Social Workplace for Government 2.0 by Deb Lavoy

Last Friday I put together a quick blog post sharing with folks some further insights on the already available film "Us Now – On the Power of Mass Collaboration, Government and the Internet",  mentioning as well how over the weekend I would take some time to watch it and beginning of this week share some more thoughts on what I thought about it. Well, I did. I did watch it in its entirety last Saturday and I thought I would share with you today the impression(s) it left on me.

What a fantastic film, folks! If you can spare a bit over one hour of your time, this is one of those films that I am sure you would enjoy tremendously. I certainly did! There are plenty of things I learned about social software and Web 2.0 in general, and I know you would as well, but if there was anything that I absorbed almost quite immediately was something that I have been mentioning it for a while already: the fact that Web 2.0 transcends the world of the Internet big time and it touches us, as a society, in multiple levels that not only don’t we start to comprehend just yet, but we don’t have much of a choice to avoid it either altogether. And probably we shouldn’t!

Yes, I am talking about the unavoidable change we are all going through. The point of no return. A new wave of social interactions, way beyond the Social Web, that help us not only continue to share more and more knowledge by the day and collaborate with others, but also help us nurture and nourish our trust levels with everyone else, which is where I felt that’s the kind of change we most probably need at this very moment in time, given the current econolypse we are all going through.

Throughout the film you would be able to see plenty of use cases and scenarios of how folks like you and me are taking advantage of social software, but moving beyond the level of virtual, distributed interactions into more physical ones that have already been enhanced by those online conversations that have been taking place already! Thus virtual and physical come together as one. Finally! Us. A change we can no longer ignore, nor neglect or fail to embrace. We are just way beyond that level of reluctance and skepticism. We have already started embracing what’s inevitable: our own change to become something better as a result of those "improved" social interactions. Basically, what I have been saying all along on "work smarter, not necessarily harder", but which would also apply to every single aspect of our daily lives, not just work!

Fantastic video, I can assure you! With plenty more striking conclusions that I would not want to spoil for you, but I can certainly encourage you to watch through it till the end. It’s very very worth it. And funny enough earlier on today a tweet by my good friend, and very prolific KM blogger, John Tropea, just caught my attention on a Slideshare presentation that’s been around for a couple of months already, but which touches base, incredibly accurate, too!, with some of the main topics mentioned throughout the film itself! Talking about serendipity doing its magic …

After you have watched the movie check out the presentation titled "Social Workplace for Government 2.0" by Deb Lavoy. You will love it from the very first slide till the very end! What a wonderful deck on assessing and evaluating the benefits, barriers and overview of technologies within the social software space around the whole industry of Government. Her entire presentation covers three key main points that everyone should be not just aware of, but fully embrace them altogether. And if you don’t believe me, here you have got them:

• "Social media tools make connections that drive collaboration and Knowledge Management
• Culture is more important than technology
• New Technologies are pleasant to use, so people use them"

Brilliant, don’t you think? Well, it gets better! Way better! Deb covers very well, and rather extensively, topics so important as collaboration (Slide #10 on this subject is priceless!), transparency (Slide #15 is just such a gem!), compounding value, trust, respect, barriers to adoption (Fear & management by fear – Slide #31 is just so spot on!), etc. etc.

Like I said, one of those slide decks you bump into every now and then which would make you think for a while and which will continue to inspire you, in my case, with my efforts of driving, into new levels, the adoption of social software all over the place. It’s a change I cannot longer deny, or neglect, nor will I try to understand. There is no need to. It’s ok. The waters are lovely! We just have to dive in, deeper than ever, get soaked and continue to enjoy the various different benefits on driving the next wave of collaboration and knowledge sharing conversations by experiencing how Web 2.0 transcends the Social Web as we know it! Just brilliant!

Oh, and don’t forget to watch the Us now movie! It will help you much bring the dialogue on to the next level! Yes, as good as that! If not more …

Tags: Us Now, Films, Movies, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, Productivity, Government, Society, Humanity, Inspiration, Insights, Econolypse, Physical Social Networks, Virtual Social Networks, Virtual Teams, Online Collaboration, Twitter, John Tropea, Social Workplace, Government, Government 2.0, Deb Lavoy, Culture, Technology, Social Web, Transparency, Trust, Compounding Value, Barriers to Adoption, Management by Fear, Fear, Slideshare