The Greater IBM Connection - on the blog side

RECOGNIZING POTENTIAL IN GREAT IDEAS

Recently, I was talking to long-time colleague, Dr. Alex Pattakos, founder of the Center for Meaning and author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts. We had a great chat about my experience of the Greater IBM Connection and the potential so many us see in this business and social networking IDEA. He immediately saw the possibilities for meaningful innovation by connecting all that IBM talent across the world.

Then he followed it up by saying, "You know, I have a connection to IBM, too!" He went on to tell me his story about how one of his creative ideas was showcased by IBM in a special program called INNOVATION IN ACADEMIC COMPUTING over 20 years ago. In the mini-podcast below, Alex shares his story of IBM recognizing the potential in his forwarding-thinking idea called the "Electronic Visiting Professor" that he brought to the University of Maine. Using IBM PCs, he was able to bring in faculty members from around the world into the rural campus in Orono, Maine, expanding the learning experience through technology. Alex also shares his perspective about the Greater IBM idea after hearing about it and visiting our blog and website.

My Talk with DR. ALEX PATTAKOS

download MP3

IBM's eye for recognizing the potential in a great idea isn't new. This is a quality I've learned to more fully appreciate as I've seen and experienced its reach over the years --- and it continues here at Greater IBM and in other initiatives. One of my personal favorites is the Global Innovation Outlook, where IBM is joining together with leaders from business, academia, and politics from around the world to create new opportunities for business and society.

Do you have a story to share from your own experience past or present?

debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Contributing Author
Greater IBM Connection
Founder, President & CEO
Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
author, Putting Our Differences to Work (Berrett-Koehler June 2008)
IBMer 1970 - 1991 L.A.; Anchorage; Seattle; San Francisco

What Do We Need in Our LEADERS?

Sometimes, when you hear and watch things over and over, it is easy to begin to believe in them as truth. Lately, it seems there is a lot of talk about "toughness" being an exemplary trait of LEADERSHIP. It seems to be popularly characterized, not by one's character and integrity as a leader, but in who can talk tough, be aggressive in their language, relying on the use of combative words, like "annihilate" and "destroy;" and always be first with a "surprise attack." When I flash on great leaders in history or even ones I worked for and with, I don't recall these qualities.

My questions for you... Is "toughness" what we need most in our leaders at all levels of business and society today? ...more aggression, more "toughness," more mean-spirited actions? Is it really "tough talk" that demonstrates a steadfast, committed, influential leader?

When I think about this question myself, I find myself drawn back to what I learned at IBM as a leader that has passed the test of time. One example: When IBM was beginning its transformation back in the 1990s, we used the results of a study shared in a now classic book entitled The Leadership Challenge . What I remember is there were four traits that people said they most admired in their leaders:

• Honesty
• Forward looking
• Competence
• Inspiration

How do you think these traits stack up today?

debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Contributing Author
Greater IBM Connection
Founder, President & CEO
Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
author, Putting Our Differences to Work (Berrett-Koehler June 2008)
IBMer 1970 - 1991 L.A.; Anchorage; Seattle; San Francisco

Oh, the possibilities

Imagine there are no countries, it isn't hard to do. The Médecins Sans Frontières or the doctors without borders have already dared to do so. To be one of them is to make a statement. Are there other such entities quietly in the making? Where membership doesn’t need you to make a stand? Not yet anyway?

There was once a time when the sun did not set on the British Empire. In modern times that very sun always shines on some shade of blue. As businesses continue to evolve from multinational corporations to global enterprises I can not but wonder whether the process of looking beyond the concept of the nation state and the evolution of the “enterprise state” has irreversibly begun.

The current tide is rushing towards globalization. What is a global corporation? Let me quote Sam Palmisano here:

“Simply put, the emerging globally integrated enterprise is a company that fashions its strategy, its management, and its operations in pursuit of a new goal: the integration of production and value delivery worldwide. State borders define less and less the boundaries of corporate thinking or practice.”

It is at this point I would like you to imagine; it’s easy if you try.

The Concept of Nation and Corporation
Before plunging into it, let me back off a bit and talk about both the nation and the corporation. The nation state sharing mutually acceptable borders is fairly a new concept in human history. There still are nations that have not been able to agree on the exact demarcation of “sovereign” rights. There are also cultures that are still struggling to establish their nation states.

