- Home
- About
- Lifestream
About
Hi ! My name is Luis Suarez and I am a Knowledge Manager, Community Builder & Social Computing Evangelist in the IBM Software Group division. I have now been working for IBM for a bit over 11 years, the last 9 of those as a full time employee. Throughout all that time I have developed a passion for everything related to Knowledge Management (i.e. Learning & Knowledge, or Knowledge Sharing, whatever you would prefer to call it). That would include quite a few things that, as you may have noticed already, are part of the theme(s) I will be talking about here in my weblog: Collaboration (Specially remote collaboration), Expertise Location, Content Management, Communities and Community Building -whether we are talking about physical or virtual / online communities (Communities of Practice, of Interest, of Purpose, etc.), (e)Learning, Online Facilitation, Knowledge and Learning Tools, Social Computing, Social Networking, Social Software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, etc. In short, almost everything that has got to do with knowledge sharing and collaboration. But with a twist.
I am what some people would be calling a Knowledge Worker. And, as you can imagine, that is also my job inside IBM. I am working in the IBM Software Group, within the Social Software Programmes & Enablement, and my main responsibilities are to help accelerate the adoption of social software within the enterprise, specially within the (Tech) Sales force and, as a result, to the entire IBM, by providing extensive education, training, coaching, mentoring, shadowing, support, facilitation, awareness and enabling knowledge workers to explore the opportunities of social computing and social computing tools to help enhance their own productivity while sharing their knowledge and collaborating with other knowledge workers.
I am also co-leading a community of Social Computing Ambassadors or Evangelists, called BlueIQ Ambassadors, from across the organisation, business units, geographies and timezones, whose main mission is to help spread the message around Enterprise 2.0 across the enterprise by creating and distributing plenty of enablement materials as well as arranging education sessions like clinics, lunch & learns, meetings / workshops with customers and, of course, 1:1 coaching & facilitation sessions.
I have been maintaining an Intranet weblog since December 2003 and got started with my Internet weblog, elsua, on October 2005. At the same time, and, just recently, I also have got a second Internet weblog hosted over at ITtoolbox, called elsua : The Knowledge Management Blog Thinking Outside the Inbox. Previous to my working in IBM, I have been travelling quite a bit, after finishing my degree, all over Europe having visited and lived in a few European countries: Portugal, France, Belgium, UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, along with the US, Canada and Mexico. So, as you can see, one of my other passions is travelling and meeting other people. Learn more about their culture, their language, their customs, traditions, etc. I enjoy as well reading a good book and listening to some good music, specially New Age or from the good old 80s.
And, above all, I love the place where I have been living for the last four and a half years: Gran Canaria!
Hola,
Al grano. Desde hace tres años colaboro en la elaboración del capítulo de tendencias del informe eEspaña de la Fundación Orange…
Este año, en colaboración con un grupo de investigación de la UPM hemos lanzado un pequeño proyecto para realizar un estudio del uso del software social en la empresa española. El estudio, que se integrará en el capítulo dedicado a las TIC en la empresa, incluirá un análisis cuantitativo –a partir de una sencilla encuesta- y también cualitativo.
La idea –para ese apartado cualitativo- es realizar unas pocas entrevistas, más o menos en profundidad, con responsables de innovación y tecnología de una reducido conjunto de empresas que podamos analizar como casos de estudio en el ámbito del informe. IBM puede servir, no sólo como usuaria de esas tecnologías y herramientas, sino también como prescriptora y conocedora de la demanda de sus clientes.
Me pongo en contacto contigo para pedirte, si es posible que tú, como conocedor del tema y miembro de la empresa, nos des una visión amplia del uso que hacéis internamente, a nivel global y/o regional; y me orientes a la hora de llegar a algún responsable regional que nos ofrezca una visión corporativa.
El formato podría ser una serie de preguntas cortas vía correo electrónico + entrevista telefónica o cara a cara … está por definir ¿Crees que eso es posible? Evidentemente una vez desarrollado el “caso de estudio” se validaría con quien fuera necesario antes de integrarlo en el informe definitivo.
Te escribo aquí porque no tengo una dirección de correo tuya y, como no me sigues en Twitter, no puedo atacarte con un Directo
Gracias y …
… Salud!
