So where’s the social computing tools, dude?!

At the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, Marthin De Beer, Vice President of Cisco Systems, delivered his keynote speech telling IT managers that they had better start preparing to deal with Web 2.0 technologies, like wikis, blogs, mashups, and social networking websites, because sooner or later — and it’ll probably be sooner — they’re going to have to deal with it. Why did Marthin say this? Because IDC research suggests that IT managers and executives largely don’t know any of this is going on.

But his speech comes as no surprise many of us. I know I’ve had this expectation for a while. I know many other knowledge workers are also bringing from home an expectation of how computing should be:

“Now people have better computer technologies at home…. People want to use their favorite technologies at work. They’re satisfying themselves and not waiting for IT”
- Dennis Moore, General Manager of Emerging Solutions, SAP [1]

If recently IDC statistics [2] are anything to go by, they suggest that this expectation is about having social computing tools at work:

• 45% of companies have workers blogging
• 43% use RSS feeds
• 35% of companies have employees using wikis

This expectation has arisen because these technologies are increasingly becoming an integral part of people’s social lives, just as email was to workers 10 years ago. As such, people, and particularly younger workers, are starting to demand that they also be a part of their work lives, as well [3].

The IDC’s comments are a timely warning for all organisations ignoring this trend:

“The significant adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the enterprise will have a dramatic impact on how organizations capture, discuss, distribute, and protect their information. If not already planning for this change, companies will find themselves increasingly exposed and vulnerable”
- Rachel Happe, IDC’s research manager, Digital Business Economy.

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[1] Moore, D (2007). Enterprise 2.1. Enterprise 2.0 2007, June 18 – 21.

[2] Happe, R. E. (2007) Web 2.0 at Work: Adoption of Tools for Personal and Business Use. IDC Research, April. Online at: <http://www.idc.com/…rId=206176>, accessed on 27 June 2007.

[3] Gaudin, S. (2007) Younger Workers Demanding Web 2.0 Tech On The Job. 19 June. Online at: <http://www.informationweek.com….199905440>, accessed on 27 June 2007.