Multi-tool Twitter

Half a year ago I moved to Amsterdam. Great city, many interesting people, many cultural events, vast amount of bars, ... How to find your way around, how to meet great people, the right places to eat, the places to buy honest ingredients, ..? I put my money on Twitter and got lucky. Twitter got me in touch with new media researchers, promising entrepreneurs, social events, #blog08, ... it even got me interviewed in a large newspaper. Twitter is a multi-tool and I like it! 836 tweets in 3 months got me connected with 50-60 people. 15 of them I actually met in real life. NRC / nrc next journalist Marie-José Klaver interviewed me about the role of Twitter in organisations, specifically about its role as a knowledge management tool.

@blog08 on Friday 23 October

• Pete Cashmore, 10th blog of the world, Mashable.com
• Hugh MacLeod, well known cartoonist and blogger at Gapingvoid.com
• Boris van der Ham, member of Dutch parliament and blogger
• Scott Rafer, former-CEO of MyBlogLog currently CEO of Lookery
• Tim Overdiek, chief-editor of the Dutch broadcast news programme NOS Journaal and blog evangelist
• Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, well known Dutch internet entrepreneur
• Nalden, music blogger living of his experimental blog, Nalden.net
• GabeMac, videoblogger from Madrid
• Piet Bakker, scientist, Universiteit van Amsterdam

The role of Local 2.0 in Enterprise 2.0?

Last Friday I attended The Next Web Salon for the second time in a row. Got to meet interesting people and got triggered by the 10 minute presentation by Michael Bauer. Michael Bauer is a local internet expert and CEO of Koano. Michael's presentation, though very short but nevertheless good, was about the future of local. Local as in: Search, Mapping, Ontology, International, Social, Network.

Imagine a web app that allows me as a citizen of Amsterdam to find the kind of places I know and like in Amsterdam when I travel abroad. E.g. Vondelpark in Amsterdam, is similar to, Central Park in New York. A recommendation system based on things you know well near your 'home' to find things near your 'locus' (the place you are).

What would be the impact of such a mechanism in an enterprise context? In large organisations where it's beyond your possibilities to know everything, but you do know your thing. So, what if the coordinates are not geographic, but organisational. Your place in the value chain, business process, organogram, stakeholder network, ... In the pit of my gut I feel there is something good about this... (Photo taken by Anne Helmond)

Is Twitter a useful enterprise 2.0 application?

Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger published their thoughts on Situated Learning "Legitimate peripheral participation" in 1991. A rather theoretical book on how people evolve from newcomers to key members of communities of practice. I remember an example of Etienne:

think of taxidrivers and their radio network. On the radio they get calls from the station and their colleagues. They do not listen actively to the radio, but they catch messages that might be of their interest. Some colleague mentioning a traffic jam, some other problem that they may circumnavigate, et cetera. They are in peripheral mode. When something occurs that might be of interest to other colleagues, they send a message to all others listening. Hence, they become active and center of the network for a short while.

The same goes for communities of practice. Sometimes you are merely listening, sometimes you jump in the center and participate actively. My perspective on Twitter is that it's the web version (of the radio network) of groups of people with a common interest, or practice. As Twitter states:

"people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens"

If Twitter gets adopted by the business community, meaning adopted as a tool in the context of work and learning in the context of the enterprise, it may well become the means to follow what is going on in the enterprise, without being as disruptive as the "Beep Beep: you've got mail" If you think Twitter is just another gadget keeping employees from working, you're wrong! Twitter is the community radio!

Lipogram

Shakerleg!

Next web salon was great

The Next Web Salon is a small and intimate event for people working on, or interested in, the people, ideas and companies powering the Next Web. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten from the Next Web hosts these events in his living room. Vibrant athmosphere, slow food, good wine, great people and provoking statements by guest speakers. 3 to 4 speakers get 6 minutes each to make their statement. The remaining time is for discussion, social networking, eating and enjoying wine. A brilliant concept as far as I'm concerned. The evening was like a short version of the FastCompany RealTime events, yup, that's a compliment. Boris and his Next Web mates just do the kind of thing you thought of doing once, but never got to doing it.

Jennings

Just returned back home after four days of work in Cumbria, England. Spent several nights in a unexpectedly nice village called Cockermouth. Named after the mouth of the river Cocker. Home of the lakeland brewery Jennings. Cockermouth's high street, named Crown street counts several good restaurants: The Honest Lawyer, Tarantula and Seven. Not to forget, a pub that feels like home: Bush. Bush offers several beers brewed by Jennings: Cumberland Ale, Sneck Lifter and Cocker Hoop. The latter is my favourite!
Cocker Hoop

An award-winning golden bitter from an all malt brew, with Styrian Golding hops added at various stages, to give a classic hop flavour and aroma. A bitter beer of great character, appealing to those drinkers who really appreciate their beer and are looking for quality. Launched in 1995 as ‘September Ale’, Jennings Cocker Hoop has become hugely popular, particularly with Lake District tourists in summer. The name is derived from ‘Cock-a Hoop’, an old custom of removing the cock (or spigot) from a barrel and resting it on the hoop of the cask before commencing a drinking bout, but was changed to reflect the brewery’s location on the banks of the River Cocker.

Next week:The Trout will be my basecamp

Lovely hotel in a remote area with wireless internet!

A day at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Interviews with the head of the restoring department, a lead restorer for 17th century paintings, a curator/art historian and a physicist. Most of the interviews took place in the atelier (workshop) building. This building was designed by Cruz en Ortiz, who will also be responsible for the new Rijksmuseum. The atelier building is rather white on the inside really. Some rooms have old wooden Cuypers' cabinets giving the clean white rooms character. I'm working on a first draft of an information architecture for the museum's collection: a very difficult job, but an honour to do! I mean, Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpieces will be disclosed by it. I'm enjoying it!