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Web 2.0 : Article

Web 2.0 Needs a "Confusion Solution"

"Web 2.0 has the capacity to astonish and engage. It also has the capacity to confuse."
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
October 2, 2006 04:15 AM EDT
Reads:
 58,210

Web 2.0 has the capacity to astonish and engage. It also has the capacity to confuse. So those of us who feel they have a duty of care toward Web 2.0 had better move fast. We need a "Confusion Solution."

The latest person to highlight the precariousness of public understanding of Web 2.0 is one of the absolute pioneers of a richer web, Nexaweb's founder and CTO, Coach Wei. Wei's concern centers on the common misapprehension that Web 2.0 is solely a consumer phenomenon - MySpace, Flickr, Flock, YouTube, etc - instead of realizing that, as Wei puts it, "Web 2.0 can fundamentally impact core enterprise IT operations in a way that can only be matched by the shift from mainframe computing to client/server computing" [my emphasis].

Andrew McAfee, a Harvard Business school professor, in fact takes it a whole stage further. So adamant is he that there is something very significant going on here that he coined the now-widespread term "Enterprise 2.0," which he defined as "the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers."

McAfee contradistinguishes Enterprise 2.0 applications and sites from Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, etc., which are for individuals on the Web, not companies, and he excludes most corporate Intranets today on the basis that they're not emergent. He then adduces examples of what he *does* consider to be Enterprise Web 2.0:

  • DrKW's internal blogs and wikis
  • Rite Solutions' prediction markets
  • Enterprise tagging
  • R&D departments' use of Innocentive to find solutions to problems that have been stumping them.
  • MK Taxi's ability to connect mobile phone users in Tokyo directly to the driver of the cab closest to them, bypassing the dispatch center altogether.
  • Employee blogs like this one [http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/]

    • The existence of well-defined sub-areas however doesn't necessarily make it any easier for people to understand the uber-category of Web 2.0 itself. Accordingly Coach Wei says he will try illuminate the topic--and when one of the brightest minds anywhere in the blogosphere commits to luminosity, be sure to bookmark his blog. Wei started his Next-Generation Web company (named Nexaweb for exactly that reason) as long ago as six years ago, providing software for building enterprise web 2.0 solutions because he was convinced that Web 1.0 had a lot of limitations and that the world would need the next-generation version.

    "Despite that Nexaweb has been quietly deployed at over 5,000 enterprises," Wei notes, "I did not hear a single customer inquiry about 'Web 2.0'  between 2000 and 2004."

    Which is hardly, if you think about it, surprising. Only when a word or phrase has, so to speak "nailed down" an idea can a customer inquire about it. "Web 2.0" turns out to be that phrase.

    Col. Tom Parker - he of Elvis fame - declared "Don't explain it -- just sell it" but the enterprise IT world works differently. If we can't explain it, how can we possbly justify being so enthusiastic about it and energized by it?

    Einstein, as usual, said it best: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

    Published October 2, 2006 – Reads 58,210
    Copyright © 2006 Ulitzer, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
    Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

    More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

    Jeremy Geelan is Chairman & CEO of the 21st Century Internet Group, Inc. and an Executive Academy Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Formerly he was President & COO at Cloud Expo, Inc. and Conference Chair of the worldwide Cloud Expo series. He appears regularly at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences across six continents. You can follow him on twitter: @jg21.

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    Most Recent Comments
    Arpan Shah 10/03/06 04:59:05 AM EDT

    I've had a number of conversations with technologists, analysts and product managers over the last few months to really understand what Web 2.0 for the Enterprise means to them.

    To sum up what I think Web 2.0 means for the Enterprise: it's all about turning users into participants allowing them to easily create, share and connect with information, applications and people. That's it.
    meier 10/03/06 04:49:24 AM EDT

    As we know by now, Web 2.0 web application's interfaces have their peculiar style defined by reflections, fades, drop-shadows, strong colors, rounded corners and star badges, these standing out in the header of every homepage.

    Badges are the key element of this kind of design, being the first to flash user eyes, and so extremely important for the right communication of a message with fundamental importance.
    Onlywire 10/03/06 04:45:57 AM EDT

    Onlywire is a web-based social bookmarking tool. It allows you to format your bookmark once and submit it to the 15 most popular social bookmarking websites in one shot! Talk about a timesaver!