Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum Blog

Social media commentator extraordinaire Des Walsh attended Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, and did a number of short video interviews with speakers at the event.

The first three interviews including both the blog posts and the videos are below.

Chris Lampard, Corporate Express

Des Walsh blog post on Chris Lampard interview

In the wake of our recent launch of the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, we are providing a number of free sample chapters. For full details and all the sample chapters go to the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 website.

Chapter 2 on Web 2.0 and the Enterprise uses our extremely popular Web 2.0 Framework as a foundation.

New content includes:
* Table covering Web 2.0 tools with examples of both open web and enterprise use
* Key issues in adapting Web 2.0 tools to enterprise use.

We are keen for input into the next versions of the report, so let me know your suggestions!

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 - Chapter 2

My readers will have seen a massive focus on Enterprise 2.0 in this blog for the last few months, as I have been preparing, promoting and running the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney and Enterprise 2.0 Executive Briefing in Melbourne, and writing and publishing Implementing Enterprise 2.0, which is rapidly becoming the reference in the field. Moving forward I will continue to be deeply involved in Enterprise 2.0 through my client work, and will also be releasing a lot more content from the report.

However I am now in the process of shifting gears. Last year I realized that a large proportion of my interests could be encapsulated in two key themes:
The future of the enterprise
The future of influence

The first examines how organizations will evolve and what they must do to be successful in an intensely complex and competitive world. The second looks at how messages disseminate when traditional media is being trumped by social media. Together they bring together the inside and the outside, the twin domains in which open communication is transforming business and society.

Having focused deeply for a while on the future of the enterprise, for the next period my attention will shift significantly to the future of influence.

I have studied and worked on influence networks for much of the last decade. Among other activities, I wrote about influence networks in Chapter 6 of Living Networks and published what was then the first detailed study of influence networks in B2B marketing: How Technology Purchasing Decisions are Really Made. However so far I haven’t written up most of my ongoing research and work in the space.

A centrepiece of our recently launched Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report is an Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Framework. Click on the image below to download the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Framework pdf, which includes references to the relevant chapters for each of the action steps. Some of the chapters referred to are available for download from the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 downloads page.

The central aspect of the framework is that it is iterative. Where you begin on the cycle depends on your organization. Some will begin in the upper left domain of Understanding Drivers, by understanding the drivers. Others will start in the lower right domain of Supporting Initiatives by identifying and supporting existing initiatives that people have begun of their own initiative.

We have just launched our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, encapsulating in a neat package (almost) all you need to know to create massive value with Enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches in your organization.

Our www.ImplementingEnterprise2.com website includes a number of free chapters and resources, which I’ll feature in more detail here later, as well as ordering information.

One of the key aspects of the report is that it is versioned. Version 1.1, available on Amazon.com, includes just a few small fixes from the 1.0 version that we produced for a limited audience. Now we can get down to the more significant modifications that will eventually see this as a highly refined and revised version 2.0, 3.0 and beyond.

That evolution will be largely based on feedback from readers. We will soon introduce a feedback forum on the report website to gather suggestions and input, though we’re always keen to get ideas in any format.

Last week mX newspaper in Melbourne (the city’s largest free newspaper with readership of over 300,000) had a little story on Blogs to conquer the office based on an interview with me. The article was originally intended to cover the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 Executive Briefing which was run last Thursday in Melbourne, though the final article just covered some of the forthcoming shifts in the workplace (slightly mangled in the journalistic process).

Hopefully these kinds of messages will eventually filter through this kind of mass audience to help accelerate these trends. Full text of the article below, or click on the image for a scan of the article.

Blogs to conquer the office

Blogs, wikis and social networks are the future of the Australian workplace.

Organisations which block employee access will be punished for their lack of vision within five years.

And email, which transformed workplaces late last century, will be a thing of the past.

Futurist Ross Dawson, chairman of Future Exploration Network, said companies embracing Web 2.0 – interactive internet use and web-based applications – would result in unrecognisable workplaces within five years.

Graduates and tech-savvy workers were bringing blogs, virtual worlds and social networks into the workplace, which improved communication, efficiency and productivity, Dawson said.

“I am not saying that if you use blogs you will be more successful, but those organisations that try to avoid any use of Web 2.0 in their organisations are going to find it far more difficult to attract talented people and to be competitive,” Dawson said.

At the expense of email, blogs and wikis are becoming popular methods of project management.

“If you use a blog or a wiki, (anyone) can update the most recent info and, at a glance, can see what has been done most recently by who and be updated using RSS (web feed Really Simple Syndication),” he said.

At Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum last week the event hit #1 on Twitter globally, reflecting both the frantic Twitter activity at the event and the degree of interest and discussion from people following the event on Twitter around the world.

If you want the full richness of the discussion on the day, go to the complete Twitter stream for #e2ef. To make it a bit more accessible, we’ve created a quick summary of around 250 of the most interesting and useful Twitters on the day, sorted by topic. Apologies if we missed out your favorite tweets in our scan!

The Twitter summary is divided into categories:
OVERALL COMMENTS
ABOUT TWITTER
IMPLEMENTING ENTERPRISE 2.0 REPORT
CASE STUDIES
JP RANGASWAMI
IBM
SOCIAL NETWORKS PANEL
DAVID BACKLEY
WORKSHOPS
ROSS DAWSON
CLOSING PANEL

OVERALL COMMENTS

chieftech: hat tip to @rossdawson for the facilities - wifi and power available at each table! #e2ef

PRIANational: Thanks to @rossdawson and the team for the enterprise 2.0 conference was fantastic... #e2ef

trib: @jkerrstevens you'd be enjoying #e2ef if you were here

GWhiteOz: #e2ef this event is a good reminder why it's important to still do things in person and not sitting behind a screen

LeslieCBarry: Excellent day at #e2ef - thought provoking, great speakers and loads of food for thought. Well one, Ross and team!

Part 3 of presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

See also
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 1
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 2

IBM presentation: Brent Lello

Optus Presentation: Inam Hussain

Part 2 of the presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum:

See also
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 1
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 3

Nathan Wallace - Janssen-Cilag case study
Blog post with link to slides and other material relating to Nathan's presentation.

David Backley - Creating Business Value from Emerging Technologies - lunch keynote

See also Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 1

A quick review of some of the commentary on the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum yesterday. Let me know if there's anything missing here.

Computerworld: Social networking in business: plan less for less pain
Coverage of the social networking panel at the Enterprise 2.0 Forum

ITNews: Westpac reality check on Web 2.0
Review of comments on Westpac's technology initiatives

National Business Review: Westpac pulls plug on virtual reality training
Comments on Westpac's use of Second Life and online initiatives

The Metaverse Journal: Enterprise 2.0 and virtual worlds and a free discussion paper download
Discussion of the Forum and insights and content from the virtual worlds in the enterprise workshop

Social Media and Cultural Communication: Here at Enterprise 2.0
Notes on the day from Angelina Russo

Brad Howarth: Live from Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2009
More from Enterprise 2.0 Executive Foum 2009
Reporting on the morning sessions at the event.

Innotecture: Playing Nice: Developing Guidelines and Policies for Social Software Use
Detailed content from the event workshop run by Matt Moore

mab397: A summary of points tweeted from Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

Des Walsh: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum Cover it Live
Complete event coverage including Twitter feeds and Des's commentary

[UPDATE - ADDITIONAL COVERAGE]

Kate Carruthers 1: Key enablers for Enterprise 2.0
Thoughts from the Forum on five key issues for organizations implementing Enterprise 2.0.

Kate Carruthers 2: 5 Key issues for Enteprise 2.0
List of top 10 enablers for Enterprise 2.0 based on content and conversations at the Forum

Des Walsh: Perfect Setting for Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum
Review of the Forum including announcement of forthcoming interviews with presenters.

If you want to get more details on the event and responses, definitely check out the complete Twitter stream for #e2ef, which was for a period yesterday the most active topic on Twitter globally.

Back from a fabulous day at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. I don't have time for a full debrief now as I have to finish preparing for my keynote at theNational Growth Summit tomorrow.

Certainly a highlight of today was the Twitter activity at the conference, with by some measures the event reaching #1 on Twitter activity globally, and with other services reporting us as #2 trending Twitter topic.

Certainly the best single place to explore the distilled insights from the day is the Twitter stream for #e2ef, with over 1000 tweets, mainly of what participants found most useful and valuable from the speakers and interactive sessions.

More reflections and reporting from the day, including a distillation of some of Twitter stream, coming soon.

Here is the first round of presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum:

See also
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 2
Presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum - part 3

Ross Dawson - State of the Nation

Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum is on tomorrow in Sydney (my regular readers might be glad that I’ll be a little more diverse in my blogging activity after that :-) ). Everything has come together extremely well, both on the fantastic content and speakers, and in getting extremely good attendance, showing that Enterprise 2.0 is squarely on the agenda for corporate Australia even in challenging economic times.

For those attending (and those who can't make it who would like to pick up crumbs from the rich smorsgabord of insights on the day...)

Twitter hashtag for the event is #e2ef.

The event twitter stream is here - already under way with a lot more activity starting 21 hours from now.

The event blog is at www.futureexploration.net/e2ef/blog/

Anyone attending can get a login to post. We expect as usual to get significant activity on the blog on the day and after the event.

There have already been quite a few blog posts in the lead up to the Forum, as below. Expect a lot more great discussion during and after the event!

