions - like DB2 and Informix - to run their businesses.  
(And chances are, if you found me through PlanetDB2, you're already an active member of that community).  

Prior to joining this team, I was the Offering Manager for Lotus Sametime (which is why if you start browsing backwards you'll find plenty of posts on Unified Communications and Sametime).  You can read more about me here, but this really isn't about me... it's about you.

I know there's a lot of information and resources out there already, whether the very active forums over on DeveloperWorks, or the whole host of information over on ChannelDB2.  (And did you know you could follow us on Facebook, too?)  We'll be looking at how we can extend these efforts, as well as introduce some new initiatives into the community, all intended to allow you to better connect with those of us in IBM, as well as with each other.  

And believe me, we've got some very exciting things coming... but I'm getting ahead of myself.  For now, let me know what can we do to help you.  What's working?  What's not working?  How can we help make this community stronger?

Feel free to leave a comment here, or reach out to me directly at gartenbe @ us.ibm.com.  You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.... you get the idea.

Thanks to Andy Piper for blogging about the recent updates to IBM's Social Computing guidelines, which now extend beyond blogging to include participation in social networks, media sharing sites, virtual worlds.

I know I've gotten asked from time to time about IBM's official stance on this, and if you're interested in how IBM is approaching this subject, or are looking for a foundation for similar guidelines in your own company, I'd suggest checking this out.

Over the past couple of months we've been working collaboratively to update the guidelines. We did this in the same way that we developed the original document - via a wiki, and some lively discussion on our internal blogging platform.

The new IBM Social Computing guidelines can now be found on the IBM website. They've been extended to talk a little about new technologies beyond blogging (social networks, media sharing sites, and so on), and just generally tweaked to ensure that we're taking account of changes in online behaviours over the past couple of years.

Link:  IBM Social Computing guidelines

I know many of you currently or in the past have travelled in multiple technology circles.  

I'm curious what your favorite (or least favorite) user group website(s) are, and why?  How does (or should) a user group website add value to your job, life, or overall well being?

(And for extra credit - do you find that discussion forums on a user group website are helpful in addition to ones on the company's official website?  Or are they simply redundant?)

Feel free to e-mail me directly (adam @ adamgartenberg.com) if you'd rather not reply in the comments below.

Thank you!

And as a reward for your feedback, here's one of the funniest clips I've seen in a long time - Eddie Izzard's Death Star Canteen.  (But you can only watch after  you leave me a comment.)  :)

Google Alerts pointed me to the interesting DB2 Students Group blog run by a number of students at the Universidade do Minho in Portugal (English version).  

The students are all involved in the IBM DB2 Student Ambassador's program.  Just a quick run through of their blog finds some screencast recordings that they've put together, a testing system, and other observations and insights into their experience with DB2.

I'll have to look around when I get a chance to see if there are other student groups with blogs like this.

Links:

• DB2 Students Group blog  (the home page for the group is here)
• Universidade do Minho (English)
• IBM DB2 Student Ambassador Program

In case you missed the announcement (and if the recent posts haven't given it a way), I've now moved on to a new role in IBM.  (And one of these days soon I'll get to updating my blog itself.)

However, we certainly don't want to leave you out in the cold when it comes to all the inside scoop on Lotus Sametime.

Therefore, I am very please to introduce the new Lotus Sametime team blog.  (And thanks for the kind words, Rob!)

I've moved all of my old Sametime-related content over there, so you can get it all in one place (and I may still pop in occasionally for a guest appearance).

Please go check it out and give the team a warm welcome to the blogosphere!

Link:  The Sametime Blog

My wife got a surprise when she went into her a Facebook page last night.  There in her feed was a notice (or ad?) from Fandango highlighting the movie that she and I saw this weekend!

The only thing was... I had bought the tickets on Fandango, using my account, with no tie-in or explicit permission given to Fandango to publish to Facebook.  In fact, I'm still trying to figure out how it associated the purchase with Leslie in the first place.  I was using her PC at the time, so my guess is that somehow it tied back into her account that way (or it just assumed that since we're listed as married to each other on Facebook, that's who I went with?)

