Some say the Enterprise 2.0
revolution will not happen, others point to plentiful evidence that
it’s already under way. The place to watch is the Web, which forms the
upstream feed for Enterprise 2.0, the inspiration, proving ground, and
supply house for all the pain and gain at the enterprise level.
In
the headwaters of the Web, events are happening that foreshadow the end
of Web 2.0, and the emergence of Web 3.0, the so-called Semantic Web,
wherein the formerly separate websites, as network nodes, interoperate
intelligently, as parts of one vast knowledge system.
The
analogy is to the Web as platform, as operating system, as database.
And the hope is that the new infrastructure can support artificial
computer intelligence, in the narrow sense of emulating some basic
human behavior and decision-making.
Current trends show
that the transfer of attention from 2.0 to 3.0 is beginning. Web 2.0 is
still growing, but the core substance is leaving for other labs. Many
commentators worry about the still booming Web 2.0 turning into a
bubble that will burst.
“There is still no guarantee that any given startup
will figure it out and turn a profit, but there are a lot more examples
of people who have done it, there are some tried-and-true methods of
doing it. So people are more confident. Internet adoption among the
population in general is greater, so all of a sudden you have a bigger
user base than you did five years ago. All of this is just a natural
progression as an industry matures. – Web 2.0: Return of the dot-com
Venture capital mis-judgment is the cause of any bubble forming, rather than technology fundamentals.
“Regardless of what we learned over time, the point
is there are going to be abuses of the system because the system
encourages abuse. With VC’s running around and getting inspired by idea
without solid backup, we will be hearing about it [...] the dearth of IPO’s
in the web 2.0 space is a good sign. The idea that bigger more
established companies are hoovering many of these web 2.0 companies
also bodes well.” – Web 1.0 implosion, will Web 2.0 Follow?
But not all venture money is foolish, and
the key to believing that Web 3.0 has started lies in an analysis by
venture capitalist Peter Rip, who notes that while there are plenty of
start-ups still coming, there aren’t any new ideas. In terms of
technological innovation, Web 2.0 has peaked.
“Many of us in the VC community have been quietly
wondering about the state of Web 2.0 innovation. We aren’t seeing much.
Startup activity remains strong, but the consumer web landscape seems
to be populated with the same bodies with different skins. Another
video deal here; another social networking deal there, and social
[feature] everywhere.” – Web 2.0 – Over and Out
So Web 3.0 is coming, even as the tools and
achievements of Web 2.0 are still finding their ways into the modern
enterprise, both from the demonstration effect to workers and
executives, and from outright adoption – or smuggling under IT’s radar.
All
of this places an even higher, demonstrable value potential on the
corporate network, and makes Web 2.0 more commonplace to knowledge
workers, exerting more shape-changing pressure on the enterprise.
Combined especially with the threat coming from more nimble
competitors, these trends force the enterprise even more urgently into
Enterprise 2.0
It might therefore be good to know How To Build An Enterprise 2.0 Culture:
“You can bet that your staff is leveraging their own
blog or an industry wiki to contribute their own intellectual insight
into what’s happening. Somewhere inside those blogs posts, wiki
comments and forum discussions are golden nuggets of information that
could give executives some insight into the culture of the company, the
next big idea or just reoccurring issues that need to be addressed
before they get out of hand. Every person on your staff has something
to say, so why not give them somewhere to say it. Enterprise 2.0 not
only works on the internal area of your business; it provides valuable
insight into the B2B arena. If you’ve
created a tool or environment to manage your clients and there’s no
feedback tools in place, you may be missing out on something that could
take your customer service to the next level.”
