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What is a Wiki ?
Most of us know about wiki's from wikipedia however, how many folks have actually contributed to wikipedia or one of the many other public wiki's ?
For those of you that have not contributed, here is a little video from Lee at Common Craft that outlines how to use and contribute to a wiki.
After listening to both EnterpriseRave 2.0 sessions, my first reaction is that there is a lot of hype surrounding Enterprise 2.0 and not a lot of research and success stories. I think the hype is good for us, as it leads to more discussion and better definition and may stir the interests of the fridge Business and IT managers that do not follow industry trends.
Andrew McAfee asked the question: "What is the short term future for Social Software applications in the Enterprise ?" and provided some guidance to the answer by asking if it will have "Broad and Deep Penetration in the market; is it a fad or a Flash in the pan; or is it somewhere in between?"
Many responded with the "somewhere in between" answer and that is exactly where I see it.
Broad penetration would have to start at the top of an organization and work it's way down thru many levels or management and control before reaching the end-users. Also, in large organizations access to outside blogs and wikis are blocked at the proxy or firewall and end-users do not have the required privileges to install wiki or blogging software. which prevents a grassroots effort.
Is it a Fad or a Flash in the Pan ? Not at all. I think the fact that so many in the industry are talking about this shows the interest. I see as many other see this as the evolution of the web and not something that is going away.
I do not think there will be broad penetration however, I do think we will start to see adoption of certain applications that align well and meet certain business needs. No business manager is going to jump on the Enterprise 2.0 band-wagon because there is a lot of hype and discussion, however they will if we can show them how these technologies can help resolve their business problems.
We need to be advocates for these technologies and identify where it will fit into our business, however I would caution you to stay away from buzzwords like Web 2.0, and Enterprise 2.0 when dealing with senior business folks and instead concentrate on the features that these tools bring like collaboration and documentation.
I registered for the Enterprise 2.0 Rave virtual event which consist as a series of Web-Based round table discussions on the challenges and opportunities related to Enterprise 2.0 deployments.
My goal is to better understand Enterprise 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 deployments from a support perspective. There have been a number of different descriptions of Enterprise 2.0, and one definition that is commonly used is Andrew Mcafee's definition:
Enterprise 2.0 is the use of freeform social software within companies.
I struggle a little with this definition because it appears too broad for me. It certainly fits nicely in small companies where folks wear a lot of different hats and do a number of different jobs however, it does not fit nicely into larger Enterprises that have guidelines and requirements for applications, and restrictions on web traffic and web resources.
Here is my definition of Enterprise 2.0:
Enterprise 2.0 is a application deployment strategy that incorporates the use of Rich-Internet and Web-based applications with the security and data protections found in applications with global design requirements and constraints. I see two different classes of Enterprise 2.0 applications, Highly Structured Applications and Loosely Structured Applications.
Highly Structured Enterprise 2.0 Applications are web applications developed and deployed with a lot of IT influence and structure, that incorporate collaboration with a high level of security and authentication and consist of different technologies, development models and deployment methods.
Loosely Structured Enterprise 2.0 Applications are applications with more of the Social Communication and Documentation focus which include applications like Blogs, Wiki's, IM, Widgets. These apps may or may not be deployed by IT, but do not require the strict security and data protection requirements of Highly Structure Applications.
.... and how do we move your business to Enterprise 2.0?
You start by reading and educating yourself, and your coworkers on Enterprise 2.0. Next, I would start with the deployment of one or two loosely structured applications and gain some experience and acceptance. Once you have had a couple of successes, it will be easier to include these strategies into your development and deployment models.
I recently discovered a new site that concentrates on Management Resources for managers. The site is BNET.com and there is a lot of rich Management content here. I had seen the BNET Icon on many of the ZDNet blogs and mistakenly clicked it one day and was pleasantly surprised with the site and it's content.
A great example of their content is their feature on "Master your Multitasking" written by David Allen.
If you're not familiar with David Allen, you'll probably be hearing more about him soon. Allen is a personal-productivity expert with legions of fans and a bestselling book under his belt, and he's poised to break through to mainstream corporate America. In the meantime, his GTD (Getting Things Done) program is already changing the way people think about work flow. BNET explored the Allen mythos to find out who he is and why his followers swear by his techniques. We also explain how to get started using his program, talk to Allen himself, and interview three senior managers who use GTD to make their staffs more productive.
Update: CNET interviewed David Allen at the 2007 Under the Radar conference.
Watch the video.
Take a look at David's Video which concentrates on refining your focus and concentration on the tasks that need to get done as opposed to time management.