In looking into this further, it seems that Fandango was an early participant in Beacon (and got dinged pretty heavily as a result - for example, here, here and here.)

This morning, I looked into my Fandango account to see if I had accidentally given them permission to publish to Facebook, but there wasn't any setting for that.  So I headed over to their privacy policy, where it states:  (emphasis mine)

If you are a member of a social network service (such as Facebook, MySpace, etc.) or you use other Internet sites where you have authorized them to gather information about your online behavior on Fandango (for instance, to notify your friends that you have viewed a video or bought movie tickets)....

This then brought me back to Facebook, where sure enough, I apparently had to opt out of having actions on external websites or social ads appear in my feeds.  After all the uproar over Beacon, I would have thought they'd have done this the other way around.

So, my tip of the day for you:  Head over to your Facebook privacy settings and make sure they reflects what you want to share.  And Fandango - next time we'll be buying our tickets the old fashioned way - in person, with cash.

Speaking of executive blogging, I just came across this post by Valeria Maltoni, writing on the 10th anniversary of the ClueTrain manifesto (via Connie Bensen writing at Social Media Today):  

This kind of conversation is a commitment, not a savings account for your marketing spend. When I speak about social media, the tools and dynamics, I often say that they are the container, the context in which you get to:

• engage
• educate
• entertain

The fourth "E" is emotion, the human quality that is memorable because it touches us. While blogs and other social media seem (and often are) extemporaneous, they do allow you to show the personality of your business. Your personality is still what differentiates you from your competitors - and, after years of industrial age treatment, what makes you likeable. Before you develop a relationship with your customers, you thus have the chance to:

• encourage participation (yours and theirs) with engagement
• show your passion with education
• ask for permission through entertainment

Those are as solid as the classic four P's of marketing - product, place, price, promotion.

In my previous post on executive blogging, I probably didn't talk enough about authenticity, but I think it is a really essential part of blogging.  In my mind, it's tied tightly with the emotion element that Valeria refers to above.  It's what distinguishes a blog from a page on a corporate website listing press clippings or product announcements.

Link:  Valeria Maltoni:  The ClueTrain Manifesto

I've now had a few colleagues and friends ask me about Twitter, so I thought I'd post the thoughts I'd shared with them on what I get from it and how to get started.

1.  What is Twitter?
It's commonly referred to as microblogging (e.g., for sending out short updates that others might find interesting but for which a full blog post might not be warranted).  The kind of discussions I find take place on Twitter are those that I might have with coworkers or friends in the hallway or in line at the cafeteria... were we actually in the same building (or state or country).  (And personally, I often find it can resemble CB radio - for those of us old enough to remember it.)

If you haven't seen this already, I think Common Craft have done the best job of explaining what Twitter is.  (See embedded video below.)

2.  Why is this worthwhile?
Personally, I get a few key things from it:
1.  By observing what other people are saying, I find interesting links, videos, insights or opinions that I might not have come across otherwise.  (I think Robert Scoble said it well - the value isn't how many people follow you - it's how many people you follow.)
2.  It gives me a chance to interact with a community of peers (inside and especially outside of IBM) with whom I don't have regular interaction otherwise (e.g., those "hallway" conversations when we don't share a hallway).
3.  It gives me a chance to share information (both professionally and personally) with others without having to create a full blog post
4.  I can keep track and respond when people say things about my products.

3.  What if I still don't get it?
Don't worry - I really don't think it's for everyone, and my own experience really fluctuates - some days I'm following along and tweeting up a storm, and other times I'll go days without reading or updating.  Try it out - if you find it useful/interesting, keep up with it.  If not, let it go.

