Global Neighborhoods interview

I can’t believe I forgot to mention a recent interview with me published by Shel Israel on his Global Neighborhoods blog.  Check it out here and please, leave a comment if you are so inclined.  I think it represents a nice update on the current IBM internal social computing state of affairs.

Ragan article on IBM Podcasting

Ragan have run an article on IBM’s podcasting initiative, and the platform that supports it.  Check it out!

Ideas in the shower…

For some odd reason, I get some of my greatest ideas while in the shower.  Don’t know if anyone else experiences this, or if I’m just an odd duck.  Kind of reminds me of some of the creative thinking I used to do during my stint as a long-distance runner many years ago. Quiet times of repetetive manual chores bringing out some fun ideas.

Anyway, when podcasting was first introduced here at IBM I felt compelled to come up with content to publish quickly.  I wanted to do so many things…  it was as if I had been handed a dream assignment. I really love getting to be creative and this was a chance to shine.

As you would assume, there was a need to work on some deep knowledge-sharing content, and programs to help spotlight interesting and compelling IBMers from our vast employee-base.  This is good practice and essential to any large enterprise attempting to enhance its communications methods beyond traditional print forms.  But it was not enough for me.  I wanted to reach everyone somehow…  all 300,000 plus here at IBM, and I wanted something that would make a splash globally.

A former professional musician, I had met many IBMers throughout the years with similar backgrounds.  People who had written, recorded and published their own music that they ‘owned’ and controlled outright.  I had been talking to one of the principal owners of the IBM Club – an organization that manages and provides employees with some fun activities and events – about what seemed to drum up the most interest in their world.  Her answer surprised me.  They had repeated success holding contests.  Like huge success.  Specifically, contests where the employees submitted art that they had created such as paintings, sculpture and photography.  She also mentioned how massively popular ‘pet contests’ were.  Funny really, but let’s face it, people love their pets and a chance to submit a cute photo to share with a potential 300,000+ group just pulled them in. Maybe I could do something like this with music…

Another thought had been nagging at me.  My phone was ringing off the hook, and my email exploding with audio recording and podcast library/publishing platform questions.  I not only needed to create a fun podcast series with a community slant, but needed to make the series enticing enough to get as many audio-savvy folks possible aware that there was now a podcast library and publishing tool they could use.  They could prove to be outstanding ambassadors to spread the word about this new self-publishing platform here at IBM.

Back to the shower…  deep thinking…  wait for it….  rinse…. repeat….

The IBM Battle of the Bands was born.  I figured, why not give it a try and see what happens?  Perfect scenario… people get to ’show off’ their art, communities form around certain groups based on geography, business unit, friendship, etc, and to vote, you needed to go to the Library, use the comment field, and you just had to subscribe to see what would happen the following week (winners would advance at least once).  I used my own band in the first episode, pitted against The Ethan Rand Band (featuring my friend Ethan who happens to be an IBMer), and I sent out a couple of emails and posted one internal blog about it.

 Word spread quickly.  IBM musicians sniffed this thing out and started submitting songs.  Bands began coming in from all corners of the world.  There was passion in the voting, in the commenting on the pages, it accomplished everything I had hoped it would and more and ran for 31 weeks. 

Why this lengthy post?  I speak with so many folks who have social platforms but just cannot figure out how to make them enticing and fun, and generally don’t want them to be fun at all.  I argue that they simply may never get mass adoption and interest beyond what their traditional methods are already accomplishing if they cannot offer a bit more than the standard old fare.  It’s a scary thought to me to pretend you are doing things in a social manner, yet you are overlooking entertaining opportunities for education and community spirit enhancement.  Just my opinion. 

I’ll fill you in on what I did a few months later that took this idea to the video level.  One hint, it was not based around rock & roll.  It was dreamed up in the shower though.