How big is it?

How big is Enterprise 2.0? Unfortunately you can’t measure what you can’t define and we don’t have a set of agreed definitions yet. Perhaps this lack of definition is best illustrated in a finding from a recent survey:

This study of 441 end users (performed in January 2008) found that a majority of organizations recognize Enterprise 2.0 as critical to the success of their business goals and objectives, but that most do not have a clear understanding of what Enterprise 2.0 is.

In our post of Definitions we noted a number of ways to define EW2 and one way was by the technology that is used. Technorati is currently tracking 112.8 million blogs. The vast majority of those are personal. (You can get the tools to create your own and operate it free at, among other places, Google. Great place to learn but not corporate strength.) Many of your employees are already familiar with the technology.

The CEOBlogsList counted 277 senior executive public blogs as of February. Fifty nine (11.8%) of the Fortune 500 corporations are blogging as of as of this April. (All 500 have Web sites. List)

As an example of the extent of use by leading companies, Motorola is one of the biggest adopters of Web collaboration tools, with 4,400 blogs, 4,200 wiki pages, and 2,600 people actively doing content tagging and social bookmarking.

The Cathedral & Bazaar

In the 1990’s Eric Raymond used the term The Cathedral and the Bazaar as a metaphor for two ways of developing computer software. The cathedral is carefully planned and built by master craftsmen to last forever, or at least a very long time. A bazaar requires some planning but it changes in response to changing demands by vendors and their customers. Almost all corporate systems are much more like cathedrals than bazaars.

Web 1.0 evolved from cathedral systems and was designed to meet the needs of the owners: We want to communicate to you. Customer facing or Internet Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 (EW2) systems need to be more like bazaars in that they will change to meet unknown future needs and must serve both the owners and the users: We want to have a conversation with you.

The thought processes that lead to success are different. Cathedral like systems replace or extend something existing and can be defined, e.g., business processes. IT has spent years training line managers in the terms and steps of developing cathedral like systems: statement of work, requirements analysis, design, development, testing, training and implementation. Line managers tell business analysts what they want and then participated in testing to be sure they get it. Bazaars like systems, i.e., Enterprise 2.0, replace or extend the corporation’s communication with its customers. Communication exists today but is often difficult to define with any precision: a different set of players, a broader set of interests, sharing and collaboration, and at this point not well understood.

Cathedral systems replace or extend business processes. Understand the process and you know what the system must do. Relatively simple and you can learn from prior experience with similar systems. Enterprise 2.0 systems create a new, two-way communication medium. Understand the corporation’s present communication media including advertising, public relations, customer service, call centers, help desks, etc. and you can learn something about how the corporation views its relationship with its customers. But, it won’t tell you much about how customers view their relationships with the corporation or what they want and expect. And, there is no directly comparable experience you can draw on.

In his writing about The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond developed 19 lessons based on his personal experience and observations about open source system development – the bazaar. Five of them are directly applicable to Enterprise 2.0:

• The next best thing to having good ideas is recognizing good ideas from your users. Sometimes the latter is better.
• Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
• Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected.
• Provided the development coordinator has a medium at least as good as the Internet [intranet EW2] and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one.
• Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.

Definitions: Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 (EW2) is evolving and its meaning changes depending on who you talk with and when. A number of the early definers are now publishing 2.0 definitions and I reserve the right to do the same.

Systems Technology
One way to define EW2 is the technology used. There are computer and networking systems and applications in the background. I have built a set of systems and technology based definitions, e.g., blog, mash-up and wiki. I will be adding to and modifying them as we move along this linear exploration. Changes will be noted in the next post whenever they occur.

Participants and Relationships
Another way to define Enterprise 2.0 is in terms of the participants and their relationships. There are at least three different sets of participants, those on the public Internet and those on the organization’s intranet and those on the organizations extranet.

EW2 on the Internet reaches out to engage audiences whose relationships with the organization are primarily its products, services and “image.” It is about getting to know you so we can serve you better, and giving you a change to get to know us as something more than products, services and financial statements. The conversations are largely public although some sites may require registration or invitation, postings are monitored for relevance and appropriateness, and results may be proprietary.

EW2 on the intranet serves employees and contractors who may be working on-site or telecommuting. The primary values to the organization are improved knowledge sharing and collaboration. There are a number of other benefits related to being part of the organization. The conversations are internal.

EW2 on the extranet (via secure Internet connections) reaches business customers, vendors, suppliers, contractors and others who typically have some form of contractual relationship with the organization. The sharing of knowledge and collaboration are more focused. The conversations are proprietary.

Core Patterns
For want of a better definition, EW2 is being described in terms of it’s core patterns by Dion Hinchcliffe on ZDnet and others. The headings are his as are the comments in quotes; I have abbreviated some of the comments and added my thoughts.

• Harnessing Collective Intelligence: The value is the exchange and collection of information.
• Data is the Next "Intel Inside": “A phrase that captures the fact that information has become as important … as software.”
• Innovation in Assembly: “The Web has become a massive source of small pieces of data and services, loosely joined …”
• Rich User Experiences: … “full software experiences that enable interaction and immersion in innovative new ways.”
• Software Above the Level of a Single Device: both horizontal and vertical linkage for scalability
• Perpetual Beta: “Software releases are disappearing and continuous change is becoming the norm.” But the first release needs to make a good impression.
• Leveraging the Long Tail: “The mass servicing of micromarkets cost effectively via the Web is one of the primary "killer business models …"
• Lightweight Software/Business Models and Cost Effective Scalability: … “…changing the economics of online software development fundamentally, providing new players powerful new weapons against established players and even entire industries.”

The most significant distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 is:

Web 1.0 makes information available. Web 2.0 enables and invites two way conversations and collaboration. Enterprise 2.0 applies that to the extended enterprise, i.e., Internet, extranet, and intranet.

Enterprise 2.0 is different and it is evolving. For now the
best definition I have found is:

Enterprise 2.0. is a new architecture defined by easier, faster, and contextual organization of and access to information, expertise, and business contacts--whether co-workers, partners, or customers. And all with a degree of personalization sprinkled in.

Cluetrain Manifesto - the beginnng

In 1999 the Internet was moving from the research labs to the marketplace. Some of the thought leaders of the time published the Cluetrain Manifesto. Their opening challenge began:

---

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. ... These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. ... employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.

Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.

---

The tone has changed and almost all major companies now have a presence on the Internet, but that presence often reflects the pre-Internet culture that the authors complained about. Some companies are now clearly moving in the direction of "employees are getting hyperlinked" and those employees are getting linked to each other behind the firewall and to the markets beyond. Enterprise 2.0 is a natural step in the evolution of the Internet, a step that was recognized even before the required technology was available.

You can learn more about the Cluetrain Manifesto at http://www.cluetrain.com/ including a link to the book.

The 1st Day of the Rest of This Blog

I think one of the biggest changes that will impact business enterprises in the next few years will be the further empowering of individuals and work teams by the Internet. Not by what is now commonly called Web 1.0, but by the Enterprise version of Web 2.0.

I have had my own Web site since 1995, lpf.com. I have managed communication for several large project using Web 1.0 technology including intranet, email, conference calls and more. I am hereby stepping into Web 2.0 to gain the hands on experience to assist companies deal with Enterprise 2.0.

Welcome!