What is web 2.0

Intuitively I feel that Web2.0 is about an increasing group of consumers that will have a major impact on the business models of any company that wants to survive in the immediate and long term future.

The bold slogan of Tom Peters "Innovate or die" has a great relevance here.

I have done some online research and gathered some web2.0 descriptions that make sense to me:

For the first definition (from Andy Gutmans) see image above + this Youtube film below.

A second good description I found on the following website: http://www.connectedcustomers.net/category/web-20/

"Think of web 2.0 as a mindset that will lead to a more fluid interaction between websites and connected customers. Web 2.0 is more a way of thinking than a technological advance. Building things from the bottom up as opposed to the top down to give the customers what they want and need is what web 2.0 is about.

When web 2.0 is positioned as a mindset to enhance customer interaction and satisfaction I’m all for it. Unfortunately the only thing I could find that was new about web 2.0 is having businesses and marketers that now think about the customers needs first. "


Tim O'Reilly states in a film i found on Youtube :

• • the network is the platform
• •the rules for business are different
• •cardinal rule: “users add value”
  
• •figuring out how to build databases that get better the more people use them

A fourth description I composed from different sources (including yours truly):

Web 1.0

• users reading content

Web 2.0

• is an evolution (no revolution) of the content creation, and publication aspects of the web. [http://intentionalweb.org/]
• users producing content, sharing and interacting through content
  

web 3.0

• users sharing functionality through micro applications (Eric Schmidt CEO of Google)
  
• the Intentional Web. A focus on improving the content consumption end of the web now that we have very dynamic and malleable content. [otave.com]

Everything there is to know about Business & IT

I set myself the audacious goal of creating a single slide that would show everything there is to know about IT and its relationship to the Business. Here is my first attempt, let's have it! (your comments that is). Just click on the slide to enlarge the image.

BHAGS, pronounced “bee-hags”, are Big Hairy Audacious Goals. This term is applicable to the slide as well as to the area of strategic marketing and business road mapping (see also the image of my previous post).

What is Business Project Management

Despite having mentioned it in my blog description I prefer the term Business project manager over IT project manager. The latter term distinctively leaves out the Business and it gives the impression that the project is managed & directed by someone from IT. Nothing is further from the truth, it is the responsibility of the business to manage and direct the project from within the business ('even if it is an IT project').

The most striking lessons learned I have come accross in outsourcing (offschoring as well as contracting) is that the clients neglect to balance & safeguard IT knowledge on their side. This is especially problematic for the client in fixed price contracts. Not (adequatly) implementing IT governance on the business side is prohibiting adequate control, insight and quality assurance on the business value of the IT project.

Anyone familiar with PRINCE2 will know that the project manager is a role on the client side i.e. somebody in direct contact with the sponsor (or Executive) of the project. An IT project manager in PRINCE2 is a team leader controlling the execution of the project. If you work for IBM and you are coordinating a multi million dollar project for a client and you report to a project manager on client side you are still a team leader.

Since 99% of the IT projects really are business projects that have an IT component I advocate the term Business & IT project management.

P.S. The tiger monastery near Kanchanaburi in Thailand has a truly Big Hairy Audacious Goal and business model, check out there website.

Adopting new IT technologies by the Business & IT

I attended an excellent seminar in Brussels on "The future of ICT" on October 4th organised by IT works.

I noticed a few things:

• In the folder and emailings it stated that the targeted audience was ICT decision makers involved in IT planning and management.
• I checked the attendee list and 95% of the people present were working in IT departments, the other 5% were heads of business deparments who where directly involved in IT projects
  
• When talking to people during the breaks people where frustrated that the business leaders did not understand why new IT technologies were important

I borrowed a few lines (below) from "http://www.computable.nl/nieuws.jsp?id=2157297"

Gartner states that CIO's and it-managers should implement disruptive technologies to stay ahead of the competition.

Examples of these technologies as mentioned in the article are:
1. Multicore
2. Web Platforms
3. User interface
4. Web mashups
5. Sociale software
6. Tera - architecture
…

I believe that CEO's (and business people in general) are the final decision makers on which technology to use to gain competitive advantage in the market and these people are not going to go all warm inside from technical concepts like mashups, platforms, Web2.0. That's for sure and is absolute normal because it's not clear what these technologies can do. More importantly even if you convinced the business to invest in e.g. SOA this technology might not be supported by a change in vision/culture/thinking in the business making it difficult to reach its full potential.

Your CEO is not going to become enthusiastic when hearing your speech "We have to change coz we have SOA, and web2.0 now".

Whereas if you explain to the business that the customer base is increasingly composed of 'IT natives' (people who were e.g. using the web, mobiles, and messenger from the cradle) who expect any company to respond via and communicate via web2.0 phenomena (like: all communication is digital, peer2peer networks, all the time real time contact via messenger & mobile phones, blogs & wikis)…

If you explain to the business that any authentic and feasible implementation of such new relationship with the customer requires that these new expectations of the consumers are to be reversed engineered into all layers of the company....

If you explain to the business that the making your company (web)service oriented is a good way to go about this back office implementation…

Then I believe the business and IT have a better basis for understanding and decision making.

Interesting example is the paperless world of ING direct.