Who is Man 2.0?

A few months ago I was struggling with "evil minds", the scene and plotting on a level that reminded me of the French court.

Is this where Man has "risen" in 2010, I remember thinking. Then I bumped into the latest Robin Hood with Russell Crowe.

Rise and rise again..until lambs become lions

I opened the trailer (sorry, can't seem to find the one anymore) and completely fell in love with the words. They promised change. I wrote them down so that I would remember.

Empower every man and you'll gain strength.
Are you ready to be who you are?

There's a familiar echo in here. Is Robin Hood getting social in 2010?

Yesterday I had a nice *talk* with Scott Gould. We pondered what was keeping people from sharing and collaboration. Scott is about to blog about that.

We've lived an era of enormous wealth and greed. Wealth rips off man's humanity, claim the humanists, it's every man for himself. Even in this era of social media, they say, the majority of people is just screaming their name. It's all about me, myself and I.

My recent experiences give hope for humanity.

My friend started a fight for her Down sister, as her weaponry she has a blog (F), Twitter and Facebook. It's only her first week, but she's already raised a significant amount of support from her own network. Social media can make a difference.

Her question is, why don't the civil servants care. I have been worrying something quite alike: the civil servants seem to lack courage to be themselves, or think by themselves. In trying to make the Gov 2.0, the good old obedient attitude "Don't do anything unless you're told to" turns out to be the loser's garment.

Fortunately, people want to dive in when they become passionate about something.

Last night I watched Griff Rhys Jones in Sydney. There he heard an astonishing witness to the Sydneysidean concept of mateness. The ladies he met told him that they are ready to give up on materia in order to be able to spend time with their friends.

Then a young woman told what the level of that friendship really is. After her husband had got a cancer, their friends collected a half a million dollars so that he could travel to the States to get treated there. He got cured.

That is Man 2.0.
Caring. Putting others before oneself. Prioritizing the real thing. Life.

Work 2.0 comes with a revolution

Our minister of communications Suvi Lindén blogged (in Finnish) Arjen tietoyhteiskunta on building the information society, responsibilities of her ministry and accountability.

The National Audit Office (NAO) wrote in its surveillance report 9.6.2010 (F) about the missing results in information society.

For some reason we're good at planning, strategies and all that other stuff on paper - but we don't seem to be able to move on to concrete results. What's stopping us?

The missing communications

NAO pointed out the missing communications: " The site Arjentietoyhteiskunta.fi (F, some content also in English) has been updated quite passively and there is no information on the work of different working groups." (translation mine)

I'd point out missing target groups, too. My experience is that a new site only comes to my knowledge in three ways:

a friend recommends it to you

it pops up in Google results (no matter what you search)

the link has appeared on one of the sites you visit regularly

These three need to be taken care of in communications. Of course, things are already quite a lot more "findable" and open than just a few years back.

I can still recall the day Ota kantaa (F) was introduced in our office. What a thrill: this is the beginning of an new, open era! But then, the discussions grew thinner and thinner. The topics stayed somewhat distant (even for a fellow civil servant). So what can you do; if it's not your thing, there is nothing that would draw you back.

Today the site looks good and the topics are interesting. Moderated discussions are off, at the moment.. Anyway, let's take a look (at the links that unfortunately are solely in Finnish).

"Discussion is closed" -page has a link to .. project site.. at the site of the Prime Minister's Office. There's a loooongish text.. And there! On the right you have Read more -link to.. a third page, with a pdf, press release and - this is good - a video release.. And on the menu bar on your left there's the Web discussions -link.. Nope. Nothing new there: it takes us back to the press releases..

Although I pretend to be pointing out things with my finger, my wish is that together we are able to improve the user experience on these sites. It's no good to seminate links and web pages unless the entity is meaningful and takes the surfer to the goal that has been promised.

Do I have all the Right Answers? Of course not. But I do want us to begin the search for the better together. The main thing is to talk about all this, so that more and more citizens find in to our mutual search.

Missing openness in communications

Communications in public sector is missing timeliness and openness. It often feels like the only signals of life are official releases (missing the concreteness) or registered requests for official statement on this or that. The subsidiaries then come to attention and start churning out the official mumbo jumbo with high respect.. Is this level of interaction acceptable in 2010's?

On the other hand, openness and activity are on the rise in the Facebook. A few hundred fans support Vertti, virtual master of the Ubiquitous Information Society Facebook page (F).

The person / function / ministry behind this Vertti creature is quite bashful: he or she doesn't want to come out. (THE topic at the moment: should public sector officers give out their names in the social media or not).

