Enterprise 2.0 or what I call “Swimming in KoolAid”

QUESTION: First when was there ever an Enterprise 1.0? Then, why are we calling this Enterprise 2.0?

ANSWER: Because we are trying to prevent most “Web 2.0″ products from becoming irrelevant rehashes of stuff people tried selling five years ago by jamming it down the throats of CIO’s and CTO’s.

There is even a “CTO’s Guide to Web 2.0“.

I do believe that the Enterprise can implement Wiki’s and leverage systems that can do things like “Persistent Search” but come on, how is MySpace going to impact your company?

Some people are talking about how the Social Web is the new Intranet. No, it is just new features on an already mature platform. First is was Intranets, then it was Portals now it is Social Webs. Come on, give me a break. There is merit in bringing social networking into the enterprise, but what this originally was called was an Expertise Portal. Back in the day (1999) portals were the rage and we classified them as either Application, Information, or Expertise Portals. As if they had to be separate. That was stupid. Now they are just “The Intranet”. Leveraging Social Networking is important when you are IBM and you need to find that AS/400 guy in Alaska that can do something in particular.

Companies like LinkedIn should have an Enterprise Platform but it looks like Visible Path just beat them to it.

I tend to agree with Charlene Li that “Ajax and wikis would be Web 2.0″ and “The people-to-people companies the rest of us� throw into the Web 2.0 bucket?such as Riya, Flock and Edgeio, Charlene calls Social Computing companies.”

I believe that my colleague over at the “Trend Junkie” that tools like Individual RSS will transform companies internally and how the communicate with customers and prospects.

In any regards, this is just “new technology applied to old problems in search of the same solutions” - not Enterprise 2.0. So stop swimming in the KoolAid and get back to work. :)

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About the Author: Steve is currently CEO of the SlipStream Aviation Solutions, Inc., an aviation software company. Steve is also an expert in personal branding and is an avid pilot, musician and photographer. He currently resides in Columbia, MD, USA.