Comments on: Recession Tech

By: jonmbutler111

jonmbutler111 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:25:29 +0000

Doodleboard is an innovative web startup led by a pair of
Harvard Business School students. Doodleboard is an infinite, real time and
multi-user whiteboard written in AJAX. The hosted web application allows
multiple users to directly collaborate in the same shared whiteboard. Users
can add text, shapes, images, or draw www.geonlineservice.com directly on the board, and changes are
immediately synchronized among all users. A simple use case might involve a
project manager annotating a screenshot of an application under development

By: Totally Consumed

Totally Consumed — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:18:21 +0000

Guffaw! I choked on my breakfast when I read the quote, “as business slows down workers often have more slack in their weeks”.

When business slows down, financial stress requires companies to layoff and run lean! Which means MORE work and less time to “surf”.

While true that, “smart companies will continue to invest in infrastructure” during an economic slowdown, the reality is that companies will have to be more creative about how they find the resources to accomplish this worthy goal.

By: dan pontefract

dan pontefract — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:38:45 +0000

Whilst I don’t disagree at all with your 3 overarching points Andrew, I think traction can only occur one of two ways for Large Enterprises: 1) if the CTO/CIO of an organization has bought into E2.0 as a viable collaboration tool for employees or 2) if a department begins a skunk-works project.

If 1) isn’t happening already, then whether times are tough, or times are good, E2.0 doesn’t have a chance. (particularly if the CTO/CIO has been brought up on an ERP intravenous and looks to the ERP vendor for new ‘modules’ in upcoming service packs or maintenance renewals as opposed to good SaaS or SOA 3rd party solutions)

If 2) is in play, then you’ve got yourself a classic example of the commoner taking E2.0 into his/her own hands for her department, which then (when times are perhaps rosier for the company as a whole) could be replicated to other departments or the organization itself.

This does not take into consideration the SME audience, but if we are heading into a recession (or are in fact in a recession) I can’t see how SME’s are looking to spend OPEX or variable budget on E2.0 ($50k/annum is a lot of money for them). Furthermore, because of their very definition of being a SME, I doubt they have scads of time available to populate an E2.0 environment as they will be undoubtedly running around trying to drum up business somehow. (ie. saving their jobs)

Just one man’s opinion.

By: Raj Rao

Raj Rao — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Andrew, I agree with your basic premise that this is the time to “widen the gap” against the competition and implement E2.0 solutions.

What would be your recommendation for those companies that already have E2.0 and are using it for some basic collaboration. What can they do to “widen the gap”? are there new techniques to deepen and expand the collaboration for those companies that are already familiar with these technologies?

By: Simon Carswell

Simon Carswell — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:24:33 +0000

I agree. In a difficult business environment it is even more important than ever to tap into the collective intelligence of the workforce, to stimulate lateral thinking and innovation. Equally, in the same way that an individual’s blues can often be helped by communicating with others, perhaps the corporate equivalent could be relieved through activity on E2.0 platforms.

By: The Social Dentist

The Social Dentist — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:05:00 +0000

I have a hunch that lean economic times tend to reduce the entertainment options for the affected public. Money’s tight? Well we can’t go out to eat as much, drive to far away places, or party at the pub as much as some of us may enjoy during the fat times. – So I’d offer that the end users participation, readership for blogs + websites in general may increase to fill the gap. – Another reason to invest in social media now, possibly easier to reach your audience.

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:02:36 +0000

I totally agree that the technology that will allow building the enterprise 2.0 is really cheap (actually, it will probably be free at one point). The costs are linked to the change management projects that will need to be conducted in order to actually achieve enterprise 2.0.

The risk, to my mind, would be investing small in software and refusing to spend what is needed to conduct change. This could prove deadly, as what needs to be changed, organization, behaviours, leadership styles, will not evolve easily and it is these elements that will make or break enterprise 2.0

By: kevin shea

kevin shea — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:16:39 +0000

As business slows down it provides opportunity for both business and IT. If, in these slow times, businesses choose to exercise some choice, IT can exercise its resistance, as it also has time on its hands. If business elects to emerge, I envision many IT departments seeking to maintain its control over information and push hard on classic arguments for central control. I believe that history does show previous periods when business units chose to act independently of IT, sometimes beneficially. But, it seems that these breakouts generally get reabsorbed by the pack. Does talk of business emergence need to take on more depth of discussion to account for such existing conditions?

What is the goal of business emergence? If the goal of emergence it to breakout and stay out in front of IT, then I think discussion is necessary on what it takes to sustain the breakout. Where does business emergence take us? Is the real underlying issue of business emergence one of self control over information?

By: Philippe Parker

Philippe Parker — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:01:02 +0000

Hi Andrew,

I’ve posted some thoughts on the importance of information sharing using social networking tools here: http://contentedmanagement.net/blog/information-in-a-bear-market/

Regards,
Philippe

By: Barry O'Gorman

Barry O'Gorman — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:15:03 +0000

On the face of it a reasonable observation/ prediction. I agree with the comments in terms of relatively lower levels of required financial investment, less commitment to a major project as compared with a project such as ERP. However these types of projects (web 2.0) do require sponsorship and some TLC (tender loving care). TLC may be in short supply over the coming months. I would have a concern that many web 2.0 projects may get a start but not get the required attention.