Web 2.0 – Value for Businesses?

„There may never be a direct correlation between the deployment of social software and the bottom line of the ledger sheet […], but the company will surely see the value reflected in subjective measures, like customer’s satisfaction, increased productivity, enhanced cost cutting, improved emloyee moral, and more.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 15.

Questions Businesses Should Ask Themselves?

„Many businesses are starting to examine social software and Web 2.0 trend in order to see how it can add value to their business.

Much like late 1997, when technology specialists were getting asked by senior executives „What is the Internet, exaclty, why is it a big deal, and what’s our Internet strategy?“ The question now is „What is Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0/social media, exactly, why is it a big deal, and what’s our W2.0/E2.0/social media strategy?““

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 15.

Begriff – What is Web 2.0

„Web 2.0 is the technology that is being used to empower and facilitate the social networking and, in some cases, the ensuing collaboration.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 15.

Begriff – What is Collaboration

„Collaboration is about formalizing the group establishment through a social network into a team to work toward a common goal.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 15.

Begriff – What is Social Networking

„Social Networking is about the relationships between people. It is about bringing people and knowledge together and better leveraging what you know about who you know.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 15.

Begriff – What is Semantic Web

„The Semantic Web refers to a vision for the Web to become a medium for machines to be able to understand, relate, and compile information without human intervention: „It is envisaged to smoothly interconnect personal information management, enterprise application intecration, and the global sharing of commercial, scientific, and cultural data.“ (W3C [World Wide Web Consortium] Advisory Committee, 2007, p1.)“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 13.

„[…], there are talks of Web 3.0 and what the future may hold. Many predict it will be the Semantic Web where users will be able to request information rather than have to search for it.

Deans, Candace P. und Ali, Nadira (2009): The Enterprise 2.0 Organization. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 55.

Concerns about Social Software

„[…] most businesses will be legitimately concerned about corporate information security. […]

Social Software also raises privacy concerns in the enterprise domain, but not in the public domain. […]

In many businesses, social software is viewed by some as a way for employees to waist time.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 12-13.

RSS – for Businesses

„Another major area of benefit under the empowerment umbrella is the ability to provide easier access for users to find, use, and integrate data sources. For example providing RSS or ATOM feeds to key business systems allows a user to aggregate that information to a place that is easy to scan and keep up with […]. This makes users more awaren and knowledgeable about the business at a whole and makes them more effective in their tasks relating to the business.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 11.

Blog – for Businesses

„As a rudementary example, if a business were to implement blogs for employees and allow them to start expressing their thoughts, frustration, wishes, ideas, and more, there is plenty of innovation that could be harvested from the blogs and ultimately turned into valuable business assets.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 11.

Applying Social Software – for Businesses

„It is a good first step to identify that there is value in using social software to support daily interactions and relationships between individuals working at or with a business. However, […] not all existing social networking applications that are available on the Internet are appropriate for use in a business environment. […]

Businesses value social software for its ability to facilitate relationships that benefit the needs of the business. […]

[…] businesses need to examine the social software and Web sites in the public domain, understand why they are popular and what functions they offer that could be useful to the business, and then implement those functions in areas of their business that will provide the greatest benefit. […]

Most importantly, businesses need to understand that all of the individual added value social software brings to the table roll up under one umbrella. The social software trend is about empowering people. Through this empowerment, a business achieves the maximum potential from social software. Freeing people from traditional business control of information and organization and giving them tools that they need to make their voices, thoughts, and ideas heard while transending boundaries is the value that social software brings to the table.“

Quelle: Burkhardt, Peter (2009): Social Software Trends in Business: Introduction. In: Deans, P. Candace (Hrsg.), Social Software and Web 2.0 Technology Trends. New York, Information Science Reference: 9-11.