Enterprise 2.0 Boston June 2010 Highlights: Making Technology Work in Organizations

As Marc Smith's Node XLS map reveals, recognized and aspiring Enterprise 2.0 thought leaders and software vendors gathered in Boston starting June 14 for the conference that grew from Andrew McAfee's 2006 MIT Sloan Review article The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration and became the book. 

 

Source: See Marc Smith Node_XLS Map and blog post

Here are are my take aways from spending two days in the Expo Hall and chatting with valued industry luminaries including @absolutezero, @bhc3, @billives, @debs, @EranBarak @elsua, @frogpond, @jackvinson, @mikegotta, @panklam, @ross, @stoweboyd and @vanderwal.

1. From "Social" to Tapping Streams

Last year every booth brandished a "We've Added Social" announcement, usually in the form of micro-blogging or deeper member profiles.

As evidenced by SocialText's "Connect" announcement this year "social" functionality has turned to harnessing activity streams and integrating flows of information from multiple sources into platforms where the individual is front and center.  Watching presentations from numerous vendors, I couldn't help but recall Stowe Boyd's meme "the individual is the new group".

Beyond SocialText, Thoughtfarmer effectively pre-empted my questions with a Power Point loaded on an IPAD. However, my standout for showing the future of enterprise collaboration and knowledge sharing platforms is IBM's Vulcan Project that strives to work across IBM platforms (including Cognos) and beyond, assembling information and connections (both requested and predicted), as relevant to an individual's work.

2. Drive to Innovation Rules

If "social" ruled as the must have functionality in 2009 in 2010 "innovation" (not surprisingly given the challenging economic climate) seemed top of mind with a host of platforms touting their abilities to assemble ideas and facilitate new initiatives.

Spigit, with a space just inside the Expo door exhibited their high profile industry position and Warburg Pincus bolstered coffers.  Not so visible in a back corner InnoCentive (with it's pioneering crowdsourcing credentials and recent efforts to provide solutions to the Gulf oil spill) is showing new product offerings focused on enterprise adoption. ONRAMP is a suite of professional services and technical resources and InnoCentive@Work an "internal web-based collaborative community for problem solvers".

Other vendors touting "Innovation" solutions ranged from BlueKiwi to Newsgator and Portugal based Launchpad finalist Innovationcast.   

3. Launchpad Finalists Instructive

Four finalists faced off in the Launchpad competition. The winner, Baydin, offered an "unsearch" solution for Microsoft Outlook email while Doodle helps teams more efficiently schedule meetings.

The buzz at Enterprise 2.0 is about "social" and harnessing information "streams" but what does it say that 2 of the 4 Launchpad finalists address very basic individual productivity challenges, saving time searching email and scheduling meetings?

4. The ROI Search Continues

Before leaving Wednesday I caught Dion Hinchcliffe's session while understanding from Martin Koser that a related ROI conversation was happening along the hall.

I've paid close attention to questions about proving the value of collaboration tools since Joe Cothrel and I conducted the Online Communities in Business 2004 Study and 72% of our respondents told us they couldn't measure ROI. While use examples grow can it be that sharing positive anecdotes continues to be a prime means of making the case to management for the value of Enterprise 2.0 initiatives?

5. Social Network Science and Organizational Knowledge Gaps

Back at my desk reading the #e2conf Tweet stream and emailing colleagues involved in teaching a forthcoming "Collaboration: How Your Practice Benefits from Social Media" Workshop it strikes me that there are vast bodies of untapped knowledge to address the challenges Enterprise 2.0 adoptions confront. For example, presentations by 21st Century Organization blog co-author Victoria Axelrod outline new organizational models, complexity and systems science, and "sociotech" as levers to more effective collaboration, knowledge sharing, stakeholder engagement, and co-creation of new offerings for enterprise sustainability. And as Enterprise 2.0 promotes "social" why isn't the science of social network analysis (SNA) more determinedly used to improve results?  

Source: Victoria G. Axelrod in "Open netWORKing Organizations Co-generating Business Value" 

Perhaps my perception would be different if I'd attended more Enterprise 2.0 conference sessions. If you did please take a moment to share your perspective on any knowledge gaps you see in improving success of Enterprise 2.0 initiatives.

~ Jenny Ambrozek