Web 2.0

New and old media are not mutually exclusive

Ron Miller — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:13:11 -0500

Bill Ives has an interesting post this week on the FastForward blog about new versus old media. One of the points he makes is that each new medium gets layered on top of the old one, it doesn't replace it. Ives argues, for example, that even recent additions to media such as Twitter won't replace its most recent antecedent, blogging. It may replace parts of blogging, but blogging will still have a place. I agree with his assertion, especially where Twitter is concerned.

Twitter is a great service, which I love. It provides a way to communicate with a variety of people, but it only allows 140 characters. While there is a certain beauty in that limit, there are many times where you want to expand those ideas. Further, blogs provide a more accurate record and a way to follow a conversation through comments.

Twitter is not threaded, so there is no way to follow a conversation as it happens. So while Twitter is a new means of communicating, it won't replace blogging. Just as blogging did not replace print publications, and television news didn't replace newspapers and magazines, and video didn't really kill the radio star.

For more information:
- Ives' FastForward blog post

A battle looms over collaboration tools says Forrester analyst

Ron Miller — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:58:43 -0500

There's a lot to like about web-based, web 2.0 collaboration tools like Socialtext and GroupSwim, but they take the software out of the control of IT and put it into the hands of the business user. In a post this week on the Forrester Information and Knowledge Management Professionals blog, Gil Yehuda predicts tensions will develop between IT and users as these types of services proliferate.

It's no secret that these online tools cost less, and they put the software in the control of the end user. This makes it easier to get projects off the ground because it doesn't require IT involvement. Naturally, this makes IT upset because it's out of their control, as Yehuda points out, and it's much more difficult for them to manage. Personally, I think it's more about control and less about management.

If it's possible for business units to find ways to get their work done without going through IT as another layer of bureaucracy, it makes sense, to me, for them to do it. Even in a down economy work needs to get done and if users can find a cheaper and more efficient way to do that, I say more power to them (and less to IT).

That said, companies do need to find a way to make sure there are sanctioned products, so that they aren't faced at some point with pulling content from a variety of sources. A big question is: What happens if these small web 2.0 service vendors suddenly go out of business? What happens to your content? So you need to have some centralized management of the process and IT can provide that at a high level. But companies also need to be flexible because if these tools save money and provide more flexibility, it would be foolish to block them.

For more information:
-see Yehuda's post on Forrester

Related Articles:
Web 2.0 news from FierceContentManagement

Twitter proves its worth during the Mumbai tragedy

Molly Bernhart — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:18:22 -0500

As the horrific events of the massacre in Mumbai, India unfolded, people across the globe were searching for news in a variety of ways. Those who sought Twitter's Tweet Grid may have been most in tune to what was happening throughout the city, according to an analysis by the blog Confused of Calcutta. At an incredible speed, hundreds, if not thousands, of reporters and eye-witnesses passed along news about who was missing, who was safe, which clinics needed more blood and who to call for help during the crisis.

The truly amazing feature of Twitter is the speed of the updates. While Twitter was overflowing with unfiltered, frantic information flow, many news websites were static. The blogger says in the few minutes it took him to write his post on November 27, there were 339 updates to twitter related to "#mumbai".

For more:
- read the article

Which companies are more recession proof?

Ron Miller — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:31:52 -0500

It's a parlor game of sorts, these days, for writers to try to figure out which companies will be hit hardest by the deepening recession, and which ones will ride it out relatively successfully. Jordan Frank, who is the VP of marketing and business development at Traction Software has a very interesting post this week at the Content Connection where he compares and contrasts several writers' viewpoints about which types of companies are in the best position to ride out the economic downturn we are facing.

Frank wonders, "Will it be point applications like wikis and blogs, or enterprise 2.0 suites? Or will it be big-ticket collaboration platforms from vendors like Microsoft, OpenText and Documentum?"

