Via 7daysandmore: Ann All in The Visible Enterprise:
Web 2.0 technologies will work better in the enterprise than they do in the world-at-large
Yes, many of the adoption issues we see root in misunderstanding and underestimating the fit between social software concepts and corporate collaboration needs. This is especially clear when looking at user groups: In a corporate setting we know who uses our systems, who contributes to the knowledge base etc. A lot of fear thus rests on wrong assumptions, like when we suspect that users may vandalize our wikis, push rumours, etc. … after all, they are not only sers, they are our employees.
Ann also notes that
Social networks make the most sense when folks share common goals and objectives, want to compare notes on topics of mutual interest, and maybe do a little networking — as in, say, a workplace. The incentive would be especially strong if folks had coworkers scattered about the globe.
Yes, she’s right, virtual knowledge work processes would benefit significantly. Moreover, as social software allows these processes to be as ad-hoc, connected and adaptive as needed, efficiency gains will follow suit when people can be more effective at their jobs.
So installing and leveraging web 2.0 infrastructure (and that means much more than a disparate wiki here and blog there) is basically good business sense.