The other day my boss challenged me to really get some energy behind web2.0 on our intranet. He is an enthusiast for all things web and really wanted to get going with this web2.0 thing. I agreed with him and said I would get going at once. I went back to my desk and listed out some of the things that web2.0 included and how it might be used in our business. Every time I came up for a use for web 2.0, we had already implemented it or were already working on the idea. In fact, most of the issue with existing implementations was either lack of management engagement or lack of relevance to mainstream users.
This was quite a breakthrough as I spend quite a bit of time (as you probably do) in meetings with people who just WISH we were doing web 2.0
This need to ask for web2.0 reminds me of the old story of a man who was stranded on a desert island. He prayed to god for help and soon after a rescue boat arrived. He told the rescue team to go away as he was sure god would save him. Later, a helicopter came over and he told the pilot the same thing. A passing boat signalled to him and he signalled back that he was waiting for god to save him. Of course after a little while the man died. Arriving at the gates of heaven he asked god why he had not answered his prayer and saved him. God replied 'Of course I answered your prayer - I sent a rescue team, a helicopter, a boat...'
My learning from all this is that sometimes we need to step back from the buzz and deliver projects and intranets that just work. In intranet circles so much energy is put into the 'redesign' or the 'relaunch' and so little into the basic hard work of running something that is based on needs of the user and the company. By calling something web2.0 we are setting ourselves an impossible challenge that will never go away even if everyone in the company has a blog.
What do you think - should we ban the phrase web2.0 on our intranets?
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Allen, once again i fully agree with you.
ReplyDeleteMost should get Web1.0 fixed before they start talking about Web2.0.
Looking forward to seeing you in Copenhagen at the IntraTeam Event :-)
I've been thinking about that subject recently, and I agree.
ReplyDeleteI think that "web 2.0" as a concept (which includes user generated content, collaboration and other characteristics) is indeed a positive progress in internet development.But, we need to remember that today, web 2.0 = internet attribute.
A site does not need to transform into web 2.0. Rather, it might want to use some of its characteristics. Sites and web apps have to be suited to their user's needs and not just have "web 2.0 capabilities".
I agree. It is all about what we can do to help our customer succeed.
ReplyDeleteIn our intranet, we have introduced some web 2.0 features mostly around user generated content (wiki) and a social yellow pages where employees can share a little bit about their skills, work and life.
The later, may not offer a huge business gain (other than tagging employees on their skills) but offers a great employee engagement boost.
We're calling it social computing: the combination of professional networking (persistent connections between employees) and social media (the content). It's not perfect, but it gets us out of a semantics debate and into how we can help employees better collaborate and connect across the company.
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