It was fantastic to meet so many customers this year struggling with the issue of adoption in their enterprise. The following is a post I published today on my ITSinsider blog. I hope you will join this community of your peers so we can share the burden and the joy of bring 2.0-style democratization and collaboration benefits to your company.

Cross-posted from ITSinsider:

Yes, the baby was born in ‘06, started crawling in ‘07, and now is running around like a maniac with boundless energy in ‘09. The Enterprise 2.0 movement is now a healthy child, growing stronger and more willful every day (just a cabinet door away from getting into trouble…) I returned from the Enterprise 2.0 conference this week rejuvenated, as I’d hoped to.

The number UNO issue on the minds of this year’s customer conference attendees was: HOW THE >>>> DO WE DO THIS??? Customers wanted to hear from other customers, not us (the so-called experts in Enterprise 2.0). The best sessions for me were definitely the unconference sessions where real practitioners could talk frankly about their challenges and share their successes.

Listening to customers during the conference, as well as culling the data that has been coming in from various surveys, I’ve decided the time is right to launch a community for “Internal 2.0 Evangelists.” As I’ve been a 2.0 Evangelist for the broader sector (and I thought my job was difficult), I realized the job of the internal evangelist is far, far more difficult. These folks toggle between fighting the good fight every day and then slipping uneasily into a sort of DMZ where they can peek out into the broader community for support and the rejuvenation they need to go on fighting another day. It’s often a thankless job with no clear roadmap for advancement, yet the majority of them do it because they believe in the principles of the 2.0 movement. I celebrate them!

So, that said, I’ve begun the 2.0 Adoption Council on LinkedIn. Once we reach a critical mass, we will be moving the Council to a more fluid socio-collaborative platform. If you are a customer of a large enterprise rolling out an enterprise 2.0 initiiative, you are invited to join the Council. Here is a LinkedIn invite I sent to some key customer contacts that explains the Council’s mission and goals:

You can reach me on LinkedIn on my profile if we’re not already connected. Send me a note you want to join, and I’ll send you an invite. The Council is free; there are no strings attached.

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 technologies and approaches can be a key driver of competitiveness and profitability.

However since Enterprise 2.0 sits at the nexus of technology and organizational culture, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach.

Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Report provides detailed practical insights into how to create substantial business value with web technologies, supported by numerous case studies of successful implementation and lessons learned.

Enterprise2Blog partner Ross Dawson has written a comprehensive report on Implementing Enterprise 2.0 and published free chapters for your education.

Use this report to:

1. Gain a clear understanding of Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 in organizations
2. Identify opportunities for value creation
3. Provide a structured view of benefits and risks
4. Establish governance initiatives
5. Create and communicate a clear Enterprise 2.0 strategy for your organization
6. Convince executives to take action
7. Design and implement successful projects

DOWNLOAD FREE CHAPTERS HERE

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur,keynote speaker, strategy advisor, andbestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-upRepyoot.

Tags: australia, author, e2.0, enterprise 2.0, expert, ross dawson

(Alternate Title: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Facebook and Twitter)

Last week’s Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston is in the books, and while I’d like to give the usual kudos to Steve Wylie and team for a well organized, and well executed event, I thought it also appropriate the share some thoughts as I look back.

Continue Reading »

Tags: Cisco, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, IBM Lotus, Microsoft, Social Networking, Twitter, Unified Communications

A great big shout out and thank you to all who participated in this week’s Enterprise 2.0 Conference - whether you were in Boston or following along virtually.

It was another solid and successful industry-shifting event… a gathering of great business people - collaborating on ideas, technology and innovation.

Here are some fantastic quotes we’d like to share with you:

“… the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston… is dedicated to a broad discussion of the issues surrounding collaborative systems and their impact especially on and within larger organizations… the organizers, led by my friend and colleague Steve Wylie … did an amazing job of truly building a community around this event, which attracted practitioners from many firms and industries.”

- Craig Matthias, Network World

“I’m encouraged that the dirty little secret of Web 2.0 and social media technologies is finally being openly addressed by early adopters and vendors alike. At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston, there’s been frank discussion this week of the question average users have been whispering (so that their bosses don’t hear them): Namely, what can this stuff do for me that’s actually useful?”

- Alex Wolfe, InformationWeek

“… the Enterprise 2.0 conference is a reason to withstand the wrath of the gods. Before I get into some of the highlights and my take on at least the first day of the conference, I want to emphasize something that makes me sound like a fanboy. If there’s one conference you need to attend that ends with a 2.0 - this is the one, if you care about your business…”

- Paul Greenberg, ZDNet

A FEW CONGRATULATIONS…

to Booz Allen Hamilton (a strategy and technology consulting firm) for winning the Open Enterprise 2009 Innovation Award!

to YouCalc for surviving through 4 rounds of Launch Pad and winning the People’s Choice, and a Demo Pod for 2010!