On this page you can discuss anything about the information society. Do share your suggestions, ideas; give a prop, challenge us, make a comment or an argument. The forum is yours. -Facebook - Data (F, translation mine)

Quite an encouraging message! Yes please, I'd be happy to participate. Here are a few top links I've found eg. on Gov2. Are you guys with me; or what do you think? No answer. Silence. For some reason Vertti really is shy.. Perhaps we haven't been introduced properly?

I can't help it: I would so love it if the Official Oracle of the site would, in the spirit of the social media, make even a small nod stating: "I heard you". Because, that is the only way to have a dialogue. I talk - then you - then I respond - your turn.. connecting, communicating!

We must remember, though, that IRL (in real life), all the representative meetings between different ministries or boards are still far from spontaneous communication. It is perhaps the tradition (not noblesse) that obliges civil servants to behave like a bunch of mummies at a cocktail party. Or, even worse, like in a play where loyal servants race to praise the prevailing circumstances as if there is nothing to improve anywhere in life..

Just like in that fairytale of the Emperor's New Clothes! Only.. if it's not proper to point out the failures, there will be no change.

For a revolution you need..

It's not that we don't have networks: we do know each other, we do business together. Email is floating with stuff to and fro. The point is that it is oddly missing the hottest topics, the ones that are in the middle of the change and demand crowdsourcing in order to improve further.

Is it possible that the civil servants still don't dare to communicate in a less official way? "I have no authority to be the one to talk about it, yet", is that it? There are just the home page to be updated in a somewhat passive way and the official press release to be published.

Why? Is it unclear responsibilities? Undefined content? Lack of courage? I say, Work 2.0 needs a revolution for

Civil servants to have courage for unofficial communication

Platforms to entail sharing (Like this, Share this)

Networks to work together intentionally

Communications to become continuous: no pain, no gain!

Without the new approach, communications is like a relay where no one told the runners whether they're running 4x100 or 4x400 tracks. Bound to drop the baton, eh?

Disclaimer
This writing is an intentional wake up call. Even though I've *gathered this evidence* as a representative of my employer, the opinions and poking questions are mine and mine alone. Thus this post does not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of my employer.

Work 2.0 is collaborative

On my last post I used mobile, camera and publishing as "new media user experience". With Web 2.0 the ways we do things are in a constant change.

As the matter of fact, the only constant in our lives seems to be change.

Tonight I took part in HBR chat, under the topic From Corporate Ladder to Lattice. The main idea is that, not only our life, hobbies, targets of interest and how we carry them change - but also and even more so, our work is under a radical change.

The workplace isn't what it used to be--and neither is the workforce. Today's companies have fewer hierarchical layers. The nature of work is also more virtual, collaborative, and transparent than at any previous time. -HBR

In my mind those two have a strong connection. It doesn't matter what you do for a living, in order to proceed in your career, you need the constant change.

Bus driver 2.0

If you're a bus driver, instead of gasoline, your new vehicle might use natural gas or even electronic batteries. And as you drive along, traffic lights favor you: thanks to the new technology allowing the integration of the satellite - GPS - traffic light system(F). Sustainable development in mind: the less you need to wait with your motor running, the less you cause exhaustive fumes and pollute the nature.

If you started your career some 20 years ago, there's been a huge change, at least in your mind!

Knowledge worker 2.0

Even bigger is the distance between the old office worker in comparison with today's knowledge worker. Back in 1997 when I started with the Tax Administration, the departments received their instructions on paper. Bulletins were pinned on a board for every one. - Today everything comes in email, 2-10 times a day, and the highlights for customers are also published on our website.

My boss explained to me at my first week: "Our PC's are all new: last year (or so) we had just one PC in a team of 8-12 workers." -Today I have a laptop and a Nokia E90, and emails reach me through both those devices.

Outsourcing the reason?

But these are not the only changes around. In the name of productivity organizations are cutting back fixed costs. Good bye secretaries, good bye bookkeepers and ladies who used to calculate our salaries or arrange our business trips and so on. All the assisting work is being outsourced. The question is, do we really gain or lose on this track?

Today I need to operate on three separate applications in order to report my working hours, prepare for the development discussions and approve the invoices. (There is no OpenID, no common logic or user experience. People, even bosses make the coffee, since there are no more secretaries..)

On the other hand, I love to update the campaign site myself, instead of giving the text to someone to copy-paste and then do it all over again because I'm not happy with the layout. - Not all agree with my point of view. How do you feel about it?

Social media is Collaboration!

For us knowledge workers this is a golden era. Social media tools enable us to group with like minded people. In "tribes" we can learn more efficiently on the subjects we're all interested in and also share our expertise with other Like Minds.

In essence, it is this bigger picture that tonight's HBRchat was about:

Q1: What are the major trends at play that are changing the traditional career model?

Q2: How can companies transition from this traditional model to flexible, more strategic one?

