Web 2.0 for the Enterprise: Where the Action Is?

An interesting trend has been seen recently in the trade periodicals and the analyst reports.  And that is the application of Web 2.0 concepts in the enterprise.  I wrote recently about the brand-new Software 2006 Industry Report from Mckinsey which says Web 2.0 in the Enterprise is the place to watch this year for new oppotunity, value, and innovation. And if you're not looking out, potential disruption.  Joining in on the discussion, Nicholas Carr took a look today at whether Web 2.0 ideas are really enterprise ready, or will it come and go like so many other collaboration technologies have over the years.  He cites some good sources including a well-known Harvard Business School professor.

Of course, I've believed for a while now that Web 2.0 technologies are going to flow into the enterprise from several angles.  There are the user interaction technologies like blogs and wikis which are already getting some good play inside the fireall.  And there are also other, more technical aspects of Web 2.0 that will grow increasingly popular behind the firewall.  One of these is Software as a Service and the zero footprint Ajax client, which can potentially cure administration headaches, security issues, data synchornization problem, and actually make use of the hundreds of millions of dollars that corporate America is sinking into their SOA initiatives. 

Another big benefit are the easily composable and low-impedance Web services which turn applications into platforms.  This is the use of REST and XML/HTTP (Web-Oriented Architecture) instead of SOAP and WS-*, syndication instead of point-to-point communication, etc.  And then there is the concept of the Global SOA, which describes the fact that organizations will increasingly use Web services from across the Web, treating it like a planetary operating system.  Which, for all intents and purposes, the Web has in fact become.  This mean that access to a global repository reusable software and data has never been so easy (and yes, sometimes scary too.)

So, Carr asks whether the busy knowledge workers of the world will really become "avid bloggers and taggers and wiki-writers?"  And the answer is of course, some will and some won't.  But I'm guessing most probably will. It took years and years for the skills and customs of blogging and wikis to take hold, even though they were possible with the first forms-capable browser way back in the early 1990s.  Watching the number of blogs and wikis proliferate only confirms that the adoption and skill level of most people will only continue to increase in this area.  And let's not forget, blogs and wiki are also delivered in Software as a Service (SaaS) form.  So, while Ajax is still barely a buzzword on the horizon for most software users, never mind SOA/Client, I think we'll find that all of our software will increasingly be blended into lightweight, easy-to-deploy, and ever easier to use forms, available anywhere we happen to be, along with our data.  This is a value proposition that average software users can readily understand.

And let's not forget that Web 2.0 ideas encourage reach vs. rich and ease-of-use (both for user and developer) over byzantine Swiss army knife complexity.  This simplicity in execution is exactly the sort of approach that will appeal to Carr's not-so-hypothetical harried knowledge worker.  While direct communication like phone calls and e-mail are useful, and frequently used to route arround excessively complex collaborative tools, the radical simplicity of a blog and wiki to get a message out to a large audience (one edit button, one save button) is an excellent starting point for creating larger conversations.  This too has immediate and broad appeal, making Web 2.0 happenings in the enterprise even more likely.

Yes, soon enough we'll forget about calling all of these technologies Web 2.0.  But for now it's still emerging into the mainstream and let's hope that the process of enterprise adoption doesn't take these useful, straightforward techniques, put them into the bureaucratic blender, and neutralize their benefits.  Fortunately, given how easy it will be to route around this eventuality, I think widespread Web 2.0 in the enterprise is just inevitable in the coming years.

What do you think?  Do you have time to spend building collective intelligence for your company?

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