E2.0 Fundamentals
May 8th, 2008by Jeremy Thomas
Recent discussions at work have prompted me to re-iterate something very fundamental that often gets overlooked when it comes to Enterprise 2.0. An organization will never adopt a single social productivity tool. Knowledge will ALWAYS be scattered. We’ve come to accept this on the Internet where search engines make information on a myriad sites searchable, but for some reason organizations think they can get everybody to use “wiki X”, and that the search feature in “wiki X” will be good enough.
Stop.
As Dion Hinchliffe says (and as I have written before),
“Discoverability isn’t an after thought , it’s the core”
Organizations need to embrace the fact that their data will be federated. Sure, workers will put their documents in “wiki X”, but they’ll also put them on the file share, in content management systems, and on email servers. Data that cannot be found is useless. Enterprise search will unlock data and increase the propensity for information (and the knowledge workers who create it) to be discovered. Discoverability leads to recognition, and recognition leads to increased participation. Enterprise 2.0 must be approached holistically.
Clearspace doesn’t do this. Thoughtfarmer doesn’t do this. Mindtouch doesn’t do this. There is no “Enterprise 2.0 in a box” solution. Period.
Follow Me
May 8th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Come one now. Do you still not understand our architecture?
“data will be federated”
What do you think we’ve built? It’s the only platform that is capable of connecting disparate data stores, file stores, applications and services. Once connected everything is machine mine-able. Where do you think we’re going?
http://mindtouch.com/Technology
May 9th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Good post. I totally agree. Data will be spit over several platforms within an organisation. It could be split over a Drupal instance, phpforums, Mediawiki instance, a Clearspace instance, intranet, External internet site etc.
The issue, I think, is that if the search is really effective people may believe it doesn’t matter where they put their data. Therefore data could just sit in silos around the organisation, rather than being updated and contextualised in a wiki etc. If there is full document search people might stop tagging things etc. and stop describing things succinctly.
I agree with having a really powerful, efficient search engine within the enterprise, but not at the expense of people adhearing to guidelines for the appropriate ’storage’ of their data.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:27 am
@Aaron - I understand what you’re saying about Mindtouch connecting to disparate apps, and that in aggregate it is made machine mine-able. But what machine is going to do the mining and make the data searchable? In your app arch you show Dekiwiki integrating to a Search tool. And that’s the piece I’m talking about here.
@Richard, I agree, although I think if the E2.0 tools are truly that much easier for workers to use they will prefer them over more traditional, MS-Office oriented ways of information creation.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Hey Jeremy, totally agree with your conclusion that “there is no Enterprise 2.0 in a box.” Enterprise 2.0 is as much a mindset as a suite of software tools. You can’t buy a mindset.
ThoughtFarmer does “intranet in a box” pretty well. We use it extensively for internal collaboration, as do our clients. But we still use del.icio.us, Flickr, Wufoo, WordPress, Gmail, Google Desktop Search, NewsGator. One tool will never do it all. Like you said, “knowledge will ALWAYS be scattered.”