If you ever thought different - Enterprise 2.0 is not about technology

"Enterprise 2.0 is the USE of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers"

Definition by Andrew McAfee.

I see Enterprise 2.0 as about taking promising and successfully applied ideas and uses of social software on the web to explore if and how they can be applied successfully within a business context. In other words, it is really about trying to understand for WHAT and HOW the technologies are used on the web and then exploring for WHAT and HOW they can be used in a business context to create business value. Business value can come from increasing internal efficiency and productivity, from increasing external efficiency, and from fostering innovation of new products and services or business models.

The first lesson to be learnt is that Enterprise 2.0 is more about changing business models, strategies, corporate culture, attitudes and behaviors of individuals, and ways of working than introducing new technologies. The introduction of social software is of course a necessity, but just implementing a social software platform will not be enough. The hard work is in figuring out what to use social software for and how to create business value and then – which is by far the hardest part - to change all the things and people that need to be changed to realize this value.  

The first step towards Enterprise 2.0 is to gain awarness about all the major changes that are happening on different levels today, from society and industries to individuals and how we live our daily lives. Organizations need to become aware of the possibilities and challenges that follows major trends such as globalization and specialization, the consumerization of IT, social media and the democratization of communication, digital natives entering the workforce, and so forth. There is no way around it unless you stick your head in the sand, but then you don’t know what to expect when you decide to check what is happening above the sand.