4.  My advice:
Try it out, find friends and colleagues who are already using Twitter and go through their following/follower list to find other people you may know that are also already it.  (Which is largely how I built up my own following list).  If you find someone isn't interesting or is posting too much about things you don't care about - stop following them.

5.  Tools:
http://www.tweetscan.com lets you search for (and subscribe to via RSS) keywords
http://www.summize.com is another Twitter search engine
http://www.twubble.net will go through your twitter followers and the people they follow and suggest people you might know based on who you have in common
http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ will let you compare who you're following and who's following you.
http://quotably.com will let you see threaded conversations (although in my experience it's been rather hit or miss in accuracy and completeness.

Here's Common Craft's explanation of Twitter that I referenced above:

I want you to come with me on a little thought experiment.

Picture your typical local restaurant, on your typical Main Street, in your typical town. Actually, picture two local restaurants.  With me so far?

Of course, the restaurants' owners wants to boost their business - who wouldn't - so they're going to try something new.  

Once every few weeks, the owner of one of the restaurants walks out front with a megaphone and shouts to everyone within earshot "HEY EVERYONE!  COME EAT AT MY RESTAURANT.  IT'S THE BEST RESTAURANT IN TOWN.  WE'VE GOT A TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL EVERY MONDAY.  THE CRITICS LOVE US!"  And then he goes back inside.

The other restaurant takes a different approach.  A couple of times a week, the restaurant's chef (or sous chef or waiter) comes and sits down at one of the sidewalk tables for 30 minutes or so.  They bring out some bread, maybe a bottle of house wine, and invite passers-by to have a chat about the latest special, the secret to turning out really good chicken marsala, or just spend some time retelling a funny anecdote from the previous night.  

Tell me, which of these is going to have more impact on their business and standing in the community?

So, why am I bringing this up?

One of the line items in the job description for my new position is "Executive Blogging Strategy."  While I've been taking a broader view and speaking with all of my new coworkers about blogging (and I'm pleased to see many of them are doing so already), it's the "executive" piece that I've really been thinking about.  

I'm all for having our executives blog, and there are many examples inside and outside of IBM of executive blogs done really well (Irving Wladawsky-Berger and Sam Lawrence are two that come to mind).  But there are also many examples I've come across where executive blogs are really nothing more than something a communications staffer writes and posts under the executive's name (sorry, probably best not to include any links here.  But I'm sure you've all got your favorite examples.)  

One of the amazing things about this local community of ours - the blogosphere - is that content talks.  Content = credibility.  It doesn't matter if you're a summer intern or an SVP, if you've got quality content and are willing to come to the table and engage with the community, that's all that matters.  

So I think my advice to our executives - well, to anyone - who may be considering whether to blog or not, is going to be to look at what they're hoping to accomplish.  Are they looking to be part of the conversation, or are they looking at this as a checkbox item because blogging is the new, cool thing to do?  Are they trying to engage with their readers, customers, and colleagues in the industry, or do they see this as another extension of the marketing plan?

If it's the first case, then let me set them up with a blog as soon as possible.  (Imagine if it was the owner of the restaurant himself was sitting down at that sidewalk table!)  

But if they're just viewing this as another marketing tactic, I'd rather see the communications staffer that's ghostwriting the executive blog come out and blog themselves.  Or the product manager that's providing the details to the communications staffer.  Because it doesn't really matter whose title is at the top of the page as much as the authenticity of the voice, the quality of the content, and the willingness to engage and respond on feedback that's passed along.  

What matters is whether you're making the conversation smarter.  And executives are in a unique position to make that happen - it just has to be their goal.

We had lunch at a recently remodeled Burger King Saturday, where they had installed two flat-panel TVs in the center column of the restaurant (interestingly, one tuned to Headline News, the other to ESPN - I guess you choose which side of the restaurant you want to sit on based on your viewing preferences).

Then, later that evening, we went out to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant and saw that they'd installed a flat-panel TV on the wall.  So instead of just playing Indian music in the background, they were actually showing videos, as well.

Has TV become the new Musak?