Q3: How can we as individuals shape our own “career lattices?”

Conversationalists brought up open dialogue, collaboration and transparency. As things become more transparent, strategy and sharing values are an essential part of the new leadership. Finally, stepping stones to the new career are constant learning, pushing the edges and a somewhat entrepreneurial mindset that flourishes with trust.

The motto for the new worker could be, as @bennydu put it:

Always be humble, open-minded, never stop learning! Coach Wooden said: "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"

If you're interested what else was said, you'll find the hashtagged Tweets in Topsy

On the way to Information Society

A bit over a year ago I blogged about how to plan services (F) For user experience to be pleasant, the service needs to have all bits and pieces in balance.

A good example of nice experience is how you plan your Google front page. Some might say "nonsense", but I love it for showing me news headlines at a glance. I also love beauty; so this is how my iGoogle looks like.

This year's foot ball finals (F) was my first game ever (en spite of the fact that I loved Goal! a lot). Fanny, our cat, got so excited, too, that we took some snapshots to share with our friends.

I'm a Picasa user (over Flickr) for the simple reason of user accounts: I already had an account with Google. Oh, how I'd love OpenID: the less accounts (and passwords), the better!

To my regret, I have a Nokia E90 instead of an iPhone, so sharing photos has been a pain in the neck. Google's Picasa offered a good option to do the trick via email. Fast and easy, and the results you can see here.

Social media opens new horizons also to government officers, those wanting to share experiences, learn from one another and create new innovation. I believe we need to speed up the development: all too few of us use tools enabling bigger productivity or crowd-sourcing type of innovation.

Public sector in Finland (perhaps the whole country, too) is still in the phase of slow adaption with Twitter - and I wouldn't have the time to wait =) LinkedIn is more used but, all too often, poorly so. Facebook is all the more famous but mostly used for private purposes. (Dear reader, a word of warning: the previous estimation is based on my professional public sector networks and may not represent the whole truth)

I am part of a big team SADe (F) that is building information society and eGovernment in Finland. I'm not saying that government offices' first priorities lie with tweets or sharing photos, but my few examples above are definitely worth learning from. Information society should be innovative and easy to use.

What needs to be gained, in my experience of a year as a blogger, is networking, sharing and enriching the experiences. Only thus can we benefit and speed up the learning curve.

That's how innovation is spread. First there was Gutenberg's printing press. Today we blog to spread our thoughts.

My blog at Arjen tietoyhteiskunta (F - unfortunately not translated).

What do you do when you're feeling blue?

Has it been a while since you felt the power of words within you? Is it as if you've lost the once so joyful certainty that you do have ideas worth sharing?

Let me ask you: what do you do when (or if?) that happens?

Reading great things still makes you tick! Oh yeah, you get carried away with plans, just like the good old times: "Wow, this is the answer to the project..

Until then, out of the blue, there is yet another new message stating that everything you built your days on will be twisted just the opposite, you're no longer the one in charge or who is expected to act in matters like this. - Is that how the earthquake hits you??!

Looking back it often seems there's more to it.

Perhaps your workload has exceeded reasonable boundaries. Or maybe the support you once used to have, has now been removed, more or less totally. Or have your responsibilities and empowerment been whirling around, growing the amount of mixed signals big enough to carry a train away?

If that's the case, is it really any wonder if you no longer feel like it?

Bad news is, though, that the biggest loser is not the individual who has lost the passion. It's his employer. Think about it. If you lose the one who effects the spirit the most, or the one who always used to get also the slow adapters to buy the new ideas, let alone the team that gets everybody together to bring out their best, especially at the hard times.. I mean, without them, what do you have left?

The big question is, how do you find the way out? Let's hear it!

Why am I blogging?

It's been a year since I started my new career as a blogger. I did it in Finnish, with a purpose of trying out something new. I wanted to promote the awareness of my employee's top products in my professional networks.

Semi-private, semi-professional..

I started with a question on what is the "reason to market in the public sector"? (F)

Earlier this year a network friend of mine, Nathan Hangen, encouraged me to do it in English. So did a Greek entrepreneur-friend of mine. Yes, they were right: I do have a lot of colleagues all around Europe, business acquaintances all around the world. We share a lot of thoughts but it's impossible for them to read me in Finnish. The final push came from another network acquaintance. Morten Juul asked in his blog: "What will you commit to today?" .. Sure, why not?

The biggest minus at the moment, is that I severely suffer from lack of time. Our recent projects, the big change we're in middle of.. all too much! But I look forward to a time of better balance, though.

Benefits of blogging

Anyway, this last year has been incredible in so many ways! To find something interesting has become of bigger value: I want to stash it in a more organized manner in order to be able to return to it when I need it. After all, everything is connected, and this piece of information is connected to that sector of A and B and now is the time to blog about it.. You know, how it goes. Thinking according themes is something I've grown more into, and more systematic search of information is my constant aim.

