Enteprise 2.0: More Than Blogs and WikisEnteprise 2.0: More Than Blogs and Wikis

Last week Steve Wylie asked for feedback after briefly outlining why the Collaborative Technologies Conference is changing its name to the Enterprise 2.0 Conference. To me, the change makes sense and recognizes the influence Web 2.0 technologies are making on enterprise collaboration. However, don't think that Enterprise 2.0 is simply the repurposing of blogs, wikis, bookmarking, etc. for corporate use. In my opinion, the Enterprise 2.0 name represents the refinement of CTC's original mission, of which Web 2.0 technologies play a significant role.

It has been less than a year since Andrew McAfee's use of the phrase "Enterprise 2.0" in an MIT Sloan Management Review article accelerated an already growing interest in the use of Web 2.0 technologies within corporations. Now we need to focus that energy and take it beyond simply the application of consumer technologies on intranets. Enterprise 2.0 is much more because corporations have distinct challenges from public Internet users.

McAfee coined the acronym SLATES (Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions, and Signals) to describe the technology components of Enterprise 2.0. This is a good start but the opportunities go well beyond these. I envision Enterprise 2.0 being grouped into three different areas.

First, there are Enterprise 2.0 management strategies. McAfee touched upon these in his SMR article where he talked about creating a receptive culture and driving management support. But, again, these are only a start. The difficult non-technical issues of technology adoption, especially those dealing with culture, have been critical topics addressed by CTC in past conferences and continue to represent the biggest opportunity for future conferences (especially for one that uses the 2.0 moniker). I think Mike Gotta said it best when he concluded in a recent Collaboration Loop blog post:

Next, there are (what I call) the user-centric building blocks for Enterprise 2.0. Some of these are elements of SLATES and include things like simple authoring systems (including blogs, wikis, and team workspaces), tagging, notification management, search (including persistent search), conferencing, presence, lists, and calendars.  

Some of these are innovations from Web 2.0 technologies but many are not. Lists and list management, in particular, are critical building blocks for corporate collaboration and a number of innovative companies (such as JotSpot/Google and Dabble DB) are starting to recognize this. These types of building blocks, supported by Enterprise 2.0 infrastructure components that provide access to enterprise application data, will allow corporate workers to create innovative enterprise mashups.

There are infrastructure components of Enterprise 2.0 as well. These tend to be more enterprise-y in nature and include things like platforms for collaboration and community, lightweight data aggregation (including connectivity to enterprise applications), integration with identity, security, and records management, and also interoperability. However, don't think this is the same old boring enterprise infrastructure. Among other opportunities, the success of RSS and simple APIs has highlighted the value of lightweight data aggregation and connectivity.

Finally, as someone who has been involved in CTC from the start, and who has been involved in collaborative technologies for many years, I think it is easy to focus on finding the perfect name for a conference like CTC. But, the toughest challenge may be in getting the attention these solutions deserve. This isn't just about deploying the latest conferencing, presence, social, or team workspace solution. This is about the future face of enterprise computing.