Top 10 Management Fears About Enterprise Web 2.0 and Ten Answers

Jerry Bowles did a post on the Top 10 Management Fears of Enterprise Web 2.0. He divided then into technical and cultural barriers. Then Rod Boothby provided some useful answers.

You can go to their posts to see Jerry’s questions and Rod’s answers, Many of the technical questions have policy solutions that can be aided by the heightened audit trail that web 2.0 provides. When everything is open then those who abuse the system are more exposed. Emails, IM, phone, and personal conversation offer less efficient ways to discover the good and the bad. This openess is at the heart of a number of the concerns.

There was a training question. I think that the successful web 2.0 tools are the ones that are so simple in both concept and procedure that little, if any training is required. Charles Lamb provided a great quote in his intro to wikis.

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. “ – Charlie Mingus (from B. Lamb, 2004)

I always felt that extensive software training reflects a poor design, poor UI, and lack of documentation. Then you have to turn to training. There was also legal concerns which are not new to web 2.0 tools. We had the same issues when we implemented knowledge management a number of years ago. Then we involved the legal department in drafting policies and made use of the more primitive audit capabilities of the day.

Rod provides a nice conclusion on the risk/reward of web 2.0 within the enterprise.

“Enterprise Web 2.0 technology will flatten the organization's management structure, highlight good ideas, create an environment that is more of a meritocracy, make a company more nimble and more customer focuses and most importantly increase the pace of innovation. In the face of these business benefits, the risks are minor.”

Every knowledge management strategy today is seriously lacking if it does not incorporate web 2.0 tools and services. enterprise 2.0