Des Walsh 1: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum With Coveritlive
Des Walsh 2: Ross Dawson’s Stimulus Package: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 09
Gavin Heaton: Implementing Web Technologies to Transform Organisations
Technation Australia: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum
Mick Liubinskas: Put the Oh in Enterprise 2.0
James Dellow: Don't forget the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum
The Metaverse Journal: Growth predicted in virtual events for enterprise
Kate Carruthers: one more sleep until Enterprise 2.0 forum

Ahead of the Enterprise 2.0 Forum on Tuesday, this morning I asked a question on Twitter:

"If you have time, I'd love your input: what was the first thing you did to get social media/enterprise 2.0 going in your organisation?"

I got a range of answers and resources, not to mention an upwards spiralling conversation around the contrast of getting started in a large enterprise versus an SME or startup. Everything up to the time of posting this is copied in below (conversations have been grouped for ease of reading).

You have to love Twitter and how you can reach out to a network you know will be able to provide suitable, relevant and interesting answers. There's also a good chance you will get gems of detail and sharing of experience, like that provided by Jennie Bewes at Vodafone Australia and several others, which resulted in more discussions via direct messages.

To complement our one-day Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in Sydney on 24 February, Future Exploration Network and Optus Business are running an Enterprise 2. 0 Executive Briefing over lunch in Melbourne on 5 March. The Melbourne event is certainly no substitute for the in-depth content, workshops, and insights that will be available for the full day event in Sydney, which is essential for anyone who is serious about implementing Enterprise 2.0.

It will provide a snapshot of the latest in Enterprise 2.0 in Australia and globally, and assist executives to understand the key issues and how Australian organizations are creating value using web and mobile technologies. See the full agenda and speakers. As usual with our events, it will be a pleasant lunch, this time at Zinc in Federation Square.

A highlight of the event will be a CIO panel, including Andrew Mills, who last year took the post of Chief Information Officer for the South Australian government, and Chris Yates, Chief Information Officer of Tennis Australia, which has been doing some fascinating things with mobility.

Since our events in Australia are usually in Sydney, it's great to have this opportunity to take our latest content and insights to Melbourne as well.

I hope to see you there!

The Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum is coming together extremely well. It is fantastic to see that while other sectors of the economy are struggling, organizations recognize that they must engage with the critical issue of transforming how they work using web and mobile technologies.

We have confirmed a number of fantastic speakers at the event over the last while. A quick update on some of the speakers you will be missing out on if you don’t come :-)

David Backley, General Manager – Applications Development, Westpac.
David is the senior IT executive with the longest tenure at Westpac, having driven many of the initiatives over the last years to create an over-arching technology architecture that supports business, and introducing many new technologies and approaches to create value. David’s keynote on Creating Business Value from Emerging Technologies will be a highlight of the forum, and provide vital insights from arguably the leading practitioner in Australia.

Recently I have been immersing myself in the Enterprise 2.0 space, organizing the second annual Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum which is on in two weeks now, writing the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Report which will be launched at the same time (slightly afterwards for the international market), and helping a variety of large organizations to drive their Enterprise 2.0 initiatives forward.

It’s a long time since I came up with my definition for Enterprise 2.0 as below. While I generally dislike jargon and the liberal addition of “2.0” to words, I find the term Enterprise 2.0 highly meaningful because it is, in addition to tapping the value of Web 2.0 in a specific context, literally about creating the next version of the organization.

What that stayed with me more than anything else from Andrew McAfee’s speech at our inaugural Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum last year, is one of his key conclusions: “Enterprise 2.0 will make companies less similar” (or as I always remembered it, ‘Enterprise 2.0 makes companies more different’).

In the lead-up to the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, a podcast interview with me has just been launched on Stan Relihan’s Connections Show, which is one of the top rated business podcasts in the world.

Next up on the show after me is Vint Cerf, the ‘father of the internet’, so that will definitely be worth looking out for. Stan Relihan is one of the top 50 most connected people in the world on LinkedIn.

You can access the podcast directly on the Connections Show.

Or you can download the mp3 file here.

Stan now also has a blog on The Australian website titled Wires and Lights in a Box where the podcast is also accessible, and which includes many more of Stan’s insights and perspectives.

A brief overview of what we covered in the podcast:

We are very excited to have JP Rangaswami doing the keynote at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum (by video from UK).

For those who haven’t come across JP’s work – you should have!

For the inaugural Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum last year, our international keynotes were Andrew McAfee, the Harvard Business School professor who coined the term Enterprise 2.0, and Euan Semple, who had taken the BBC on the Enterprise 2.0 journey. For this year my absolute number one choice for keynote was JP, who is an extraordinary combination of a true visionary and a pragmatic senior executive.

When I thought about all the other people in the world I could invite to speak, almost none were those who are making Enterprise 2.0 happen in organizations. There is still, unfortunately, more talk than action in this space, though there is also the reality that many of the best Enterprise 2.0 leaders and initiatives inside organizations are not visible to the world at large.

Andrew McAfee’s article Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration (currently free pdf download!) in MIT Sloan Management Review Spring 2006 was the first appearance of the term Enterprise 2.0. The article essentially catalogues what JP Rangaswami was doing in his then role of Global CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and does not mention any other companies innovating internally using web tools. The twin Harvard Business School case studies on Wikis at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Blogs at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein published in January 2006 provided many with early insights into the practical business application of these tools from an organization leading the way in their use.

A new perspective on Enterprise 2.0 adoption has just occurred to me, stemming from a conversation with audience members at my KM Forum presentation the other day, and while writing the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, which is being created to be out in time for the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum.

In Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers describes the now well-known curve of user adoption.

Attribution: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

In the case of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 technologies, they become more useful the more people use them.

For example, social bookmarking or tagging is of limited value if adopted by just a handful of people, but can be extremely valuable in making information search more effective, if used by the majority of people in an organization.

This changes the shape of the adoption curve. Once there are sufficient users, the value increases, accelerating uptake. This is arguably the case with any system where there are network effects, however the mechanisms of Web 2.0 accelerate this increase in value.

This does not fundamentally transform the nature of user adoption initiatives in organizations, but it does change some of the dynamics and effective strategies.

For Enterprise 2.0 technologies far more than for other technologies, the real focus and the battle needs to be on moving from the early adopter group to the point of 'critical mass', where sufficient usage of the technologies is rapidly accelerating their value to users, and uptake should be far more rapid.

Anyone who has attended our conferences knows that we create highly interactive and participatory events. One of the features we always run is ‘participant roundtables’ in which all attendees select topics of particular interest and share perspectives with their peers, who at our events are usually senior, highly experienced people.

At Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on 24 February we are planning a new feature in addition to the participant roundtables, that I think will be one of the most valuable aspects of the event for attendees.

In what we are billing ‘mini-workshops’, we have gathered the absolute cream of the experts and consultants in the Enterprise 2.0 space in Australia, who will each run a series of 20 minute small-group workshops. The workshop leaders will share their expertise in interactive sessions that will give deep practical insights and take-aways to the participants. Participants will be able to select four workshops to attend in the session after lunch. This intense participatory format will be a fantastic complement to the rest of the content on the day. See here for our complete list of speakers.

The people running the workshops are truly the best people in the field in Australia (and beyond!). They have immense experience and deep insights to share; we are very fortunate to have them involved. The workshop leaders (who you can see are very much online participants!) are:

Kate Carruthers, Director, Digital Media Group
Kate is one of the top people in the field, with a deep enterprise technology background, and has worked at senior levels in some of Australia’s largest organizations to help them implement leading edge technologies.
Bio
Blog: http://katecarruthers.com/blog/
Twitter: @kcarruthers

I've just got back from presenting at NSW KM Forum on Implementing Enterprise 2.0 in the Real World, where I was spreading word on our Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum.

Below are my slides, which contain some preview material from our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, which will be released at the end of the month.

I used the slides to discuss what actually happens in organizations in implementing Enterprise 2.0, using examples of situations I've seen of successful and unsuccessful implementations, and creating a conversation with the audience (who had many great stories and perspectives to offer).

Things begin by someone in the organization recognizing that there is potential value in applying web technologies.

However soon barriers emerge, which are different in each organization. These need to be understood and addressed in order to facilitate useful organizational change.

The path of implementation is different for each company, however in most large organizations some key elements need to be in place, such as addressing governance issues and directing energies where they will reap the greatest rewards and set the stage for further initiatives.

Ultimately organizations need to become comfortable with experimentation, iterating in finding how to build a more responsive, effective organization.

The Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum is coming up very soon now!

Click on the image below for our latest flyer on the Enterprise 2.0 event, giving full details on why this will be the premier Enterprise 2.0 event in Australia this year.

As you can see from the speakers pictured above, who represent just some of the leading experts speaking at the event, pretty much all the people who matter in this space in Australia will be there to share their expertise.

I’ll post soon in more detail about the points below. For now a quick summary of some of the features that will make attending the event to be indispensable for anyone who is involved in assessing or implementing web or mobile technologies in the enterprise:

* International keynote by video from JP Rangaswami, the visionary who instigated the first major implementation globally of Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, as featured in the landmark Harvard Business School case study and the Andrew McAfee MIT Sloan article that introduced the term Enterprise 2.0.

I have unfortunately not been blogging and twittering as much as usual recently, due to being intensely busy leading towards the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on 24 February in Sydney and the release of our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report. So a quick update on where things stand, and a promise of some more in-depth content coming soon…

Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum is coming together extremely well. We have an extraordinary cast of speakers drawing on deep experience and successful initiatives. A special feature is the ‘mini-workshops’ which allow attendees to draw on the insights of Australia’s leading experts in highly interactive sessions. We’re expecting attendance to at least match the 150-odd of last year’s event. More on all this soon.