Even though Frank clearly has a stake in the answer, it still makes sense when he writes that customers will be looking for cost-effective bundles. As budgets tighten, decision makers who need to make purchases are going to look very closely at value and price. As Frank points out, you can get his company's TeamPage for $75 per user for 1,000 users running TeamPage with the FAST Module as opposed to Sharepoint at $854 per user for 1,000 user. Companies may begin taking a long look at the lower-cost options.

Of course, Sharepoint offers more than just a blog & wiki platform, but Frank's point is well taken. It's entirely possible that he's right, that companies bundling feature-rich Web 2.0 packages at an affordable price are going to continue to thrive (or at least stay afloat) until we come out of this economic malaise.

For more information:
- see Frank's complete blog entry on Content Connection

One company takes employee involvement to the extreme

Ron Miller — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:58:37 -0500

Dan Herman reports on the Wiknomics blog this week, about a South American company that has set up complete transparency around all of its decision making. Every employee gets a vote in major decisions, such as a mergers, acquisitions or moves. The employees even get a voice on the board where there are two employee seats available. Herman says they must be doing something right because they are a growing and profitable company and he wonders what other companies can learn from Semco, a Brazilian industrial manufacturing company, where employees set their own wages and even get to choose their own managers. That's taking employee involvement to a new level.

Companies considering using Web 2.0 to simply provide a way to democratize content creation and selection in a company would be wise to look at a company like Semco. Many companies, it seems, are afraid to even let their employees publish to a blog or wiki because they are afraid of giving employees too much power, exposing company secrets or legal liability.

We are more than three years into the Web 2.0 revolution, now. We have seen the power of collaboration and knowledge sharing. There is plenty of evidence and there are case studies galore. If Semco can give all decision-making power to its employees and remain profitable, surely your company's executives can loosen the reins a bit and allow your employees to use to Web 2.0 tools, to improve communication in your organization.

For more information on Semco:
- see Dan Herman's Wikinomics blog entry

Related Articles:
Web 2.0 news from FierceContentManagement

Can e-Discovery control and Web 2.0 coexist?

Ron Miller — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:08:02 -0500

Matthew Hodgson has a post this week on the {app} gap where he raises an interesting question. Can a company bent on controlling access to information allow users to go onto the open web and interact in social networking tools, or is it an all or nothing proposition? Hodgson doesn't believe it is, and he says that by restricting users from a broad swath of Internet real estate you are actually inhibiting them from doing their jobs.

I agree. You can find ways to protect your turf without completely locking the gates and not letting anyone in or out. There is too much valuable information out there, too many useful tools, too many opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals who can help and support the effort your company is trying to undertake. To limit the company in this fashion in the name of security is to sacrifice the very life blood of communication that helps your company thrive.

So take Hodgson's advice and lighten up a bit. You can be secure without shutting yourself off from the outside world.

For more info:
- see the {app} gap post

Informal knowledge sharing versus knowledge management

Ron Miller — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:48:48 -0400

There was an interesting post recently by Joe McKendrick in the FASTForward Blog called "Social Media Versus Knowledge Management: Generational War?" The argument is that young and hip workers prefer to share knowledge informally using Web 2.0 tools like a Wiki, whereas the old fogies prefer a top-down approach, driven by a formal knowledge-sharing software tool. The fact is that the old approach has been around for quite some time, and if I'm not mistaken, it hasn't done all that well. The main problem is that when you present a tool with the specific purpose of sharing knowledge, people ignore it.

It could be that people want to squirrel away information because they see knowledge as power--giving it away means you're giving away a piece of your personal fiefdom. Whatever the reason, the "old-fashioned" 90s approach to knowledge management never seemed to catch fire in the enterprise. Everybody recognizes the importance of sharing knowledge in this fashion--and to some extent content management itself helps in this regard--but too few people were willing to do the work to make it happen.

