12 posts tagged “e2.0”

Taking advantage of the new web in business - after all it's ultimately about the bottom line for business - is increasingly important. Forrester thinks that E2.0 could be a $4.6bn industry in the next five years. [Correction - make that $1.8bn - thanks Niall]

Enter Google - the world's biggest brand and cool enough and relevant enough to be more than a verb: Google links Gen X and Y. The former know its the de facto search engine, and for e-mail and maps, and the latter for a host of innovative applications and mash-up fodder.

Google has launched a new sandbox for iGoogle - and Scott Gilbertson believes it looks suspiciously like a proto-type social networking site. Scoble called it earlier this month, when he wrote how Google's five year plan to get into Enterprise was taking shape. Microsoft won't be too far behind.

Facebook has a real threat as heir-apparent to becoming the default social media homepage.

Never underestimate the value of occasionally revisiting first principles. When it comes to social media in business - aka Enterprise2.0/E2.0 - then here's a quick primer:

• Blogging - Debbie Weil video interviewed at BlogWorld Expo
• Wikis - new research on managing wikis in the workplace
• RSS - or really simple syndication

Take these basic ingredients and sketch out a strategy. If you need a pointer, then check this collaboration tools and technolgies video from BNet, and Dell's experience with social media after they 'stopped thinking like a customer'.

There is increasing evidence that companies are beginning to come to terms with E2.0, but Information Week stills rightly asks if Web2.0 can evolve into an enterprise technology.

"...enterprises lag far behind consumers in adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. What's more, our online poll shows that interest in technologies such as blogs, wikis, and mashups has gone down during 2007, despite explosive growth outside the firewall."

One issue seems to be the incumbent culture in a company, something Andrew McAfee picks up on: "It’s way too early to despair, or even to start getting discouraged. We need to keep in mind that most E2.0 tools are new, and that their acceptance depends on shifts in perspective on the part of business leaders and decision makers, shifts for which the word ‘seismic’ might not be an overstatement."

As ever, leading indicators of shifts in enterprise culture come from outside the world of business. And one such indictor is that October was the first month when social networks overtook webmail in the UK.

Should you feel frustrated at the slow pace of change in your company, then Hugh MacLeod has an answer:

"Somebody in the audience today asked me what they should do if their boss doesn't like the idea of them blogging. I replied that if you have something interesting to say about your product, and if your boss won't let you blog, my guess is that he's probably an idiot, and you should quit your job and go work for somebody else.!"

 

This could be an ROI question in disguise, but just say your manager buys into the potential of adopting some aspect of E2.0. How soon could he/she expect to see a change? According to the Wall St Journal, IT's lag effect on productivity could be as much as 3/4 years.

Now, adopting E2.0 should not be viewed unilaterally as an IT project, breaking down as follows:

• Content - what you want to communicate and why
• Process - the technical piece, getting the chosen system in
• Perception - the cultural shift required to unlock E2.0's full potential

The benefits of E2.0 could be visible almost instantly if used for a single project because the content is already in place. Expanding use of other forms of E2.0 could then be accelerated with the help of IT's alignment with business strategy. Cultural shifts should then gather momentum.

Now that Google has demonstrated with OpenSocial just how social networking can become mainstream, what does it mean for E2.0?

1. The landscape has changed before many businesses have even gotten to grips with the current reality, Always in beta.
2. The big vendors have arrived en mass, and they appear to have a plan. And that, contrary to what some might suggest, is definitely a good thing because the more ubiquitous the methodology, the more time to focus on the conversation.
3. Understand, plan and move on. Removing obstacles to the free flow of information, be it inside the company or outside, has reached a milestone, but many more remain.

Update 05/11/07: Shel Holtz gives hs views on OpenSocial and communications.

While business spends time naval gazing at what social media might or might not do for productivity, PR departments have generally jumped on Web2.0.

This is vital because business always lags the world outside, and PR departments build a bridge linking the two experiences. But just how far behind PR is internal communications on the social media curve?