The other task which is taking even more of our time is creating the Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report. This will be the first in a series of major reports we will be releasing this year. The report is included in registration to Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, so we have a deadline to meet. However this will be Release 1.0 of the report, and it will be regularly updated and expanded so it both continues to improve, and is always up-to-date on market developments. Very soon after the Forum the report will be available for purchase for US$195, including all updates until the end of the year.

More details on the report soon. I’ll also release sneak previews of some of the report content on this blog.

Here Charlie Rose interviews Leo Apotheker, co-CEO of SAP, and Andrew McAfee from Harvard Business School (who spoke at our Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum last year) about enterprise software. The interview begins at 33:00.

It’s interesting that enterprise software is seen as a topic of relevance to a broad audience. Of course it should be, for many reasons, though it is usually seen as an arcane topic. Also good to see that McAfee’s views are getting a broader airing.

A few particularly interesting comments in the interview:

Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum is shaping up to once again be the premier event in Australia on how Web 2.0, mobile, and emerging technologies are being applied to create value in organizations.

An early registration special of $110 off applies until 24 December, so don’t forget to include it in your pre-Christmas shopping! And remember, there are significant additional discounts for members of AIMIA, Innovation Bay, NSW KM Forum, and PRIA.

A quick reminder of some of the highlights of the event:

* Top Australian and global speakers, including JP Rangaswami of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein fame, and case studies including Westpac, Corporate Express, Janssen-Cilag etc.

* Deep content in a workshop format from most of the top experts and consultants in the field in Australia, including Kate Carruthers, Stephen Collins, James Robertson and many others.

* Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Report providing a clear roadmap for implementation included in the price of registration - valued at US$195.

* Detailed coverage of highly practical issues including governance processes, implementing policies, establishing mobile workflow, implementing social networks, and far more.

Hope to see you there!

Moving towards our Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum 2009, a key issue has to be how these themes are relevant to the most prominent concerns of senior executives. In short, how will applying Web 2.0 and mobile technologies in organizations save money, increase efficiency and productivity, increase market share, and build profitability?

A number of recent blog posts have squarely addressed this issue, and are important reading in framing why Enterprise 2.0 must be a top priority for executives.

Susan Scrupski, talks about Reality Check 2.0 in writing about what the members of the Advisory Board for the next Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston are saying.

Mike Gotta of Burton Group says:

As usual the event agenda will be highly participatory, including a series of mini-workshops that allow attendees to tap the expertise of Australia’s leading consultants and experts in the field.

In addition, attendees will receive a complimentary copy of our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report, which will be launched at the event. This will provide a clear roadmap for organizations looking to implement Enterprise 2.0 approaches.

It’s worth subscribing to the Enterprise 2.0 Forum blog. I’ll be cross-posting on this blog and there, but there will also be posts from speakers, event partners, and the Future Exploration Network team on what's happening, research, and insights.

Since virtual worlds commenced, the promise of using virtual worlds in corporate settings has been evident. The first wave of business involvement in virtual worlds was primarily about marketing and customer engagement – I have written about marketing in virtual worlds and was interviewed on ABC TV about virtual advertising.

From here, a key focus will be how to use virtual worlds for meetings. I have no doubt that in the next decade it will be extremely common to hold meetings in virtual worlds. However those virtual worlds will be a world ahead of what we have experienced so far, being closer to merging high-bandwidth telepresence conferencing with the experience of immersion in a room of people from different locations.

Second Life essentially hasn’t gained ground for eighteen months, maintaining a dedicated core of users, but gaining few new users. The latest news is that Reuters is pulling out its Second Life reporter. Eric Kangel, who used to play that role as Eric Reuters, has some solid advice for Linden Labs on how to grow, including the interesting suggestion to ‘abandon the idea that Second Life is a business app,’ mainly because Second Life is not robust enough for enterprise use.

Since Second Life has been experiencing it’s well-known challenges, I have expected that new companies would emerge to take the vanguard of corporate virtual worlds. This is not to write off Second Life quite yet, which recently launched a corporate meeting offering, but the odds are in favor of new participants taking the lead in this space.

Some of the emerging companies that are looking promising include:

The Age has just published an article titled Social networking can help business, based on our Executive Insights into Enterprise Social Network Strategy report, released yesterday.

Much of the article describes the report, and takes some of the executive quotes used in the report. Then at the end, taken from a follow-up interview with me, it says:

Chairman of company Future Exploration Network Ross Dawson said there had been a transformation in the corporate attitude towards social networking over the past year.

"An initial scepticism and caution from executives has now shifted dramatically where they recognise that these can be extremely valuable for helping organisations perform more effectively," Mr Dawson told AAP.

Some Australian companies were not so positive about using social networking technology in the workplace, Mr Dawson said.

"There's a lot of diversity in the opinions of senior executives, some are still both extremely sceptical and extremely cautious."

That's the state of the nation. There absolutely has been a dramatic shift in attitude by senior executives towards social networks and similar tools in the enterprise over just the last year. However within many organizations there is a strong divide in perceptions, often meaning that relatively little happens.

The pace of change in how executives view social networks certainly suggests that this is not far from becoming truly mainstream in the enterprise.

Today we are releasing our next major report, which distils - through unattributed verbatim quotes - what senior executives REALLY think about social networks inside organizations.

Future Exploration Network created the report for IBM, hosting a select group of top executives at a Roundtable discussion, and capturing the key talking points from the conversations.

Download the Executive Insights into Enterprise Social Networking Strategy report.

I usually don’t put press releases on my blog, but the one we released this morning gives a good summary of the report:

For immediate release: 20 November 2008

Australian senior executives say social networking has “real power” to change business

The majority of large Australian companies are trialing social networks within their organisations and senior executives believe that, rather than being a waste of employee time, there is substantial value to be harvested from connecting with Web 2.0, a report released today says.

The Australian event industry is quickly getting better from what was until recently a very low base. There are more quality events than ever.

A few months ago I was planning to run an Enterprise Social Network Strategy event in early December. Then I found out that a very similar high-quality event was already set for the week before. As such I cancelled my event and rolled what I was intending to cover into my next Enterprise 2.0 conference. I then spoke to the organizers of the November event, AC Events, to see if we could collaborate. We have worked out a great arrangement whereby we are together bringing two highly complementary events to the market.

Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World on 24-25 November 2008 is a two-day conference covering social media for marketing, enterprise and government, organized by AC Events. I will chair the plenary sessions and enterprise stream at this event.

Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on 24 February 2009 is an intensive one-day executive summit organized by Future Exploration Network on how to create value with Web 2.0 tools inside organisations. It features leading international speakers, Australian case studies, and highly detailed insights into implementation.

This Thursday November 5 at 11am US Pacific Time I’ll be doing the keynote for a webcast on Creating Business Value from Web 2.0, targeted to the manufacturing sector. Webcast viewing is free with registration. The description of my presentation is:

Creating Business Value from Web 2.0
Business technology is being transformed. Web 2.0-style technologies that have emerged in the consumer space such as blogs, wikis, presence, RSS, and mashups are being adapted to enterprise use, changing how IT platforms support business success. The Web 2.0 Framework gives clarity into the tools and processes of Web 2.0 and how it creates business value. Applying the Web 2.0 Framework helps organizations to tap fully the insights of their knowledge workers, build more efficient processes, and get products to market faster. Six key steps to creating business value from Web 2.0 help executives to plan the path forward.

Following my keynote Tim Teeter, Product Marketing Manager from Epicor, and Scott Smith, Director of Technology from Epicor, will present how manufacturing companies specifically can apply Web 2.0 capabilities.

I'll share some of my presentation here later.

The current issue of MIS magazine Australia has an excellent feature on Corporate Web 2.0 titled Meetings of 2.0 Minds, introduced with the words: The social communication tools of the web are making their irrevocably into today’s enterprise.

The piece begins with the example of how Bond University conducted an audit of use of Web 2.0 technologies, and “uncovered a vast, organic network of technologies already being used…”

The article goes on to quote me:

The experience of Bond University is far from unique, says chairman Ross Dawson of events and strategy company Future Exploration Network, who researches Web 2.0 technologies. Whether companies realise it or not, Dawson believes there are already instances of Web 2.0 tools being used within every large corporation in Australia, usually without any managerial oversight.

“One of the important characteristics of Web 2.0 is that it emerged in the consumer space, and made its ways in the corporate space, whereas most technologies did the opposite,” he says.

A very interesting article in the Guardian today, US military targets social nets, describes new expertise location technologies.

Expertise location has always been a central ‘killer app’ first sought by knowledge management and now part of the promised of Web 2.0. It is a fundamental driver in any large organization being able to tap its own capabilities and take advantage of being large. This was always epitomized by the quote from Lew Platt, who as CEO of HP famously said “If HP knew what HP knows, it would be three times more profitable!”.

I wrote in 2005 about how Morgan Stanley was finding that blogging was trumping in effectiveness its years of efforts into dedicated expertise location systems. The next layer is tapping social network and content creation patterns to identify experts, as has been implemented in some content management systems (CMS) over the last couple of years. This can be taken further when used within online communities and social networks, as SRI International is currently doing:

Today’s New York Times has an interesting article titled Start-Ups Test Dot-Com Business Models, which compares the business models of Twitter and Yammer (a recent start-up focusing on business micro-blogging that I wrote about in a recent review of the space).

It says that Yammer, while a tiny fraction of the size of Twitter, is already getting revenue, while Twitter is still focusing on growth and waiting to monetize.

