Upcoming: Enterprise 2.0 events at CeBIT 2009 (come and share your views)

It’s that time of the year again – CeBIT 09 is just around the corner and it’s high time to collect and prepare plans and places to be. I will focus here on stuff with an Enterprise 2.0 focus and/or events I am involved with or am looking forward to. Björn has done a more complete overview here, add this to the information pages for the Open Source arena and especially the Enterprise 2.0 / Internet-focused Webciety (check out the program here)

Myself I will arrive on Wednesday, skipping the first day and sadly also the panel on “Social Computing” with Devan Batavia from Jive Software, Jeff Schick from IBM (seen him at the first E20SUMMIT) and Dirk Röhrborn from Communardo. But I will arrive in time for the “5 myths of the Change of Organizations” panel with Clay Shirky on Wednesday morning and later on the “Enterprise Collaboration” panel with people like Joshua Wold from Atlassian.

Thursday I will have my very own space in the Webciety program, presenting the small chunk of the DNAdigital book I contributed to, see the (german only) online version.

n50419902004_5210Friday I will be busy mingling with you, the Enterprise 2.0 community at CeBIT at the E2.0 Meetup on the CeBIT Webciety Area. I am really looking forward to this – let’s get together in the T-Systems Lounge. Besides having a panel discussion with Dion Hinchcliffe, Dr. Frank Schönefeld (T-Systems), Aidan Troy (IBM), Peter Fischer (Microsoft), Craig Hepburn (OpenText) and Sören Stamer (Coremedia) we’ll have enough time to discuss many of E 2.0’s challenges and potentials.

You can expect me to tweet and blog about most of these events, mostly at the community weblog but I am also planning to do some video interviews. Get in contact with me, get into the conversation and share your views of the future of Enterprise 2.0.

Cognitive Surplus (in the Enterprise)

While writing up some of my thoughts on the newest McKinsey Quarterly article on Web 2.0 in the Enterprise (this post will follow soon) I was tempted to follow some small detours. Namely this one with Clay Shirky, getting interviewed after his keynote at the FASTForward ’09 conference in Las Vegas, talking about

  • The effects of low cost coordination and group action.
  • Where to find the next layer of value when many professions are being disrupted by the Internet
  • The necessary role of low cost experimentation in finding new business models

You can find these and other videos at the FASTForward site (together with the Euan Semple one, that I’ve posted here). What led me there once more is the McKinsey argument that the biggest ROI comes from what Clay calls the “cognitive surplus”, i.e. the underused human potential we have in our  companies and that can be tapped with Web 2.0 participatory tools (yikes, let us not forget 2.0 paradigms, principles and methods in all this discussion, yes?).

So this made me pull up more stuff I’ve posted on Clay before here (Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus and on innovation in the digital economy), my review of Here Comes Everybody and here:

Clay Shirky says on CIO Insight that businesses are just beginning to understand the value—and challenges—of social technologies.

Nora Young of CBC Spark show posted audio from a full interview with Clay Shirky. The interview is worth hearing, and touches on some of the topics in his new book (Here Comes Everybody, see also here and here) – such as the pros and cons of social media, new business models online, and how big change comes from human motivation, not shiny new technologies. Download the mp3.

Nora and Clay started off by talking about our “cognitive surplus,” which Clay describes as “all the free thinking time that society has access to… in the brains of its citizens that isn’t getting used for specific tasks.” Think TV watching time, except Clay has some ideas on how you should be/could be spending your surplus.

and especially here:

[…] Well, yes, don’t blame the web intranet when it’s filter failure, yes, the ability to pay attention in the Web 2.0 age is the “work smarter, not harder” version 2.0″

But probably the most interesting thing is what I’ve argued with in The power of networks and pragmatic adoption:

[…] it makes sense to think about social software uses in the enterprise: When technology becomes “boring”, i.e. taken for granted, it has the chance to move into the mainstream of people caring more for business problems and efficient solutions than for tech in itself. Now’s the time for pragmatic minded enterprise 2.0 consultants, rosy times ahead, obviously.

Well, skip the last sentence, that was in April 2008 😉

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Outlook on collaboration in 2009

Besides playing experimenting with some new (sometimes cloudy) collaboration services and technologies (and I didn’t even make it halfway here), battling a nasty cold and family time I’ve been reading my share of Enterprise 2.0 outlooks for 2009 lately, starting off with Gil Yehuda of Forrester (“Predicting the battle over collaboration infrastructure in 2009“) who answers short questions with good long analysis.

Gil, do you think companies will cut back on Enterprise Web 2.0 in light of the economy?

First reaction – it depends. I’m an analyst, that’s always our first answer. […]

That’s not all for sure, he goes on to ponder what lies behind all this, i.e. he delves into the relation between IT department and business units, diagnoses an increased need for collaboration functionality as a result of “layoffs, mergers, and deepening external partnerships (requiring new infrastructure to collaborate outside the firewall with trusted, external partners)”, and sees a slowdown of IT-driven collaboration projects in 2009 compensated by more business-driven collaboration projects. A good read.

