Lantern, a Melbourne-based non-profit with a focus on mental health, are running a Mental Health 2.0 Unconference today. I was planning to attend but one reason and another I wasn't able to make it down from NSW in the end... however, I thought I might as well share the slides I had prepared. As usual, this is a short deck and imagery intensive - so I'll do my best to add some commentary later.

UPDATE: A <10 minute audio commentary is now included with the slides.

Incidentally, with the support of Simon Spencer (GM Asia Pacific) and Ross Hill from the local Yammer team, the unconference has been able to bring together participants into a microblogging community that has had people talking and introducing themselves before the event starts. So even if I'm not there today, I'll be able to follow and engage with this back channel during the day.

If you are interested - this makes use of Yammer Communities functionality, that lets you create an enterprise microblogging network that extends beyond your own organisation.

Social Business Design for Breakfast

Thursday February 3, 2011 at 8:00am

Captains of Industry

Level 1, 2 Somerset Place
Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Get Directions

James Dellow aka Chieftech (from Headshift | Dachis Group) invites you to join him for breakfast to chat informally about Social Business Strategy, Workforce Engagement, Customer Engagement, and Social Analytics and Business Intelligence using social technologies. What ever your interest - social media, Government 2.0, knowledge management or Enterprise 2.0 - you are welcome to come along and join the conversation. For more about Social Business Design see http://www.dachisgroup.com/social-business-design/

I'm in Melbourne next week, so I though it might be worthwhile to kick off the new year with an informal meetup to talk about anything Social Business Design related, expanding the topic of past meetups beyond simply "Enterprise 2.0".

As usual, please RSVP with a comment here or jump on to Upcoming.

During the past year, more government organizations have harnessed social software to make it easier for employees to share knowledge, expertise and ideas across organizational silos. In doing so, government organizations can improve the flexibility of their business processes, cultivate new ideas, and serve constituents more efficiently. In September, Socialtext was added to the GSA schedule, and we featured some of our government customers, including the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) .

But this “Government 2.0″ phenomenon hasn’t been just limited to the United States. In Australia, for example, we’ve been seeing a lot of traction for social software inside government agencies. On December 2, in Melbourne, we’ll be hosting a special event for government agencies in Australia looking to understand the benefits of social software. The event will feature a Socialtext customer, The Department of the Premier and Cabinet in South Australia, who will share their experiences using social software with peers in attendance. Their talk will be followed by a discussion and networking period.

We want to create an intimate setting for this event, where attendees can have candid discussions about their current or future use of social software. So please register as soon as you can as space will be limited.

I mentioned this example the other day. Unfortunately I can't make it, as I'm at the 11th Participatory Design Conference that day, but you register here if you are in government and would like to attend.

While Headshift/Dachis Group's own Social Business Summit kicks off in the Austin Texas, I'll be attending the Hargraves Institute's Innovation 2010 conference to also talk about Social Business Design:

The global financial crisis exposed some very expensive, bureaucratic structures inside companies that represent a drain on productivity and a waste of human potential. Companies that emerge from this period as leaders will be more agile, network-centric and people-powered. Learn about the four Social Business Design archetypes, how Social Business Design can be applied to stimulate and support innovation with customers, the workforce and business partners.

Full details are in the conference brochure.