His focus on profits helped Yammer, which is based in West Hollywood, Calif., win the TechCrunch50 prize for start-ups in September. TechCrunch, a leading technology news blog that sponsored the contest, called the company “Twitter with a business model.”

Yammer’s business model is compelling, Mr. Sacks said, because it spreads virally like a consumer service, but earns revenue like a business service. Anyone with a company e-mail address can use Yammer free. When that company officially joins — which gives the administrator more control over security and how employees use the service — it pays $1 a month for each user. In Yammer’s first six weeks, 10,000 companies with 60,000 users signed up, though only 200 companies with 4,000 users are paying so far.

Earlier in the month I wrote a post on Micro-blogging in the enterprise: an idea whose time has come? I mentioned a number of the current corporate initiatives in the space, including those of Janssen-Cilag, which in February implemented an internal version of Twitter it called Jitter.

After my post I learned (on Twitter) that Janssen-Cilag was highly commended in the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards. The executive summary of the report includes a description of Jitter. James Robertson from the Intranet Innovation Awards has also recently posted a seven-minute video interview of Janssen-Cilag’s Nathan Wallace on one of their other Intranet initiatives, Juice, for ordering IT supplies.

Last week Nathan wrote up in detail Janssen-Cilag’s experiences with micro-blogging, very generously sharing insights into the challenges as well as benefits from the initiative. This is a must read for anyone interested in the realities of implementing Web 2.0 and new communications technologies. Some selected insights from Nathan's review:

Over the last few months there has been increasing discussion of how micro-blogging tools such as Twitter could be used in organizations.

Twitter is now frequently used in external communication, with organizations as diverse as @SouthwestAir, @Comcastcares, @BigPondTeam, @SEC_Investor_Ed, and @mosmancouncil using Twitter to communicate to stakeholders and for customer service. Given the rapid rise of Twitter and how influential comments can be, this clearly needs to be on the radar for any major organization.

However there are significant constraints in using public micro-blogging services such as Twitter, Jaiku, or identi.ca for internal communication. Even with the ability to protect people’s updates to being viewed only by approved followers, few organizations would like to have this kind of information hosted externally.

As such they often look at internal tools to see how yet another consumer technology can be adapted to create value for the enterprise.

At our Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in February, Australian pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag described how it was implementing an internal version of Twitter.

A little earlier in the year CIO Magazine published an excellent feature article titled Enterprise 2.0 - What is it good for? In the print and online articles they included a sidebar: The Organization As Media Entity: Enterprise 2.0 is about making mass participation valuable, which reported on my views (that I’ve written and spoken about on many occasions before) that organizations should start thinking of themselves as media entities. The piece, shown in its entirety below, also includes six key points for CIOs to consider in implementing Enterprise 2.0.

The Organization As Media Entity
Enterprise 2.0 is about making mass participation valuable

Increasingly, the best way to understand how any organization works is to think of it as a media entity, says Ross Dawson CEO, Advanced Human Technologies and Chairman, Future Exploration Network. Organizations create messages and information, take inputs from external media sources, and edit and publish content in an increasing diversity of formats, with e-mail and the intranet often predominant. Their employees are typical media consumers (and creators), deluged by choice, and often ineffective at cutting through with their own communication. As such, the current state of the media industry offers many lessons for organizations seeking to be more effective and productive.

Dawson says it's important for CIOs trying to come to terms with Enterprise 2.0 to realize it is less about a collection of new technologies and much more about shifting organizations into the next phase of work.

Careerbuilder.com has just launched a survey which says that 22% of hiring managers use social networks to screen candidates. The report emphasizes the downside for applicants, saying that one third of hiring managers rejected candidates based on what they found, including drug and alcohol use, inaccurate qualifications, links to criminal behaviour and so on. That’s the stuff that gets the headlines.

Less prominent in the report is that 24% of hiring managers found content on social networks that convinced them to hire a candidate, including solid references and a professional image.

Using social networks to get additional information about candidates is a no-brainer, and think it’s an indictment of the profession that just one fifth of hiring managers use an obvious source of information about applicants. It also should be very obvious to anyone with half a brain today that their social network profiles will be looked at when they’re applying for jobs.

Of course using social networks in screening is just one possible use for social networks in the hiring process. Even the CIA has been using Facebook for recruitment for well over two years, well after leaders in the space such as Ernst & Young (see EY's Facebook careers page , which has over 18,000 fans (Facebook login required).

Future Exploration Network and IBM are running a Social Network Strategy Executive Roundtable this week for top executives of major organizations. We’ll release a report on the discussions, which will give some great insights on how these and other aspects of social networks in the enterprise are viewed by senior management. The report will be available here in a couple of weeks.

IT Business Edge has just published an interview with me on IT governance for Web 2.0 technologies, a topic I'm spending considerable time on in my consulting work with major organizations. The complete article, Set Policies to Unleash Creativity with Web 2.0 Tools, is available on their website, and the interview is reproduced below.

Hall: Just to make sure we’re on the same page, how do you define Web 2.0 technologies?
Dawson: Basically, they’re technologies that use mass participation to create value for the business. They can be wikis, blogs, social networking, social bookmarking, mashups and other tools, but [the term] also involves the underlying architecture behind those tools.

Hall: So what would IT governance for those tools look like?
Dawson: I look at governance in a broader context as having a full understanding of potential risks, potential benefits and having set-off structured policies and procedures where any risks are minimized and benefits are maximized, with a high degree of transparency and accountability for executives and other people in the organization.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research has recently released research on the use of social media by the Inc 500, which are the 500 fastest growing privately owned companies in the US as ranked by Inc. magazine. This is one of the first longitudinal studies, showing changes in adoption of social media tools from one year ago. The topline results are shown below.

The researchers point to the significantly higher usage of social media by these companies compared to the Fortune 500. A few thoughts on this point and the research findings generally:

Fast growth vs large companies. Fast growing companies by necessity are open to new tools and approaches, and tend to have a culture of adoption and innovation, meaning they’re more likely to experiment with social media tools. There are no studies I’m aware of comparing growth rates of companies and their use of social media, and the causality would be very difficult to unpick, but I believe that consistent rapid growth will be hard to achieve without social media tools to facilitate effective collaboration in the organization.

The UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has recently launched a discussion paper titled Web 2.0 and human resources, designed to help HR professionals to understand what Web 2.0 is and to contribute to organization’s activities in the space.

The paper is built around the key elements of my Web 2.0 Framework, which they nicely attribute me for, though also brings in a number of new elements, and wraps up with three case studies, including Pfizer’s Pfizerpedia, UK government departments’ use of forums, and T-mobile’s use of social networks for recruitment.

As I see and work with many organizations grappling with how to respond to and take advantage of Web 2.0, one of the challenges is that there is no one obvious place in the organization where these initiatives should reside. IT, HR, marketing, strategy, risk management and other functions all need to be involved, and the reality is usually none of them individually have the capabilities to successfully drive the full breadth of the potential across the firm. In successful organizations, often individuals who implicitly understand the issues help to define activities, and very importantly communicate across the wide variety of stakeholders.

The compilation of the Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications list has now been completed. It will be made public on 19 June, when it will be the cover story on BRW magazine, accompanied by feature stories on some of the leading applications. It will be released the same morning on the Future Exploration Network website and my blog.

The Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications Launch Event at KPMG will include a panel discussion by Australian online notables, a showcase of five leading Australian Web 2.0 applications (3eep, BookingAngel, Engagd, Plugger, RedBubble) (Note that the showcased applications are NOT the top five on the top 100 list, but have been selected to demonstrate the diversity of successful Australian Web 2.0 ventures; companies that were showcased in last year's Web 2.0 in Australia event won’t be duplicated in this year's showcase), a panel of the founders of these applications, and one-hour of semi-structured roundtables for participants to discuss current issues in Web 2.0 in Australia. IBM, Adobe, and Starfish Ventures are sponsors. We are getting close to fully booked, so register soon if you’d like to attend.

No information about who is on the list or rankings will be released until 19 June, so don’t ask! :-) However it’s probably worth clarifying the scope and criteria for the list.

The Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications list I wrote about earlier is being readied, and the launch event on 19 June is now open for registrations.

A few exciting developments:
* A great cast of panellists to uncover the state of online innnovation in Australia, including John Butterworth, Duncan Riley, Foad Fadaghi, and Malcolm Thornton
* Showcases of five leading Australian Web 2.0 applications
* The Web 2.0 list will be featured on the cover of BRW magazine that morning
* Sponsors including KPMG, Adobe and Starfish Ventures - a Gold sponsor will be announced shortly
* 10% of ticket proceeds to be donated to the Layne Beachley Aim for the Stars Foundation

Click here for full details on Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications – Launch Event.

Note that every event run by Future Exploration Network has been sold out (last year's Web 2.0 in Australia was fully booked two weeks before the event), so register soon if you'd like to attend!

More details on the event, including the showcased companies, coming soon.

There is still an opportunity for applications to be considered for the list – please get in touch in comments or by email to submit if you think we might not be aware of you.

I have long been interested in how collaboration technologies are applied in financial services, having come from a career largely at Merrill Lynch and Thomson Financial, and spent much time consulting to the instittutional financial services sector.

A few years ago now I ran the Collaboration in Financial Services conferences in New York and London, and wrote a white paper on How Collaborative Technologies are Transforming Financial Services. Since then I’ve been heavily involved in the Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 spaces, and I’m finding that these are extremely relevant to the financial services sector.