USEFUL LINKS

See the coverage of #E2conf on our news page ::  Visit our press room for new product announcements  ::  Watch videos on E2TV ::  View official event photos on E2’s Flickr photo stream, or view attendee photos

Visit our livestream pages -

Enterprise 2.0 Conference #e2conf :: Open Enterprise 2009 #OE09

Twazzup e2conf Community Site

Download our whitepaper “Enterprise 2.0: What, Why and How“

Read sample chapters of Implementing Enterprise 2.0: A practical guide to creating business value inside organizations with web technologies by blog partner Ross Dawson

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Enterprise 2.0 Conference … SAN FRANCISCO … November 3-5, 2009

And stay tuned for information on the virtual event that will bring the Enterprise 2.0 Conference to your desktop.

* hat tips:

- for helping in writing this recap: @NataliaW and @jtannerama - thanks ladies!

- Thanks Twazzup for the great community site!

- BIG PROPS to blog partner Ben Kepes / CloudAve for jumping in to live-blog the sessions!!

Tags: conference, e2conf, enterprise 2.0, wrap up

What is the difference between micro-blogging and private IM chat rooms? Simplicity – micro blogging is much easier to use and understand. Things get los t easily in forum threads – they’re too bulky and too hard to wade through. Micro blogging tends to be more public and optional and allows for easier discoverability. Google is great for results, but not for answers. Micro blogging is near real time - it’s important to differentiate that from real time which causes disruption.

Continue Reading »

Tags: Twitter-like Tools for the Enterprise

Cross posted from CloudAve, specialist cloud computing blog.

It’s always nice to see something that’s not completely US-centric in technology, this panel included a great cross-section of European enterprise 2.0 visionaries. In the audience were participants from all around the world – South Africa, Canada, Europe (and Australasia believe it or not).

Parochialism – collaboration and community works very differently in different cultures, the example was given of private enterprise social networks working well in Europe, but not in Japan were workplace culture is completely different. There is a cultural chasm within organisations, both departmental and geographical – the best way to bridge that is to bring people together and enable them to communicate. Obviously though language barriers make that problematic - most of the time cultural differences online are rooted in language differences. I suggested that part of the problem is that English speakers tend to have an arrogance that others should default to their language – the panellists pointed out that “English is the Latin of the modern world” – a really interesting discussion ensued looking at cultural context around language, the example was given of the word “rubber” which has a remarkably different meaning in the UK and Australasia from what it does in the US, so that is a socio-lingual issue rather than a language one only.

Continue Reading »

Tags: culture, e2conf, enterprise 2.0, europe, language

Thursday is your last chance to join us for Enterprise 2.0 Conference learning. Thursday’s half-day schedule includes sponsored sessions and an Enterprise 2.0 Town Hall where the future of the Enterprise will be discussed.

Thursday’s Sponsored Sessions
8:30 – 9:15am
Social Software – Creating Value Today, Establishing Opportunity Tomorrow
Sponsored by

10:45 – 11:45am
Technology Innovation – Exploring Beyond Social Computing Tools in the Market Today
Sponsored by

Enterprise 2.0 Town Hall
12:00 – 12:30pm
Join members of the Enterprise 2.0 Advisory Board to recap the week’s events, provide feedback, and begin the discussion for Enterprise 2.0 2010! Moderated by Steve Wylie.

Tags: 2009, conference, e2conf, enterprise 2.0, thursday

At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference this week in Boston, I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of interesting new companies and products. Video camera in tow, I captured elevator pitches with half a dozen of them: Newsgator, Tomoye, Yakabod, Joyent, nGenera, Box.net and qTask. Here is the E2 elevator pitch extravaganza.

Continue Reading »

Tags: box.net, e2conf, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, interview, joyent, newsgator, ngenera, Startups, video, yakabod

Cross-posted from CloudAve by Ben Kepes.

In the past a large number of companies, when asked about instant messaging, claimed that they block it. Today, with a new generation coming into the workforce completely used to using many social sites, most companies have given up trying to block and have instead moved into moderating behaviour rather than outright blocking.

Continue Reading »

Tags: e2conf, enterprise 2.0, Identity, privacy, Security

Cross-posted from CloudAve by Ben Kepes.

The three keys to adopting of community sites? Simplicity – Ease of use – Engagement.

How to meet privacy requirements across different geographies and jurisdictions? Obviously much easier for inwards facing communities but even then there are different privacy requirements in different countries. Have a base level of information and make further information optional – Genentech allows users to change their own profile pictures and this has created additional buy in. Keep official directory of records and social networks separate – allow employees on social networks to represent to each other how they see their role, this is different from a formal employee record where job titles and descriptions are more formalised – the comparison gives users some useful context.

Continue Reading »

Tags: burton, Community Management, genentech, harvard university, sabre, Social Media