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.