I will be doing the opening keynote at this year's annual Financial Services Technology forum on Enterprise & Web 2.0 for Financial Services in Sydney on 29 May. In my presentation I will look at the big picture of the history and relevance of these technologies in the sector, and drawing on my recent work helping organizations with the governance issues of Enterprise 2.0.

Financial services are certainly very diverse, however many of the sectors within it handily illustrate the themes I have been discussing for some time: there is a deep layer of highly process-driven work, supplemented by a layer of connecting expertise to make highly time-sensitive decisions. Enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches are outstanding in supporting the latter, which is where there is the most potential for competitive differentiation - which can be very fleeting in the world of money.

I’ll provide more details later on what I cover in my keynote.

Here is an old (November 2, 2007) interview I did on SkyBusiness about social networks, examining both the industry landscape and how social networks can be valuable inside organizations. What I like best about this is that for much of the interview they had up a banner reading “Facebook And Other Social Networking Sites Can Be Beneficial For Corporations”, a message that business audiences, especially at the time, hadn’t heard much before.

Some of the things I discuss in the interview:
* The role of advertising networks in social networks
* The upcoming launch of Google’s Open Social and what it means for the sector
* The value to organizations of encouraging strong social networks
* Examples of companies using Facebook and other social networks internally
* How Enterprise 2.0 takes social media tools to apply to organizational productivity

A rather popular topic these days is the risks to organizations of using social networks. An article in today’s Australian Financial Review examines the issue in detail, with an interview of me (excerpted below) hopefully balancing out the other opinions expressed in the article. Unfortunately the way I was quoted seemed to overemphasize my cautions relative to the benefits I discussed.

I am finding it very tiresome to continuously hear security consultants and vendors with big PR budgets go on endlessly about risks, without ever mentioning business benefits. This drone gets into executives’ heads, and as a result discussion of social networks – and many other potentially valuable business tools – focuses on risk and not benefit.

My Enterprise 2.0 Governance Framework explicitly addresses risks, benefits, and actions. It is critical to acknowledge, understand, and minimize risk, but executives are equally culpable if they ignore business value as if they ignore risk.

In the interview with the journalist I basically said that transparency increases business value, however providing transparency must be done intelligently and strategically. The danger is that executives become frightened of the risks, so unintelligently don’t provide transparency, and thus negatively impact the company’s value. Effective business leaders understand that in a complex world business value requires a highly nuanced approach, rather than the black and white view of organizations that is so frequently peddled. Excerpts from the article are below:

When one of Australia’s leading evangelists for Enterprise 2.0 acknowledges “there are some real dangers in an increasingly transparent world”, it’s worth listening.

Ross Dawson, chairman of the Future Exploration Network, is a great fan of online collaboration and communication, but admits there are limits. While research has revealed “a positive impact on stock prices where there is more transparency”, he warns that companies which transparently reported their customers’ private information, for example, would quickly see the opposite effect on share prices.

Some more media coverage of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum (also see previous media coverage of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum):

Online Banking Review did a review of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum titled Don’t Be Afraid of Web 2.0. It begins:

Large corporates are struggling to relinquish the control they must sacrifice in order to successfully leverage Enterprise 2.0 applications. That’s the consensus from a recent forum on Enterprise 2.0 held by the Future Exploration Network.

In addition, the Social Media Show recently did a podcast interview of Peter Evan-Greenwood of Capgemini, who spoke at the Forum. Des Walsh's conversation with Peter covers:
• Google Apps
• cultural change issues that come up with the introduction of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise
• the emerging role of Enterprise 2.0 in the government sector
• how the technology helps companies get measurable business value from their knowledge work processes.

In organizational network analysis circles, an MIT study on how people find information is often cited. The research showed that in an organization, people were five times more likely to go to people than to databases to get answers to their questions. So knowledge workers’ productivity is strongly related to their social networks, in terms of who they know who can help them, and whether there is sufficient trust and reciprocal value in the relationship that they get a response.

It is far more efficient and effective for people to be able to identify the most likely people to help them rather than barraging everyone with the one query and hoping that someone will respond. The early knowledge management systems were largely based on broadcast systems within organizations to be get help on particularly issues. In many cases companies used broadcast emails to get help.

People’s email inboxes have long been so overloaded that broadcast emails are rarely welcome. Certainly the highest leverage approaches to connecting knowledge effectively are in enhancing organizational networks, in terms of how well people know each others’ expertise and have strong social bonds. However now that a whole layer of new communication tools has emerged, there are new possibilities. Twitter in particular is already used within communities to ask questions and get ready responses, and many Twitterers will attest they have got great answers to pressing questions. So the question arises as to whether Twitter should be used as an organizational tool.

On Friday I caught up with Euan Semple in London. It was great to meet, as we’d just conversed over email, voice, and video up until then, and of course had him present over video at our Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum in February.

It recently occurred to me that when I catch up with interesting people, I should make a brief video at the end of the meeting to summarize the most intriguing ideas that had come up in the course of our conversation. This is the first time I have tried it, though I hope to do this a lot more regularly now. One of the biggest benefits is capturing for myself the most interesting insights from the conversations I have. It’s also great to share these with others.

In this case I did a very poor job of making the video. First the tape ran out in the middle of the conversation. Then I rewound the tape, and ended up going over the beginning of the earlier conversation. Hopefully I have learned my lesson from this – there are still some very interesting points made by Euan in the video. Forgive the discontinuities.

Tuesday’s edition of The Australian has an article titled Business yet to harness Web 2.0. Overall it takes a rather sceptical approach to the topic, though it does include some positive comments.

Beginning with an overview of what Web 2.0, and suggesting it is confusing, it goes on:

Business strategy analyst Ross Dawson says Web 2.0 systems are becoming part of everyday business processes, like it or not.

"Virtually every large organisation is using these tools and in many cases it's not sanctioned as part of an overall technology strategy.

"However, partly in recognition that many users are doing this anyway, large organisations are deciding this is something they need to think about, develop a strategy, and understand the value and the risks," Dawson says.

The article then quotes IDC research that 50% of companies in the Asia Pacific see Web 2.0 as a business opportunity, while 8% see it as a threat. It says that Australian corporate giants Telstra, Westpac, Lend Lease, AMP, and Suncorp are all active in Web 2.0, though apparently the last three declined to comment for the article, saying it is too early to speak about their initiatives. This is rather disappointing, since I know that for at least two of these companies their activities are absolutely advanced enough to share with comfort.

[UPDATE] I've just reread the article and I see there was a subtle but very important misquotation here. "Dawson says companies need to take action to ensure their Web 2.0 strategies stay within corporate governance rules." No that's NOT what I said.

I said that corporate governance needs to be re-examined in the light of emerging technologies and changing business environment. Existing governance mechanisms are almost never adequate for the manifold implications of the new tools and technologies. Organizations must adapt or re-establish governance structures that will tap the business value of Web 2.0 tools, while addressing concerns and risks. See my draft Enterprise 2.0 governance framework.

IBM's Web 2.0 offerings are centered on their Lotus Connections suite of social software, which includes Profiles, Communities, Blogs, Dogear (social bookmarking), and Activities (collaborative workflow). I wrote about Lotus Connections when it was launched in January 2007. An overview of Lotus Connections is below.

The week before the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Future Exploration Network and IBM hosted a roundtable of senior executives discussing Enterprise 2.0.

Highlights of the discussions were written up in a report which is being made openly available, to assist other executives in considering the key issues involved. Download the report here:

Executive Insights into Enterprise 2.0:
Lessons from the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Roundtable

INTRODUCTION
Enterprise 2.0 – the application of Web 2.0 approaches inside organisations - is one of the most topical issues today for senior technology executives. To eludicate the concepts and to enable experiences to be shared, Future Exploration Network and IBM invited a select group of senior executives to Sydney’s Level 41 restaurant on 13 February 2008. In a free-ranging discussion overlooking Sydney’s harbour, the executives discussed Enterprise 2.0 and its implications and potential for large organisations.

CONTENTS
Roundtable Participants
Introduction to Enterprise 2.0
Defining Enterprise 2.0
Identifying Business Value
Risks and Concerns
Social Networks in the Enterprise
The Shifting Role of IT
Organisational Culture in Enterprise 2.0
The Role of Governance

There has been some great media coverage of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. Below is a summary of some of the articles and media that are available online. It is very encouraging that the mainstream media is not only taking up these themes, but giving it such positive coverage - the articles are well worth a read.

Sydney Morning Herald: Facebook up to it
Excellent review of the event and the rise of Enterprise 2.0

Smartcompany: Web 2.0: Our winning ways
Interview with Ross Dawson on the state of Enterprise 2.0

MIS The Scoop podcast: Australian Enterprise 2.0 lessons revealed
Podcast of excerpts from the Enterprise 2.0 case studies presented at the Executive Forum

Internal Comms Hub: Enterprise 2.0 should be harnessed as a strategic asset
Overview of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum and key lessons

Computerworld: Janssen-Cilag dances Enterprise 2.0 jig
Review of Janssen-Cilag case study presented at the Executive Forum

The Financial Standard: Wikis may be working for Westpac
Review of Westpac case study presented at the Executive Forum

Metaverse Journal: Enterprise 2.0 forum - Business IS getting it
Review of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

NineMSN: Social networking sites help boost business: expert
Ross Dawson’s on the value of social networking for organizations

Social Media Show: Podcast interviews with David Holloway and Stephen Collins

[UPDATE]
The Australian: Business yet to harness Web 2.0
Review of Web 2.0 in Australia, quoting speakers at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

We have been posting the speaker presentations at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on the event blog as they have been made available. Here is a summary of the presentations that the speakers have provided to us:

(Note: to see slide details in the slide shows, view the slides on Slideshare and put the presentation into full screen mode).