¡Hola Antonio! ¡Estaría encantado de poder participar con vosotros en esa entrevista y en el estudio en sí y poder aportar en la que medida que me sea posible mi experiencia en el tema de la Empresa 2.0 y dar información también sobre lo que IBM está haciendo en este respecto.
La semana que viene estaré en Madrid durante 4 días y luego me voy a Barcelona otros 4, o sea, que si quieres podemos quedar en Madrid para la entrevista cara a cara y, si no, lo podemos hacer por teléfono. Sin ningún problema. Ya me dirás cuál es la mejor opción.
¡Un saludo y gracias por la invitación! !Deseando ya poder participar! Saludos
Al final no ha sido posible vernos; te tendré al tanto para la entrevista… de momento, si me envías una dirección de correo operativa te pongo en contacto con Pablo Campo, un estudiante que está elaborando parte del estudio: sería bueno que lo orientaras hacia datos y fuentes secundarias más o menos fiables, aparte de las típicas que uno se puede encontrar en la Red.. Gracias!
¡Hola Antonio! Gracias por la información y por todo el apoyo… Te acabo de mandar un correo muy corto con la dirección para que se la puedas pasar a Pablo y nos podamos poner en contacto. Alternativamente, también podríamos hablar por Skype, si eso facilita las cosas mejor. Incluiré ese dato también en el correo.
¡Gracias de nuevo y seguiré en contacto tanto contigo como con Pablo!
¡Un saludo! ¡Y gracias a tí!
hola Luis!
I was just reading your article about surviving a google ban.
it.toolbox.com/blogs/elsua/6-things-i-learned-while-being-banned-from-google-search-26483
My wife and i are going through the basically the same thing. Wanted to know how long did it take for you to get back on google, and did you have to restart from zero on google?
We’ve been losing alot of sleep over this and are both so sad about the Google ban. Any other suggestions of what u did to help out the situation?
I’ve already submitted reconsideration request to Google Webmaster Tools. Now we are just waiting… and the waiting is what really stinks!
I just cant believe Google doesn’t give you a warning before they ban you! We had no idea that our site didn’t follow “Google Quality Site” standards.
HELP Luis!
Hi John, many thanks for reaching out and for the feedback comments! Really sorry to hear that you guys have also been affected by a Google ban. I must say that it is quite unnerving, specially because of the unexpected results it can have. In my case the whole thing from finding out about the ban, to eventually get it all sorted out took about a week, but the good news is that the impact was minimal. Yes, I was not reachable through Google for about a week, but then after I got everything back in place I was back into the game without having lost anything. Just like it was before.
So if you guys have already done what needs to be done to undo the ban you should be all right. Perhaps what you need to watch out for is the fact that you will not get any kind of notification, at least, I didn’t, when the ban is lifted, so check periodically through Google Search and see if you can find yourself again.
But, like I said, all in all, about a week is what it will take you to get over the ban and get everything back into place.
One thing that the entire experience showed me was to eventually keep up with the WordPress upgrades instead of just keeping it for months on previous versions. I paid my price, learned the lesson and now working like a charm.
Hope that helps. If you would need more help or info details please do get in touch! Thanks again for the feedback and best of luck!
Wow…i truly truly hope we get similiar results as you do. My wife has been doing her tennis blog for 2 years now, and we JUST migrated her site to WordPress in Feb and have had so many long nites getting everything back in order, and now Google bans us! It was a stab in the heart and just straight out disheartening! We get at least 1/3 of our traffic from google. It’s pretty scary to think that a search engine can have so much power over ANY website out there.
I just hope we are back on there soon as our website is reliant on current day-to-day tennis news.
Thank you again Luis! Your response has brought back hope to our site. I was almost ready to ditch the old domain name and start a new one! pheewww
You wont believe it…as i finished my last response to you, i was finishing up some 301 redirects on our website, and checking against links in Google Webmaster, and it had me check for our site again on Google, and LOW AND BEHOLD! ITS BACK!!! It’s slowly trickling back in! But its BACK!!! Thanks Luis for your response!
Hi John! What an EXCELLENT piece of news! I am really glad you folks are up and running and enjoying the Google juice, once again! I know it must have been quite an experience going through such unfortunate set of events, but, indeed, while reading your last couple of comments I can also sense the excitement of moving further on with things as should be and I am relaly glad for you folks!
