WebEx: Ideas in Motion

Tweeting, Posting, Searching: Is multi-tasking a virus or a human trait?

We are reposting from our archives today because based on what we are seeing on Twitter, the crisis is not over. Multi-tasking seems to be even more rampant now as we Tweet, post, search, and share like crazy! Do you have the virus? A study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points.

I've been in a good number of training sessions and meetings the past few weeks, so in catching up on my reading, I saw this apropos post from Nicholas Carr about the multitasking virus. Josh Waitzkin (of Searching for Bobby Fischer fame) initiated the discussion on Tim Ferriss' blog. Christine Rosen also weighs in at The New Atlantis.

The idea behind Josh Waitzkin's post, his experience watching today's students multitasking during a lecture from one of his favorite professors, has strong correlation to meeting behavior both in-person and online. We've all seen people bring their notebook PCs into a meeting. The rest of us are left wondering if they spend the time checking email, chatting in IM, and watching YouTube.

Bringing a notebook PC to a meeting is akin to chewing gum in same, so if you bring one, plan on sharing. Last week I participated in a couple meetings in which all the participants hunkered down for a couple hours at a stretch in a conference room to work on a project. We all brought our notebooks, but we actively used WebEx to share content, co-edit and transfer files. It definitely streamlined the process.

In fact, WebEx might help you reduce your need to multi-task! Because WebEx includes a visual component, we find people have an easier time focusing on the discussion than they do on a teleconference.

So is multi-tasking a virus? Do we need a cure? I'm not sure but I know I have it and no matter how hard I try - I can't seem to kick it!

Michael Caton is a Collaboration Evangelist at WebEx.

Update: Josh Waitzken published a great blog called, Seven Habits Essential for Tackling the Multitasking Virus that might help if you think you have a problem! In Auigust of this year, he wrote about his next visit to the same classroom one year later...things had not gotten any better.

  

Blog Action Day: Use WebEx To Help Create a Better Climate

Today is Blog Action Day - a single day of the year where bloggers from all over the world, all walks of life - join together to create a single voice on a single subject:

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. 

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. 

This year the topic is Climate Change.

Rather than try and come up with a new blog about all the ways WebEx helps people save time, money and cuts down on travel costs, we thought it might be easier to let you choose the story that fits you best - and we've thrown in a few that don't include WebEx! 

The founders of Blog Action Day believe that,"Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action." That's what we believe too and why we started PasstheBall.com. 

We invite you to come to PasstheBall.com and share you ideas about Climate Change in our Environment area. Ideas get better when then are shared.

What to join the conversation?

It's not too late to blog. And if you want to follow what else is happening today, go to Twitter and search on #BAD09.

  

Guest Blogger: Use The Public Channel For Better Customer Service

This guest blog is by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist with 19 years experience and a great blog, AVC.. He helps people start and build technology companies out of New York City – which he’ll tell you isn't the easiest place to build technology companies, but its getting better. We believe ideas get better when they are shared – so does Fred. Check it out…

One of Mike Bloomberg's greatest achievements is the creation of the 311 service here in New York City. These 311 services operate in many large cities in the US and in Canada. The first one was in Baltimore in the mid 90s.

Apparently Bloomberg is a huge user of 311 himself and he calls all the time as he is driving around the city, reporting potholes and such.

We had a pothole in our neighborhood that I passed every day on my way to the subway. It was a big one and I'd watch car after car pound the hell out of their undercarriage as they made their way from Hudson onto Bethune street.  One day I stopped and snapped this photo with my Blackberry and posted it to Flickr (and then automatically to Twitter):

I added the following to the Flickr headline which became the tweet:

It would be great if you could twitter these in like: @potholenyc corner of bethune and hudson

Of course I could have called 311, like our Mayor does, and reported the pothole. But doing it this way does a bunch of things;

1) It saves the cost of staffing large call centers because computers can handle most of the processing of messages like this. There will still need to be humans at some part of this process, but the front end can certainly be automated.

2) You get an image of the pothole which should help the crews who fix them evaluate the worst ones and prioritize.

3) The photo and the twitter message is out there for anyone to see. Ideally this message would get routed, via something like our portfolio company outside.in, to the various local media in the neighborhood. If the messages have enough metadata in them, you could even create pages of local media based on the most common neighborhood issues (crime, infrastructure, schools, parks, etc)

4) The public discussion about the photo and related posts could be aggregated to create even more metadata and further identify the highest priority issues.

We see this "public channel" in action already with services like Comcast Cares on Twitter. Anyone can pick up the phone and call Comcast and tell them that their cable service isn't working. But the only people who know about that are the person making the call and call center rep taking it. When someone posts on Twitter that their cable service isn't working and directs the message to Comcast Cares, many people see that. Some of them may be other Comcast customers who might find out that their cable isn't working either. And as Comcast Cares elevates the issue, gets it fixed, and reports back, everyone gets to see that too. It's a huge win for Comcast. Anything that can make a cable company look better is a great thing and the use of the public channel is exactly that.