That's what's so intriguing to me about Web 2.0 as a knowledge sharing tool. With this approach, you are not formalizing knowledge management. Instead it becomes integrated in the work flow of your life. You micro blog with your colleagues and it becomes part of the record. You add a comment to a blog and it becomes part of the record. You post a link to your latest report or add a work around to the department Wiki and it all becomes available to the larger community of the enterprise. You are sharing without even thinking about it; and as you share, you become a more valuable member of the community.

For more:
- read the blog article

Alfresco releases Alfresco Enterprise 3

Ron Miller — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:29:58 -0400

Alfresco announced today that it was releasing Alfresco Enterprise 3, it's latest enterprise content management offering. The new release builds on earlier Alfresco announcements around the Sharepoint protocol support, draft CMIS support (which John Newton, Alfresco founder and CTO, discussed in this Fierce interview) and Alfresco Share, the centerpiece of this release that provides support for out-of-the-box Web 2.0 tools.

Newton says that you can use Share to build Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and Wikis inside and outside the firewall as you see fit, enabling you to create communication and knowledge sharing tools for internal and external users. What's more, because this is an open source tool, you can build tools for your organization on top of this solution or take advantage of a growing ecosystem of tools the community is developing.

You can download Alfresco Enterprise 3 for free at Alfresco.com. In addition, you can purchase a Subscription for $15,000 per CPU per year. Unlike most models, which charge by the user, Alfresco charges by the CPU which can scale to many users. The subscription services include quality assurance, support and maintenance.

As you look for ways to control costs in a tougher economic climate, you may want to take a closer look at solutions like Alfresco's. "This is a great opportunity to use a low cost, open source model, and take new types of content collaboration and document management to people trying to reduce costs and be more efficient in a tough economic environment," Newton says.

One on One with Len Devanna of EMC

Ron Miller — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:07:56 -0400

Len Devanna is the director of Web Strategy at EMC. If it sounds like a great title that's because it is. Devanna is responsible for the internal community platform known as EMC ONE. He says of his job, "I often feel like a kid in a candy store. I have a strong passion for all things online, and [I] get to help drive the evolution of our online ecosystem each and every day." During his time at EMC, he also helped lead the enterprise knowledge management initiative, build a field/customer/partner-facing portal and completely retool the EMC.com experience while consolidating several sites into one. I asked Devanna about EMC's Web 2.0 initiative and how that has helped increased collaboration and knowledge sharing.

FCM: How open is the company to developing social networking concepts?

LD: Extremely open. EMC has a strong culture of innovation and is therefore very much open to exploring emerging trends and technologies. We see social media as a key channel for establishing dialogue with our audience while creating more intimate conversations and relationships. Frankly, we see it as a strategic imperative. The days of broadcast communications are over. Companies need to learn to listen and engage with their audience. The opportunities afforded through social tools and techniques to co-innovate with your audience, to improve productivity and collaboration, and to better understand the needs of your customer are tremendous.

FCM: Can you describe some of the social networking projects you have helped put in place?

LD: I’d have to focus on the launch of EMC ONE, our internal community for EMC-ers. About a year or so ago, EMC VP Chuck Hollis and I were discussing the need for an internal community offering. Within weeks of that discussion, we launched EMC ONE. I suppose the time to market here speaks to EMC’s desire to aggressively adopt and embrace social media.

FCM: I heard about this EMC social experiment: A Day in the Life of EMC. Were you involved in this at all? What are your thoughts on this?

LD: Yes, this is effectively EMC ONE. About a year old now, EMC ONE has over 8K active members and thousands more watching the conversations. I’d venture to guess we have about 25% adoption across the global workforce, with 150 to 200 new members joining weekly.

The benefit and value of EMC ONE has been enormous. We’re seeing conversations taking place that cross organizational and geographic boundaries. Relationships are being forged between employees who otherwise would never have had an opportunity to meet or interact with one another. Discussions around commute times and the price of gas transform into conversations around green computing, and ultimately mature into ideas for new products or solutions.

