The latest on digital design trends and consumer behavior from Avenue A | RazorfishAndrew McAfee Gets Stoked at Avenue A | Razorfish Enterprise 2.0 Event
October 26th, 2007 by david dealTags: Social Media, Web 2.0
This blog post comes live from the Avenue A | Razorfish Enterprise Solutions summit in Boston. (26 October 2007) I just listened to Enterprise 2.0 authorities like Dion Hinchcliffe and Andrew McAfee address the challenges of adopting web 2.0 design practices in the workplace.
In an afternoon presentation, Hinchcliffe first refreshed everyone on the characteristics of the web 2.0 experience, such as the rich user interface and the power of the collective wisdom of crowds gained from wikis. “With social media, everyone gets a printing press. You can gain an instant audience through blogger.com,” he said.
OK, so far, so good. Then he asked the million-dollar question: “Should we allow any worker be able to blog and contribute inside a company — for the entire organization to see? Are we really ready?”
Then panelists Rob Koplowitz of Forrester Research, Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School, and Michael Idinupolus of SocialText answered the question with an emphatic “yes.” In a panel discussion, they all expressed dismay at how many companies are afraid to adopt blogs and wikis inside the enterprise because they are afraid their employees will post inappropriate content for other employees to see.
McAfee asked pointedly to the audience, “Does anyone here any experience with someone using an enterprise web 2.0 tool inappropriately?”
No one raised their hand.
“I have yet to hear a credible first-hand story of inappropriate use whenever I’ve asked that question at a conference,” he said. “The idea that you can’t trust your employees to use enterprise 2.0 tools is incredibly conservative.”
Idinupolus added, “All the fears we have about abusing enterprise 2.0 tools are are all known problems with new technologies. The issues are no different than with email.”
Finally an audience member did volunteer a story about a company executive who had accidentally posted some questionable material on an employee knowlege sharing platform.
“In the long run, so what?” asked McAfee in response, his answer booming loudly across the room and evoking laughter and more audience discussion. “Those mistakes are going to happen in email and around the water cooler. Enterprise 2.0 technologies are so transparent that at least you can track those mistakes and address them. You can’t take an email back. You can take down an inappropriate blog post. This whole issue is a huge red herring getting in the way of the adoption of some great tools,” he concluded.
What do you think? Agree or disagree with Andrew McAfee? Are we ready to embrace blogs and wikis fully inside the enterprise?
For more information about the Avenue A | Razorfish Enterprise Solutions Summit, please visit The Workplace Blog.
3 Responses to “Andrew McAfee Gets Stoked at Avenue A | Razorfish Enterprise 2.0 Event”
It\’s fear of the unknown - and blogs and wikis are such geeky terms that of course managers/executives wonder what they might unleash…
That said, with a barrier to entry in at least testing these tools, particularly \
(previous entry was munged by the captcha)
It’s fear of the unknown - and blogs and wikis are such geeky terms that of course managers/executives wonder what they might unleash…
That said, with a barrier to entry in at least testing these tools, particularly “inside the firewall” - it does seem downright silly not to give it a whirl and see what happens.
In the enterprise, with commenters and posters identified via their corporate login, it’s unlikely that any misfits would remain out of control for long. There’s always moderation as well - although over moderation has never been, nor will be, a good strategy to promote adoption of tools specifically built to share information and conversations.