Tony Soprano Meets Web 2.0

The AIIM Market Intelligence office is abuzz with Enterprise 2.0.  Dan Keldsen and I are in the thick of our survey (you can still take it), and research on the topic.  Perhaps that is why an article in today’s paper particularly caught my attention.  I wanted to share it with you, because it pushes the envelope on the topic of social network computing and the power it potentially wields.

Social network computing spotlights and magnifies the power numbers, what can be accomplished when masses of individuals  collaborate in real time.  In our upcoming Market IQ on Enterprise 2.0, we will be sure to talk about the wisdom of crowds, the intelligence that can emanate through social tagging, filters and the like. But today’s article highlights another potential benefit (or risk depending on your perspective), of the ability to collaborate in masses, bridging time and space, in an ad hoc real-time manner.  A group of Sicilian business owners are using a web site to share their experiences with the local Mafia, finding safety in numbers and banning together to refuse to pay “pizzo” or protection money. 

What is most interesting about this movement, as reported in the article, is “…their movement has helped to chip away at the Mafia's psychological hold on Sicilians… “.  Early findings of our market research are, not surprisingly, showing that Enterprise 2.0 is as much about culture as it is technology.  At the front end, culture needs to support and reward openness, and collaboration.  But, as this group in Sicily are showing, access to such functionality can also have an impact on underlying culture.  While organizations (communities) that approach Enterprise 2.0 with a top-down strategy, and embrace, or at least support open collaboration may more readily reap benefits from Enterprise 2.0,  there is evidence to suggest that rogue-based ad hoc  usage of Enterprise 2.0 can  also succeed, initially perhaps changing counter-cultures if nothing else.

Stay tuned, more on this and other aspects of Enterprise 2.0 will be forthcoming in our Market IQ on Enterprise 2.0.  In the interim, if you would like to weigh in on the topic, there is still time to take our survey.

Comments

[Marcia Jedd]

Carl, ABC News 20/20 report on the topic of happiness a couple of weeks ago by Bill Weir.He reported Italians are some of the least happy folk in the western world. He cited the mafia's pervasiveness.Today CNN reported mounds of trash piling up in Italy (filled dumps) and again,mafia is part of the problem.Trust and collaboration, and open sharing of info, as the Danes show - among the happiest in the world-(also high taxes,but free healthcare) do bring such a high quality of life.

[Dan Keldsen]

Marcia - Carl had posted a reply, which seems to have been hoovered up into the great beyond.

Thanks for bringing up your further examples, and there is some really great irony in your statements.

Carl's ancestry leads to Italy, and mine (the other half of Market Intelligence) lead to Denmark! Both of us being born in America however, and for me, being a bit watered down from a few years of the family being in the States, seem to have tempered our respective ancestral leanings, as we can both be equally happy or cranky, at any given time! :)

For my part, having finally made it to Denmark for the first time in my life, just a few months ago, I must say that overall the Danes seem to be awfully content and quite friendly. The taxes there make my brain hurt, but the end results seem to be quite good.

Thanks again for your comments, really kicked off our day this morning with a great big laugh!