Author: Susan Scrupski

Longtime fan of technology to improve humanity.

What will the new spring crop yield?

I’ve been taking a lot of satisfaction these past few weeks in how our little enterprise 2.0 garden is growing. In the past few weeks I’ve been asked to podcast, to appear on a video segment, and to participate in an enterprise 2.0 “rave.” All good stuff. The analyst and media coverage of enterprise 2.0 has really started to pick up too. I’m particularly encouraged by the management findings and recommendations we’ve seen coming out of MIT’s Sloan Management Report and McKinsey. I guess they legitimize our inner-circle zealot ramblings.

A few items of interest: I attended Ajax World a couple weeks ago. I listened to a few of the speakers, but spent more time trolling the vendors in the exhibit hall for real examples of how Ajax solutions were generating real business advantages for their customers. Nexaweb had some interesting case studies. They quickly rattled off projects at Bank of Toyko, Mitsubishi, Seimans, AFLAC and EMC where companies had built rich Internet applications that were making a difference in their markets. Another interesting observation was a casual chat I had with Chris Warner at JackBe. He basically told me the audience makeup is different this year. That it was not so much developers in jeans and ponytails asking technical questions, but guys in Polo shirts and khakis asking how to solve a business problem. He said, “When suits start walking around, we’ll know the market has matured.”

I ran into Dion Hinchcliffe in the lounge. Dion and Jeremy Geelan had kindly asked me to participate in their ground-breaking Enterprise 2.0 premier web TV segment. Unfortunately, I had to decline, but look forward to future episodes. Don’t miss the first episode, airing Monday, April 9.

Here is Dion’s description of the show:

The Enterprise 2.0 TV Show Airs Web-Wide This April from the Reuters TV Studio in Times Square

We’ve teamed up with former BBC producer Jeremy Geelan — and IT industry maven extraordinaire — to create a new world-class Web-based TV show with broadcast quality production values that obsessively covers the rapidly emerging topic of current industry fascination: Enterprise 2.0. Taped in leading venues throughout the country, the Enterprise 2.0 TV Show is designed as an open, freely-distributable communication stream created to tap the exploding popularity and delivery models of the online video medium. The show is carefully crafted to help non-technical business leaders explore the power and potential of the very latest industry developments on the Internet. Each show delves into the most important new trends that are helping reshape the face of the enterprise today and have the potential to unleash significant productivity gains and competitive advantage. Episode #1, a deep dive into the moving parts of Enterprise 2.0, has already been taped with industry leaders such as SocialText, Kapow, Jubii, and Near-Time and will be ‘airing’ in April on the show site as well as everywhere else on the Web. Also, if you are interested in appearing on the show or want to advertise or sponsor, please contact Jeremy directly.

I first started writing about what we now call “Enterprise 2.0” the end of June, last year. I believe it was about this time last year that McAfee published his seminal, “Enterprise 2.0: the Dawn of Emergent Collaboration.” Now, barely a year later, we’ve got our own T.V. show and we’re hosting Rave parties (more to come on that). I’m looking forward to harvesting the rewards of this year’s crop. It’s fun blogging history in the making.

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Update: the Enterprise 2.0 Rave has a web site now… Lots of buzz on this already.   They tell me they’re creating a button for blogger discounts, but if you want save $250 now, sign up here.  I think they are capping the number of attendees, so it’s first-come, first-served.

Just Do it. (Go Digital)

Thanks to my new friend Brian, I found out that Nike has dumped (WSJ – requires registration) its longstanding Advertising agency relationship in search of a partner with more digital expertise. This may be the seminal event/wake-up call that will rattle the cages for marketers everywhere.

Interactive Agencies are the game changers in the new marketing economy. Young, digital zealots pumped up on Red Bull, what’s not to love?

<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=HzqQzf6hWEk">http://youtube.com/watch?v=HzqQzf6hWEk</a>

Stay high all the time.

As those of us who blog on Enterprise 2.0 have been pegged as counter-cultural revolutionaries and labeled “Hippies,” I thought I would extend the metaphor.

My hard disk on my laptop crashed this week. Without warning, one minute my data was there, the next minute it was gone. And no, of course I never ran backups. I initially panicked. But, slowly, I realized that most of my”work” was high above my desk… in the cloud. Whether it was documents people emailed me, spreadsheets I was working on, presentations, even my photos– most of what I really need and care about is on the web, not on my computer. My email (with all documents attached) is on my online email servers (Google mail, my own web-based ISP mail), the wiki I’ve been collaborating on (SocialText), my personal photo accounts (Flickr, Snapfish), and even good background material on the Enterprise 2.0 market on the wiki at Itensil. Further, every web site/blog that has had any importance to me is cataloged at Del.icio.us.; my daily blog reads are on NetVibes; the groups I participate in are all online (Google groups); I’m even part of a social network on Ning. I’m sure there are more proofs of my web life (oh, yeah, Second Life). So hard disk? I hardly knew ya.
Inhale the web. It’s good for your new millennium health.

Seeking: Beef

Where’s the beef on enterprise 2.0? I came across this post by Yoav Ezer, CTO of Cogniview. Ezer is making the point that if we can’t clearly articulate the benefits of adopting web 2.0 alternatives in the enterprise (in measurable terms), it’s going to be hard to recruit insurgents for the revolution. Okay, I’m paraphrasing.

He has an excellent point, however. We know that when you start using wikis, blogs, other social platforms like Twitter, it’s fun and has personal benefits. But what are tangible benefits to the enterprise? I have seen examples on the web, but we’re due for some “breakout business model” case studies of how enterprise 2.0 is reinventing user departments or IT delivery for that matter…

I know Dion Hinchcliffe and Andrew McAfee always solicit these stories. If you have some, please share!

IBM– still innovating

In the 90s I remember a line I once wrote about EDS who was in a constant struggle to overcome IBM Global Services. I was referencing an EDS executive who would always say in speeches how “EDS is going to be the IBM of the 21st century.”

The line I wrote back then was,

“Imagine [EDS’s] surprise when IBM turned out to be the IBM of the 21st century.”

I thought of that line today when I listened to Maggie Fox’s podcast with Louis Suarez (whom I think the world of). Louis works for IBM somewhere in Spain, but reports to a Netherlands office. He holds meetings on Second Life, so it doesn’t really matter where he is physically. I guess Louis qualifies as an adult version of Generation G that Vinnie Mirchandani has been promoting.

IBM has never failed to impress me (okay, nothwithstanding OS/2). The company was originally founded in 1888, taking on the IBM name in 1924. Although it has been widely condemned to extinction with each passing paradigm shift, the company finds its way to continue innovating. To hear Louis talk about what he’s doing at IBM with such enthusiasm and unquestioned credibility, makes me proud that I’ve been a Big Blue fan for so many years.