Ok ok, I know I’ve been a little MIA recently, but what with the expanded business and new site and traveling, the blog has unfortunately suffered (along with my gym discipline, but that’s another story).
Anyway, Ajit Jaokar at Open Gardens has a great two-part article called Enterprise 2.0 ROI (part 1, part 2).
Basing his articles on Tim O’Reilley and McKinsey’s recent comments about Enterprise being the future of Web 2.0, Jaokar looks at what he calls the “ROI of Enterprise 2.0″ – the real payoffs and efficiencies of the Internet as a platform for enterprise.
The first part talks about the basic principles behind the idea, and quotes Dion Hinchcliffe’s summary of Office 2.0 vs Enterprise 2.0:
Office 2.0 represents the increasing use of browser-based software in the office, while Enterprise 2.0 is more Web 2.0-ish in that it specifically describes the use of freeform, emergent, social software to conduct collaboration and share knowledge.
The second part emphasizes the importance of the person/blogger over the technology/tool. Enterprise 2.0, he argues, is all about relationships rather than technologies like wikis.
He points to people like Robert Scoble as examples of the “rise of the corporate individual” and the “corporate fan base.”
Of course I agree that the human face is paramount, and I am definitely for the emphasis on relationships. But it shouldn’t be overlooked that tools like wikis and other web 2.0 technologies can facilitate the human relationships by encouraging and easing the conversation between the corporate individual and the corporate fan base.
Scoble’s Blog Business Conference next month will focus on this symbiotic relationship. I’ll be going; who else will be there?
Thoughts on this issue, or what you’re expecting at the conference?
