IBMConnect

Just to clarify, “smaht” is Massachusetts-ese for “smart”, as in when Tommie tells Kevin on This Old House,  “Ainchu the smaht one?”

All across the Connect 2013 show you see and hear stuff that is “smart”:  Smarter Commerce, Smarter Workforce, Smarter Cities, and more.  When I first came across these “smarter” products I confess I was skeptical.  I mean, Agent 86 had a “smart shoe”, that wasn’t actually very smart, right?

But a message coming through loud and clear for me here at the show is smarter is where we need to go.  Let’s face it: The fundamentals of collaboration are the same today as they were 20 years ago at the first Lotusphere: Saving information and sharing information with people and teams.  A Connections community is logically pretty much the same as a circa-1999 Notes teamroom.

There is a difference though – the community is smarter.  It sends notifications and makes recommendations, just to name the top 2 clever things a community can do.  These are individually small things, but their cumulative effect makes a major difference.

But I have to say the smartest thing I’ve seen at Connect 2013 so far was They Might Be Giants in the OGS:

After 30 years these guys still have it.  They did this number for us, one of my faves:

 

Leaving out the whistles and bells … all time greatest – and smartest – song about a nightlight, ever.  Well done, OGS!

I’m at IBM Connect 2013 … was a long trip from India, but here now and getting into the familiar flow of going to talks, meeting people, and hikes twixt Dolphin, Swan and elsewhere.

The first talk I’m at … seen above … is all about Kenexa, IBM’s new acquisition of Smarter Workforce technology.  The topic of Smarter Workforce has a lot of synergy with the Connect show (Lotusphere of years past).  Kenexa let’s you improve your workforce, by finding the right people, developing them, assigning them and improving them.  The majority of worldwide CEOs in IBM’s CEO Survey recognize that developing talent is the top need for maintaining and increasing competiveness.  It’s the old idea on “our people are our greatest asset”, but in the modern world, where physical resources and assets can be anywhere and become less important, it really is quality of people that makes the difference.

And the Connect show?  What else is it about, but people?  On the web today we can learn whatever we want, whenever we want.  Coming to a place and seeing others F2F, we do that because a connection with someone else you make when you see and hear each other is so much more valuable than a purely virtual one.

Will try to do more blogging while I’m here.  But hopefully I’ll be doing a lot of old fashioned sit down and talk sessions.