The buzzword has arrived. The applications will follow. The blogging community has had an epiphany- If we could transplant the success Google and others have had and make boatloads of money, it would be really rewarding. The solution: create Enterprise 2.0.
The problem is that all of us are struggling to define the killer apps for this Enterprise 2.0. The ideas range from taking your today’s applications in the enterprise like ERP, CRM, Email etc. and rebuilding them using Web 2.0 paradigms of rich internet applications, tagging, online communities etc.
As I have mentioned before in this blog- the word processor on the internet is still a word processor. Yes, you can make millions of dollars selling it to Google (see Writely). However for a true revolution, I am looking for the Ebay of Web 2.0.
It is interesting to note that even though many enterprises tried to adopt Web 1.0 style applications like Ebay and Amazon, most attempts at it failed. Does anyone remember the giagantic failures of online B2B auction exchanges such as Covisint?
In time, enterprises simply learned to use and leverage the Web 1.0 businesses like Ebay directly. Businesses today sell excess inventory via Ebay. Big publishers sell books on Amazon.
So may be the Enterprise 2.0 is just Web 2.0 growing up and businesses learning to use it. In this class of applications, we have Wiki applications (SocialText, JotSpot), online tools like calendaring (30Boxes), word processor (Writely) and online media (YouTube).
In summary, may be the enterprises have to look outside their four walls and firewalls and find and use Web 2.0 to their advantage. There is no Enterprise 2.0 (distinct from Web 2.0) and its certainly not going to come knocking on your door packaged and delivered by big software vendors.