Near-Time Updates for Enterprise 2.0

In a recent article from MarketWatch, they announced that Near-Time has made updates to their enterprise 2.0 hosted collaboration service. The focus of the update was to combine social networking, content, and collaboration technologies. As CEO of Near-Time, Reid Conrad, explained:

"With this update, we bring the most engaging aspects of social networking and knowledge discovery into what was already the most robust on-demand collaboration solution in the marketplace. Near-Time brings social context and content together in the most agile Enterprise 2.0 platform in the market.We enable customers to transcend silos of information and achieve seamless interaction, knowledge sharing and social discovery."

Enterprise 2.0 How To’s

In the past we have brought to you many posts on how to effectively utilize Enterprise 2.0 tools. Martin White provides his take regarding this topic in his paper titled: “Achieving effective Enterprise 2.0”. He comments on a recent survey conducted by the McKinsey that found only 21% of individuals were “satisfied overall with their 2.0 initiatives” and that 22% were “voicing clear dissatisfaction.” Some of the topics that White covers include: making the most of human capital, intranets and Enterprise 2.0, the challenge of social networking, and making Enterprise 2.0 work for you.

Read more here, and let me know what your thoughts are on his views.

Social Networks Made Easy

Six Apart just released Movable Type 4.2 that makes building social networks easy. For corporations, these tools have value since they could be used to create company specific social networks without a hassle. ReadWriteWeb announced that this new product:

“provides DIY tools for building your own social networking platform which includes member profiles, forums, friending capabilities, rating of content, and more”

WordPress, a competitor of Six Apart is also set to launch their own version of this tool, called BuddyPress, soon as well. So, as the article asks:

Is this the future of web publishing altogether?

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that the ease of these tools will help to introduce more web 2.0 tools into the enterprise?

Cost of Enterprise 2.0

William Buist, president of BlackStar life community for Ecademy, made this important point as mentioned by this article from WhatPC.

“With the current economic climate, cost will return to the corporate equation. Therefore, finding the right partner at the right cost makes collaboration even more important,” he says. “Big businesses need to understand exactly how to collaborate effectively, both internally and externally.”

Communication is a key ingredient when it comes to collaboration, and as noted by many experts, enterprise networking sites are starting to change the dynamic of the traditional business communication style. As researchers at Forrester Research have already noted, blogs, wikis, rss, and other web 2.0 tools, have become the biggest buzz words in business and it doesn’t look to be just a current craze that will soon die out. Instead it looks to be what will be considered the norm of tomorrow. Oliver Young, analyst for Forrester, made this interesting statement, however, that

“Until now, IT Departments have resisted Web 2.0 tools, often viewing them as consumer grade”

This soon may no longer be an option since as mentioned above, with the current stated of the economy, companies simply may not be able to afford this type of thinking.

Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise

The McKinsey Quarterly recently surveyed executives on the business use of web 2.0 technology within the enterprise in their second annual survey Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise. An interesting notion that this survey brings up is the fact that use of web 2.0 technology is changing. The survey details that users are stepping away from web services and mashups from the previous year, and they are instead focusing on social networks, podcasts, blogs, RSS, and wikis altogether. Another important finding the survey brings is that the majority of employees are satisfied with the way companies are adopting web 2.0 technologies, whether it be to develop new products and services, internal recruiting, enhancing company culture, training, or managing knowledge. Browse through this revealing article, and see how your compare how your company stands with the results given in this latest enterprise survey.

Tribalization of Business

I came across this presentation “2008 Tribalization of Business Study” which details the findings of a study conducted by Deloitte and Beeline Labs about forming social networking and communities within the enterprise. The presentation goes over everything from reasons for setting up communities within organizations to measuring progress and success to community effectiveness. Take a couple of moments to go through the slides. Do you think that social media in the enterprise is changing the nature of business practices?

2008 Tribalization Of Business Study

view presentation (tags: metrics measurement beelinelabs deloitte)

Facebook Connect and Corporate Websites

This post by Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research, showcased some interesting views on potential avenues for Facebook Connect in the corporate world. Facebook Connect is similar to OpenID in that it allows visitors to third party websites to login with their Facebook ID like a “Passport” system. It will also give third party websites the ability to embed some code onto your website, and provide users with the opportunity to share their activities on their newsfeed. What makes this an interesting application to watch, as the article points out:

“Facebook Connect will allow corporate websites to allow users to authenticate, interact, and share with their Facebook network – all without leaving the corporate website. Boring, static corporate websites can now become social”

It will be interesting to see how many corporations adopt use of this tool to improve social interactions within their own company. Would you consider this an appropriate stepping stone for Facebook?