Mike Gotta of the Burton Group replies to my and Susan's thoughts on Enterprise 2.0 and Oracle's take. Read it here.
Three quick points:
1) I really enjoy and appreciate the conversation. It not only helps me to think myself out of my head but it is refreshing to be sharpened. I can only hope I can contribute as much to the conversation as I am getting out of it.
2)On the altruism point. I disagree with Mike's characterization of my view that employees will participate or use tools in a certain way "for the good of the company". I *agree* with Mike that this is not a primary motivating factor. However, in any business setting, if I am trying my hardest to get my project to succeed - for my own glory, bonus, or endorphin release I am still, by the necessary condition of my employment, succeeding for my employer. The point with many E2.0 technologies is that the organization can reap huge benefits from the aggregation, analysis, and re-purposing of those individual efforts in ways that no individual "intentionalizes".
3) On the emergent as volunteer vs authority-sanctioned self direction point: I think this dichotomy represents two different starting places for E2.0. Mike is right when he points out that "decision rights are granted by the institution to the individual". I don't see this radically changing any time soon (though I do see the institutions grip loosening). This is because there are still laws that put institutional authorities in jail if someone down the chain does something wrong. E2.0 doesn't stop the buck from stopping at the top. There is (not yet) a passive compliance mechanism that successfully checks the self-organization of those bent to ill (this may betray my latent Hobbesian tendencies flavored by de Tocquevillian optimism). As a result, I think about E20 from the starting point of, "how can the institution, given it's institutional assumptions, and messy assemblage of self-interested workers leverage Enterprise 2.0?" Working out what the institution gains does not diminish meeting the expectations of and delivering value to employees.
All in all there is much more to explore here.
Comments (2)
I think I'm with Mike on #2. Mike referred to voluntary participation and when "I am trying my hardest to get my project to succeed" it is not a voluntary participation and there are already tools in place to support me. E2.0 doesn't add any value here. Here is better example: I read this blog because I generally interested in Content Management and E2.0 technologies. It doesn't have anything to do with me trying to bring success to the company nor it is directly related to any company project. The question is: can my company still benefit from this purely selfish activity?
Posted by Andrei Filimonov | January 12, 2009 2:25 PM
Posted on January 12, 2009 14:25
Hi Andrei,
thanks for the comment!
I agree with you that when you're working on assignments it's not voluntary. I strongly disagree that E2.0 doesn't add any value there. That is the whole point of E20. If your project team uses a wiki for project tracking you can more quickly and easily share and update information with the client and the team. A 2.0 enabled information hub (e.g. where information and content can be rated, tagged, and promoted based on socially determined relevancy) raises the likelihood that you or your team will be able to find better information more quickly that might have originated outside of your influence/awareness circle. Greater participation yields better results (network effect).
Take your example of reading this blog. While I'm glad for your personal interest I hope that at some point you will have a task and remember, "oh yeah, FusionECM blog wrote about that a while back". One or two google searches later and you've found some perspective that you can incorporate into your own report, paper, decision calculus. Chances are that such a perspective would be favorably disposed towards Oracle as I write (generally) from that perspective. Thereby my self-interested blogging promotes your self-interested project work and Oracle get business and your business gets a great solution.
Posted by billy | January 12, 2009 4:27 PM
Posted on January 12, 2009 16:27