The public channel is just developing. It's in its infancy. Services like Twitter and Facebook are building key elements of it. But we need a lot more infrastructure to make this happen. I do not believe that the way this will happen is the creation of "enterprise services" that will be sold to local governments. I think we'll see things like GetSatisfaction and Uservoice develop that are consumer facing first and foremost that governments will be forced to adopt.

My friend John Geraci, co-founder of Outside.in, is developing a non-profit called DIYcity that is attempting to spearhead a movement along this idea. If you are interested in working on projects in this area, you should join DIYcity and start collaborating with others who are working in this space.

The public channel is the right channel for business and government. Most "customer support" issues are not confined to one person (just look at the comments on my American Express post for proof of that). So we should be using a public channel to talk to companies and institutions. They'll benefit and so will we.

Thanks Fred for a great post! We’d love to hear your ideas for making things better. Share then at PasstheBall.com  and follow us on Twitter. Ideas get better when they are shared.

Controversial Idea: Iran in the headlines - ideas create change

While the world watches the people of Iran struggle to find their way, I was touched to see that someone had taken the time to post an idea about Iran on PasstheBall.com.

I think many of us have been following what's happening in Iran and are interested in the role social media is playing in helping people stay connected, broadcast news as it happens and share ideas. Social media is giving voice to individuals who may not have otherwise been heard.

If you haven't taken a look at the conversation going on online, there's a very easy way to start - I use Twitter Search. There you will see hash tags (#aword) that are being used for trending tweets - things are getting a lot of attention at that moment in time. Just click on one of those tags and watch the conversation happen.

The ability to express your ideas and have others add comments to help you make it a better is something we believe has power.

The power to create change.

Anatomy of an idea: "Hungry for Change"

I love going to PasstheBall.com every morning and checking out the new ideas. While clicking around, one caught my eye - it connected with a post on the WebEx Facebook fan page - it was an idea called "Hungry for Change."

I clicked into the idea and read it: 

"...every time you use your participating bank card, your purchase amount is rounded up to the nearest dollar, and your spare change is donated to the cause of your choice."

Wow - that sounded awesome. It gave a link to a video on YouTube which explained even more. And I realized, what's happening here is exactly what we want PasstheBall.com to do. Be a place for people to share great ideas and get help - from everyone else out there - to make them grow. Clearly Jamie Pullman at Hungry for Change has been working on his idea for awhile - but he hasn't done it alone!

As people join your team and as you build momentum for your idea, we'll host a WebEx Forum to facilitate discussion among your team members. If there's an expert you'd like to weigh in, let us know because we'll even see if we can make that happen.

So it's up to you. Jump in, post your idea or support the ideas already percolating on the site. And remember, every time you do, you are triggering a donation to Teachers Without Borders.

When you act, Teachers Without Borders benefits...

Our Pass the Ball campaign was created to do three things:

1. Give people a place to share their ideas and get others to collaborate with them with the hope some amazing things will happen;

2. Help Teachers Without Borders - a organization built around the notion of sharing ideas - in fact the founder, Fred Melnick, started the whole thing with a wild idea he shared with a friend; and

3. Expose new people to WebEx - a tool we think does a great job of helping people share ideas with others with the end result being a better outcome.

We are just getting started,
but so far so good!

Our thought was, every time someone posts or rates an idea, it would trigger a donation to Teachers Without Borders (affectionately known at TWB around here). We have already logged over 300 ideas with our launch this week and that translates to free training for three teachers in the TWB program.

We have at least triple those numbers in ratings and we can see our visitors are doing their best to share their ideas on Facebook, Twitter and more. We are so glad the notion of Passing the Ball has caught on.

Keep it up!

Go back and visit your idea - there are a lot of comments being posted and someone may have left one for you. And if you haven't done so already, be sure to add a picture or an image. Owning your idea helps bring it to life! And if you have ideas about how to make the web site better, post it here - we want to hear from you!

Share ideas on Facebook - it's easy...

Did you know you can share the great ideas you see on PassTheBall.com with your friends on Facebook? It's easy. Here's all you need to do:

1. On PassTheBall.com, go to the specific idea's page - where you can see the details of your or another person's idea (find an idea and click on it - it will take you there).

2. Under the red "Join Team" button on the left, choose the "share this idea" link.

3. When you see the list, choose Facebook (you'll see there are lots of ways to share, don't be shy - try many!).

4. Add your comments or thoughts to the Facebook interface (it's a splash page that will come up) and then click post.

The idea will post with your comments and a direct link to the idea right on your Facebook page.

This is a great way to get people to vote on your ideas. It's also a good way to drive traffic to ideas you think are worth noticing. Remember, winning ideas will get a free year of WebEx - so it's not too soon to start campaigning!