Experiments with the modus operandi to running these nation states are far from over. The operating model of some version of governance by the people, for the people, of the people seems to have caught the imagination of a significant number of these nation states.

So the belief in the infallibility of the concept of the nation state is just to give ourselves a frame of reference. It allows us to build a lot of operating models. Quirks remain. Dual citizenship is a debated concept, but is not unheard of.  Now, what about the corporation?

If we look back at history, the corporation achieved the status of an individual or “legal entity” only when the owners were allowed “limited liability”. Then came the international or trans-national corporations, the East-India Company, for example. They relied on the muscle power and military might of the home nation to conduct their trade and commerce.

The MNC, or the multi national corporation, arrived as a solution to post war protectionism. They set up shop in multiple countries and followed the law of the land. This wasn’t a logical state of affairs and built in redundancies that were bottlenecks wealth generation.

Therefore came the strategic alliances and now the global enterprise. Elsewhere, on the canvass of nation states came alliances. Along with political alliances came the economic ones. The European Union, for example, is something that was inconceivable during the World War days.

Imagine the possibilities
Now. Imagine that humanity has come to terms with its biological and genetic limitations. We have learnt that we need to live as tribes and super tribes. Aggression is addressed by football, boxing, WWF and other such means. Every one believes and needs peace, prosperity, wisdom and health. Oh, the possibilities....

Submitted by Saumya Ganguly

A story about Enterprise 2.0 and eating cake

Once upon a time in the powerful yet often misunderstood world called the Enterprise, people went to work in offices in small teams. They personalized their cubicle walls with colorful family photos and postcards of upcoming events. They would celebrate birthdays together by singing around a delicious home baked cake while catching up on project gossip. Occasionally jokes or stories about clients were shared (or vented) across the partition. Generally speaking, it was a happy little world where people worked hard in comfort of social surrounds.

 

Suddenly the world changed. It got flatter. Teams were structured out of skilled individuals working in different countries and different timezones. Baby Boomers started to retire or semi-retire. More staff worked part time and remotely, either at home or on client site. Desktops were replaced with laptops. Landlines were replaced with mobiles. Even training was done online instead of in a classroom. The birthday cake ritual was no more and we ate our own cake instead.

Individuals became more disconnected from their colleagues. Deadlines became more immediate. Panic set in as skilled workers were more difficult to find or retain. Knowledge became trapped and lost, only leaving behind a trail of email crumbs to collect. The world of the Enterprise was functioning, but not necessarily effective.

Meanwhile, in another dimension not too far way, the curious beast called the World Wide Web sprouted wings. It heard of the plight of the cake ritual and became a thing called "Web 2.0" so that people could sing, share stories and most importantly, eat cake together again. It evolved in the form of blogs, wikis, social networking sites, shared bookmarking and a most unusual, beguiling creature called Twitter. Virtual Worlds (like Secondlife) became a place where remote teams could get to know one another, navigating a colorful, visual terrain to overcome obstacles and create a sense of team once again.

Despite the new challenges of working from different locations, timezones or reduced working hours, the world of the Enterprise once again became an engaging place to work. It was easier to share knowledge, photos, videos, events, stories, information and have conversations with subject matter experts all around the world, even having groundbreaking conversations with people outside of the Enterprise using these new dynamic tools. In fact, the new way of working was producing more ways to innovate and collaborate within the Enterprise than ever before. Now that's some kind of cake. The panic to find skilled knowledge workers was over and the people shouted "hurrah".

Except for those still working in the old Enterprise in little cubicles at their desktops, who didn't understand what the fuss was all about and why the world needed to change at all.

Jasmin Tragas is a Managing Consultant working in the area of Knowledge, Collaboration and Learning Services, HCM, Australia. She has been with IBM since 2000, works part time and is the mother of three young children.

Searching for my civic life

Happy New Year, everyone! Maybe I'm lazy, but I seldom think about what I want to do, or maybe more precisely, how I want to live in the new year before it arrives. I have come up with no resolutions or list of things to do. No goals, and underdeveloped expectations. As the year turned over, I did acknowledge that I have an itch, however, to get more involved in civic life. In general, I invest my time in work, family, friends, and managing my household of 1 (plus 2 cats). These are all important, yet I face a fear that I will eventually have no voice in the world if I don't start paying attention to what's external to "mine" and participating in community life.

