Web 2.0 and Enterprise
The 21st century has quickly evolved into an age unlike any other; where the pace of change continues to grow exponentially faster than most people cannot keep up with. Technology’s emerges only to die with a flicker unnoticed by many and then vaguely recalled upon years later. Industries frantically research for the next “big thing” only to find new competition waiting for them at the finish line, normally dubbed as format wars. This has occurred with HdTv’s, the Blueray/HdDvd format war/ and the console wars, however the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 was met with no resistance, and with no competition. Web 2.0 is far more than a simple patch applied to update existing features within Web 1.0 and can probably be compared to the release of a new Window’s operating system.
Thinking back I can vaguely recall upon features that date to the pre 2.0 era such as portals, directories, and page viewer tickers. In this essay I would like to take time to debate a few changes and cover them in as much detail as I can, mainly within the context of the Enterprise 2.0 scenarios. In short by taking the favorable features of the introduction of Web 2.0 and applying them into the business context is what Enterprise 2.0 is in a nut shell or “The use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. 1”
While it may sound like a good idea, one of the main challenges regarding the implication of social based technology into a business is that people will abuse it. If given too much freedom people will take it for granted. Companies will think of it as a useful technology to help garner more profits and fail to take serious consideration of the baggage that it come with it 2. To some social based technology would be another form of instant messaging to help them inform another employee to get them another donut from the cafeteria. Most corporations are concerned about if they implement Enterprise 2.0 will there be abuse and misuse of it for social or leisurely activities? In one case a member of an organization noted that their organization had discovered an employee scalping tickets inappropriately on their internal blog and that it gave them some concern. 3 However if Enterprise were to transform and somehow the users rather than the superiors take it upon themselves to prevent misuse and establish a peer control board. It would allow prevent further misuse but nipping it in the bud and establishing that if you do something to abuse these social networking tools you will be reported by your peers.
A major concern that should be addressed is security. By implementing Enterprise 2.0 will the company’s information be risk or worse would there be legal dangers from the dependence on p2p sharing within the corporation? Again it depends on the firm however the solution should be approached in much the same way most programs developed; the creation of a guidelines page would limit the transfer of illegal materials and employees would actively know they are doing something illegal or something shady. However as noted above the creation of a strong work force who are concerned with the future of the company will be able to spot and report anything they deem to be suspicious. By giving trust to your employees and acknowledging they have the power to watch over themselves they will treat Enterprise more as a privilege and use it effectively.
After being properly regulated and the employee’s trained the implication of these social networking tools will be prove to be most effective. A good example would be if the company decides to push a new product and needs feedback from the employees, then forum based applications and blogging would enable them to receive quick results in regards to the product’s overall quality. Another option would to document the new product and simply upload it as a podcast for employee/potential customers to observe and rate their feelings. Also by implementing Enterprise 2.0 the training costs of educating new employees on how to use this technology would be next to none as most of the younger generation already uses this technology on a daily basis with 5 to 10% of them only personal blogs. 7
Amr research has found that 64%percent of companies have currently implemented some form of Web 2.0 into their enterprises. 4 With a majority taking of advantage of Wiki’s (57%), Blogs (53%), Social Networking (48%), and p2p (45%) of the said 64 percent. Though 64% percent of the market shares are using Enterprise 2.0 does this apply to smaller companies where communication between employees is far easier than it would be in their corporate counter parts? In short the answer is no, Larger companies are taking advantage of Enterprise 2.0 as it allows for a greater sense of communication and allows for information to be passed from employee to employee far easier than it normally would’ve been. According to a Forrester report nearly 68 percent of small businesses do not use Enterprise 2.0. 5 Why? This is because of the size of their company that they are able to communicate both internally and externally without the need of Enterprise 2.0. As the company continues to grow however the percentage of companies that use it will increase due to the strain of the size of the business. 6
In conclusion the implication of Enterprise will continue to evolve to the point where all companies regardless of if it is big of small will have it. This is because in time enterprise will offer faster modes of communication that may one day not be limited to strictly by the computer. It may cross over to phones, watches, pda. If the creation Enterprise 3.0 is introduced with elements from Web 3.0 then it will most likely continue to evolve the environment of the modern day work place.
Sources
http://www.takingaiim.com/2008/01/using-enterpris.html
http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/most-companies.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=147
http://innovationcreators.com/wp/?p=193
