Enterprise 2.0 Boston Day 2 wrap-up

Generation Y is an illusion. This became apparent at the CIA and AIIM talks. In discussions at the end of the day the same idea came up! Adoption is depending on the situation users are in and which business process they are doing. Age does not matter! Youngsters can get more conservative in weeks by the pressure to align with corporate culture.

Privacy is a big issue. The openness in Enterprise 2.0 is a big trap, you need to have some form of rights management. CIA has three wikis aligned with level of secrecy. Google talked about cloud computing what is a great way to take use of Google's tremendous efforts to provide the reliability and speed of Google search. A big issue for companies is to put all data and functionality in Google systems. But then again where is the risk? People taking USB sticks home or using personal email to get documents out!

Business process are key also in Enterprise 2.0. During the Ross Mayfield of Socialtext presentation and the enterprise2.0 open space session it became apparent that adoption will be bigger if these tools make regular business processes more efficient. Talking with business people about their daily work is a key input in giving them a great E2.0 alternative. Often being unaware about these E2.0 apps they will not be able to conceive ways to make their work easier. This is where evangelists form inside or outside the company needs to get into the picture.

At the end of the day a general thought was that we should stop talking tools and stuff and start talking culture, change and adoption! The value proposition for the business users of E2.0 stuff is the most important question at the moment. No one really has the answers yet!

A great insight about why IT was moving faster in the consumer world today was the third party involved in the enterprise: the IT department! Consumers have direct relations with vendors and the ability to change vendors quick. Vendors are in greater competition in the consumer world and that is the reason innovation is faster. In the enterprise world the vendors are only talking to the IT department and not with users. The IT department will not switch vendors fast for obvious reasons and thus making competition and innovation less!