Keep up the great work and glad to have helped a bit with those words of encouragement on “Hang in there!”.
Hey Luis…we’ve noticed that Google doesnt seem to give us the search love like it did before the ban.
In the past, when we posted, we would see our posts show up in the 1st couple pages on google searches, now, not even close.
Did you notice this too?
Did this happen to you as well?
Did it ever come back to the way it was?
We are very sad
Hi John! Thanks again for the follow up and for the feedback comments! I am really sorry to hear that the search results aren’t up to the expectations they once were.
When I went through the ban myself, I eventually noticed it took me a few days before my blog would come on the 1st page of results, where it is still now, so I am thinking it may take a little bit of time before you guys get back in shape.
I eventually got there, so I am sure you would be able to get there as well with no problem. One other thing worth while trying would be to get in touch with other SEO experts, like John Mu (johnmu.com/). He was the one who kindly first alerted me of the issue and helped me solve it. I know he is a busy man, but on his blog (I get to talk to him through Twitter), he lists a Contact page and you may want to have a look into that and see if he can share further details.
Hope that helps, John, and hope you guys get back in shape shortly, too!
Hi Lidia, as much as I would have hoped to chime in at Locopo.net, I am afraid that if it is going to be all in Bulgarian it is going to make my contributions rather cumbersome, if not almost too impossible, since I don’t speak, nor write in that language, although I wish I could hehe
It is really cool to see how you folks are making use of Connections to drive the adoption of social software! Thanks for sharing that link! And for reaching out in the various other networks!
Hola Luis,
Trabajo en el proyecto Andalucía Compromiso Digital (www.andaluciacompromisodigital.org) un proyecto solidario promovido por la Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa de la Junta de Andalucía cuya finalidad es acercar el conocimiento y la accesibilidad de las NNTT´s a toda la ciudadanía principalmente a las personas que están en riesgo de brecha digital. La peculiaridad es que esta acción se realiza a traves de voluntarios.
Para las próximas semanas vamos a organizar el primer encuentro de voluntarios de Andalucía Compromiso Digital y entre las distintas ponencias y talleres queremos incluir uno relacionado con las redes sociales, para el que hemos pensado que puedes ser la persona idonea para acometer ese taller.
Te agradecería te pusieses en contacto para poder tratar contigo este tema.
Gracias,
Hola Javier, muchas gracias por los comentarios y por haberte acercado a este blog y colgar este mensaje. ¡¡Se agradece!! Acabo de mandarte un mensaje pidiendo un poco más de información sobre las jornadas y el evento y a ver si podemos conseguir que pueda asistir al mismo. Dame un toque cuando puedas y seguimos en contacto …
¡Gracias de nuevo por la estupenda invitación y espero nos podamos ver pronto!
Hola Luis,
Necesito ponerme en contacto contigo para comentarte un asunto.
Espero que me recuerdes de EBE08. Nos hiciste de enlace para llevarle el Toshiba a Manuel Almeida
Espero tus noticias.-
¡Hola Raúl! ¡Gracias por el comentario! ¡Por supuesto que me acuerdo! Faltaría más jeje Ya me he puesto en contacto contigo por correo y dime qué es lo que puedo hacer por tí. ¡Nos leemos!
Hola Luis, gran blog y gran conferencia la del EBE08, de lo mejor en lo que he estado en mucho tiempo.
Me he llevado una grata sorpresa al encontrar tu conferencia en Vimeo, así que me he permitido el compartirla desde mi blog y se le enviado a mis jefes a ver si cambiamos la dinámica de la empresa
Hola JJ, muchas gracias por los comentarios y por dejarte caer por aquí. Se agradece también el enlace al video de Vimeo y la presentación. ¡¡Muchas gracias por el feedback también sobre la charla en el EBE08!! Espero que tus jefes estén interesados en la temática y, mejor, que la pongan en práctica. Si necesitas ayuda para convencerles, no dudes en darme un toque y encantado de poder hablar con vosotros sobre el tema de lo que es vivir sin correo electrónico y todavía consiguiendo tener el trabajo acabado
jeje
¡Gracias de nuevo y espero nos podamos ver pronto!
I manage Intuit’s Online Community website and am thinking about how our robust world of user generated content can compliment (or replace) our main Support Website. Any thoughts? Do you know any Fortune 1000 company that relies on Wisdom of the Customers vs. creating a bunch of KB articles and content?
