#BNLF - 7 Key Takeaways and Other Impressions from Day 1

#BNLF I've learned means Blog Now, Live Forever. Pretty cool I thought! 

This weekend—31^st Oct and 1^st November -- was spent at the #BNLF conference held at The Lalit, Mumbai. Intrigued by the name and impressed by the lineup of speakers consisting of people like Purba Ray of the A-Musing fame (I have always been intrigued by that hyphen), Arnab Ray, the author of May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss, better known as the @greatbong, Anshul Tiwari, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Youth ki Awaaz, Christoph Trappe, the writer of The Authentic Storytelling Project blog, Jeff Bullas whose blog I have been following from years, Preeti Shenoy and none other than Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden – decided how I would spend my weekend. This post is a summary of my impression of Day 1.

This was my first BNLF, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the blogging fraternity. I had somehow assumed that a hundred odd people would turn up and most would be fans of writers like Arnab Ray and Purba Ray… . I turned up at The Lalit well-ahead of time as I’m wont to do, and was ready to meander in the lobby when I encountered at least 300+ people generally hanging around – some in clusters, some alone and some evidently #BNLF organizers wearing the hashtag T-shirt. Hmm! Not quite what I had envisaged for sure. Within a span of 15~20 mins, the 300 swelled to 500+ with more coming. And registration was yet to start. I learned that this amorphous bunch of people consisted of #BNLF regulars as well as the uninitiated like me. “Welcome to the tribe,” someone said. “Are you’ll all bloggers,” I asked? “Yes, of course,” was the somewhat astonished response. That shut me up for sure!

Purba Ray on Stage

There were bloggers from all over India—from Delhi, Chandigarh, Pune, Kolkata, Banglaore… There were bloggers writing on every kind of topic imaginable—from gardening to lifestyle, urban yoga to urban homes, from quilling to political spoofs – if you can think of a topic, there was probably a blogger there writing on it. There were bloggers ranging from 21 year olds to folks in their 50’s. I couldn’t have been more mistaken in my assumptions. And everyone had come to learn, to improve their blogging skills, to pick-up techniques and methodologies to take their blogging to the next level. I was impressed and a little bit awed.

Being used to conferences like #SHRM, #HRTech, and other corporate affairs, I was in for another dose of shock when we entered the main venue post registration. It looked nothing like a conference room. It resembled a rock-show arena with a brightly lit, kaleidoscopic stage, laser lights doing their thing and various musical instruments (I don’t know all the names so won’t get into the details) casually strewn about. The long hall held rows and rows and rows of white chairs – at least a 1000 it seemed -- and looked somewhat surreal to me. I quickly grabbed one in the first row and settled down. The day began with rock music—yes! no corporate affair this one! 700+ people were on their feet rocking and swaying and clapping to “We don’t need no Education” and other favorites. What a start!

The day maintained the momentum and the speakers didn’t let us down either. Each had their unique story and perspectives to share. I’ve made a holistic list of my key takeaways from the day that I felt would be worth sharing for other bloggers like me. 

