Mark Aufflick — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:37 GMT

Quote from original comment:

“Also Wikis and Blogs seem to be the hottest “must have” for a company. But how do you motivate your employees to contribute to a wiki? How do you prevent that they do not use blogs to reveal secrets?”

I suggest the article should be “the trouble with inflexible companies”.

Web 2.0 shows that collaborative media works if people are given freedom. If ou are concerned that your employees might reveal secrets then either you don’t trust your employees enough, or the culture within your company is wrong (why would the employees be motivated to releaes secrets). And how do you know that it’s not beneficial to release some of those secrets in some way?

This comment reveals a major flaw in some company thinking – that somehow it’s in the best interests of the company to control from the top.

Let’s take two of my employment experiences. Both used wikis, both were multi-national and near the top of their market. One had an effective (internal) wiki and employees who were active on public mailing lists etc. The other had a wiki in name only, internal mailing lists that were inactive, and very few people recieved mailing lists let alone contributed. The first team was producing innovative technologies, had a vibrant atmosphere, and was contributing significantly to the profitability of the company. The second team was a limiting factor – it had an atmosphere where it ws better to do it yourself and retain the glory, and participation in internal or external mailing lists was regarded as a waste of time.

In these true examples, which team do you think would love to read an article titled “the trouble with Web 2.0”? I think the latter, but the problem isn’t that the collaborative nature of web 2.0 doesn’t suit the enterprise, it’s that some enterprises don’t have the right environment to take advantage of what it offers.

Mark Aufflick — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:37 GMT

It’s not all relevant to your question, but you might like to read an article (and the comments) Lars wrote a while ago Reuse-in-the-large is an unsolved problem.

The thought was based on an article by Robert Glass Facts of Software Engineering Management

Mark Aufflick — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:37 GMT

Alok – this is brilliant. Love your blog entry.

You have just been added to my rss reader!

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Mark Aufflick