Enterprise 2.0, It\'s about the People, not the Technology

Jodie Miners www.jodiem.com.au Presented at Be2Camp London, October 10, 2008

Enterprise 2.0 - Definition
“ Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies or between companies and their partners and customers ”
Andrew McAfee
Associate Professor, Harvard Business School
Basically Web 2.0 behind the firewall

Web 2.0 Apps

E2.0 – BRP vs ERP
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning but a recent article re-defined ERP as being software for Easily Repeatable Processes.
So, E2.0 is about all the other stuff that organisations do - all the Barely Repeatable Processes.

About E2.0
E2.0 technologies are about collaboration, knowledge sharing, collective intelligence and search (eg KM systems, Taxonomy, Folksonomy)
E2.0 is emerging due to the ease of use of the software with a lack of need for IT departments to be involved, this allows the networks and communities to evolve around the tools

About E2.0
Collaboration is hampered by IT structures such as Roles and Privileges, Workflows and processes, data formats and required content.
Good E2.0 tools have mechanisms that let the structures emerge such as tagging, search and wiki’s

It’s about the people
The Strength of Weak Ties
Weak ties are those people in our social networks that we have linked to or have met at a conference and exchanged business cards with - the people that are on our radar as potential colleagues or potential business partners.
This is based on a very old (1973) paper that can be found here and Andrew’s McAffee’s overview of how it relates to E2.0 can be found here .

Networking
business networking is changing. It used to be the “old boys club” or who you went to school with, but now it’s a lot more egalitarian than that and it’s about who you network with and who you can link to
Eg LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, Flickr etc etc etc

P to P
E2.0 is about enabling people to communicate with their networks by stripping away the structures imposed by IT departments and allowing people to collaborate more naturally and easily through these new Web 2.0 tools that are easy to use

IT Departments
For communication, collaboration and learning, the typical structures of the IT department are cumbersome and restrictive (eg Logins, Security, Roles, Confidentiality, Firewalls etc etc etc)
The risks of loosening up the IT department controls are productivity (people will spend all day on facebook), information loss (people will start talking about us on facebook), reputation (some of our issues will get out into the public domain) and robustness of platforms

Trust
What is needed is to enable users rather than restrain them.
It’s time to start trusting staff that they will do the job that they are employed to do, that they will be loyal to the company and that they will be self policing of their own and their colleagues productivity whilst using these new tools and social networks.

Gen Y
When the kids texting each other in the playground and instant messaging each other in the evenings start working for you the connectedness that we are only just beginning to understand will be second nature to them. They won’t stand for much less and the ability to connect and communicate with fellow workers will be part of their decision as to where they work.
Euan Semple ex BBC

A New World Order
If organisations and IT departments don’t get this and start embracing the new tools and new ways of collaborating and communicating they will be left behind. If there is no way to easily and efficiently communicate within the boundaries of the existing IT structure people will take it beyond the firewall and beyond the strict corporate IT usage policies and it will then really be out of the organisation’s control.

Apps to Encourage This
Google in fact are actively encouraging this at the moment with the new release of Google Apps Team Edition and Google Sites where users can enter their work or school email address and immediately create a network with others that have the same domain name
Zoho Collaboration
Windows Live Sky Drive
Office Live Workspace

Connectedness
The generation gap at work will be not so much about age but about connectedness.
Those that can adapt to the new forms of communication and networking will flourish, others will struggle.

People Not Tools
It’s all about the people, not the tools. The tools like wiki’s and blogs are there but it’s what we do with them that matters, it’s not about what the tool can do.

Wiki’s
A blank wiki is nothing. A wiki with a lot of structure and guidelines is not a wiki at all. Wiki’s are great as they evolve to be only what the users want them to be. The tool is so minimal it’s only purpose is to make the communication and collaboration easier.
Wiki success is in part due to letting people control their environment and their information.
Harnessing the latent need for organisation of their information

Trusted Source of Info
The staff have no excuses - they have a place where they can contribute and can communicate and can get their ideas across –
in this culture there is no excuse for whingeing about things - fix it yourself, contribute to the discussion.
The wiki will become the trusted source of information. It will be trusted because it is written by the staff for the staff.
With the ownership in the information and the ability to edit and change it, comes trust

Share the Knowledge
The old adage that knowledge meant power usually meant holding onto it and acting as a gatekeepeer. In this new networked environment it is more true to say that if you aren’t taking part an and being seen to be willing to share what you know then you are less useful to the organisation than those who do - and are seen to be such!
Euan Semple

Summary
E2.0 is less about the latest wiki or blog software and is more about giving people the right tools to enable the conversation. It’s not the technology that is important, it’s what we do with it, how we manage the constant change in our organisations and in the organisations that we deal with and in our customers.

Final Thought
“ The People are the Network” .
Mark Pesce, Mob Rules

Resources to check out
Enterprise 2.0, Enabling Change or part of the problem – Stephen Collins
http://www.slideshare.net/trib/enterprise-20-enabling-change-or-part-of-the-problem-presentation
Enterprise 2.0, Employees and Profits – Michael Specht
http://www.slideshare.net/mspecht/enterprise-20-employees-profits
Enterprise 2.0 – Kate Carruthers
http://www.slideshare.net/carruthk/enterprise-20-presentation

Enterprise 2.0, It\'s about the People, not the Technology

by JodieM on Oct 06, 2008

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Enterprise 2.0, It\’s about the People, not the Technology — Presentation Transcript

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