Web 2.0 is about harnessing the potential of the Internet in a more collaborative and peer-to-peer manner with emphasis on social interaction.

July 30, 2008

Crowdsourcing of Ideas

Crowdsourcing of ideas is finding increasing uptake in enterprises and is extending beyond enterprise boundaries. In the past Crowdsourcing of ideas were limited to the employees and in some cases the partners of enterprises. Increasingly we are seeing Crowdsourcing of ideas extending beyond enterprise boundaries to include end customers. Independent Crowdsourcing intermediaries such as CambrianHouse provide a platform for idea submission, evaluation etc. What is interesting is the adoption of Crowdsourcing principles by enterprises beyond enterprise boundaries involving end customers. Let us look at a few examples. Below is a list of three different companies operating in three different industries and have adopted the common theme of Crowdsourcing of ideas.
Starbucks:        http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/home/home.jsp
Dell:                 http://www.dellideastorm.com/
Sears:               http://www.sk-you.com/
This phenomenon raises interesting questions, which we will examine in the following posts.

June 08, 2008

Groundswell: A game plan for Enterprise 2.0?

Over the last couple of weeks I had two people urge me to go and read Groundswell. So I did. If you haven't already, I would recommend it.

In summary, it's probably the closest thing to a road map for implementing Enterprise 2.0 in companies (although to their credit, they don't call it that).

It's chock full of data (some of which will surprise you) and case studies. It also makes concrete recommendations how to evaluate what's the best strategy for a company (should we do a blog, an open forum or a video on You Tube). And best of all, the language the use (for the most part) is clear (focussed on business value not technology) and practical (always refreshing).

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May 07, 2008

More Experiences from The Conference Board Meeting

By Ajay Kolhatkar

Here is an interesting experience shared by one of the attendees at the same conference. The person represented a respected foods and beverages company and also talked about the restriction on social media usage in their corporate office. He talked about how a senior product manager, who was required to comment on a blog about their product, had to rush to the nearest Starbucks outlet to access the social media website since it was inaccessible from within their corporate network.

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