The next James Bond on Facebook?

We've seen a growing trend lately in how web 2.0 tools can be beneficial to recruiting the right people for your organization. Now, one more organization is finding its new workers through the net. In a recent article at CNet, we find out that MI6, the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, is using the networking tool to recruit their next generation of spies.

As the article points out, the job ads placed are relativly simple. Copy used in one says: "Time for a career change? MI6 can use your skills. Join us as an operational officer collecting and analysing global intelligence to protect the UK."

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.

Enterprise Networking Through Social Sites 2.0

I came across this article on Market Wire today, and it details the NewsGator Technologies’s latest release of Social Sites 2.0, which is a huge improvement from their social computing solution offered for Microsoft Sharepoint 2007. This release will aid users to interact more easily, collaborate, and to find the right content and people that they are looking for more efficiently.

Social networking trends in the enterprise have allowed for this application to come alive. NewsGator transformed its corporate intranet into a social network where colleagues can easily exchange information across departments.

Joe Toth, assistant VP for CME Federal Credit Union mentions:

“These features, along with the other social computing capabilities provided by the solution, have led to improved productivity by saving our employees an average of 30 minutes per day."

The release of Social Sites 2.0 is a step in the right direction for organizations that are looking into implementing collaboration software within the company.

What’s Your Take on Twitter in the Enterprise?

Can you really trust a social networking site that turns its back on it’s own community instead of defending it? Dennis Howlett brings up this interesting point in his latest post on ZDNet.

Ariel Waldman’s case of harassment on Twitter has been well publicized, but what’s interesting about this story is that Twitter has decided not to ban the individual who has been harassing Ariel from using its services. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, explains that the company is scared that it wouldn’t be able to handle a major lawsuit it would most likely experience by banning an individual. So in turn, it has chosen to not uphold its individual rights

This could be a major concern for usage of Twitter in the future. What’s to prevent Twitter from upholding rights of its enterprise users? After all, corporate liability is at stake here…

Web 2.0: Being Adopted by a Company Near You

In a recent article at CIO, they address the new report by Forrester. Web 2.0 strategies are being slowly picked up by enterprises. Employees want to use them, too.

"A lot of CIOs and CEOs are starting to get the message that employees want these tools," says Oliver Young, the Forrester analyst who authored the report. "There also isn't a good way to stop them from using them."

According to CIO, out of 1000 companies, 18% of IT employees said that adapting Web 2.0 into their business would take priority.

One of the most commonly adapted tools will be RSS feeds and Enterprise Social Networks. Out of these companies 12% planned to adapt some type of an RSS feed, and an addition 15% would invest in the technology. As for social networks, 7% of enterprises would like to adapt them. Wikis and blogs, the other technologies at the heart of Enterprise 2.0, are also gaining speed. Sixteen percent of companies are considering pilots or initial investments into the growing technology.

As for the tools, traditional companies will most likely use Microsoft Sharepoint and IBM’s Lotus Connection. Companies looking to save some money will go with smaller names, such as Jive Software, Awareness and Atlassian.