I live in New York City, on the Upper West Side. I like this neighborhood for many of the obvious reasons -- great restaurants, shopping, architecture, access to parks, access to transportation. I like New York because it's an international city -- a place where each and every person is free to be whoever they are without being an outcast. The anonymity of the big city is comforting. I may run for the bus, arms flailing like a fool, and no one will notice or laugh at me for it. I sit on the subway and notice the people across from me, as they notice me. We stare and contemplate each other as the train rumbles on. Sometimes we judge as we look through each other; other times we cast empathy with our gazes. We keep quiet, and ultimately, we let each other pass without requiring anything of one another. To me, this social spaciousness is peaceful. I also like being here because it's familiar. My grandparents have friends who live nearby, so when I came into the city as a kid growing up in New Jersey, this is one of the areas I'd see. I feel like I'm living in one of my childhood storybooks. How romantic.

So here I am -- a single, professional New Yorker with a good job, a nice apartment (but no mortgage), and no dependents. Aside from whatever books and computer equipment I purchase, and whatever I give to charities, I have no tax deductions. And as April 15 approaches, I will, no doubt, feel the blood letting. The tax code, of all things, makes me feel disconnected from our society – a signifier of my role in the machine: money comes in, money goes out. There is so little that I do in my life that is recognized as a need or a contribution. I know I'm fortunate, but I also ask -- am I an island? am I frictionless?

I refuse to accept that notion. The first thing I did to investigate a more explicit connection to my community is look up the community board web site for the Upper West Side (http://www.cb7.org/). I spent about an hour reading through the site. Maybe I can get involved with this? One look at the meeting agendas and I thought -- maybe not, or maybe not yet. Most of what I saw was about reviewing applications for building permits and the like -- something I know little about. For now it's enough to understand that this organization is there and generally how it works.

With the U.S. presidential primary season roaring, I looked next to find a group of supporters for my favorite candidate. I found them on Meetup.com, and I attended a meeting. I didn't immediately connect with the tone and style of the group, but tried to keep my eyes wide as I experienced, for the first time, what it's like to come together with strangers around an objective. It was interesting to encounter this heterogeneous group of people. I could credit Meetup with bringing us together, but I suspect that the Community Board also sees people of all shapes and sizes pass through. It made me ask myself, though, if this was what I was looking for when I set out to get more involved with the community. I couldn't help but predict that when the primaries are over -- or perhaps even after Super Tuesday, that this group would disband. A collection of people with a common objective does not, in and of itself, a community make. Yet the fact that we all are also dedicated supporters of a person, who happens to be running for president, because of the values and ideals he embodies gave me a sense that if I needed this group outside the cause of the election that I could turn to them. From the political will of our candidate, a community has emerged.

So what else makes for a community? Having worked at IBM, I know that members of a community do not always have to live in the same geographic region. Other dimensions can connect us. I looked to my social graphs on Facebook and Linked In. Sure, I know all these people -- some better than others -- but most of them don't know each other. Perhaps a community can emerge by virtue of knowing someone, but I’m not a superstar with that sort of gravity, so my social graph, regardless of size, is not a community.

I thought about my building. There are about 35 apartments on 7 floors. Are we a community? Right now, probably not. At least, we don't behave as one. We don't know each other by name or ask favors of each other, although we do all know the super. I would recognize a few faces if I passed them on the street, but as with the subway, we seem to -- not avoid each other, per se -- but to give each other space.

Next up – my company, Avenue A | Razorfish. In some ways we behave as a community, but in many ways, these behaviors and relationships are compartmentalized. I wanted to write: "...perhaps less and less as our professional and civic lives intertwine," but I don't believe this is true. In my observation, professional and social lives intertwine, but our civic lives almost seem taboo in context of the workplace. I wonder -- what are we protecting, and from whom? I fear we have our priorities reversed. This feeling is part of the itch.

Now I consider the Greater IBM Community. What is community-like about it? How can participating in it enrich my civic life and yours? We don't work together anymore, so perhaps it's safer to talk about situations in our world that may want for some of our consideration and civic-minded sweat. In her recent post entitled "A New Year: 20,000 Moments a DAY", Debbe Kennedy challenged us to think about what we could accomplish together in the business and social networking world in 2008. For me, these two facets of life are still part of what is "mine" -- my social network and my business network rather than our network. If we think of this network as a commons and don’t worry too much about the equity each of us has in it, individually, then what sorts of activities would we do? How would we behave?