Writing is an excellent way to organize one's thoughts, too! Professional (even semi-professional so) networks are pure gold in exchange of information and other support. The biggest reward, however, in my everyday work, would be the collaboration that has emerged in this new media between different government agencies.

How to find the courage?

So thanks Hanne(F), for your share! You came up with the back door: if it's not nice, you can always stop, saying it was a project that lasted while the main product was on for the audience. No shooting ahead, should I fail. Loved it!

Thank you Anja(F): you offered me a concrete here's-what-you-need-to-do-plan for setting up a blog in your book Blogi tulee töihin(F). Thanks to your book, it only took me a weekend or so to get things going.

Thanks Merja! You were the impartial outsider who could point out the outstanding example I was able to set for many alikes in the public sector. Thank you for your warm support. Our network is brilliant.

"Why on earth should a public sector agancy market anything? Tax customership?! Fiddle-dee-dee! You don't have a choice! So what is there to market for?" Let's see..

The answer for the need of marketing is, with a year behind me, is that marketing really is about networking, relationships, creating value to others. Not looking for leads but seeing people. You can't do it in your chamber! And more than that, you just can't own all the wisdom needed in your (lonely) head. It's time to get out: open the door and step out to the market to grow wise.

Spread your wings and start networking!

Blogging is one way to get out in the market. There you can reach and embrace the wisdom of crowds. Let your passion catch fire with others like you! I chose my knowledge and experience as my currency. The big question was How do you network? How big is the net I already have? But most importantly, how do I bring along the whole organisation?

It was a bit like pioneering in the wild wild west. It's good to have someone out there first, and then let's see how things will work out for her. After that we learn from her mistakes and can start the business with smaller costs. There are a few sparks already in the air: top management chose blogging as a way of sharing the new strategy. It was too early to launch a novelty with blogging. Instead, customer service caught fire!

Customer service is spreading its wings!

A couple of tax offices, or rather, their communications, marketing and service managers chose new media. Since there simply is not enough people to answer all the phone calls one at a time, they chose to get out there where their customers already are gathered. The means are an Ask us -column (F) in the biggest network society in Finland and a blog (F) in one of the biggest web journal communities

Trust is the main thing. You must have passion for your cause. But, in addition, the most solid currency in this new media market is the ancient nobility of helping thy neighbors. Those who can, have open ears and they are willingly helping those in need. Trust is being born. You want to recommend someone that you trust. Word of mouth creates the most powerful marketing. I rest my case.

So spread your wings and start networking. Your expertise is needed!

Earlier posts on new malls, R & D and experts and brands, unfortunately in Finnish:

Markkinointi muodostaa asiakkuuksia (16 Jou 2009)
Jokainen on brändinkantaja (4 Kes 2009)
Asiakas on laumaeläin (26 Tou 2009)
Ajatuksia asiakaskeskeisestä tuotekehityksestä (Haku)

Great thinking on trust and sharing:

Protect your ideas or launch them by Nathan Hangen
Future of Search Is More than Social by Baekdal

Social media drives green values to business (Vol.4)

Turning environment..

Let's move on from environmental challenges to new business ideas evolving from the need of sustainability.

I believe the only way to weave environment into business is by looking at the entire environment of the business through value chain thinking.

Environmental value chain analysis offers a way to manage the business processes as an entity that takes environment into consideration.

..into new business ideas

Passion drives change. BSAG was born of the relentless passion of Ilkka Herlin. Same passion drives environmental investments in Canada.

Private passions that have driven the environmental movement for decades are now spilling over into mainstream business ventures.

Material efficiency is often the key factor in cutting variable costs. But that efficiency should be looked at as a bigger picture: one must optimize the entity. It is possible to streamline the use of a certain ingredient in the production process and, at the same time, increase the cost of its final waste disposal. There, too, the answer lies in life cycle analysis.

Material efficiency should thus be connected into the management system, as is often done with the energy efficiency. Efficiency thinking should be based on value chain analysis, says professor Juha Kaila, Helsinki University of Technology (InnoSuomi 2009). R&D is facing the challenge of how to get the most out of the raw material in its total life time. The scope is about to change as the life cycle cost must include also the cost of recycling.

A change toward non-tangibles?

How about Slow movement? It offers yet another view in consumption. Slow life allows room for services that do not exploit the environment. Non-tangible services are bound to burden less than producing tangible goods. An excellent example on that are different charity projects: Buy a cow - donate a well - buy a vaccine - or plant a tree are all examples of a non-tangible gift (F) to someone who already has everything.

As you can see, sustainabity makes sense. It also opens new horizons for innovation.