1. Bring Constancy and Commitment: This theme cropped up in everyone’s talk and the masterclasses that followed on Sunday. More about these in my next post. Without exception everyone spoke about being committed and regular with one’s blogging schedule, to post on a specific day of the week, and even at a specific time. The trick is to have a set of posts ready and scheduled to publish. This not only helps loyal readers keep track of your writing but also helps in search engine rankings. While I theoretically knew all this, I had not gotten around to being this disciplined. Coming from some of the most respected bloggers and writers, it was a hard-hitting message for me. 
2. Keep it Conversational: Apparently, while we all like to sound erudite and believe that obfuscating points make them more interesting, it is not true. I pondered a while and realized that the blogs I like in my domain are all written in the simplest language without any loss of depth or impact. The first example that came to my mind was @AbhijitBhaduri ‘s blog! So, keeping it simple, using short words, and writing as if we were explaining a concept to a friend is a good approach to follow. 
3. Make it Authentic: In their various ways, each of the speakers emphasized this with Christoph Trappe making it the core of his piece. Of course to be authentic, it is essential to feel deeply and passionately about our domain of blogging. It is impossible to be authentic without being passionate. It also implies being vulnerable and open, considering readers as friends. A stilted and fake voice will neither get us loyal readers nor make us feel satisfied with our writing. 
4. Re-purpose Content: I often forget that I can use my blog post to create a SlideShare presentation, craft unique tweets or use the images for Pinterest boards. Re-purposing content across different social media channels in different forms not only ensures a wider and more constant reach but also addresses varied audience preferences and needs. 
5. Keep an Eye on the Headline: According to research, listicles are a great way to get attention for primarily three reasons -- 1) provide a container around content pieces; 2) make it easy for the readers to keep track, and go back and forth; and 3) make it easy to recall. While definitely not all my posts can have a title beginning “7 ways to…” and “9 things to keep in mind…”, it is an advice worth remembering. Headlines are very critical, especially in this era of content abundance and attention deficit. Headlines should clearly tell readers what they can expect from the post. 
6. Remember the 60-30-10 Rule: This specifically struck a chord with me. Christoph Trappe mentioned that successful blogging is defined by this rule of time and effort breakup – where 60% is devoted to creating authentic and original content; 30% should be given to listening and conversation because blogging is not a siloed activity; and 10% effort can be spent on sharing and linking on different social platforms. This is a good rule of thumb I intend to practice more consciously. 
7. Don’t be Over-Dependent on Social Media: Jeff Bullas emphasized the importance of focusing on search and doing keyword research for those serious about growing their readership. Good content is of course a must and a given. According to him, the power of headlines, images and email lists should not be ignored. I’m going to explore these one at a time and test for impact.

All in all, Day 1 gave me plenty of food for thought and action. I know consistency is going to be my key issue, with procrastination my Achilles’ heel. Look out for posts on the Day 2 Workshops and other unique moments. 

50 Posts and Articles that Made Me Think in 2011

Inspired by Jane Hart’s Top 100 Articles of 2011, I thought I should put down at least the top 50 that has made me reflect and ponder in the past one year, has changed the way I do things and shaped quite a bit of my work-life decisions. Not all the posts have been written in 2011, but since I either stumbled across them in 2011 or read them with greater appreciation this year, I thought it fair to include these in the list. In the past one year, I have made a career shift or should I say expanded my work portfolio (and I have described the move here), and these posts and articles have been instrumental in helping me make sense of the move and impart some value to the work I do.

I have divided them across five categories for easy reference. From the categories, you will be able to see what has influenced me the most in the past one year. At times, I have also had difficulty in “slotting” an article under a specific category. Many of the articles span groups and are interlinked. I have listed them in some sort of reading order or the way they made sense to me…

Social Business

1. The future is podular by Dave Gray
2. Putting Enterprise 2.0 into Context by Andrew McAfee
3. Factories: the original social businesses by Anne Marie McEwan
4. The Path to Co-Creating a Social Business: The Early Adoption Phase by Dion Hinchcliffe
5. Moving Beyond Systems of Record to Systems of Engagement by Dion Hinchcliffe
6. Seven Lessons Learned on Social Business by Dion Hinchcliffe
7. Systems Intelligence, Serendipity and Listening for the Better Decisions by Riitta Raesmaa
8. From social intranets to collaboration ecosystems by Fred Cavazza
9. What is a social intranet or an intranet 2.0 ? by Bertrand Duperrin
10. How Digital Business Will Evolve in 2012: 6 Big Ideas by Dion Hinchcliffe
11. Why social business is different - Part 1: Reusing stored collaboration by Dion Hinchcliffe
12. Social networks are becoming your personal operating system by Brian Solis
13. Five Emergent Strategies for Improving Social Business Performance by Dion Hinchcliffe
14. Open Work: Using Social Software To Make Our Work Visible Again by Dion Hinchcliffe
15. Why E2.0 and Social Business Initiatives Are Likely to Remain Difficult by Jon Husband

