- August 13, 2008
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Blog, Business Dynamics
The term “Web 2.0” can mean different things depending on who you ask. Most, however, would agree that social networking, collaboration, community and rich Internet applications all play into the concept. If they’re used right, Web 2.0 tools can be leveraged to an enterprise’s advantage.
You can ask this question and hear many divergent opinions. Many say that Web 2.0 is a state of mind, but we see two main aspects.
1. Web 2.0 revolves around social networking, collaboration and community, as shown in the popularity of uses like blogs and wikis, according to most respondents.
2. The other key aspect, of equal importance, is the “rich” user interface exhibited within rich Internet applications (RIAs).
WHAT DOES WEB 2.0 MEAN TO YOU?
As a web develoment team Web 2.0 means a focus on the user experience. When a client requests a Web 2.0 website, it tells us that they want the users to grow the website through social networking instead of the website growing through static content.
HOW DOES IT PROVIDE AN ENTERPRISE LEVEL ADVANTAGE?
The best example of a web 2.0 experience in the corproate environment is the knowledgebase. It allows team members to learn best practices and share feedback to one another. We implemented a system in Cox Communications a while back that allowed sales teams to share in best practices through an internal intranet. Basically we custom built a social networking component inside an intranet that we were building. The results were amazing and the social networking side did what it was suppose to do, making sure that best practices were being shared nationwide.
Hi Ali Zaidi,
1. Please check the first link below (at web resources) about what is web 2.0.
2. Web 2.0 does provide Enterprise Level advantage. For the company itself you could build your own knowledge base, share contacts, share calendars and share whatever you want. The point is making content available and accessible to your employees and colleagues.
For the company marketing, a lot of companies are building blogs and using RSS. Community Marketing is a way to go to, like creating a club/network of users that supports your product. Today peoples don’t buy on what you say about your products. Peoples checks for reviews and experiences of other peoples online first before buying, so if you could manage to bring up your brand/products popularity online, you’re one step ahead of your competitors 🙂
Regards,
Luís Neng
As far as Buzz-terms go, “Web 2.0” and “Enterprise 2.0” rank as the most confusing and least precise I’ve seen over the course of my career. This is becoming worse as some folks are adding “3.0” for different variations. Having said that I don’t know if I have a viable alternative.
The use of collaboration technology on the web, while now in full swing, has been around at a substantial level for more than a decade – I just can’t see that as new per se. Granted, many of the standards released by the W3C in the later 90s and early 2000’s are allowing for much more functionality, I’m not sure whether we’re seeing truly novel innovation or just “expected evolution.”
When you mention Rich interfaces I couldn’t help thinking about DHTML and the first wave of Flash (actionscript) applications. The technologies are of course different but some of the user-facing dynamics were the same. So, is the web really different now, different enough to deserve the 2.0 moniker?
And how do we quanitfy different; the user experience,
the depth of community activity or the web developer’s perspective in terms of toolkits and standards to choose from ? And does the Semantic Web fit within the Web 2.0 concept domain ?
Web 2.0 is about the liberation of ideas. It is about establishing a democracy of ideas where the best concepts rise to the top. It is about unleashing the powers of decentralization within highly regimented and centralized organizations. It permits for the free flow of ideas and innovation within an organization without limits imposed by heirarchy and departmental structure. When properly implemented a Web 2.0 strategy for the enterprise can be an enormous benefit as a means of building entreprise-wide collaboration and information exchange.
I have also recently been discussing a closely related topic and have received some excellent answers on LinkedIn, some may be of benefit to you in seeking your answer – http://www.linkedin.com/answers/management/corporate-governance/MGM_CGV/275288-18415298?goback=.ahp
I have also started to create an article on this topic based on my own research on http://myitideas.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-any-business-benefit-gained-by.html.
Although I am still researching the topic further and know the problem of business acceptability is more complex than I even envisaged.
Rich Internet Applications (RIA, for example is one topic I have not even covered (as it is an area with little contention in my experience) – although it is obviously a key contributor to the Web 2.0 experience.