The value of behavioral change that comes with E2.0 proficiency is also worth noting … For example, information once confined to email with limited distribution is now making it’s way to collaborative Wikis--where the employee population at large can contribute and the information is retained and indexed forever. The productivity gains alone, as we move from traditional 1.0 to 2.0 behaviors, are stunning.

FCM: Documentum has a lot of social networking built into the latest release. Did your group's role in social networking play fuel this development, or was it more market forces, or a combination?

LD: First, let me just say that I’m truly excited about where this is going. The convergence of traditional EMC tools and functionality with 2.0 offerings, such as wiki’s and blogs, is quite appealing to me. The notion of an internal group collaborating on content within a wiki, then being able to seamlessly push it into enterprise workflows that run it through approvals (if any), then on to a translation house before ultimately ending up on the web is quite cool. Until now, bridging the gap between such 2.0 tools and ECM systems has been a sizable integration effort for IT.

To your question, I’d have to say a combination of the two … While I work at EMC, I’m also a customer. As you’d suspect, Documentum is the ECM engine behind our web properties. As part of the team responsible for understanding the online needs of the enterprise, we’re acutely aware of the tools and capabilities companies need to successfully move into the 2.0 space. Having real world experience in deploying social tools across EMC has given us perspective around what people need to be successful, and has armed our product teams with invaluable first hand data. As you suggest, there’s clearly demand from the market as well.

FCM: I noticed that Documentum's marketing team made use of social networking for the release of the latest version--even by using Facebook. Were you involved in that? If so, how?

Yes, I had the pleasure of being part of this team. It’s indicative of the EMC culture--always trying to do something new and innovative.

As noted earlier, I really do have a passion for this stuff, and that’s no secret within EMC. When the Marketing/PR team decided to experiment with social tools to support the launch, they brought me in to provide my point of view. They did a great job with Facebook and, in fact, have quite a following there now. You may have also noticed a social media press release supporting the launch--giving bloggers and media outlets better tools to syndicate the message. YouTube also played a big part in this launch, providing chalk talk videos that cut right to the heart of the matter. We’ve invested in so much more: Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc. As you can see, we’re all about trying new things to better connect with our audience.

FCM: What social networking tools are people using? Are employees encouraged to use Facebook and Twitter? I know you do, but in general are they encouraged to use these types of tools, or to use in-house tools inside the firewall?

LD: We’ve tried not to be prescriptive around tools. Doing so would only hamper creativity. EMC ONE is clearly at the epicenter of our internal social deployment and provides blog, discussion and wiki capabilities. Beyond that, I’ve seen plenty of EMC-ers on Twitter, Facebook and all of the other usual suspects. Yammer has my interest right now, and has seen some pretty solid adoption within the company. In my opinion, it brings a new dimension to real-time collaboration among project teams. It’s always interesting to see which tools stick and which don’t, and watching this evolving landscape is absolutely fascinating to me.

It’s also worth mentioning EMC’s FriendFeed account. Check it out to get a sense for the variety of things EMC is doing in the social realm.

Law firms using Wikis for knowledge management

Ron Miller — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:25:20 -0400

Bill Ives, who writes the excellent Portals and KM blog, has an interesting post this week regarding how law firms handle knowledge management. Ives recently attended the NY-Toronto Law Firm KM Summit 2008, which strangely enough was held in Boston. Regardless, there were some interesting discussions about how law firms are using blogs and wikis as knowledge management tools.

Ives describes one case where a law firm, which had been using an ad-hoc file system, switched to a Wiki and was able to organize its materials far better (a huge success). It's a great example of how businesses can use Wiki technology to organize large amounts of information, making it more useful and easier to locate and share information in true Enterprise 2.0 fashion.

There are plenty of lessons to be learned here, but it's important to analyze your business processes and find out if there are better ways to do things. A lot of companies could be making of use of wikis and blogs; they make a lot of sense in certain cases, especially any time users have to share information. A good way to get started might be to have your customer service people set up a Troubleshooting Wiki with customer issues and how they solved them.

For more information:
- read the full Portals and KM post here