The way you will use email in the future is as an embedded and integrated part of your daily workspace. It will be part of your social intranet and in context with what you do! Ed Brill, who is IBM’s top manager for Lotus Notes and Productivity Tools development  showed this in one of his presentations at Lotusphere 2012.

Here it is:

To read more about what Ed is writing about this on his blog – click here!

NORWAY: – Just as I predicted! Today email became a social collaboration tool, and not just email. The future of email is here today and those of you who still believe that email is email and documents are documents, sorry. You are standing on the platform while the train is leaving! And the locomotive in front of that train is named IBM.

Today IBM announced email as one of many integrated applications in a true social business. And those of you who have predicted that Lotus Notes is dead will notice that the shit just hit the fan! Lotus Notes and Domino will still be around for many years to come and now also in a new social flavour called IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Social Edition.

Today IBM also announced IBM Connections Mail where email becomes an integrated part of your intranet so you can use email from wherever you are in your workspace either as an embedded email application or as part of an activity stream.

And what you do with your laptop or desktop, you can of course do with an iPad or any mobile device – including Windows Mobile!

Even office productivity applications like document editing – text, spreadsheets and presentations – will be embedded in your workspace. You will not need to install an expensive office suite on your PC any more. It is right there on the intranet! Even document sharing will be easier and social.

As some of the presenters said today:

- Sharepoint is the documents coffin!

- IBM Social Email will outlive Outlook!

Microsoft really have to watch out as they do not catch it – the world is moving out of the silos and into the integrated social world. So if you plan to stick with Microsoft you will be left behind!

And Michael J. Fox is really a brave man – standing there on the scene despite his Parkinson’s Disease. My own mother died from that disease so I know how much braveness, energy and gut’s you need to do what Michael J. Fox is doing this very moment! And he is talking about how he has coped with his illness and he does it with a lot of humor and irony. What a man! What a Braveheart!

Where is the symphony orchestra and that gorgeous lady with the violin from the good old days? Let us say OK, GO to the band…

Streaming video is not very sharp when I use my 27″ iMac screen to the full. Have to use a smaller frame and put my nose onto the screen. Well, after the band left and they started to clean the stage after them, then the music I like filled the hall and the speakers of my iMac.

Now, this looks like Lotusphere!

Lotusphere is a nation
Lotusphere is a fantastic event. Thousands and thousands of people from all over the world gathers around one common interest; social collaboration. Not only are they interested in the technology – they are practically performing social collaboration live! They mingle, talk, laugh, change information, teach and learn, build new skills, meet new friends, meet old friends. People from all over the world, of all colors, all religions, all political standpoints, all cultures, all food preferences – they are all different, but they are all alike in some way – they are positive, peaceful, friendly and open! Lotusphere is a great place to be. Sometimes I think that the rest of the troubled world could learn something from the “Lotusphere Nation” – that collaborating socially makes the world a better place.

Stay close to the source
In january 2010 i participated at Lotusphere registered on IBM’s blogger quota. I blogged heavily during the Opening General Session, simultaneously. After three days I had posted nearly 50 articles from the event. Not only short news bits and comments, but interviews and full reports with pictures – like any web based news agency. That got me more than 7.000 readers – not bad when writing in Norwegian only with only 4,5 million Norwegians.

The year after I was not there, but blogged from my home office, following OGS especially and Lotusphere in general via the internet. I can assure you the result was not the same. The number of readers fell to 4.500 people. This tells me one thing, that I learned in my earlier days as a professional journalist – you have to stay close to the source!

Watching the streaming – often with technical problems and bad sound – will never be as good as being there. You never get the same feeling of togetherness as you do in that people packed conference hall. You never hear the summing, the comments, the intense nerve that is in the air. You never get the same inspiration via the internet. Being there is what rules.

Seeing is believing!
Especially I will miss all the demo’s. Seeing is believing! I have more than a hunch on what will be announced, what the trend and the roadmap will be. If you are more than interested you will understand what has to come, without knowing all the facts in detail. You know that integration of social abilities and functions will be everywhere. You know that there will be more open technology. These are all technical stuff that many traditional Lotusphere-geeks are looking forward to. But for me, who is not a techie and has been working as a journalist and personal productivity adviser in my earlier career – the most interesting thing will be to see the new way of working!

You will see that the old way of working in silo’s will slowly disappear and transformed into a horizontal way of working. And the possibility to connect to other people will be integrated everywhere. We will see that everything is connected, people, documents, places – and there will be many ways to connect.

Social collaboration makes the world better
My thoughts goes back to that fantastic event when CNN’s founder, Ted Turner, set up a direct TV link between USA and USSR. He let ordinary americans talk to ordinary russians. For a young man like me at that time it became a learning for life. These people who has so very different lives and economic standards, suddenly understood that they all had the same worries and the same feelings about what life is all about. That TV show was imperative for my choose of a personal life agenda – and made me understand that social collaboration is what makes the world go forward.

Alone we are only popping champagne corks. Together we are dynamite!

Here is the link! Have fun!

- What will happen to good old email? Will it die? Will it live? Or will it transform?

This is the question that will be asked by thousands and thousands participants from all over the world during the week ahead at Lotusphere 2012. This is the place to be if Collaboration and Social Business is what you care about.

I am not at Lotusphere this time and I do not know what will be announced from IBM during the week. But if we look around us on what is going on in the market and in the social collaboration world, we could make some qualified guesswork. So here is what my crystal globe tells me:

The melting pot
Everything will melt together; Email, chat, documents, blogs, activity streams, phone, sharing, discussions, communities and – not at least – business applications. You will all recognize it from lots of IBM presentations from the last years: Social Everywhere!