More general are FastCompany’s predictions that 8 experts have for Web 2.0 in 2009, even with Charlene Li among them who holds

“[that] the biggest innovation will be the opening of social networks so that they can exchange profiles, social relationships, and applications. As such, companies need to think about how they will “open” up their businesses.”

Read-write web compiles a list of enterprise-focused web products that are already doing well and are poised success in 2009, nice that there’s a subcategory of Wiki++ (oh, this geeky humour):

We added “++” to “wiki” because the leading vendors are rapidly incorporating micro-blogging, social networking, forums, and other collaboration tools. Integration is key, so we see this market moving towards suites, but with wiki at the core.

Yes, said that before, think “middleware for humans” – one might even argue that wikis are archetypical infrastructure, and being flexible enough to cater for diverse and changing needs.

Then Craig Roth of the Burton Group presents their views of the 2009 landscape for communication, collaboration and content and warns

It’s also important to note the cyclical nature of organizational dynamics, which underlies everything we talk about related to communication, collaboration, and content.  Rather than just disappearing, terms like “knowledge management” fade from view only to be rediscovered when their time is right.  Governance has been on the tip of the tongue for at least five years now in our space, but it may fade only to be rediscovered under a new name ten years from now.

That is why it is so important to understand the basic concepts and dynamics behind communication, collaboration, and content before delving into the specifics of any specific technology.  If you don’t understand your history, for example, social networking can be felled by the same issues that caused collaborative workspaces to fail before them.

Craig also blogged about the implications of the tough economic conditions on the collaboration (and IT) market, something on which I will post a follow-up soon as well. Actually I think that the economic crisis might even turn out good for collaboration initiatives, open source and Enterprise 2.0 …:

Companies that come out of recessions in a stronger position than they went in are those that judiciously invest in technology and related processes that let more work get done with less resources as well as reducing costly delays and red herrings when making decisions. And when the market downturn ends – and it will – opportunistic organizations will be in a better position to succeed than those that had hunkered down during the recession.

Some more quotes and notables:

– Mike Gotta thinks about some acquisition possibilities (or dangers) in the Enterprise 2.0 market, triggered by an article in CIO magazine “Web 2.0, Social Networks in ’09: The Year of Consolidation, Not Innovation” that puts Lotus Connections and Sharepoint in perspective (btw, I don’t buy the article’s argument that consolidation in the enterprise Web 2.0 market could hamper innovation around those tools, I guess the innovators in this space have set high standards already, plus the real issues aren’t with nifty tools et al.). Yet, the triggered reasoning by Mike on “strategic fits” is good, and I can’t help wondering if some of these M&As might turn reality in 2009. Besides he’s done a great rundown of various Enterprise 2.0 issues too …

– Robert Scoble sees a fight coming between the collaborative web and Microsoft, besides being busy talking to Socialtext and Jive Software (during his Enterprise disruption week), while  David Coleman examines the underlying thinking (in “The Evolution of Collaboration Technologies“): “Most of these organizations are betwixt and between. It is safer to go with what you know (IBM or Microsoft) but also can be expensive in a recessionary period. Or phase out the aging collaborative infrastructure for something a bit more up to date, with more collaborative functionality. So far most of them seem to be playing it safe, a few are looking for new tools that will meet their collaborative needs both today (with the Millenials) and tomorrow.” and Kevin Mullins offers some Technology Predictions for 2009 (“I see Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 becoming feature sets in new products and services in the Enterprise, however they will not become feature sets in all Enterprise products”). Well, fair chance and clever arguing 😉

– At last, CBC had a feature interview with Clay Shirky on the pros and cons of social media, new online business models online, and how big change comes from human motivation, not shiny new technologies. Well, yes, don’t blame the web intranet when it’s filter failure, yes, the ability to pay attention in the Web 2.0 age is the “work smarter, not harder” version 2.0

    So now I wish all my readers, friends, colleagues, partners and clients a happy and successful 2009. I hope you all had time and rest to enjoy some quiet days with friends and family before the rat race starts again. Oh, again it’s making-fun-of-rats-time – I really must look out lest this turns out a standard operating procedure …?

    Web2Expo as rambling ecology

    Yes, the Expo conferences are a buzzing, hot-spot of interesting ideas and people – some would call it mildly chaotic – but Judy Breck puts the Chaos (with a capital C) in perspective. As she introduces the New York City Web 2.0 Expo she writes

    […] the subject matter tracks of the show  […] are something of a jumble: landscape & strategy, design & user experience, development, media & marketing, finance, performance & scaling. The these tracks are all over the place. What is their umbrella theme?

    then underlies it with a quote from Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organization, pp. 67-68:

    Because social effects lag behind technological ones by decades, real revolutions don’t involve an orderly transition from point A to point B. Rather, they go through a long period of chaos and only then reach B. In that chaotic period, the old systems get broken long before the new ones become stable.

    and concludes that this rumble jumble agenda is just perfectly normal:

    […] at the expo we can begin [to] experience the interrelationships of the many parts of the tracks into the ecology of our connected future.