Ross Dawson, Chairman, Future Exploration Network

Euan Semple
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2092226/Euan-Semple-Handout


Peter Evans-Greenwood, Chief Technology Officer, Capgemini



David Backley, Chief Technology Officer, Westpac


Nathan Wallace, Associate Director - Technology, Janssen-Cilag
Link to Nathan’s presentation and blog posts on Janssen-Cilag’s Enterprise 2.0 initiatives

Jonathan Stern, Business Unit Executive, Lotus Software A/NZ


Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
We have had a number of requests for Andrew’s video presentation at the event, but unfortunately we have not been given permission to provide the video in any other venue or format. However there are many great resources from Andrew on the web, including:
Andrew’s blog
Video of Andrew speaking at Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston

Notes from the roundtable at E2EF forum on corporate culture

These are just snippets of the conversation, in no particular order

About IT departments:

• how to change a difficult corporate culture


• how to enable web 2.0 in an organistation that has very strict policies on internet usage eg facebook.


• It stems from it trying to protect their infrastructure and systems


• IT block because they can't control traffic


• How do we manage when ppl step over the boundaries. Young people may not know that publishing things on facebook could damage the company


• Light governance is the way


• Have formal guidelines


• Google team app – users taking it into their own hands.


• Need to educate the ceo's

About the E2.0 Tools and Communication and Collaboration

• What is your value to the organisation


• sharing of information = your value


• How do you value the conversations


• Is there a cultural barrier about sharing


• Sharing at the moment is social, but will it translate to the organisation


• Make a culture of sharing success via incentive etc


• Does incentivising individuals discourage sharing?


• How can we have education without dampening enthusiasm


• Have some blogging codes of conduct


• Don't be stupid


• Don't say on your blog what you would not say at the bar – attributed to Frank Arrigo (Microsoft)


• let the staff drive the need for the collaboration tools to get the buy in


• Frustrated and disempowered workforce may be ready for an e2.0 solution.


• Provide a structure for those that are not so good with technology

• use the right tools for the occasion


• one of the tools will be particularly suited to the application


• ease of use and application


• if it useful and provides a benefit it will get an uptake

The culture is not related to adoption

• latent demand for the ability to communicate is the major factor.


• It unleashes the energy


• And the artefact is left to be able to search

About the Generational Differences

• Will the gen y integrate and be indoctrinated


• Internally the generations will merge but the customers will still be heterogeneous

• there are areas of need


• there are drivers


• there is enthusiasm


• the enthusiasm wears off


• but the technology now is much better so it will be easier to keep the momentum going

We need to retain talent

About Green Issues

• Green / corporate social responsibility – people are expecting to ask these questions now – what are the next set of questions.


• People have an attachment to flying / travelling rather than use green options.

Thanks to Jodie Miners for these notes. Jodie has also posted on her blog her thoughts from the day.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Facebook up to it by doyen technology journalist Graeme Philipson gives a great review of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum from last week, excerpted below.

Until now, Web 2.0 applications have mostly affected individuals. Companies and government organisations have largely retained more traditional methods of communication. The primary collaborative technology for most organisations in the modern world has become email, which is very much a Web 1.0, or first generation, internet application.

That is now changing. Web 2.0 applications are increasingly finding their way into the enterprise. This phenomenon has, inevitably, been dubbed Enterprise 2.0. That term was invented last year by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, who has emerged as something of an international authority on the subject. Last week I heard a remarkable presentation by Professor McAfee on the state of play with Enterprise 2.0 worldwide. His talk was beamed in via Skype from Orlando, Florida, where he was attending an enterprise search conference. He spoke to 200 of us assembled in a conference room in Sydney's Luna Park to discuss Enterprise 2.0 in Australia.

…

The event I attended where we heard Professor McAfee's words of wisdom was the grandly named "Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum", run by Sydney company Future Enterprise Network (FEN). FEN (futureexploration.net) is run by Ross Dawson, who has become one of Australia's leading internet gurus in recent years. He also runs regular events on the future of media.

In addition to the insights from Andrew McAfee, the article covers the points raised by Euan Semple, who drove the BBC’s move into social media, and the many real live practitioners of Enterprise 2.0 who are in Sydney. It discusses the reluctance by some to embrace these technologies, but also suggests that this shift is inevitable. This is probably the best one-stop review of the event – have a read!

James Gardner, head of innovation at Lloyds TSB, writes consistently on his blog Bankervision, disclosing some of the key issues involved in innovating in a major bank. In a recent post New ways of collaborating at the bank, James writes about how Lloyds TSB is piloting social media such as blogs. Some excerpts from his below show how blogging can change how corporations work.

We have one blog, for example, that documents the trials and tribulations of a member of the team that is implementing the social media pilot for us. Along the way there have been a couple of roadbumps, of course, and this particular blog offers the opinions of the team on the ground as things have gone wrong. It is a very positive and welcome read. Quite often, one doesn't have a deep understanding of the real issues that caused the problem in the first place. Sometimes, you want the details without all the unpeeling that goes on before you can get them. This is a blog that does that.

...

We've just received approval to post David Backley's slides from his presentation at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, as below (Note: to see slide details, view the slides on Slideshare and put the presentation into full screen mode).

In the wake of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Smartcompany magazine has published an interview with me titled Web 2.0: Our winning ways. It begins:

Entrepreneur Ross Dawson is a leading international expert on the way businesses are using web 2.0 in Australia – and he has good news.

After lagging behind our international counterparts in the enterprise 2.0 stakes, Australia is starting to catch up in its use of blogs, wikis, social networks, social search and virtual worlds.

Ross tells Amanda Gome what’s hot, how businesses are benefiting – and what’s destined for the 2.0 dustbin.

A few brief selections from my responses to the interview:

At last I am very encouraged. The response from people at the conference shows there is a lot happening. Up until now organisations have been shy about putting up their hands and talking about what they are doing. Up until now there has also been disparate things being done by different users in different departments. But now things are being squarely addressed by executives at the top of the company so people are prepared to talk about it.

Companies are striving to create more value from the participation of their employees, customers and suppliers by using web 2.0.

...

From a couple of months before the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum held last week, I had been hoping to create some kind of governance framework or implementation framework for Enterprise 2.0 that would be useful at the event.

Last year I created our Web 2.0 Framework, which has now been downloaded around 40,000 times and I gather been used by quite a few organizations in their planning and strategy. This time I wanted to create something that would be useful to help organizations understand and address both the risks and business value of Enterprise 2.0 approaches.

What I have seen in most large organizations is that senior executives’ amorphous understanding of the risks in Enterprise 2.0 has overwhelmed their equally fuzzy grasp of their potential to create business value. A governance perspective articulates and responds to the risks to the business, and also ensures that value is not left on the table – a very important aspect of executive accountability.

In the end I didn’t have time to do the task justice, but quickly pulled together a rough framework to use in my kick-off presentation for the Forum, as below.

In the wake of the Enteprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Peter-Evans Greenwood, CTO of Capgemini Australia, has written in considerably more detail on his thoughts on culture and generational change, which he and others spoke about on the final panel on the path forward.

I have a theory. It seems that most people learn something in their early to mid 20s, and then spend the rest of their career happily doing the same thing over and over again. …. Once they’ve established what it is they do they just want to keep doing it, hoping that the world will remain as it was in their early adulthood.

…

If change is the driver in our organizations, but our organizations are resistant to change, then the biggest challenge we face in not technical but the strategy we use to manage change. It’s quite easy to define a technically and economically possible solution that would provide a boost to our business, or even deliver a step change in capability. But if we cannot get our organization to deliver and then adopt the solution, all our work will be for naught.

…

So what does this mean for the IT department? No matter how important our success is to the success of the company as a whole, IT is a cost center; value is created at the business coal face, not in the IT department. It’s not our job to deploy the new Enterprise 2.0 solution that will revolutionize the business and then force the business to change. We need to focus on the users, rather than thinking in terms of technologies and IT assets, understand the challenges they are facing and provide them with tools and techniques that they can use to innovate themselves. IT as facilitator rather than asset manager. Or as I heard in the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum the other day, give them they structure they want and focus on managing the flow rather than trying to force them to do something a particular way.

…

Here are a few links to more detailed information on the Janssen-Cilag Wiki Intranet case study:

• Our Intranet, the Wiki: Case Study of a Wiki changing an Enterprise.
• Building Enterprise 2.0 on Culture 1.0.
• Clarify. Simplify. Implement.

The presentation slides are also available here.

Here is additional media coverage of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on Internal Comms Hub:

Enterprise 2.0 should be harnessed as a strategic asset
" Several key themes emerged from the day’s presentations, including “participation” being the most important aspect of Enterprise 2.0 – not the technology.

There was much discussion on the differences between generations X and Y, and how new demographics will react to organizations that try to restrict and control intranet behaviors that have rapidly outpaced the capabilities of corporate intranets."

Here are some photos from the event, hosted on Flickr and tagged e2ef (see some of the other intriguing photos with the same tag!).

If you took some photos, please share them on this blog!

Andrew is one of the coming stars at HBS. His contribution at Enterprise 2.0 Forum on Tuesday was excellent. Usual Harvard smoothness and excitement.

As I write this he is giving the Forum at my alma mater
Xerox PARC

A video of the talk will be archived on the site.
Craig

Here is a fantastic resources for those who couldn’t attend the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum (or those who did and want to share the ideas with their colleagues).

