full posts
Hub of influence - Enschede
Listening to this interview from Roland Tanglao with Cyprien Lomas (whom I both met at BlogTalk 2.0). Talking about influencers they mention Lilia Efimova and Ton Zijlstra. Isn't that interesting? A Russian and a Frisian living in Enschede (where??)? Hack, one of them even has the same home address as me. Gosh, are Roland and Cyprien right in mentioning their names. Thanks guys!
Old versus new leadership - where do you stand?
I can't stop thinking about the description Charles Leadbeater gave of new types of leaders last March in Amsterdam. The leaders of organizations that embrace the swarm model (e.g. e-bay) are different than the leaders we usually see according to Leadbeater. They are more egalitarian, humble, self-effacing, meritocratic and their authority is based on performance. In contrast with 'traditional' leaders they are not heroic, charismatic, brash or aggressive. (view the presentation Leadbeater gave yourself (144MB))
Do you recognize this pattern? Do you see these differences in leadership in your company or the companies you work with? If you consider yourself a leader, where do you think you stand?
Teaching others to use social software
Well, not really me. Ton is the leader today at the ABC Treehouse in Amsterdam. A bunch of people from the Dutch Connection and some students from Colby's class need to know how to use wiki's, blogs, RSS. We will talk about the tools, how to use them, where to get them. More interesting is the discussion about our information strategy. Since Ton cannot tell me anything new, I'm here in the room for those who are not familiar with the tools. Helping them out find their way in the world of social software. Isn't that wonderful?!
The BlogWalk train continues - Civic Journalism
And the BlogWalk train has come to Mechelen. Topic: civic journalism. First time a BlogWalk meeting was held in my native tongue (although there was one non-Dutch speaker called Brice with whom I unfortunately didn't talk). Again a day full of interesting conversations, however the discussions were all over the place, not focusing on the topic. I haven't learned new insights in the topic and no answers to the basic questions I have: Why is this an interesting topic? Why is this an issue? Are bloggers the right people to discuss this topic with?
Maybe the lack of answers had to do with the group that was attending. Previous BlogWalk meetings I had a clear idea beforehand of the ideas and opinions on the subject of the others attending. This time it was harder to prepare since I didn't know most of the Belgium guests, and their blogs (if they had one) were mostly personal, without professional focus. And there was no get together diner the night before. Therefore it took time to get to know the other participants first before we could get the discussion going. Besides the time to get to know each other I got the impression that the topic could be interesting, but there was a lack of good basic questions that were being asked. We didn't focus on terminology and didn't lay out the field so we had a clear understanding what we were talking about. Or is the topic simply too big (or too small!) to handle?
Although the discussions might not have lifted my spirit, it was very nice to meet new people and reinforce existing contacts. Yesterday, I learned about the subtle differences between the Dutch and the Flemish. And had lovely meals and beers in the cute town of Mechelen. Next stop: Innsbruck.
BlogWalk 7 - preparation
Ton and I are right now in Mechelen, in preparation for the next BlogWalk meeting. Am looking forward to meeting new people and reinforcing existing contacts. Anyway, the local brewery is excellent and we're staying at Hotel Carolus, tucked in by the brewer ('slapen onder de wol bij de brouwer'), with a wifi connection (although unstable). More to come in the coming days, so stay tuned!
Recovering
Last week I cought a very nasty cold and nevertheless went camping for a few days. Conclusion: don't go sleeping in a tent with nightly temperatures close to freezing point and constant rain during the day. I'm still recovering, wanting to write intelligent stuff but lacking the energy to do so. Sorry for now, maybe more soon.