Yours truly,
Ruth Kaufman
IBMer 2003-2007, ibm.com

the greaterIBM connection

One of the many innovations Sam Palmisano has spearheaded at  IBM is the idea of reaching out to "alumni". The first initiative was a few years ago when he hosted a reception for a group of former executives of the company. A few were retired but most were in senior positions in other companies. That was just the beginning and now the idea of reaching out has been expanded -- big time. The number of past and present IBMers is probably close to a million people. Establishing communications with such a huge base can be nothing but a good thing for the company.

 

When I left engineering school and joined IBM in 1967, it was common to look for a job at a company and expect to stay there your entire career. Nobody thinks that way anymore. If you tell someone you were with a company for decades, they might ask "what's the matter, couldn't you find any other jobs?". Another change is that in the old days if someone left the company they were considered a traitor and barred from coming back. Today, there are many executives that left the company at some point, got some experience at one or more other companies, and then brought that experience back into IBM. Some have come and gone multiple times. The turnover has strengthened the company.

 

And now we have social networks. In the early stages there was a perception that social networking meant eleven year-old girls on MySpace. Now businesses are realizing that it is more likely forty or fifty year-old business people on Facebook and Xing and LinkedIn and Plaxo Pulse. The Internet has enabled everyone  to be connected to everyone. Whether it is reading blogs, posting to wikis, updating status on Facebook, or making new connections through viral invitations, it is clear that a big company like IBM has a lot to gain by "connecting" past, present, and  future  IBMers to each other and with the company. IBM calls it "the greaterIBM connection". On Monday evening the company hosted a greaterIBM reception at the Metrazur at Grand Central Station in New York. More than four hundred attended. It was good to reconnect with some colleagues I had not seen for quite a few years.

 

Will social networking payoff in business terms? Nobody knows for sure but in my opinion it is certain -- as soon as we see the New York Times run a front page story that social networking is a fad,  in trouble or peaking out we will have confirmation  that success is a sure thing. A short term inhibitor is that there are so many different social networks. As web standards evolve I am confident that we will have a world where people will create one profile and then be able to decide which part of their profile is accessible in which networks.

 

IBM sees the potential and is investing the time and resources to build a large and active network. The possibilities are endless -- collaboration on projects,   networking to hire or get hired, crafting deals, referrals to and from IBM and its business partners. As a bonus,  social  networking is fun and  good for morale. I look forward to continuing to be a  part of the greaterIBM connection as  it evolves. Upon e-tirement in 2001 after nearly four decades at IBM, I  don't really feel like I left anyway! The stories that I have been writing since 1998 over at the patrickWeb blog fall into a  number of categories. One section is devoted to "IBM Happenings". I am sure I will also be writing  and linking at the greaterIBM connection along with  others. Cross linking will increase the overall  "connectedness". That's what the web is all about. I am really proud  that IBM is taking networking and the blogosphere so seriously.

 

        the greaterIBM connection
Greater IBM Wiki

A New Kind of EXCELLENCE for a New Time

Hello!  I’ve been thinking about all of you that might stop by. Then I found myself wondering where to start and how to make friends. If you are here, there is a reason --- and I wonder if yours may not be so far from mine --- or if it is, perhaps, you will tell us about it. Let me start the conversation by sharing a few things that have been in my mind...

There is something powerful about the potential of the Greater IBM Connection across the world. It’s hard not to imagine possibilities when so much talent is coming together. I admit that when I first heard about it, my pioneering spirit was moved. In this gathering, we might spark some new level of innovation or open a new pathway we might not have seen on our own --- perhaps even make the world a better place than we know today, because of just the right people finding one another.

I’ve had a grand time building a business and working to make a difference since I left IBM. No doubt many of you have unique stories and experiences that reflect significant achievements in your own right and I hope we get to learn more about where you been and what you've accomplished. I must admit I’ve become much more consciously grateful about all I learned and experienced at IBM, some of which wasn’t so obvious in the rush of business during the rewarding years that seemed to fly by.

There are many things about IBM that have grown and changed. It seems friendlier and more open. I love seeing the new values that have the fingerprints of IBM people all over them. It made me proud when I read about how it happened. If I were to pick out one IBM attribute that seems unchanged, it would be EXCELLENCE. It isn’t demonstrated so much in words, as it is in actions, execution, and people. My very first tour of Greater IBM in Second Life proved this point (If you've not yet visited, check it out on YouTube). Since then as I’ve watched and Debbe Dae (my avatar) has experienced its many innovations come to life through the mastery of its IBM creators --- in every way, the EXCELLENCE speaks for itself.

