Interview on the state of applying Web 2.0 to organizations
In the wake of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Smartcompany magazine has published an interview with me titled Web 2.0: Our winning ways. It begins:
Entrepreneur Ross Dawson is a leading international expert on the way businesses are using web 2.0 in Australia – and he has good news.
After lagging behind our international counterparts in the enterprise 2.0 stakes, Australia is starting to catch up in its use of blogs, wikis, social networks, social search and virtual worlds.
Ross tells Amanda Gome what’s hot, how businesses are benefiting – and what’s destined for the 2.0 dustbin.
A few brief selections from my responses to the interview:
At last I am very encouraged. The response from people at the conference shows there is a lot happening. Up until now organisations have been shy about putting up their hands and talking about what they are doing. Up until now there has also been disparate things being done by different users in different departments. But now things are being squarely addressed by executives at the top of the company so people are prepared to talk about it.
Companies are striving to create more value from the participation of their employees, customers and suppliers by using web 2.0.
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There are senior executives afraid of people being able to express themselves. And if you have a toxic culture then you may want to stop people talking – if you allow them to talk it will get worse. But if you don’t it will get worse anyway, so an open discussion might be positive.
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Organisations need a starting point of understanding that often the personal networks of your staff are fundamental to the ability to add value.
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Research has shown that the best way to predict someone’s future performance is the breadth and diversity of their personal network.
