The Future of Enterprise 2.0

Among the many, man 2.0 buzzwords within the high-tech world in 2006, one of the puzzling is Enterprise 2.0. It’s based on the idea that businesses will embrace tools such as Wikis, blogs and social networks. I would boldly suggest the part of Enterprise 2.0 with the most momentum these days is all the conferences being offered to “educate” the business community about the wonders and benefits of Web 2.0. The question is whether many businesses want to adopt these tools. Do many business have an appetite to arm their workers with technology other than a Web browser, Microsoft Office, perhaps some CRM software, and a computer that’s so old it struggles to do its job properly?
Dion Hinchcliffe provides a comprehensive look at the year that was in Enterprise 2.0, suggesting 2007 was a “wind-up year for Enterprise 2.0″ as businesses did some experimenting to see if there was potential in any particular areas. Hinchcliffe does a nice job providing a wide perspective from proponents such as Harvard Andrew McAfee to skeptics such as Nick Carr. At the very least, it will be interesting to see how many businesses press forward with Enterprise 2.0. Sure, some of the them have started to buy into the idea that blogs can be a good tool to communicate with customers, employees and the media but are they ready for Wikis and social networks. And is there a killer-app that will get businesses jazzed about Enterprise 2.0? Maybe it’’s LinkedIn given it is becoming so ubiquitous even CEOs, CTOs and CIOs are bound to see it hit their e-mail boxes at some point, and say “Hey, what’s this whole 2.0 thing about anyway?