The Skeptical Informer 2013 number 6: changing how we in ITSM consume content
The IT Skeptic's Skeptical Informer newsletter for 22nd March 2013.
These are interesting times for the ITSM community with several forces re-shaping the way we consume content.
I don't follow the twitter hashtags like #ITIL or #ITSM much any more - too much noise. Facebook BACK2ITSM as a forum is reportedly dying (I wouldn't know, I seldom use Facebook ever - from way before it was cool to be over Facebook). LinkedIn Groups are dead, and online forums and Yahoo groups are disappearing into the mists of time. England's Law applies to the ITSM world with a vengeance: all social channels degenerate into babble. The emerging social community for ITSM is Google+. It is growing in stature. I like it: there is room and time for thoughtful content, like impermanent blog posts.
A key feature of Google+ is Google Hangouts. Every man and his dog is arranging hangouts to webcast to the world. I am. The next Google+ Skep Chat hangout is 26th March.
On the web, Martin Thomson's ITAM Review and ITSM Review prove that a small and dedicated curator can whip the media giants at their own game. (I write a regular series for TThe ITSM Review.)
On YouTube (mostly, and other media), TFT12 was great fun, and TFT13 is coming around on 18th June. If you don't know what that is, check it out: a world-wide 24-hour online virtual conference with presenters selected by the online audience.
Finally, on the commercial front we see the emergence of SHIFT, an organisation that seeks to broker the contributor community to ensure that contributors are better rewarded for their efforts. SHIFT builds on the online properties of the ITSM Weekly podcasts and the TFT conferences which it now has under its wing. (Note: I'm a regular host on the ITSM Antipodean podcast. The bath drains the other way down here and the podcasts are monthly instead of weekly.)
It will be interesting to see what the impact of all this is on the monolithic edifices of ITSM content: Castle ITIL and Fort COBIT. None, perhaps. I'm not sure how this will play out and what the impact on those bodies of knowledge might be. The online content world is like insects skittering around on the surface of a deep pool of accumulated wisdom. In the grand scheme of things and the long haul I don't know that we online commentators count for much.
Certainly though, in the short term we in the online community provide value in immediate and relevant information, commentary, and feedback. (Quality, usefulness and sensibility is another issue for another day). Dive into it.
There is a call to action from this newsletter: go check out the list of potential speakers for TFT13, and especially please show your support for the IT Skeptic by voting for my presentation to hear the latest on Standard+Case!. If you don't vote I may not get to present and you won't get to watch it online.
(Click the link, scroll down until you find "Rob England, The IT Skeptic", then click the little up-arrow at the bottom left of my entry. Thanks so much for supporting the IT Skeptic's work for the community.)
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Welcome to the Web Wide World. Many readers of this blog are so immersed in the world that the Web has created that you take it for granted, but let's not. The flattened shrunken world of the Internet has this power to change lives. It strikes me every day, because I live it.
The death of blogging? Are we seeing the end of blogging as a useful source of information and ideas? I don't think so. I think we use blogs differently.
ITSM in Cherry Valley. I'm getting lots of positive feedback about my series of articles for The ITSM Review, which use a train crash in Cherry Valley, Illinois as a case study for understanding incident and problem management.
Skep Chat 2013/3/13 - come hangout with the IT Skeptic
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