In reflection, the notion of EXCELLENCE was center stage in my leadership career with IBM. My mentors over the years clearly exemplified this belief in their work, lives and overall successes. Funny, as I’ve visited and gotten involved at the Greater IBM Connection, I’ve thought of many who inspired me. They helped me, by their example, see the difference between mediocrity and EXCELLENCE. While watching them, I observed that building a reputation for EXCELLENCE eliminates questions, opens doors, brings opportunities, and adds an element of integrity to one’s work and leadership that others notice and customers want.

A NEW KIND OF EXCELLENCE FOR A NEW TIME
New Questions to Consider... What do you think?
Whether you are new to IBM, seasoned, spent a long time or just a brief time, it seems collectively we have found ourselves at the threshold of a great opportunity to demonstrate a new kind of EXCELLENCE right here as part of the Greater IBM Community. A highly respected customer executive told me one time that leadership has a Germanic origin, meaning to “find a new path.” This seems to be the calling for all who show up here. The question waiting to be more fully answered is how will we come together across generations, cultures, differences and distance to contribute to a new kind of EXCELLENCE at a new time in history with all the talent showing up from every corner of the world?  What do you think about it?

What does excellence mean to you?

What possibilities do you see in what we could do together?

What makes you want to be part of it?

As I ponder these questions more myself, I hope you’ll share your thoughts. Make a connection.
Stop to say hello.

Best...
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Contributing Author
Greater IBM Connection
Founder, President & CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies
IBMer 1970 - 1991
Los Angeles; Anchorage; Seattle; San Francisco

IBM's Virtual Worlds Guidelines

[In the interest of speed, I'm going to reblog Roo Reynolds fine post on the virtual worlds guidelines, from IBM's eightbar blog.]

But let me add one qualifying note at the top: we created these guidelines collaboratively and bottom up, and as suggested best practices, not as hard rules. IBMers are entrusted by our three corporate Values to be responsible and use common sense. We also hope these guidelines, which you are encouraged to read, will foster a global conversation around the smartest way for corporations to encourage their workforces to investigate virtual worlds. By the way, we also followed a similiar, open approach in 2005 to developing blogging guidelines to help IBMers move into that innovative frontier, and those guidelines have become the gold standard in business.

The world is positively abuzz this morning with news of guidelines being released by IBM as a code of conduct for IBMers in virtual worlds.

Lots of news sources (including TIME, USATODAY, the Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News and more) are carrying an Associated Press story talking about the guidelines. Since nobody seems to be linking to the guidelines themselves, I’ll provide a link to the guidelines in full.

What’s in them? Let’s see. The introduction begins

    IBM believes that virtual worlds and other 3D Internet environments offer significant opportunity to our company, our clients and the world at large, as they evolve, grow in use and popularity, and become more integrated into many aspects of business and society. As an innovation-based company, IBM encourages employees to explore responsibly and to further the development of such new spaces of relationship-building, learning and collaboration.

