Regarding social software in the enterprise, the numbers are impressive, demonstrating the value of social networking to some 21st century organizations:
Over 3,000 individual employees blog at Microsoft.
IBM has 15,000 bloggers.
70,000 IBM workers contribute to wikis.
So, is it all set for social software tools in the enterprise? Eric Lundquist at eWeek says hopefully so, and encourages tech managers to experiment with social software.
He’s also citing from Don Tapscotts fortcoming Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, arguing that mass collaboration is changing the landscape:
Smart companies are encouraging, rather than fighting, the heaving growth of massive online communities—many of which emerged from the fringes of the Web to attract tens of millions of participants overnight. Even ardent competitors are collaborating on path-breaking science initiatives that accelerate discovery in their industries. Indeed, as a growing number of firms see the benefits of mass collaboration, this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional corporate structures as the economy’s primary engine of wealth creation.
Yes, insight into organizational structures is needed, moreover one needs a thorough understanding of a companies business model, to be able to describe how these social applications can be applied for the company’s benefit:
Implementation efforts need their groundwork done to succeed.
frogpond is well suited in this space, check out my weblog on business model innovation.