12+ Essential (& Free) Enterprise 2.0 Reports & Whitepapers from 2009

Thinking about what to read during the holidays? Well, there is no need to spend any more time on that - here is your reading list ;-)

(Registration required)
Written by Carl Frappaolo and Dan Keldsen of Information Architected and edited by Susan Scrupski, Founder of The 2.0 Adoption Council.
"This paper and the research behind it are based on a web-based survey conducted during the latter part of October 2009. The survey was open exclusively to members of The 2.0 Adoption Council. Of the then 100 members, 77 completed the survey. As explained in more detail in the Demographics section, despite the relatively small number of responses, the research findings represent a market milestone and represent not the opinion of the general masses, but the fact-based experiences of the market’s early adopters– the true practitioners of Enterprise 2.0.

This study focused on the current realities pertaining to the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 and associated budgets, challenges, business drivers, teams and leadership. The survey consisted of over 20 questions. This white paper provides a high-level view into a select sub-group of questions/issues."
(PDF, no registration required)
Written by Gary Matuszak, Global Chair, Information, Communications & Entertainment, KPMG
"In a survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by KPMG International, corporate executives across a range of industries agreed that adapting consumer-based Web 2.0 tools for commercial use has the potential to transform businesses. This “Enterprise 2.0” adaptation could offer benefits in several important areas: Fostering collaboration, Innovation, Enhanced productivity."
(no registration required)
McKinsey Quarterly
"Over the past three years, we have tracked the rising adoption of Web 2.0 technologies, as well as the ways organizations are using them. This year, we sought to get a clear idea of whether companies are deriving measurable business benefits from their investments in the Web. Our findings indicate that they are.

Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to this year’s survey.1 We asked them about the value they have realized from their Web 2.0 deployments in three main areas: within their organizations; externally, in their relations with customers; and in their dealings with suppliers, partners, and outside experts."
(Registration required)
Written by Mike Gotta
"Burton Group initiated an in-depth field research study to help clients understand the business, organizational, and technical factors to consider when formulating social networking strategies and initiating internal projects"
(PDF, no registration required)
Written by Pablo Bermejo García
"The main objective of this investigation is to (1) analyze the business values, benefits, and risks of adopting an Enterprise Web 2.0 solution for knowledge management, giving a list of recommendations in terms of security, governance, legal regulations, and best practices, and (2) design a solution for how this Enterprise Web 2.0 strategy can be embraced by CSC, including a specific road map for deployment."
(Registration required)
Written by Doug Miles, head of the AIIM Market Intelligence Division, AIIM
"Business take up of Enterprise 2.0 has doubled in the last year. According to this AIIM report, there has been a dramatic increase in the understanding of how Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, forums, and social networks can be used to improve business collaboration and knowledge sharing, with over half of organizations now considering Enterprise 2.0 to be "important" or "very important" to their business goals and success. Only 17% admitted that they have no idea what it is, compared to 40% at the start of 2008. However, only 25% of organizations are actually doing anything about it - but that is up from 12% in the previous survey."
(PDF, no registration required)
Written by Thomas W. Malone, Robert Laubacher, and Chrysanthos Dellarocas
MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.
"Google. Wikipedia. Threadless. All are well-known examples of large, loosely organized groups of people working together electronically in surprisingly effective ways. These new modes of organizing work have been described with a variety of terms—radical decentralization, crowd-sourcing, wisdom of crowds, peer production, and wikinomics.1 The phrase we find most useful is collective intelligence, defined very broadly as groups of individuals doing things collectively that seem intelligent.

To unlock the potential of collective intelligence, managers instead need a deeper understanding of how these systems work...In this article we offer a new framework to help provide that understanding. It identifies the underlying building blocks—to use a biological metaphor, the “genes”—that are at the heart of collective intelligence systems, the conditions under which each gene is useful, and the possibilities for combining and re-combining these genes to harness crowds effectively."
(PDF, no registration required)
Whitepaper by Cisco
"Collaboration has captured the attention of organizations seeking a competitive edge in a challenging economy. Executives and managers want to know who stands to gain the most from collaboration, and the real benefits. Cisco conducted one of the first comprehensive studies of the factors associated with successful adoption of networkbased collaboration."
(Registration required)
Written by Mike Gotta, Burton Group
"Enterprise strategists have long been aware that the “informal organization” has tremendous influence on business success or failure. A vibrant culture with a strong sense of community and cross-functional network of employee relationships can significantly augment traditional management methods and processes structures. Hierarchy and formal controls can inadvertently result in compliance policies, decision-making roles, and work handing rules that constrain the ability of people to effectively communicate, share information, and collaborate. In many cases, these “gating mechanisms” are necessary business constructs that serve valid purposes (e.g., security), but they have unintended consequences: Communication may not be timely, relevant knowledge might not be shared, and collaboration may not occur across departmental boundaries. Breakdowns in information sharing and collaboration and a poor sense of community within an enterprise can impact a worker’s willingness to share insight and pass along experiences. Catalyzing the informal organization is becoming a more complex challenge for business and information technology (IT) strategists as shifting employee demographics crystallize concerns regarding aging workforce trends and expectations of younger employees (e.g., new work models)."
(PDF, no registration required)
Written by Daniel Kraft, Senior Vice President, Open Text
"Business has two main objectives: generate revenues and keep costs and risks low. All organizations must learn to strike the erfect balance between meeting the expectations of Web site visitors and those of internal teams. Customers look for information to make informed choices. Internal teams have lead generation goals and must control public information.

There is a balance between fun and engagement vs. risk and cost, and achieving this balance means offering incentives to visit corporate Web sites yet with management tools to moderate and protect data under information governance policies. Is this balance Candy vs. Aspirin?"
Written by Whitney Michael, Director of Marketing, Enterprise 2.0 Conference
"Business is shifting from top down, hierarchical ways of working and managing information to distributed, agile, collaborative work environments: Enterprise 2.0. In 2009, Enterprise 2.0 is currently at the early (but accelerating) adoption stage, where enormous competitive advantage will come to those who embrace the new tools and business cultures. In today's economic climate, that can mean the difference between survival and failure for many companies. This paper, based in part on our Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Survey, will be an introduction to Enterprise 2.0 - what it is, and why it's one of the most crucial concepts to understand in business today. We will also show how you can begin to take advantage of Enterprise 2.0 in your organization immediately."
(PDF, no registration required)
Whitepaper by Laurie Buczek and Malcolm Harkins, Intel Corporation
"Intel IT has deployed an enterprise-wide social computing platform that combines professional networking tools with social media such as wikis and blogs, and integrates with existing enterprise software. Read how Intel IT transformed collaboration across Intel while addressing top business challenges such as helping employees to find relevant information and expertise more quickly, breaking down silos; attracting and retaining new employees; and capturing the tacit knowledge of mature employees."
[UPDATE: Additional readings below]

(Requires registration)
Whitepaper by NewsGator
This whitepaper will review how social computing solutions can deliver ROI and help improve three core areas of your business:

Reduce expenditures
Leverage current investments
Improve operating efficiency
(Requires registration)
By Forrester Research, free copy offered via MindTouch

Oscar BergEnterprise 2.0, Knowledge Management