Quite a lot, judging by the quality of a recent dust-up about the social media release - something that could be adopted by business to internally aggregate/present many of their E2.0 forays.

Because of the lack of awareness and comprehension about social media, I'm not sure if internal communicators are ready to have as detailed a debate. Yet.

The actual term 'employee engagement' is, depending who you speak to, a hackneyed phrase or the most important thing to happen to internal communications since stakeholder communications.

In The Chief Engagement Officer, John Smythe says that "engagement is a process by which people become personally implicated in the success of a strategy, change, transformation or everyday operational decision."

With Web2.0 came raised awareness that the interweb can connect, foster conversation and build communities. In the enterprise, the internal conversation economy is being connected by E2.0 systems. If engaging employees involves leaders in an enterprise sharing power, as Symthe puts forward, then E2.0 can help make that happen by opening up the internal conversation.

• If you want a conversation to really take hold in a company, you have to teach the CEO how to listen.
• If your CEO is willing to listen to employees to increase their engagement, then the next step is to allow social media into the company.
• If the CEO says 'I can't afford it', then it's time to back up and reframe

What is it with wikis?

Is the name one of those that managers can't take seriously, or have they been around (take that to read Wikipedia has been around) for so long now that there's no 'wow' factor?

Based on David Dalka's POST term, managing wikis in business should be one of the staples of a company's E2.0 policy:

• People - anyone with a computer can set one up and join
• Objectives - it makes relevant connections across a business
• Strategy - helps relieve information overload and extract information
• Technology - it can be free or in-house

All E2.0 systems - including Wikis - help companies do one thing, which Andrew McAfee states as "aggregating relevant knowledge in ways that were not previously possible. And this is where things get really interesting because as I wrote earlier, the Golden Rule for decision making is that decision rights should be aligned with relevant knowledge."

So, while all the attention might be on social networking, blogging and videos, maybe it's a wiki world.

Update: Just read Wiki wake-up call post from Ray Sims. 

Is Enterprise2.0 for every business?

It is not difficult to find examples where it works.

Yet Nassim Taleb points out in The Black Swan that "a series of corroborative facts is not necessarily evidence...It is misleading to build a general rule from observed facts."

An example of social media and business a little at odds (at a stretch, what Taleb calls 'negative empiricism') was recently provided by Lucy Kellaway's agony aunt column in the Financial Times: How can I turn down my boss's Facebook invitation?

While I agree that, in general, all generalisations are untrue, the responses to this little quandary provided hope that more people see a difference between social media and E2.0, and that even Facebook could work for business.

Is E2.0 changing the base job of the internal communicator: getting the right information to the right audience via the right channel mix?

Doc Searls - co-author of the legendary Cluetrain Manifesto - talks in an interview with Jeremiah Owyang about his latest ideas, including 'The Intention Economy':

"In The Intention Economy, the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete for the buyer’s purchase. Simple as that."

With the increasing proliferation of RSS in particular, and the reshaping of ineffective corporate intranets using more collaborative, conversational systems, can a similar point be applied to internal communications? Instead of information being collated, filtered and then disseminated through internal communicators, let employees notify the company of what they want to know and then the various information sources can swing into action to provide the information. This could include the 'official' corporate response too.

In reposnse to Jeremiah's post, Kami Huyse, points out that the challenge to address is information overload. Agreed. But becasue the information in the corporation would be primarlily pulled, intention communication should not be seen as an additon to that overload. It is an addition to choice. As Seth points out - more choice who to listen to (and who to ignore). And that choice will allow staff to work things out.

Olivier at Headshift (props Euan) summarises in an excellent post the current state of E2.0 awareness, and says:

"If we live in a knowledge economy, we have to accept that employees are the ones who know how local things need and can be improved. Top down approaches have to give some space to Bottom up ones. We have to let them voice, converse and listen to them, as a minimum."

Maybe the base job of the internal communicator will always be to update the newsletter/intranet/magazine - but E2.0 will not stop and sign in at your company's reception desk. It is here, and it is bringing intention communication.