I found this post on Luis Suarez’s set elsu.net. Luis is an IBM Knowledge Management specialist and a brillant blogger that I enjoy reading. The video is of CEO John Chambers of Cisco Systems and he is interviewed by Harvard Business School Publishing. John speaks elequently about the shift from a “command and control” model of doing business to a more open, transparent, collaborative and teamwork like environment where social computing is a central approach to conducting business.

I liked this interview because it illustrates the value of collaboration and the use of social networking tools to achieve significant results in a multi billion dollar company. If CISCO can do this in a highly structured bureaucracy, perhaps our non profit and educational sector groups can see the wisdom of adopting social media, networking and collaboration tools to tap into the strengths of its people and Mission. CEO Chambers makes a strong statement about the necessity of organizations to utilize the power of web 2.0 to improve performance and address the realities of our global interconnectedness.

Brent Business, Learning Community

On Friday, Feb. 14th, I had the pleasure of delivering a workshop in Windsor to workers from the settlement and housing sectors. It  was held at the United Way of Windsor Essex County offices and hosted by the Applied Social Welfare & Research Group – York University in partnership with the Homeless Coalition of Windsor Essex County. The workshop was titled Building Capacity Within the Housing and Settlement Sector. We put together an array of social media tools and presented examples of how social media is transforming how we work, learn and communicate with our stakeholders.  Read more…

Brent Presentation, Services

Learning how to work more effectively across sectors and building new skills is an ongoing requirement for professionals. As a community and youth worker (and now a social media consultant) I believe people want to be feel connected, they want to belong, they want to feel valued and competent, contributing to their own development and the development of those close to them. Using social media tools help me feel this way and I recognize the same benefits coming to others who publish online and use web 2.0 tools in their work.

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Brent Learning Community, networks Learning Community, networking, ning, voicethread