Mark Jones of MIS magazine’s The Scoop podcast series recorded three of the case studies presented at the event, and has created a 30 minute podcast of excerpts from the case studies presented by Victor Rodrigues of Cochlear, David Backley of Westpac, and Nathan Wallace of Janssen-Cilag. (See the event speaker bios for details.)

Click here to go to The Scoop podcast on "Australian Enterprise 2.0 lessons revealed".

All three case studies are extremely interesting, with some very honest sharing of each organization’s current activities, lessons learned, and vision moving forward. These kinds of case studies should prove an inspiration to other companies that are implementing Enterprise 2.0 or considering doing so.

“What do you do when someone in your team just won’t collaborate via the blog, or share their knowledge on the team wiki? What do you do with team members like that?”


This was one of the questions in the roundtable sessions at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. I was on the table covering “Culture and adoption issues”.

The idealistic answer, of course, is to ask, “Do you really want that person on your team?”

But, in reality, is it really that simple?

Here is Euan Semple's presentation that was handed out to attendees, on the Scribd document sharing site:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2092226/Euan-Semple-Handout

Thanks to all the participants at yesterdays roundtable on enterprise 2.0 for financial institutions. I’m sure we could have spent many more hours discussing the challenges and opportunities for the financial sector – we’re looking to run a dedicated forum on enterprise and web 2.0 for financial institutions in May if there’s enough interest.

Here’s my summary, and of course I hope we can continue this discussion via the comments below.

The general feeling from the table was that financial institutions are still struggling with relinquishing control, making it difficult to truly embrace both enterprise and Web 2.0. There are still plenty of large banks banning Facebook, much to the embarrassment and frustration of their employees. Some institutions are actively discouraging Facebook users from revealing who they work for on their Facebook site, and some bankers believe Facebook and work identities shouldn’t mix. Smaller institutions seem to be more open to the idea – Newcastle Permanent Building Society has a Facebook group and doesn’t attempt to control what goes on there.

I asked the group why the industry has been slow to adopt enterprise 2.0 apps. While there’s a lot of interest in wikis, bankers feel building a business case is difficult for something that delivers “intangible results”, “tech” terms like wiki and even enterprise 2.0 put some people off, and larger institutions are still trying to successfully merge business and IT so that such opportunities are driven by the business and not IT teams.

Nevertheless there was an acknowledgement that both staff and customers expect the corporation to offer apps that in many cases they are using elsewhere, and so it’s likely there will be more experimentation by the sector, if only for recruitment and retention purposes.

As always start-ups have the upper hand in this race to innovate – we briefly discussed financial social networking sites (eg Wesabe, Mint) at the roundtable yesterday, as well as peer to peer lending (Eg Fosik, iGrin) – both of which have the potential to threaten the relationships banks have with their customers. I’ve got more on Wesabe over at the Better Banking Blog and would recommend bankers watch these start-ups closely to better understand why the industry needs to rethink its desire to control information.

The Exec Forum was a great day, full of fascinating (and fascinated) people and, as usual, a huge amount jam-packed into a short time.

 

There's been enough comment on what happened on the day, but there are clearly a lot of conversations that are going to continue. Some of them are:

• * Can organisations take advantage of existing social network applications? (eg Facebook)
• * Should we allow open access to these at work (are they legitimate tools, social or otherwise)?
• * Is Gen C really that different? Can their energy be harnessed the way we want?
• * (and if so, does technology really have a role to play in this?)
• * Is Enterprise 2.0 for everyone? And what makes it meaningful for you?
• * Will mobile really take off as a enterprise device (other than communications) and will this be in "2.0"

 

I don't know the answers to these, but asking the questions is always useful. I see "new media" companies which are really "old media through a different interface" (thinks: TV == 'radio with picture'). Now we hear people talk about the mobile internet and I think radio with pictures.

 

In Australia, we are a PC-centric country - unlike most of Asia which is more mobile-centric. This means that our embracing of technology, rich experience, interaction - is almost always going to be through a PC (and even my iPhone was a pain to blog on yesterday).

 

To me, Web 2.0 was allowing the user to engage in a conversation with other users. Enterpise 2.0 needs to be about the users engaging in a conversation with their suppliers, brand, employers or dealers.

 

And next week, we'll start on Web 3.0 (which I think is about engaging in a conversation with the content)....

 

But first, the conversations between you and me about all this. When's the next one?

 

We’ve already had a fair bit of media coverage for Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. Some of the media coverage includes:

Janssen-Cilag dances Enterprise 2.0 jig (Computerworld)
“Pharmaceutical giant Janssen-Cilag has overhauled its enterprise applications to introduce collaboration with a wiki that integrates IT asset management and even micro-blogging.”

Wikis may be working for Westpac (The Sheet) [Note that registration is required.]
[UPDATE: The full story is available on The Financial Standard]
“The arrival of Gail Kelly at the helm of Westpac may accelerate the bank’s adoption of “Web 2.0” tools such as blogs, wikis and social networks, allowing staff to share information freely and collaborate online.”

Exploring the future of Enterprise 2.0 (Melcrum)
“Run from 8.30am-2pm the event took place at breakneck pace, and covered a massive amount on the topic of social media and Web 2.0 in the workplace. There was much talk of knowledge and knowledge workers, easing employee frustrations, helping individuals to do their jobs more easily, differentiating to attract and retain the best talent and increasing employee engagement (yes, all of this in just 5.5 hours).”

There was also last week’s coverage of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum:

Social networking sites help boost business: expert (NineMSN)
"Facebook, Instant Messenger and other online networking tools aren't mere workplace distractions — they improve the way we do business.Future Exploration Network chairman Ross Dawson says that a firm's success increasingly hinges on its ability to share knowledge and expertise both with its employees and external clients."

I understand there is a fair bit of media coverage yet to come – I’ll post here when I hear about it

There was mention yesterday of two public sector examples of enterprise 2.0 ... or more correctly government 2.0. Two of the cases were fixmystreet.com and safeas.govt.nz.

Fixmystreet.com, an initiative of the Young Foundation in the UK, illustrates the power of allowing customers to directly issue work orders to local councils in the United Kingdom, combining photos and maps to efficiently communicate what needs to be done and where. Individual citizens are now able to interact in a more direct way with councils, and councils are held transparently accountable for the speed of their response.

The New Zealand government’s safeas.govt.nz public consultation on road safety policy enabled a transparent public discussion using interactive online forums – something the Kiwis have referred to as ‘policy naked’. There is also a forum discussion in progress for revision of the Justice act. You may also be interested in the NZ Government's online guides and forums for participation.
Link to guidelines are at http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/participation which is the home page for participation activities, with the Guidelines themselves at http://www.e.govt.nz/policy/participation/guide-to-online-participation.html

Thanks to Tessa, Patrick, John, Sharmila and Sheryl for the discussion ... please comment if you would like to add to or disagree with my summary!

General gist was alongs these lines:

Experiences with SN in the workplace varied very much depending on size of organisation. Large organisations pretty much all seemed to ban it (i.e Facebook, LinkedIn or Bebo at work) while small organisations seemed not to need/value it (people can chat face to face).

Wikis and blogs were viewed as almost ubiquitous but social networking less so ... 

In theory, however, all agreed that it has value, should not be banned, and should be pretty much open - i.e. a mix of personal and work networking (the same as the way email is used currently).

Maybe organisations should encourage personal social networking to just get people familiar with using the new platforms? Maybe ... but this could be a red rag to a bull ...  

There are different views about the extent to which 'personal' information ought be visible at work.  In practice people will probably still want to maintain separate personal and professional profiles ... Jekyl & Hyde or Hyde & Jekyl?

Large and geographically dispersed organisations ought benefit the most.

Public Facebook vs. private Facebook vs. internal corporate platform (say Lotus Connections for example)? The view seemed to be that many people are members of a number of networks and would want their network to be independent of their employer (so you didn't lose your network if you changed jobs).  This has interesting implications for the concept of social network portability/interoperability and for the likely take-up of corporate-owned social network platforms.  Maybe the solution will be the ability to export networks in the same way that contacts can be exported from Outlook?

Biggest use at the moment is probably the common behaviour of looking up people's profile to suss them out prior to a meeting ... but the interesting point here is that most people will use Google anyway rather then a search on a social networking platform as there are a number of platforms to choose from ... easier just to 'Google them'.

Public sector organisations really need this but are unlikely to do it any time soon!!

Below is the presentation made by Jonathan Stern from Lotus at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. It's well worth a look. (Note: to see slide details, view the slides on Slideshare and put the presentation into full screen mode)

In addition to the view on IBM's internal initiatives and client offerings, the statistics on slide 2 are extremely interesting, indicating that CEOs see that after employees, the next most important sources of new ideas and innovation are business partners, clients, and consultants, ahead of formal R&D.

The blog that Jonathan referred to in his presentation is edbrill.com, the work of Ed Brill, the Business Unit Executive of Worldwide Lotus Notes/Domino Sales for IBM's Software Group . Jonathan noted that IBM's internal systems host 27,000 blogs, and that there are 475,000 profiles on their BluePages.

What great conversations we had today! I hope the conversation continues, so here are my light (and paraphrased) blogging notes from wonderwebby at Enterprise 2.0 Executive forum.
 

On a Utopian 2.0

Euan Semple: The technologies are not utopian,  but they do bring visibility and accountablility

On Letting Go.

Nathan Wallace : Don’t impose structure if you want people to use the technology. Let people use it for whatever purpose. Learn to manage the flow instead.

On Barriers.

