Social Glass

I recently read a post by Caroline McCarthy at CNET about Web 2.0’s reliance on the word Beta. She points out that organisations have grown to love being in Beta mode, because “…it seems like a convenient way to avoid taking responsibility for technical issues”. Beta is akin to a disclaimer, if it doesn’t work don’t blame us, we’re in Beta.

Caroline goes on to suggest that Beta isn’t just a cop-out. Web 2.0 embraces the Agile Manifesto for Software Development, and Web 2.0 organisations are constantly fixing and adding features to their site. So, they may stay in Beta forever, and the wording might therefore be suitable.

Fine.

But is it appropriate for us to put the tagline “Beta” beneath the glossy logos of enterprise applications? Are we going to sell potential clients on Enterprise 2.0 and release the next generation of the intranet in Beta mode? It seems to me that if I were the client I’d want the solution I’d just paid large amounts of money for to be fully-baked, comprehensive and bug-free.

So, while I hail the arrival of Web 2.0 behind the firewall, I acknowledge there are some traits that are not appropriate for the Enterprise. The last thing we need to do is litter our solutions with disclaimers. An Enterprise 2.0 solution must be just as professional as a Siebel implementation.