The intersection of Enterprise 2.0 and governance is not a new topic to this blog. Typically, however, I focus on the need to impose some control (i.e. security, records management, publishing controls) on the otherwise open approach to Enterprise 2.0-based communication (e.g. micro-blogging, wikis, blogs). Governance and Enterprise 2.0 go hand-in-hand, in my opinion, for the responsible business practitioner. (For example, comments to this blog, while "open" are monitored by yours truly. All comments are posted - if after my review they are deemed as not offensive in language or message.)
Recently, I had the pleasure of sharing lunch and experiences with a bunch of very clever people from VOXmarketing, a firm whose core competency is branding campaigns. It did not take long for our conversation to come to a common interest. You guessed it - the governance of Enterprise 2.0 content. I have always been aware, and indeed have written and spoken about the need to control branding of wikis and blogs, but it was nonetheless powerful to hear similar opinion coming from the mirror perspective; i.e. from marketing/branding to content management. We shared stories of respective clients who had minimized the impact of Enterprise 2.0 tools by failing to brand them and thus align them into an overall enterprise communication strategy. We also shared stories regarding the potential power of Enterprise 2.0 tools, when they are governed holistically, and diligently.
It was reassuring to hear this message from someone outside of the records management and content security worlds. We agreed, one of the most powerful strengths of Enterprise 2.0 tools is their openess and ease of use, but that this is also potentially one of its shortcomings. A little bit of structure (governance) can go a long way - not only in minimizing risk, but also accelerating adoption and increasing the effectivness of communication.
