I've had a wonderful couple of weeks traveling, talking with really smart people and learning.
First was a trip to Boston seeking wisdom from some of my thought leaders (Patti Anklam, Robin Athey, Mark Bonchek, Rob Laubacher, Sal Parise, Andy Snider and Nat Welch regarding a survey project Victoria and I are emerging. More to come on that. Then to San Diego for the FAST Conference and back in New York the Internet Strategy Forum meeting with Second Life pioneers Reuters and IBM.
But now I'm catching up and experiencing doses of reality starting with Information Week Feb 26:
"Second Life Opens for Business: Cisco, Toyota, Circuit City, Dell, Sears, IBM and Adidas have set up shop in the Second Life virtual world. But their stores are empty. Can businesses find a place with any real-world payback in this fantasyland of overindulgence?" Page 45
and after hearing both Andrew McAfee (credited with term "Enterprise 2.0" and Tim O'Reilly "Web 2.0" speak in San Diego interesting reading Information Week's survey results on the "Challenges to Web 2.0" in their "In Depth/Enterprise 2.0" cover story:
"Security 64%; Lack of Expertise 55%; Integration with Legacy Technologies 52%; Difficulty proving ROI 51%; Getting partners and customers to use similar collaboration tools 32%; Employee preference for consumer tools 16%; Other 14%"
Page 40. Information Week Research survey of 250 business technology professionals. Multiple responses allowed.
I'm reminded that implementing new ideas and technologies with real people and agendas in organizations with existing structures and fiefdoms is no mean feat. That's certainly my experience. Yours too?
Also striking reading both Information Week's "Second Life" and "Enterprise 2.0" stories is how the same company names appear as the leading innovators. Joe Cothrel and I talked about this while working together on our Online Communities in Business 2004 study: what distinguishes the handful of companies that emerge as the leading innovators, especially around new technologies, while wider adoption takes years.
Dan Tapscott's "Wikinomics" has been sitting in my office destined to become one of the estimated 57% of new books not read to completion but after reading the Information Week articles I have fresh interest in the book. I will be counting how many companies are actually identified as exemplifying "Wikinomics" practices. I'm betting it's in the 10's not 100's.
~ Jenny Ambrozek