Reality check
Our friend Andrew Donoho, who works at IBM, sent a link to “How to be less stupid in 2009″ by Dennis Howlett, where he says “2009 is reality check year” for (enterprise) IT.
We’ve been talking to Andrew about potentially powerful uses of cloud computing and emerging collaborative technologies, though we’re focused on smaller companies and NPOs. However Andrew has more of an enterprise background, and it’s interesting to get that perspective. We’re also focused on social technology, as our name implies, and about that Howlett says
Think about how the so-called Enterprise 2.0 tools are going to change your business. Of themselves they will add a smidegeon of value but don’t get caught up in the hype. The noise levels in SiliconValley are deafening as vendors left and right tell us the new dawn of the social graph is just around the corner if only we use the latest shiny new object. Recognize that we’re in the equivalent of the fashion industry and think about the realities. For anything carrying the E2.0 moniker, substitute ‘collaboration.’ Collaboration is not new and while there are plenty of compelling economic reasons to work collaboratively, remember that of themselves, the tools won’t do it for you. Better still, implant another RSS device and subscribe to Oliver Marks blog. He’ll tell you about the cultural problems associated with change. These represent the biggest barriers to success, they’re not going away any time soon but they must be tackled.
The part I set off in bold is what really caught my eye in Howlett’s post. Repeating: collaboration isn’t new, but it’s increasingly important. And no technology platform is going to make collaboration happen - it’s a social and cultural issue. (I should add, though, that when technology doesn’t work for some reason - when it’s bad technology or just hard for some users to adopt - that can stifle collaboration).