There is a summary section of guidelines, which I’ll reproduce here

   1. Engage. IBM encourages its employees to explore responsibly – indeed, to further the development of – new spaces of relationship-building, learning and collaboration.
   2. Use your good judgment. As in physical communities, good and bad will be found in virtual worlds. You will need to exercise good judgment as to how to react in these situations – including whether to opt out or proceed.
   3. Protect your – and IBM’s – good name. At this point in time, assume that activities in virtual worlds and/or the 3D Internet are public – much as is participation in public chat rooms or blogs. Be mindful that your actions may be visible for a long time. If you conduct business for IBM in a virtual world or if you are or may appear to be speaking for or on behalf of IBM, make sure you are explicitly authorized to do so by your management.
   4.  Protect others’ privacy. It is inappropriate to disclose or use IBM’s or our clients’ confidential or proprietary information – or any personal information of any other person or company (including their real name) – within a virtual world.
   5. Make the right impression. Your avatar’s appearance should be reasonable and fitting for the activities in which you engage (especially if conducting IBM business). If you are engaged in a virtual world primarily for IBM business purposes, we strongly encourage you to identify your avatar as affiliated with IBM. If you are engaged primarily for personal uses, consider using a different avatar.
   6. Protect IBM’s and others’ intellectual property. IBM has a long-established policy of respecting the intellectual property of others, and of protecting its own intellectual property. Just as we take care in our physical-world activities to avoid infringement of intellectual property rights and to provide proper attribution of such rights, so we must in our activities in virtual worlds – in particular with regard to the creation of rich content.
   7.  IBM business should be conducted in virtual environments only with authorization. You should not make commitments or engage in activities on behalf of IBM unless you are explicitly authorized to do so and have management approval and delegations. If you are authorized, you may be asked by IBM management to conduct IBM business through a separate avatar or persona reserved for business use. You should certainly decide to use a separate avatar or persona if you think your use of an existing one might compromise your ability to represent IBM appropriately.
   8.  Be truthful and consistent. Building a reputation of trust within a virtual world represents a commitment to be truthful and accountable with fellow digital citizens. You may be violating such trust by dramatically altering your digital persona’s behavior or abandoning your digital persona to another operator who changes its behavior. If you are the original creator or launcher of a digital persona, you have a higher level of responsibility for its behavior.
   9. Dealing with inappropriate behavior. IBM strives to create a workplace that is free from discrimination or harassment, and the company takes steps to remedy any problems. However, IBM cannot control and is not responsible for the activity inside virtual worlds. If you are in a virtual environment in conjunction with your work at IBM and you encounter behavior that would not be acceptable inside IBM, you should “walk away” or even sign out of the virtual world. You should report abuse to the service provider. And as always, if you encounter an inappropriate situation in a virtual world which you believe to be work-related, you should bring this to the attention of IBM, either through your manager or through an IBM internal appeal channel.
  10. Be a good 3D Netizen. IBMers should be thoughtful, collaborative and innovative in their participation in virtual world communities – including in deliberations over behavioral/social norms and rules of thumb.
  11. Live our values and follow IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines. As a general rule, your private life is your own. You must, however, be sensitive to avoid activities in a virtual world that reflect negatively on IBM. Therefore, you must follow and be guided by IBM’s values and Business Conduct Guidelines in virtual worlds just as in the physical world, including by complying with the Agreement Regarding Confidentiality and Intellectual Property that you signed when you became an IBM employee. It is obviously most important to do so whenever you identify yourself as an IBMer and engage in any discussions or activities that relate to IBM or its business, or use any of IBM’s communications systems or other assets to participate in a virtual world.

It goes on to discuss the following topics in more detail

    * Launching Digital Personas and Disclosing Their Identities
    * Appearance
    * Digital Persona Ownership & Responsibility
    * Identities that Span Multiple Environments
    * Protecting IBM Intellectual Property Assets
    * Respecting Intellectual Property of Others
    * Doing Business in a Virtual World
    * Export
    * Encountering Inappropriate Behavior
    * On Your Own Time

All of which make a lot of sense to me, but you can read them for yourself to see if you agree. The document concludes with a common sense summary:

    IBMers are encouraged to engage, to learn and to share their learning and thinking with their colleagues. That is what it means to be part of an innovation company. As we do so, our best guideline is to approach virtual worlds in the same way we do the physical world – by using sound judgment and following and being guided by IBM’s values and the Business Conduct Guidelines. Remember that IBM’s integrity and reputation, as well as your own, are in your hands. If you are unsure of the correct action or behavior at any stage, speak to your manager, your HR partner or an IBM attorney.

If you’ve ever heard of IBM’s blogging guidelines here you’ll recognise the pattern here. (Incidentally, I always loved the introduction: “In 1997, IBM recommended that its employees get out onto the Net — at a time when many companies were seeking to restrict their employees’ Internet access. We continue to advocate IBMers’ responsible involvement today in this new, rapidly growing space of relationship, learning and collaboration.”). Things are not so different now.

The baseline is that every IBMer agrees to to a code of business conduct, the Business Conduct Guidelines, which define and expand on IBM’s values as well as giving concrete examples of what it means to act ethically. Building on that, the blogging guidelines explicates the conduct guidelines in the context of blogging, outlining how we interact in blogs. It’s exactly the same story for the virtual worlds guidelines; they simply expound on the same code of practice and ethics we all agree to, putting them in the context of virtual worlds. As with the blogging guidelines, they were not written by a drone in Armonk but were written (collaboratively, on a wiki of course) by the virtual universe community inside IBM which was already exploring virtual worlds. That has to be A Good Thing.

