The main concept associated with Enterprise 2.0 is bringing Web 2.0 into the office environment. However on top of this it also represents a fundamental change in how businesses operate. Basically the tools associated with Enterprise 2.0 are said to make it easier to share and organise information. So what does this mean to your office environment?
Think about the way in which information is sent and received in a general office environment; it follows a certain path and it is this path that the information flows through. In this instance information from managing directors and CEO’s etc is passed down a chain, which starts at the top and goes right to the bottom and the same can be said the other way round; ideas coming from the bottom will gradually flow towards the top. With Enterprise 2.0 however this structure is changed, some people have even gone as far as to say it causes controlled chaos. So what exactly has it done? Well basically through using Enterprise 2.0 it cuts the chains that hold back collaboration in a traditional office environment. What I mean by this is that instead of information flowing up and down, it also flows laterally. The above is an idea however that tends to put a lot of managers off. This is thanks to the concept that Enterprise 2.0 unleashes chaos in the office, not a great idea to many managers who like nothing better than organisation. However chaos in this case is far from a bad thing, in fact when it is done right it is just the thing to cut the bonds keeping employees from good communication and boosts overall productivity. So what else can Enterprise 2.0 do?
It has been said time and again that Enterprise 2.0 takes the original concept associated with the Internet and turns it upside down. This original concept is based around feeding content to visitors of a website. This is basically the same sort of concept as having a one way conversation; you are just telling your visitors things but there are no lines of communication open back to you. Well with Enterprise 2.0 two way conversation is opened up. So it means you are no longer simple feeding information to people from your actual website, it means you are able to share information and manage knowledge inside and outside the organization. You are able to do this thanks to aspects such as blogs and wiki pages as well as through social networking sites, social bookmarking and tagging. So how does this help your website?
The above tools can be used by you and your website as a means of working with other people, sharing information and of course creating networks of people who hold similar interests. Basically by tagging and rating you can provide a straightforward way of finding content and making judgements about what you should be looking at. Where blogs and wikis are concerned however; they are a natural collaboration and electronics communication platform, for example lets take a look at what a blog could do for your office environment.
If a major event happened within a company or if something occurred that concerned a certain department then a blog is the perfect way of keeping employees up-to-date with what is going on. Basically it is through a blog that you can still provide communication that goes from top to bottom or vice versa the only difference is doing it through a blog allows employees to ask for clarification if they don’t quite understand something and also gives them the opportunity to make suggestions, both of which can only be an improvement and demonstrates that blogs provide a great role in terms of an organisation. An example of this is a blog based around a certain department such as the IT department of a company can be used to post company memos and frequently asked questions can be quickly asked and answered in the blog comments. So we’ve established what role a blog plays in Enterprise 2.0 but what about a wiki? Well a wiki, or in this case a business wiki, is actually one of the most popular forms of Enterprise 2.0.
One of the reasons for the above is down to the fact that a business wiki is one of the most straightforward ways of including and introducing Enterprise 2.0 into a workplace. So why exactly is this? It is based around the concept that Enterprise 2.0 involves a totally altered approach to business and because of this it is a good idea to introduce it in baby steps. For example an employee directory inside a wiki can be a great first step.
Enterprise 2.0 could hold the future where communication is concerned with business and as more organisations are starting to do business online there has never been a better time to implement Enterprise 2.0 than now.