Community Management

1. Community Management: The Strategic New IT-Enabled Business Capability by Dion Hinchcliffe
2. Community management: The 'essential' capability of successful Enterprise 2.0 efforts by Dion Hinchcliffe
3. How to Build an Online Community by Vanessa DiMauro
4. 11 Social Media Yodas Define Community Management “Passion”by Baochi Nguyen
5. Who's To Blame For A Failed Community? by Claire Flanagan
6. Social Software Is Not Enough by Rachel Happe
7. Community Managers are Human Experience (HX) Professionals by Rachel Happe
8. Top 15 Ways to Kills an Online Community -- Again by Vanessa DiMauro
9. Community Managers’ Reading List: 27 Books fromQuiip
10. Why You Need to Foster Community at Work by Shawn Murphy

Content Strategy and Curation

1. Capitalizing On Curation: Why The New Curators Are Beating The Old by Drew Neisser
2. Manifesto For The Content Curator: The Next Big Social Media Job Of The Future? by Rohit Bhargava
3. Return of the Editor: Why Human Filters are the Future of the Web by  Karyn Campbell
4. Are curators the missing thing in enterprise 2.0 approaches? by Bertrand Duperrin
5. The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators by Robert Scoble
6. Curation in the Enterprise: Actionable information by JP Rangaswami
7. Curation and the enterprise: part 2 by JP Rangaswami
8. Curation and amplification will become much more sophisticated in 2012 by Vadim Lavrusik
9. The Future Of Journalism – By Ross Dawson
10. ‘Controlled Serendipity’ Liberates the Web  by Nick Bilton

Complexity and the changing face of 21^st C Workplace

1. Moving Beyond “Work as Usual” in a Complex World by Thierry de Baillon
2. Why Is Knowledge Sharing Important? A Matter of Survival by Luis Suarez
3. Essential Skills for 21st Century Survival: Part I: Pattern Recognition by Venessa Miemis
4. Connected companies, complex systems, and social intranets by Gordon Ross
5. Diversity, complexity, chaos and working smarter by Harold Jarche
6. The Satir Change Model by Steven M. Smith
7. Connecting Agile Business with Social Business by Dion Hinchcliffe
8. Avoiding Chaos, Losing Serendipity? by Julie Hunt
9. The Collapse of Complex Business Models by Clay Shirky
10. The connected company by Dave Gray

Workplace Learning

1. Social Learning and Exception Handling
2. Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson
3. The Five Failures of Workplace Learning Professionals by Will Thalheimer
4. Social Learning is NOT a new training trend by Jane Hart
5. Jobs, work and technology by Harold Jarche

There are plenty more but in the interest of keeping the list manageable, I have limited it to 50 articles. I have not included posts around learning and instructional design or elearning —still my first love—and will add a separate post with the links to resources I have found useful.

2010 in Retrospect: Top Few Blogs and Books

This post should have made its appearance a few days back—at least a day back—but procrastination sometimes overtakes me. This time, it was compounded by the lure of spending more time with my daughter (since I am in Mumbai after quite a few months) and the writing of the post just never got done. But I have promised myself that this year I will turn more ideas into actions and will not let procrastination rule. In that spirit, I am aiming to get this post out.

This is a quick recap and a list of the posts, articles, and books that have shaped my thinking, provided me with insights and supported or challenged my assumptions. To make it slightly easy for myself, I have divided the list into two parts—1) posts and articles and 2) books.

