(Andrew McAfee is another keynote this morning at Enterprise 2.0 – what follows are my rough notes.)
Report card for Enterprise 2.0
Awareness = A
Mainstream media, these conferences, high school and college age children of executives who are spreading this meme as well. What he hears from execs is that their sons/daughters are on facebook, myspace, etc – but they (the execs) don’t know how to leverage it for business.
What are people getting?
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(David Weinberger is the keynote this morning at Enterprise 2.0 – what follows are my raw notes from his talk.)
We may feel like we are in change overload – everything has been changing for the last decade – we’re tired of it all changing.
Next up for change: Authority, Trust, boundaries. There’s nothing more fundamental to what business is than where the enterprise starts and where it ends.
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Optaros this morning published a white paper I co-wrote with colleagues Bruno Von Rotz, Jeff Potts, and Dave Gynn: Assemble Enterprise 2.0 from Open Source. (It is freely available from the site, but registration is required).
Executive Summary:
Enterprise 2.0 promises a new approach to creating, managing, and consuming knowledge within the enterprise, allowing patterns and value to emerge out of relatively freeform, experimental, unrestricted exchanges. Unlike knowledge management systems of the nineties, which locked users into strict taxonomies, enforced rigid workflows, and reflected hierarchical management relationships, emerging social computing systems rely on lightweight, adaptable frameworks designed to facilitate knowledge creation across traditional boundaries, enable rapid change, and foster contributions from throughout the management hierarchy.
This new knowledge management paradigm needs to be supported by new technologies and approaches. It isn’t, however, just a matter of selecting the right set of applications or the right platform; there is no “One True Architecture†which includes all the features and functions users could ever desire.
The paper goes on to talk about Drupal and Alfresco as core platforms on top of which Enterprise 2.0 solutions can be delivered.
I’ll be at Enterprise 2.0 for the next few days – attending sessions (and blogging what I can) and at the Optaros booth during the demo pavilion hours.
Stop by and say hello!
[Update Tuesday June 19 – the streaming video and Mp4 download are now available as well – thanks to Frogpond for the links.]
I kicked off my Enterprise 2.0 experience this morning by attending the much ballyhood “smackdown” between Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee and Babson professor Tom Davenport (see Davenport v. McAfee update or the coverage on Social Computing Magazine).
I’m not much of a live blogger, but here’s my raw notes from the debate – which turned out, as such debates often do, to be more filled with violent agreement and relatively nuanced distinctions between positions than it was with rancor or hostility. (It never fails when both participants are reasonable, articulate, intelligent folks).
The debate was moderated by Dan Farber, webcast live on Veodia (no archive available yet so far as I know), and sponsored by BSG Alliance.
(In what follows, DF = Dan Farber, AM = Andrew McAfee, TD = Tom Davenport, and E2 = Enterprise 2.0 – note these are very quick notes, not a transcript, so errors will occur).
DF: Tom, why is E2 the next small thing?
TD: I have yet to see capitalist organizations make more money as a result of E2, or any examples of corporate cultures being revolutionized. I see no problem with the definition of using web 2.0 technology in enterprises, but that begs the question of what web 2.0 is. What I have a problem with is the idea that E2 represents a whole new style of enterprise – given that we’ve had enterprises for thousands of years. I’m an agnostic, not an atheist on this.
AM: On that we actually agree. I’m fairly sure that it will not be trans formative for many enterprises. There is, however, a real discontinuity from a technology perspective – the technology is capable of so much more than it was previously. It’s the fact that anyone can contribute to it – from anywhere in the organization – and the wisdom that comes out of the collective pattern which emerges which is the new thing. Free form, emergent, without structure added in at design time.
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If you’ve tried to visit this blog in the last few weeks, sorry.
My hosting provider underwent a series of upgrades somewhere back around May 26th, and ever since then you’ve had about a 50/50 chance of getting either no response at all or a “database connection error” page. Things seem (knocking wood) relatively stable now, so I’m hoping all the demons have been exorcised and the host will find solid ground – if not, I’m going to have to shop for a new host (again).
This coincided (luckily or unluckily, depending on your point of view) with two weeks vacation in England (London, the Costwolds) and Ireland (Dublin, counties Kerry and Cork), so for the first half of the “troubles” I was blissfully unaware. (That’s right, I spent 12 days with no internet access – didn’t even bring my laptop, and turned off the data connection on my phone.)
I’ll be blogging some more about the trip itself (and vegan eats we had along the way) over on Goatless, but I’ve also got a backlog of stuff to talk about here – so stay tuned, and sorry for the interruption(s).