for W3c validation

HOZ Alert! Headshift is now in Australia! It was with immense pleasure that I joined my fellow Headshift colleagues Livio Hughes and Anne Bartlett-Bragg last week to celebrate the opening of our operation in Australia.

Holding a breakfast workshop with a mix of communications, learning and development and knowledge management professionals at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, gave us the opportunity to mix lively social software discussions with spectacular Sydney Harbour views. (See for yourself!) The event was run in true Headshift style, with a bit of Sydney flavour thrown in.

• We had water (an ocean not a river)
• We had a bridge (the Harbour not the Tower)
• We had coffee (lots of it – it was early)
• And we got to chat with a heap of interesting people about their dreams, hopes and fears about using social software behind the firewall.

When I left Melbourne in 2005 to become a London J.A.F.A. (Just Another…. Friendly Australian  ) there was no talk about social software in the Australian Enterprise. Now I have returned home and it was exciting to hear about the experiences people have had with these ways of working in their organisations as well as their plans and aspirations.

So, what are the hopes that social software will deliver to our workshop participants’ organisations in Australia? Applications that engage, excite and reflect the way people want to work. – New ways of online learning that actually enhance the learning process.- Simple ways to collaborate and avoid inbox madness.- Fostering different ways of knowledge sharing that benefit from both organisational wisdom and the beyond – without coercion!

What are their fears? That the IT department will say no.- That social software will be another buzz word in the encyclopedia of ‘things that vendors made us do’- That these technologies have the potential to divide generational issues in the workplace

What are their dreams? Changing the world through sharing ideas and experience, great conversations and collaboration
We are looking forward to tackling some of the fears and making the hopes and dreams a reality.

Originally posted on the Headshift blog by Kate Crawshaw.