The sustained evolution of the online consumer web has resulted in the surfacing of a number of ground breaking and disruptive user engagement paradigms that are redefining the “online service provider-to-consumer” ecosystem. Broadly recognized as shaping the Web 2.0 phase of the Internet, these paradigms are materialized as integrated applications & services that enable the notions of viral user engagement through surround user communities and resulting network effects (within and across communities) to foster service adoption and promotion. While these paradigms have gained broad traction and acceptance amongst web startups targeting online consumers, the opportunities of their applications in the traditional Enterprise/Business context are in the infant stages of being materialized.

The Emerging Web Movement

There are several reasons for the general conservative pace of adoption of the Web 2.0 paradigms in the Enterprise/Business context…lack of tried & tested practices for predictable success, the failure rate of consumer web startups who apply related paradigms, a mind boggling number of related platform and technology options – many with limited or no proven enterprise/business credibility, and overall a general lack of clarity in the context of a conceptual framework to identify investment opportunities, prioritize & materialize investments, and measure ROI. There are also several misconceptions in the context of what constitutes “Web 2.0 investments” for an Enterprise/Business, the top misconception being a revamped and self-managed Web 2.0 style online web property as being the utopian investment.

Viral user engagement, social dynamics, and network effects constitute the cornerstones of the Web 2.0 movement in the consumer web. Adopting and applying Web 2.0 paradigms to achieve organizational benefits in the context of a traditional Enterprise/Business necessitates the need to explore, identify, and incrementally invest in targeted opportunities, both new and within existing processes/investments, where the incorporation of viral user engagement and social dynamics has the potential to benefit the organization. The figure below summarizes my thoughts on these opportunities and identifies the core constituent elements that roll up to compose the broader Enterprise 2.0 opportunity:

The Enterprise 2.0 Opportunity

My future postings will expand upon each of the constituent “2.0″ elements shown above. In addition to rationalizing the related concepts, I will also strive to present actionable solution frameworks to enable experimenting with and pursuing related investments. The following is a brief summary of each of these elements to wrap up this post:

Collaboration 2.0
The application of Web 2.0 paradigms to foster enhanced employee collaboration within an Enterprise/Business. This is widely seen as constituting “Enterprise 2.0″ by many, though my personal viewpoint of Enterprise 2.0 in a holistic sense is broader and also includes the following core elements.

B2B 2.0
The application of Web 2.0 paradigms to foster enhanced partner collaboration and relationship management.

CRM 2.0
The application of Web 2.0 paradigms to foster enhanced collaboration with customers and non-affiliated communities. The growing popularity of the consumer web (fostered by the Web 2.0 movement) necessitates the need for an Enterprise/Business to invest in identifying and engaging in related channels where customers and user communities of relevance have an active presence. Integrating with such communities has the potential to result in the materialization of previously untapped customers and partnerships. The partnerships can span traditional B2B style opportunities as well as green field B2OCSP (Business-to-Online consumer service provider/Web startups) and B2I (Business-to-Individual) relationships such as community evangelists, community workers etc. The potential for such investments to result in the onboarding of a variety of relationships that benefit an organization, extend the classic notion of CRM to a more generic XRM investment.

Identity 2.0
Fostering relationships across these diverse channels of relevance to an organization necessitates the need to deeply integrate related channels with mainstream Enterprise systems. Achieving such integrations at the systems level in a scalable manner calls for a fundamentally different approach to federating user identities across the channels. Watch Dick Hardt’s excellent presentation on this topic for a conceptual overview of what this entails.

That’s it for today folks…stay tuned for more in the days to come. Your feedback/comments/questions are all welcome, so feel free to post them and I will do my best to reply when clarifications are requested.

Cheers!
Karthik