We know that documents (read: Sharepoint) have no value unless they are connected to people with skills on the documents content. They will have no value if you cannot find them without knowing where they are. They have no value if you cannot transform them into activities in teamwork with others. They have no value if you cannot attach discussions and people to them. To understand documents we have to get help from others. That is why even content management systems have to become social, in the meaning that both readers and editors are connected and able to collaborate on the spot and on the minute.

Social business apps
Even business applications get social! No matter what business application you are using at the moment, no matter what website you are on – they will all get the social tools you need to access skills, information, people, discussions and bookmarks in context with what your job is or what you are working on right now.

Social Everywhere means that you will se chat, unified communication (phone), email, discussions, people search, file sharing and search, task management, audio and video – everything melted together. All in one environment – in your preferred work space. On your preferred platform and device.

Social wherever you are
Mobility will be of high importance. Wherever you are you should be able to collaborate in a social context, doing the same actions you do by using a PC in your office. Your office will no longer be in a building, but in your pocket and in your head.

- Where is your office quarters, Arne, people ask me when I am on travel. And my answer is always the same: – Here! Just where I happen to be in the moment!

Will email die?
But what happens to good old email? Will it disappear? No, it will be there, but it will be different. Your traditional email client will transform into a social collaboration client. Unless you use Outlook, of course. Microsoft does not seem to catch what is going on in the market place. They seem to be stuck in their understanding of social as email and document sharing. I have never seen a presentation from Microsoft talking about social. But I have heard about a Microsoft presentation saying: – We don’t do social! That is probably why you have to buy loads and loads of third-party stuff to try to make Microsoft social.

Will Lotus Notes die?
So what will happen to the Lotus Notes client? Well, part of it has already happened. It’s based on an open platform so you could plug-in every social application you fantasy may let you think of. And I believe you will see that coming on even stronger. I believe you will se an even stronger social collaboration client coming. And I believe you will se social email that integrates with whatever you have from before, no matter what email server you use. I believe you will se email that appear in you intranets website being in context with your job and activities you are working on.

Desktop office will die – slowly
I also believe that in the future you will not need to install a productivity suite like Microsoft Office on your computer. Text editors, spreadsheets and presentations will be an integrated part of your intranet. And it will be compatible with almost any document standard you might want. And, as if that wasn’t enough – your documents will be social – in the meaning that more that one editor will be able to work at the document at the same time – simultaneous editing! Of course this productivity suite will be enabled in every setting you may be – intranet, business application, collaboration suite – wherever, whenever ad on whatever device.

Tomorrow is on monday!
IBM is the undisputed number one leader into the new area of collaboration. I am convinced that IBM will show you this at Lotusphere 2012. I am sure some of my predictions will come true during the week – at least it will be i that directions. But we will have to wait for the details and the demo’s!

I believe the future will be here already on monday morning! Have fun!

Kaj is a regular at Lotusphere for years back and I know him very well as he works in the same town I live in. And we often meet at the Norwegian Lotus User Group (LSBG).

The Lotusphere Podcast is the Lotusphere 2012 version of the “must-listen-to-every-week” This Week In Lotus podcast that I download to my iPod every friday and listen to in my car.

This Week In Lotus is aired via iTunes and is run by Stuart McIntyre and Darren Duke. It has been on air as long as I can remember (I’ve got a short memory, getting older). My week is simply not perfect if I don’t get to listen to these guys every week.

If a modern business want to stay a modern business in today’s business climate – it has to change their way of working and collaboration – and become a true Social Business.

The headline Social Business is Real Business is the title of my speech at Software 2012, a three-day conference from 7 – 9  february, held in Oslo, Norway.

- Well, we have a page on Facebook, so we are already social! I am sure you have heard this from many IT-managers, PR and Communications Advisers, CIO’s and CEO’s. They are using a few Social Media and think they are social businesses.

It simply isn’t that simple!

What about all the internal processes? How do geographically fragmented companies collaborate internally? How do they connect with each other? How do they share knowledge? How do they find the right employees with the right skills for the right project – in minutes?

- We use email. We share documents!

So you do what all the others do? How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? And, to be honest, what value does a document have, except securing a lot of work for those who file them? Does documents make any money for your company? Even if they are shared?

Of course not! You may read as many books and documents you want, but they does not create any value until the knowledge in these documents are transformed into activities.

Only people doing activities are creating value! That is why your business has to become people and activity oriented! That is why you have to integrate social collaboration tools into every business process and into every application, so you can connect people to other people, connect people to information and create insight through the whole organization! And to achieve that you have to create a transparent organization!

It’s all about culture!

Culture eats strategy for lunch! No matter what strategy you have. It is all about your corporate culture. A culture of sharing and collaborating transparently.

A true Social Business does more than using public social media channels. That is well enough for marketing, media and public relations. But it does not make your company and employees more skilled, more effective, more engaged, more nimble.

Therefore you have to rethink how you do your business internally. Find out how you can connect every employees brain cells together so that they become more creative together, use their collective IQ for the company’s and their own growth and value.

That is, shortly, what Social Business is all about.

I will talk more about that at the Software 2012 Conference. See you there!

Transforming your traditional business into a true Social Business will increase you revenue, make your employees more productive and  finally boost your companys finances and share value!

It is not me saying this, but McKinsey, in their article “ How social technologies are extending the organization” published on their website McKinsey Quarterly.  They have made a study among 4.200 global executives and have done some interesting findings.

When adopted at scale across an emerging type of networked enterprise and integrated into the work processes of employees, social technologies can boost a company’s financial performance and market share, respondents say, confirming last year’s survey results.

Executives at internally networked organizations note the highest improvement in benefits from interactions with employees; those at externally networked organizations, from interactions with customers, partners, and suppliers. Executives at fully networked organizations report greater benefits fromboth internal and external interactions.

Read for yourselves here!