Posts and Articles

1.       Corporate Learning’s focus by Harold Jarche

2.       Where Social Learning Thrives by Marcia Conner

3.       Designing Training for Organization 2.0 by Gautam Ghosh

4.       21st Century L&D Skills by Charles Jennings

5.       2010 Shift Index - Passion and Performance by John Hagel

6.       Why we need to kill "social media" by Rob Key

7.       Nuts and Bolts: Useful Interactions and Meaningful Feedback by Jane Bozarth

8.       Generations, Social and Enterprise: adopt vs adapt by Martijn Linssen

9.       The Evolving Social Organization by Harold Jarche

10.   Seven Strategies for Supporting Personal Learning Environments at Work by Michele Martin

11.   The Wolf Pack and Learning by Dan Pontefract

12.   No silver bullet in KM by Nick Milton

13.   Rendering knowledge from Cognitive Edge

14.   Work is learning, learning work by Harold Jarche

15.   The Power of Meaning by Thierry de Baillon

16.   Wicked Problems 

17.   The “New” Social Learning isn’t a New Thing by Sumeet Moghe

18.   Enterprise 2.0 - Community Spaces can lead to Walled Gardens by Sumeet Moghe

19.   Success depends on who we work with by Harold Jarche

20.   2010 in Review Part 3: My year in reflective blogging by Jane Hart

21.   Enterprise 2.0 and Social Software should be opt-in by Gautam Ghosh

22.   Doing Things Right vs. Doing the Right Things by Rainer Falle

23.   How to Build a Social Learning Culture by Lars Hyland

24.   Marcia Conner on Transforming Organizations through Social Media and Social Learning

25.   Humantics, Hypergogues, Collaboration, Cognitive Loads from Bunchberry & Fern

Books

1. The Power of Pull by John Seely Brown
2. The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Create Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies by Scott E. Page
3. The Drive by Daniel Pink
4. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink
5. Beyond E-Learning: Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Performance by Marc J. Rosenberg
6. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
7. The Future of Management by Gary Hamel
8. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
9. Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results by Morten Hansen
10. Getting Things Done by David Allen
11. Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement by Ruth Colvin Clark
12. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt
13. Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth
14. The New Social Learning by Marcia Conner and Tony Bingham
15. The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
16. Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson
17. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
18. Working Smarter Fieldbook

eLearning Learning Featured!

I subscribe to eLearning Learning feeds because of the quality of the posts that it brings together.

A few days back, when I received the feeds in my mailbox and scrolled down to read, I saw my post there. Taken aback, I told myself, “Naa, some mistake!” And went right back to work.

When my next post appeared in the next day’s feed, I decided to explore a bit. I dropped a mail to Tony Karrer.  He must have been amused, and I am probably the first person who doesn’t know when she is being featured.

I was overjoyed and also humbled and definitely feel motivated to write more often and more thoughtfully.

eLearning learning, to me, has always meant insightful, thought-provoking writing on not only elearning but learning in general—learning in today’s networked world, learning through collaboration, learning about learning.

I hope to do justice to my passion for learning and to the readers of my blog…

Posts that Influenced Me in 2009

As my thoughts surfaced from the subconscious to the conscious this morning when I woke up, I found myself thinking about Semantic Web and Homophily. Lying still for sometime, I tried to mentally brush aside the cobwebs and think back to what had triggered this association.

That pondering took me back to all the blog posts by various bloggers that have most influenced my thought process and my posts in 2009. I guess this would have been a fitting post to write on the 31st or even yesterday. But, I had not planned for it. It just so happened that even in my distinctly sleep-fuddled state, there are a few posts that I could just recollect. That is when I thought of penning this down for further analysis and to examine the pattern of influence.

The posts that came to mind spontaneously and with surprising clarity (in no particular order and not necessarily e-learning related):

1. Understanding Homophily on the Web (Bamboo Project: this blog was also my discovery of 2009) 

What did I learn: The Internet encourages the coming together of like minds. And unless we are conscious of this phenomenon, we are likely to block out the "Other" voices and worldviews thus restricting our understanding.

2. I Finally Get It--Why Social Networking is so Important 

What did I learn: The importance of Social Networking and SoMe lie in their ability to help us make sense of the confusing mass of information that bombards us everyday. Only through sharing of stories and experiences, the larger pattern and the connections emerge, the information becomes knowledge that we can then effectively use. 
 

3. Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future (LeftLane Blog)

What did I learn: We are moving/have moved into a world where all the mechanical, logical, structured, left-brain tasks so highly valued in the Information Age will now be performed by machines, tools, computers, technology. In this Conceptual Age, the greatest need is for creativity, innovation, the ability to see the pattern over the pieces--all the right-brain activities. 
 
4. Defining Knowledge Management and Enterprise 2.0 – Sharing Your Story (Luis Suarez)

What did I learn: How KM turns information into decision making tools and what KM actually means. 
 

5. Strategy as Process, Not Product: The Learning Value Chain

What did I learn: The importance of having a strategy in place before jumping into the tactics, and the need for a process before a product development work can start. The activities I have undertaken in the past week in office reinforces this for me.

