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Measuring E2.0: evolution of Hello.bah.com

I've just had a good start to the week listening to the Virtual Enterprise 2.0 Conference presentation regarding Booz Allen Hamilton's internal collaboration tool, hello.bah.com. The one thing that struck me was the conversation around how to measure its value. Though they demonstrated this through the significant reduction in time  it took to find the right people for a project, especially useful for a company with a lot… Continue reading
Posted 08 February 2010 † Stuart Hall § Communities ‡ Comments (4) °

Comparing US patent search engines

I quickly put together this short animoto-video showing the beta Google Patents, US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and new Xyggy patent search engines, entry page followed by advanced search page. How do they compare in your view, focusing on US granted patents from 1976 onwards? You should notice a difference with the Xyggy engine. Why? It runs an item search which it claims provides substantial advantages and… Continue reading
Posted 05 February 2010 † Stuart Hall § IT § IT-Usability § Inventions ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Testing out a new Android app

Forgive this short post I just wanted to check out how easy it is to publish from the Denmark Arms watching Kilmarnock vs Celtic using the new Android app for WP. Once I'd got the xmlrpc.php trick sorted it seems fine! Yes, I did add the image above from the comfort of my PC!…
Posted 02 February 2010 † Stuart Hall § IT-Usability ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

User centred design

Bumped into a nice guy from Directgov ('website of the UK government') at the launch of Social Media Week in London last night, talking about plans to make it more relevant to its users. When I woke up this morning I recalled hearing an excellent presentation from Directgov's Andrew Lamb at the BCS in late 2008 which opened my eyes to the value of user centred design. Fortunately… Continue reading
Posted 02 February 2010 † Stuart Hall § IT-Usability ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: ,

Three essential questions about community management

Try your hand at these three questions about community management. My answers are below to give you some inspiration! Q1. What has been the biggest surprise you’ve had while community manager, during the process of building your community? The degree of difference there is between growing a conventional website and an online community, where the success depends so much on engaging people and sustaining that engagement. While it's true that 'build it and… Continue reading
Posted 27 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § Communities ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: ,

The rise of DIY patient communities

Nice video on the rise of social networking and communities led by patients, featuring the US-based CureTogether as a prime example. It's a patient-led site where you can: "Compare your symptoms, choose treatments and uncover triggers that might be affecting you. Get ideas you can bring to your doctor. Track your progress toward feeling better and connect with others working on the same health issues." Wonder if there's… Continue reading
Posted 26 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § Health ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

How best to join the online conversation?

Yesterday's seminar organised by the BCS Consultancy SG and the BCS ELITE Group on 'Customer Engagement' was in the prestigious Victorian setting of the English-Speaking Union, a fine location. The two presenters, David Butler and Alistair Russell, introduced to the collected CIOs from businesses and organisations ranging from Shell to the NHS Care Quality Commission (& check out their new website design), the value… Continue reading
Posted 21 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § IT-Shift handover § Social software ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: ,

#otscampaign to you

So what gives on the so-called OTS campaign? Firstly, I read a hard-hitting piece in the Charity Times from the National Coalition for Independent Action which quoted an open letter to the chief executives of the five national bodies, which have endorsed the revised National Compact, launched on December 16: Dear Stephen, Debra, Stuart, Kevin and Justin, We write this open letter to you, having been confronted by your ringing… Continue reading
Posted 19 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § Brain teasers ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

This post is about community yesterday & today

I tweeted earlier today to say I was going to try something ambitious - to post on the general subject of online community, on Martin Luther King Jr Day. The reason is partly because this time last year I wrote a very short post which recalled the 30th anniversary of Dr King's death, where I was there with BBC reporter Maurice Walsh to help report on the event. In… Continue reading
Posted 18 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § History-Martin Luther King ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

How to radically reduce your R&D costs

The answer to how to radically reduce your R&D costs is to involve customers in the product development cycle, using social tools as well as face to face meetings. That's the powerful experience of 'community chick' Dawn Lacallade of SolarWinds, the US-based web-based network management software people at yesterday's Telligent webinar. For your consideration I screen-grabbed the slide in question below, and should have the full set… Continue reading
Posted 14 January 2010 † Stuart Hall § IT § Social software ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: ,