Web 2.0 & Web 3.0

While there is currently little or no published research that explores the contribution of Web 2.0 technologies to corporate productivity and management, the application of Web 2.0 technologies continues to grow. The Gartner Group (www.gartner.com), Forrester Research (www.forrester.com), IDC (www.idc.com) and the Cutter Consortium (www.cutter.com), among other professional and trade organizations (not to mention the huge repertoire of vendors’ white papers on the subject), report that Web 2.0 technologies are making their way into corporate technology infrastructures and architectures. At the same time, the way the technologies are being used and their impact has not been reported in any systematic way.

Our research focuses on questions like:

• “What good is Web 2.0 technology to my company?”
• “What problems will Web 2.0 technology solve?”
• “How could we use the technology to save money or make money?”
• “What are some of the best ways to exploit the technology without complicating existing infrastructures or architectures?”

The research objectives include:

• Understand the range of Web 2.0 tools and techniques that might improve corporate productivity and management.
• Identify how Web 2.0 tools and techniques can be used to enhance corporate productivity and management.
• Measure the impact via the collection of interviews and direct observational data.
• Various kinds of hypotheses are addressed.
• Can wikis, blogs, RSS filters and folksonomies help companies with knowledge management?
• Can wikis be used to build quick “corporate encyclopedias,” training manuals and other forms of documentation?
• Can blogs be used to vet ideas about markets, customers and strategies?
• Can podcasts be effectively used to document products?
• Can folksonomies be used to organize structured and unstructured content?
• Can RSS filters be used to create content streams to improve customer relationship management (CRM)?
• Can mashups be used for rapid application development (RAD)?
• Can crowd sourcing be used to stimulate innovation?

The research methods include:

• Profile the range of Web 2.0 technologies available to corporations.
• Define “impact” across multiple dimensions of productivity.
• Collect data on the use of Web 2.0 technologies and the impact areas through a combination of interviews and direct observation.
• Analyze the data to identify usage patterns and impact.
• Identify correlations from the survey data among technologies and impact areas.
• Measure the relative impact of individual and groups of technologies on individual and groups of impact areas.
• Integrate the interview and observational data.

The Web 2.0 technologies identified and measured here include:

• Wikis
• Blogs
• RSS Filters
• Folksonomies
• Mashups
• Podcasts
• Crowd sourcing
• Social Networks
• Virtual Worlds

The corporate productivity and management impact areas include:

• Knowledge Management (KM)
• Rapid Application Development (RAD)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Collaboration & Communication
• Innovation
• Training

We have concluded the interview phase of the research; we are now collecting data about the impact that Web 2.0 technologies have had on corporate productivity. (You can participate in the survey at: http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/219143/1901/)

Our research on Web 3.0 has only just begun. We’re in the conceptual phases of that effort and will release our research plan in the next several months.