    Well, I guess so, still, some understanding and guidance is needed, and as that’s the most noble job of consultants I will try to shed a little light onto the program of the Web 2.0 Expo Berlin in one of my next posts (if it’s only for my own purposes and those readers who feel at home in this “ecology of our connected future”). Btw, in the past I wrote some posts on the greater topic of business ecosystems at my other blog. Brwose them if you like.

    Web 2.0 Expo Europe 2008


    Stumbled upon: Enterprise 2.0, intranets and cognitive surplusses

    There are now a lot of open tabs in my browser – small wonder when researching, conferencing and preparing a new consulting gig. Let me try a rundown, no special order:

    Clay Shirky says on CIO Insight that businesses are just beginning to understand the value—and challenges—of social technologies.

    Nora Young of CBC Spark show posted audio from a full interview with Clay Shirky. The interview is worth hearing, and touches on some of the topics in his new book (Here Comes Everybody, see also here and here) – such as the pros and cons of social media, new business models online, and how big change comes from human motivation, not shiny new technologies. Download the mp3.

    Nora and Clay started off by talking about our “cognitive surplus,” which Clay describes as “all the free thinking time that society has access to… in the brains of its citizens that isn’t getting used for specific tasks.” Think TV watching time, except Clay has some ideas on how you should be/could be spending your surplus.

    There’s a (german language) issue of UNESCO Heute on the web society and its understanding and emergent uses of knowledge, this is a rather heterogenous beast, a compilation of small articles:

    […] Begriffe, Konzepte und Themen der Wissensgesellschaft mit Bezug auf das Internet

    Then here’s a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit about collaboration.

    Corporations all over the world are making tremendous investments in technology, from servers, to storage, and network. Although technology is used on a day-to-day basis (think about the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) deployments) to enhance productivity and to curb costs, it seems that collaboration is still best performed face-to-face. The study provides a glimpse into the reason: trust.

    Jay Cross too has some hints for online collaboration (pdf). Dion Hinchcliffe is explaining where the conversation is going (“Endless Conversation: The Unfolding Saga of Blogs, Twitter, Friendfeed, and Social Sites“), including Twitter and Friendfeed uses for business. And Michael Krigsman analyzes power politics and pitfalls in Enterprise 2.0 adoption. Yes, we need to understand the corporate context to make this work, this is true especially when dealing with middle management. Now, getting out there and trying it is an option, it’s “show and tell” – indeed, in my experience upper management gets it rather easily. Still I somehow like this cartoon by geek and poke. Better beware this situation …

    And finally check out Ross Mayfields slides of his keynote at Van Web 2.0 naar Enterprise 2.0 in the Netherlands:

    I wasn’t there, nor at the Intranet Summit 2008 (Saim Alkan has a german language summary). I’ve been at the Intranet.days (meeting Saim and others) and will be here at the International Forum on Enterprise 2.0 in Varese and have some rebooting too.

    Thomas Vanderwal will be there both times, in fact we will have the same flight from Milano to Copenhagen. Here, he writes on success with enterprise social tools, i.e. difficulties of applying social tools in the organisation using an illustrative model of four intersecting areas of enterprise social tools:

    – tools (I would include methods as well here)
    – interface and ease of use (yes, usability has some merits and plays an essential role for adoption)
    – sociality
    – encouraging use

    Hmm, the model can serve as a good starting point, even when – as Paula Thornton observes in the comments – placing tools so prominently feels awkward.

    The power of networks and pragmatic adoption

    Please take note of my post at bmid on Clay Shirky‘s new book (“Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organising without Organisations“) as it also explains nicely why it makes sense to think about social software uses in the enterprise: When technology becomes “boring”, i.e. taken for granted, it has the chance to move into the mainstream of people caring more for business problems and efficient solutions than for tech in itself. Now’s the time for pragmatic minded enterprise 2.0 consultants, rosy times ahead, obviously.

    Email is easy to write – and to misread …

    Just a short (research) note, this article by Daniel Goleman in the New York Times sheds more light on the issue of communication problems and mistakes: “E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread)“, namely by stressing the growing importance of social neuroscience in explaining all the shortcomings. This is a neat update to my past ponderings (in german) on communication via social software in the enterprise, so I recommend that you check it out:

    […] social neuroscience, the study of what happens in the brains of people as they interact. New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.

    And pay attention to Clay Shirky:

    […] put down little roots of face-to-face contact everywhere, to strategically augment electronic communications.