IT Departments Growing Relationship with Web 2.0 Tools

With the proliferation of web 2.0 in the enterprise it comes as no surprise that a study from Forrester Research confirms that IT departments are paying more attention to the potential of these tools. Computerworld reported that of the IT professionals that were surveyed by Forrester, 63% have a firm belief that web 2.0 will have a significant impact on their business in the upcoming three years. The study also revealed that younger IT professionals were the most enthusiastic, where as more seasoned professionals were still a little more cautious about adopting these tools. Forrester analyst in charge of the report, G. Oliver Young, made this statement about the findings.

"It is a growing familiarity of the tools up and down the organization. Just a couple of years ago, a lot of these tools were very foreign. IT departments and professionals are increasingly using these tools for their own use."

While there is a tide shifting towards the utilization of web 2.0, IT departments remain concerned about risks associated with employees using the tools in ways not approved by the company. The Forrester Research study stated that 31% of survey participants said they were very concerned about this, and 48% said that they were slightly worried, while 2% said that they were not at all.

Internet Use at Work: Necessity or Option?

There have been many ongoing debates regarding Internet use at work. One side views Internet use as a distraction that leads to decreased productivity and can create a legal liability. The other camp argues that allowing employees to use internet can lead to increased productivity by enhancing focus at work as we mentioned in one of our earlier blog posts.

This post at MSDN Blog Postings brings up an interesting twist. Instead of viewing Internet use at work as a way for employees to better organize their lives thereby enhancing their focus at work, maybe a restriction of employee access at work limits timely access to information. It might be that organizations no longer have the option of granting access to the Internet, and instead Internet access may be a necessity to keep up with the fast pace of the world today. As the post at MSDN sums up:

“Enterprise 2.0 is much more about leveraging the data on the outside to enhance the data on the inside than the operations guys of today are willing to admit.”

An article, found at cisco.com, concurs. According to them:

“Companies that take advantage of the Internet to maximize their e-business strategies have the potential to increase their productivity levels 5% to 10%. And studies show that companies that have employed e-business solutions and have a networked virtual organization are four times more productive than companies that have not.”

What are your thoughts on Internet access being a tool to seek out information in the fast paced world?

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…