Nathan Wallace also talked about barriers to participation, such as the perception of more work being created, or the risks involved. To counter resistance, he focused on the simplicity and ease of use to employees.

Other barriers and employee perceptions mentioned by panel members: abuse of time, integrity of information, personal reputation, security, being prepared to take a risk.

On Positive Outcomes.

Mentioned by various speakers: Improved collaboration, trust, ability to share, global and regional visibility, easy metrics, conversations, low cost, engagement, integration, efficiency, reduced operational costs, sustainable competitive advantage, agility, flexibility, access to knowledge and Knowledge Workers.

Summary: I'll quote Victor Rodrigues (who was talking about retaining integrity): the errors that occur are small fish in the scale of what we are trying to achieve

 

There's some further exposition on the topic here

Slides for....

Expanding Enterprise 2.0 beyond the early adopters

A demonstration of how a user centric (rather than technology centric) approach to deploying Enterprise 2.0 technologies will drive adoption into your broader user community and deliver tangible benefits back into the business.

Cross posted from The Melcrum Blog

I spent most of today at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, run by The Future Exploration Network. While it's all still fresh in the memory, here's a quick report.

Run from 8.30am-2pm the event took place at breakneck pace, and covered a massive amount on the topic of social media and Web 2.0 in the workplace. There was much talk of knowledge and knowledge workers, easing employee frustrations, helping individuals to do their jobs more easily, differentiating to attract and retain the best talent and increasing employee engagement (yes, all of this in just 5.5 hours).

I’ve just got home after the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. Far too much happened (and I’m far too tired…) to reflect in depth on it all right now, but I thought I’d offer a few initial reflections, and links to some of those who have been blogging, twittering, video blogging and more during the conference.

In short, it went great. I was extremely pleased with how everything went, and all the anecdotal feedback so far has been excellent. It’s always a relief when the technology works as planned, and our Skype video links to Euan Semple, who’s currently visiting Germany, and Andrew McAfee, who was at a conference in Orlando, Florida, worked extremely well. Even with the video images blown up to a large projection screen, many people commented on how good the quality was (including Alex Manchester writing “the connection robustness was impressive”).

Rather than trying to do a summary now, it’s best to point to the many event attendees who were live-blogging the event. Every attendee at the event has been given a login to the Forum blog, so we can discuss and share thoughts and perspectives.

At the opening of the conference I asked for a show of hands of bloggers and Twitterers, and got a response of what seemed to be close to half for blogs, and perhaps a quarter for Twitter, which is pretty exceptional for an executive audience.

On the Forum blog at www.futureexploration.net/e2ef/blog/, there have been around 20 posts since this morning, and we can expect plenty more over coming days – having a look at the discussion on the blog will give a pretty good feel for what was discussed.

Some particularly noteworthy posts below:

Image from Mick Liubinskas on Flickr

Let’s participate live: The COO (Mick Liubinskas) and CTO (Phil Morle) of Tangler demonstrated the latest very cool Tangler tools by embedding a discussion within a blog post, including comments, photos, live video streaming and more. Go to the post to see the entire discussion and content on the event. Phil also wrote a post called Multi-Social-Media: Leading by Example, which has an image (posted on Flickr and shown above) showing all of the live social media action on his PC at one particular point.

Don’t snoop digitally over the shoulders of knowledge workers, by Steve Hodgkinson on comments by Andrew McAfee.

Enterprise 2.0 is about changing behaviours… by Dominique Purcell on comments by Euan Semple.

Several great posts by Brad Howarth on Live from Enterprise 2.0, More from Enterprise 2.0, and Aussie stories from Enterprise 2.0.

We always include participation from all attendees at our events, often in the form of Participant Roundtables, where attendees select the topic they are most interested in, and discuss it with their peers, hosted by an expert in the area. We encouraged every Roundtable to have someone take and post notes on their discussions. Two are already up, and we can expect quite a few more to be posted soon:
Social networks in organisations
Learning 2.0

Will post some more reflections soon.

I talk about my perceptions of ageism - the "I get it you don't. I don't know you, but you're ---- what age ----- ah yes, too old". The final panel at E2FE gave a good set of responses to the question, 'Does age matter?'

What do we want to cover;

Newcastle Uni; Too much face to face. Informal learning with quality.
Sharing.
Frank Team -  extending learning after a course. Sharing more. Alumni.
NAB - changing culture from spoon fed to self-serving.
IBM and personal interest (doctorate) - informal learning.
Fostering innovation.
Microsoft - training. anyone can be a trainer - publish courses.
Microsoft - collaborative learning. Open. Sharing, virtual teams.
Victoria University - decentralised management.

Rough Notes:
   
Using media - video, audio cast.

User ratings.

Execs doing briefings.

Tough when its compliance. I.e. have to go.

People will find it if they need it to help with their jobs.

And you can't force people. They need to want to learn. Can't forcefeed.

Who is the driver of the training.

Transition point - have a knowledge broker who takes the information and sending it around.

They have to get to the point Nathan mentioned which was everyone has access to everything and people contribute by doing their jobs.

KM broker is a referee not a 'churner' of content. Not a facilitator.

How do you get started?

How do you get it into the workflow?

Tough to make a half step.

Is a wiki just a document reposititory?

Finding stuff;

Categories and nav is old school.

Need to do tagging, but everyone uses different terms.

Cult of the Amatuer  is it good or bad?

One big company represented at our table is developing internal facebook-type application. Intranet should be where you can do your job. Facebook would be a 'who's who' on steroids.

Social networks a good way to see who has the expertise in the organisation and to find mentors and connections across the globe, which helps with developing innovation.

Governance: there are guidelines, enough to let people know what they can and can't do but still enough freedom and trust.

Another company: biggest issue is culture. Company has a very dispersed set of expertises and different cultures. How do people with different backgrounds connect with each other. Operating in a lot of remote areas with poor technology links. Committed to it but how?

People can bring issues and ideas to the table. Put aside pride and say this is something I have to solve can anyone help?

Time is a problem too: when people in Australia want to collaborate the rest of the world is asleep.

Another participant: tried private facebook but it failed because people just wanted to talk face to face. Small office situation. No substitute for face to face; works best when there dispersed workforce.

Face to face also provides a lot of opportunities for pleasant time-wasting eg talking about footy which people are very attached to.

Feeling of 'ambient intimacy' develops overtime through social networking get to know stuff about people their families what they are thinking about. Important to have free flow for that to happen.

Facebook is about what you are doing, not what you are thinking and the latter is more important. Facebook as what I am doing is a fad and just creates a false sense of knowing someone.

Productivity benefits: knowing where knowledge lies great for customer relationships,

Always had social networking, 2.0 is just new ways of doing it. Need to look at how it works and how it can be used.

Not Gen Ys using these technologies: don't use IM for instance.

People are not searching differently between generations everyone wants everything straight away

Social networking makes it easier to work from home and feel part of the business.

Encourages people to be more innovative and put ideas forward but that depends on the organisation's culture

Can take a while to 'get' the power of blogging, slows down implementation

Very few people in organisations are aware and or positive about social networking

Lots of good stuff but also lots of noise generated; can be overcomed by search

Sometimes twittering is fun and other its intrusive; be good to have a volume button and just turn it down and just get the important stuff

Someone is experimenting with just using social networking not email. Down from receiving 40 emails today to forty a week

Found Nathans presentation to be really interesting, and it seems to me that the younger the presenter the easier they find it to describe Enterprise 2.0 technologies, as something so simple, that you could'nt help but use them.  This ties in well to what David Backley was describing about the demographics of Westpac and the different generation groups.

I liked Nathan Wallace's comment on reliance on social norms to control content on corporate wikis.  Anyone in your organisation could email or phone the CEO ... but how many actually do? The same logic applies to people adding content to the corporate wiki because there is a sense of personal responsibility created by the fact that users have had to sign on to the wiki, via single sign on, and so they will be accountable.  Social norms will then operate without the need for separate technical controls over content.

Also his comments on presenting content in a hierarchy were interesting - a practical measure to bridge between 'old' and 'new' thinking ... acknowledging perhaps that many people are uncomfortable with too little structure and hence that some accommodation of user preferences is a good idea rather than striving for the 'theory' of 'pure enterprise 2.0'..

I have listened to the various speakers presented at the Enterprise 2.0 Forum today, and I can see the great advantages for big and medium sized businesses, but what about the small business with less than 10 employees.

Is the Web 2.0 solution for small business, to link different small businesses together, but is this a good thing where the other business they are linked to are also their competitors.

From Andrew McAfee's presentation I would like to adapt his bullseye diagram to the clients of a small business and maybe twist it to create a web 2.0 marketing strategy to the strong clients, weak clients, potential clients.

I would be interested in the views of others.

Great response from Andrew McAfee to my question regarding the emergence of network social networking visualisation tools such as IBM Lotus Atlas that enable networks to be mapped ... to see who is collaborating ... and who is not.  On the one hand, these tools can boost social search by helping people to 'see' who else is collaborating or contribution on a topic and to span the 'six degrees' that separate you from someone who knows something useful to you.  On the other hand, however, they smack of 'Big Brother'.

Andrew's response was that we need to be careful about peering over the shoulder of knowledge workers, and he prefers tools that keep the knowledge worker in control of their own collaboration experience.

This is interesting when combined with his comments that one of the barriers to adoption of enterprise 2.0 is too much structure ... so the social networking visualisation tools could become more of a barrier than an enabler if they are perceived by workers to be the equivalent of email-snooping software.  It will depend on the culture of collaboration in the organisation to start with - particularly in terms of the perceived openness and the extent to which worker trust the executives.