The Enterprise 2.0 buzz

To be honest, I don't get the buzz around the Enterprise 2.0 hype.

I am doing now collaboration since 10 years. I started with eRoom when this part of collaboration was called project management. The term was a fail and rapidly changed to project collaboration. This was a better term, but later it was reduced to collaboration to make clear that collaboration does not only happen along projects.

Collaboration is a valid term for this market segment and accepted for years.

When I read a article about Enterprise 2.0 there is nothing new in it. All phrases, charts, use cases are the same that can be read on ten year old eRoom marketing material. I am also a bit disappointed that nothing new was added.

Some might say that social networking is the new hot stuff which was added to collaboration to generate Enterprise 2.0. I disagree, social networking is nothing new, it is one of success factors for collaboration and has always been part of successful collaboration tools.

Some might say that RSS feeds or Wikis are new technologies that make a collaboration tool so much better that it is worth to be get the Enterprise 2.0 label. For me, RSS feeds or Wikis are just nice features but they do not change the way we collaborate. If you add RSS or Wiki for example to eRoom this would not make a better tool out of it. The features even do not add new use cases, the just provide an easier application integration.

Enterprise 2.0 for me is just old wine in new skins. It is still collaboration as we know it and there is nothing added to that. Enterprises should be careful when considering to replace a the existing collaboration solution with a Enterprise 2.0 solution. The Enterprise 2.0 solution will probably do not better than the collaboration solution. The change of software does not improve anything.

I assume the real new thing about Enterprise 2.0 is that it addresses Enterprises by its name. Enterprise collaboration is also nothing new. If I look back I can see a lot of enterprises that are using eRoom corporate wide and even inter-corporate for collaboration. Enterprises did well with eRoom and they always lose a lot of social and collaboration advantages by their transition to other platforms.
I also have a ambivalent view about Enterprise integration of collaboration. Another success factor for collaboration is flexibility which leads to a creative community. This flexibility, freedom or creativity is what teams make to contribute and this is why collaboration is so valuable for enterprises. However, enterprises usually want control over all creations which eliminates creativity. I have never seen a solution that is able to break this. I don't even think that this is possible by just adding a software or tool. To get into collaboration the enterprises have carry the success factors and adjust policies, culture and processes.