When IBM published its blogging guidelines, many companies quite openly borrowed and adapted them for their own use. I wonder if we’ll see something similar with the virtual worlds guidelines.

Global Citizen's Portfolio: Podcast With IBM's Stan Litow

Stan Litow, IBM vice president of corporate citizenship, discusses the company's new Global Citizen's Portfolio, a new initiative to empower IBMers as the 21st century workforce in a globally integrated enterprise.

Download 2007_07_25_global_citizens_portfolio.mp3

Wikinomics, Greater IBM and Partnerworld

IBMer, Jack Mason, Executive Producer, IBM Strategic Communications

At the PartnerWorld bookstore, I picked up a copy of  Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, and was struck at how closely the goals for the Greater IBM Connection reflect the new forces outlined in Don Tapscott's compelling book on the growing power of groups to innovate. Here's one telling excerpt from the introduction:

"Smart companies are encouraging, rather than fighting, the heaving growth of massive online communities ... indeed as a growing number of firms see the benefit of  mass collaboration, this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional coporate structures as the economy's primary engine of wealth creation."

Greater IBM aims, of course, to be an exercise in mass collaboration. By creating a network for tens -- and perhaps one day hundreds -- of thousands of former IBMers to connect with each other and with current IBMers, the program is meant to make Big Blue a more open, global and responsive economic organism.

Naturally, IBM expects to benefit by expanding its sphere of influence. But by enabling current IBMers to engage with the large worldwide pool of former IBMers (like the many we met last week at PartnerWorld) and providing services and assets that former IBMers will want and value, IBM is also pushing itself to evolve and adapt.

Some of that change has to overcome the inertia of the familiar and the status quo, the fear of the unknown that almost always attends the new. In fact, while the response to creating Greater IBM has been almost universally positive among former and current IBMers, one of the most common questions we hear is "Why is IBM doing this?"

The short answer is epitomized in another Wikinomics passage:

"Billions of connected individuals can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate, they collectively can advance the arts, culture, science, education, government and the economy in surprising but profitable ways.  Companies that engage with these exploding Web-enabled communities are already discovering the true dividends of collective capabilities and genius."

In other words, Greater IBM is emblematic of what IBM is already striving to do through collaborative projects such as InnovationJam, The Global Innovation Outlook, The World Community Grid, On Demand Innovation Services and many other frontiers of deep, societal innovation.

At PartnerWorld, Nick Donofrio, IBM's executive vice president, shared his late father's even more succinct observation: "If nothing changes..nothing changes." Donofrio added "IBM doesn't have all the brains and all the resources in the world. We value collaboration. Our strategy demands we collaborate." It's about innovation that is open, collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and global.

I like to think of GIBM as a means to turn IBM inside out ... to extend the boundaries of the company beyond the traditional walls limited to current employees. Just as PartnerWorld is an ecosystem of business organizations with shared values and business interests ...something akin a multicellular organism composed of IBM partner firms, Greater IBM can bring such invaluable networking power down to the molecular, constituent level of individuals.

At that granular depth, Greater IBM promises to help new ideas and opportunities flow into, and out of, IBM, with benefits also flowing to all participants. Of course, this approach is not some speculative venture, but a strategy closely aligned with  IBM's own goals to become a globally integrated enterprise (PDF), the inevitable successor to the multinational corporation.

As CEO Sam Palmisano noted at PartnerWorld, while IBM is at its roots a technology company delivering software, services and systems that help clients succeed, "everything we do is about innovation and collaboration."

To that end, if Greater IBMers put their collective minds together, Greater IBM can become one of the world's most dynamic example of productive collaboration between a global enterprise and its extended workforce of retirees, alumni, former interns, etc. This is our mass innovation to build.

Wikinomics details many examples of how groups that embrace openness, peering, sharing and global coordination can achieve together innovations once unimaginable. Among them, Procter & Gamble's InnoCentive network, which enables 90,000 scientists and researchers outside of P&G to work on R&D challenges.

We have similar plans to harness the collective, collaborative power of Greater IBMers, but of course, some of the best ideas on how to put our network to work undoubtedly reside among members of Greater IBM. Which is why we strongly urge you to share your ideas on this front with Greater IBMers via our forums, the Greater IBM Wiki, and through any other channel you prefer.