6. What is Informal Learning?  (Marcia Conner)

What did I learn: The differences between Formal, Informal, Intentional and Accidental Learning and how and when do these occur.

7. No More "Learners"

What did I learn: Here is Jay Cross re-thinking the instructor/learner relationship in a You Tube video and the importance of learning together where we are not shoveling learning at learners.

8. Semantic Web for dummies 

What did I learn: The relation between Symbols, Syntax and Semantics and how this will change/is changing the nature of the web and our interaction with it.In this context, also look at: Tim Berners Lee on the Semantic Web

9. Social Learning Strategies, Models, and Roles (talks about the ECCO model)

What did I learn: Discusses the 3 different types of learning--Codified, Emergent, and Collaborative--and their place/time in an organization and how these map to various interventions.

10. How I use social media

What did I learn: Nancy White discusses the concepts of Communities of Practice and Learning, Technology Stewardship, Knowledge Sharing and Networking. And her knowledge in this area is formidable.


11. The Big Picture: Writing with Perspective  

What did I learn: Discusses the importance of perspective, of deleting pretty passages that diffuse the message and focusing on the end result, paying attention to the modifiers and the phrases, those little inserts that can make or break a prose. To quote: "Writing is as simple as falling off a log; writing well is as challenging as the 10-meter diving platform."

12. When should we Collaborate?

What did I learn: Defines with nice clarity the 4 kinds of work in an organization--.Simple, Complicated, Complex, and Chaotic--and how these help us to decide what is required--Coordination, Cooperation, or Collaboration. In this context, also look at: Is Cynefin a cult? and Cynefin

13. 10 Steps to creativity

What did I learn: Covers points that are very close to my personal experience; hence, made a mark. :)

14. Online social networks, learning and viral expansion loops 

What did I learn: Reinforces my understanding and experience of the different aspects of Social Media, the challenges and the successes.

15. Permission Learning - encouraging the informal

What did I learn: Maps effective learning to Seth Godin's Permission Marketing as opposed to Interruption Marketing. In the latter case, we are likely to and do develop ways and means to escape the information being bombarded at us. Similarly, learning shoveled at learners will be ineffective. Hence, what is required is Permission Learning or Informal Learning (there when the learner needs it and wants it).

16. The Builders' Manifesto

What did I learn: One of my favorite posts of the year, it talks about the leadership and the qualities of a leader vs. a builder. As we enter 2010, do we need leaders or builders? Builders is what Umair Haque would say. Builders who will organize love and not work, who will say "come" and not "go", who will see the outcome and will make sure why getting there matters. 

17. That First Thing - pAIN!!

What did I learn: This left a mark when I read it first almost a year ago; and, on subsequent occasions, I have gone back to it when I have needed to overcome a mind-block, a hurdle, or just needed reassurance.

18. Don't let your grace down!  

What did I learn: A short post on the importance of the right attitude, outlook, faith and courage--my mantra for the coming year.

10 Posts of 2009: Turning Points in My Learning and Personal Development

I spent this weekend sifting through my posts and here is my list of top 10 posts of 2009. The exercise itself proved to be very interesting and beneficial for me. I realized that I had forgotten a lot of what I had written in the earlier part of the year. Also, I now feel more confident about answering a number of questions I had raised in my earlier posts. This is, for me, one of my biggest gains.

The list of posts I have selected--not because they are particularly well-written or anything--but because each indicates a turning point in my understanding and learning.

The posts do not focus on any one specific topic, but even as I re-read some of them, I realized that these are reflective in nature with the focus being more on seeking of meaning and the creation of a pattern.

1. Data, Information, Insight...A Fine Balance!
   

2. Dealing with Ambiguity!
   

3. Creating Meaning by Exclusion
   

4. 5 Minds for The Future and The Conceptual Age
   

5. Serenity
   

6. Social Networking: As Easy as Pie
   

7. Training Must Be Inconsistent!!!
   

8. Do people need training on how to learn?
   

9. Learning in 2009: My Story
   

10. In Response: Accidental Instructional Designers #dl09--Part I  (I always think of this as the post with the maximum comments from people I learn from everyday)

    
    

Would love to read your comments...Look forward to learning from all of you.

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