Thanks for your help.
S
Hi Scott! Thanks a bunch for dropping by and for the feedback comments! I can imagine that it would be quite a drastic change, but seeing the robustness of what you have built up already, it can have a tremendous impact in how you can move things further with that wisdom of the customers. For example, instead of putting together a bunch of KB articles having a dynamic user experience, like a wiki, could help you generate much more relevant and accurate content according to the community’s needs & the overall Web site.
So why not? I know of a few Fortune 1000 companies who are starting to rely more and more on the power of online communities, special in today’s times, where virtual teaming and collaboration is more key than ever. If you would need more info details on that topic, let me know and we may get in touch to share some more.
Thanks again for the information details!
Dear Luis
I’m working on a company knowledge management project and would value your input to a few questions I have. I have submitted my e-mail address, please do get in touch if you can spare the time!
Thank you!
Hi Alistair, I haven’t heard from you in a long while and not sure whether you got my original email answering your query above on wanting to find out some more on KM; would you have an opportunity to come back and confirm whether you got that initial email? If not, more than happy to re-send it…
Thanks!
Luis
So sorry we were unable to make contact. Sadly I didn’t receive your e-mail! Do you have my e-mail address now?
Best, Alistair
Hola, Luis,
no sé si sigues de viaje o realmente fuera del inbox
. Sólo quería recordarte tienes un email sobre emekaeme.wordpress.com/estudio-comunidades-online-2009/ 
. Ya me dirás algo.
Un saludo (y felicidades por el cambio de diseño del blog, le viene muy bien),
Miguel
Hola Miguel, pues si te digo la verdad estoy en demasiadas cosas a la vez como para poder disfrutar lo que yo querría de ese pedazo de whitepaper que has puesto sobre este estudio de comunidades; lo tengo un poco aparcado, y sé que vamos para largo en este tema, pero lo cierto es que todavía me apasiona y estoy interesado y ahora que he retomado lo de los “business trips” creo que me lo voy a volver a bajar y empezar a re-leerlo otra vez y comentar algo en el blog; ya te doy un toque cuando lo haya hecho y espero que haya un followup con una versión para el 2010 y ver cómo han evolucionado las cosas …
¡Saludos y gracias de nuevo por todo! Algún día llegaremos a vernos “face to face” y ese día las copas las paga un servidor
¡Hasta pronto!
Hi Luis,
I haven’t checked by for quite a long time now and surprise: you got a new design. I like it a lot. Cleaner than the old one.
Keep up the good work.
Robert
Hi Robert! Thanks a bunch for the kind comments on the blog and for the feedback on the new design. Yeah, I’m totally delighted about it and very happy with it all along! The designer has done a great job and very proud of her!
I guess it’s a little bit late than usual responding to this comment, but then again, better late than never, right? And that’s one of the great things of blogs, i.e. you can always pick up the conversation and keep going at it where we left it! So here I am sharing a thought or two.
Thanks again for the feedback and speak soon!
Hi Luis:
What a wonderful site and I wish you the best of luck with the new position!
I discovered a wonderful piece you wrote on Dan Pink’s bestselling book A WHOLE NEW MIND, and I am happy to offer you an advance reading copy of his upcoming title “DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” for review consideration. I think it’s relevant to your audience and you would enjoy the new content.
If you’re interested, I can be contacted at the email address listed. Regardless, keep up the wonderful site and thanks for sharing!
Best,
Lydia Hirt
RiverheadBooks
Hi Lydia! Apologies for the long delay on the reply! I guess better late than never, right?
Either way, I am really pleased you are enjoying the blog and its various readings; I would love to get a copy of Drive to read and review later in the blog, but at the moment, I have got about half a dozen books piled up that I need to finish off before I can add some more, but whenever I’m ready I will send along an email to you and see how we can get things moving.
Really appreciate your support on this and surely hope to be in touch very very soon! Thanks again for the kind comments and speak soon!
Estimado Luis, buenos días.
Me dirijo a ti porque tengo un cliente que quiere insertar un banner en vuestro portal si es posible, por lo que te solicito si me puedes enviar medidas de banner, tarifas y forma de pago.
La campaña en principio sería para 15 días.
Gracias, un saludo,