Intro: Business and Industry continues to implement Web 2.0 technologies to make things run faster and more efficiently. In this podcast we discuss the use of these technologies by various corporations. Gordon: Mike - you've been doing some reading and poking around in this area over the summer - can you give us a list of some of your favorite references?Mike: I've been reading Wikinomics by by Don Tapscott (Author), Anthony D. Williams (Author) Gordon: Mike - can you give any info on specific companies implementing these technologies?Mike: At Procter & Gamble, The Good And Bad Of Web 2.0 Tools By J. Nicholas Hoover InformationWeek Jun 23, 2007 12:02 AM (From the June 25, 2007 issue) Business technology execs at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston June 18-21 to explore integrating Web 2.0 technologies into their enterprises. A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble, is pushing improved internal and external collaboration primarily to develop new products faster. Leading this effort is Joe Schueller, innovation manager in P&G's Global Business Services. Schueller makes an interesting observation that email is the biggest barrier to employee use of more interactive and effective tools.

As a sender of an e-mail, I control the agenda of everyone around me. E-mailers decide who has permission to read a message, and the Reply To All button ensures that peripheral participants will be prompted long after they have lost all interest. Blogs, in contrast, beg for comments from those most interested.

P&G provides a study of how Enterprise 2.0 will take shape given the scope of its project and the way it draws on tools from startups as well as big-name vendors.

Video from conference -  Open/Download MP4 PPT from conference -  Open/Download PPT

 

Gordon: What kinds of tools and applications are they using?

Mike: Starting in 2005, P&G began a Microsoft-centric collaboration initiative, with

• instant messaging,
• unified communications, and
• presence;
• Web conferencing; and
• content management and collaboration. 

About 80,000 employees use Microsoft IM, and 20,000 have moved to Outlook. P&G has a few SharePoint sites running, and the major rollout started in August.

Now moving to offer employees a more diverse toolset