web 2.0 and information intermediries

8/8/2019 Web 2.0 and Information Intermediries

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Business Information Review Copyright 2008 SAGE Publications

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore, Vol 25(3): 152157

[DOI: 10.1177/0266382108095037]

Enterprise 2.0 Whats your gameplan?

What, if any, will be the role of the information intermediary?

Jackie Marfleet

Information Professional

Its vital that information intermediaries develop and apply the soft,

consultative skills that will enable them to help their organizations

leverage their internal information and to make those all-important

internal connections.

Abstract

In a world where organizations are increasingly adopting Enterprise 2.0technology what, if any, will be the role of the information intermediary? Wherecan information intermediaries add value in their organizations and how canthey ride and harness the wave of new technologies that spring up on a seem-ingly daily basis? Is this a period of boom or bust?

Keywords: enterprise 2.0, Generation Y, information intermediary, infor-mation professional, social networking, social software, Web 2.0

Introduction

This article sets out to explore the impact of social networking technologies onthe enterprise and to discuss the challenges and opportunities that these tech-nologies represent for the information intermediary. It does not seek to providethe answers but to prompt the questions that all those engaged in providingaccess to information within their organizations should be asking themselvesas they continually seek to redefine and enhance their roles.

Looking back over the past decade, we have lived through an ever increas-ing pace of technological change. Its difficult to remember back to 1996 whenthere were only 250,000 websites and 36 million Internet users. Comparethat to 2006 when we saw over a billion Internet users and approximately105,244,649 websites, and its easy to forget just how quickly the world inwhich we live has evolved. Today, anybody with access to the Internet is a

Jackie Marfleet is a qualified Infor-mation Professional with 20 years ofprivate and public sector experience.Her roles have included Senior Know-ledge Manager for the Business Advis-ory practice of E&Y, Head of Referenceand Research at the British Library and

Vice President at JPMorgan where shemanaged the Business Research Centreand worked within Investment BankingOperations deploying the banks CRMtool in Europe. Jackie is currently work-ing on a project looking at the appli-cation of social networking tools acrossthe UK Civil Service.


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Marfleet: Enterprise 2.0 and the information intermediary

potential creator and publisher of information. In 2007,there were 70 million individual weblogs with 120,000new weblogs created on a daily basis. Approximately

100,000 new video clips are uploaded each day andthese figures continue to grow. Web 2.0 technologiesare already having a significant impact on the way inwhich we communicate in both our personal and pro-fessional lives.

According to a new report by Forrester Research [1],enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies is pro- jected to reach US$4.6 billion globally by 2013. Thereport goes on to predict that external enterpriseWeb 2.0 expenditure will pass internal expenditure in2009 and will outpace internal expenditure by nearlya billion dollars in 2013. What should the role of an

information intermediary be in an Enterprise 2.0 worldand what do we mean by Enterprise 2.0?

Enterprise 2.0

The definition provided by Wikipedia [2] is as follows,Enterprise Social Software is a term describing socialsoftware in enterprise (business) contexts. It includessocial and networked modifications to companyintranets and other classic software platforms used bylarge companies to organize their communication.Examples of social software commonly used withinorganizations include wikis, blogs, podcasts, RSS(Really Simple Syndication), Instant Messaging, socialbookmarking and online communities. A number oforganizations in both the private and public sector arecurrently experimenting with a variety of these tools,looking at ways in which they can add business valueand enhance employee engagement. The impact ofsocial software within organizations is not to be under-estimated and, for a large majority of organizations,its usage represents a cultural shift, the extent of whichhas probably not been seen for some considerable time.

For many years, companies have largely adopted acommand and control approach with regard to man-aging the deployment and usage of technology withintheir institutions. Information Technology (IT) depart-ments have typically owned the responsibility anddecision-making process for determining what productsshould be made available and to whom. This approachdoes not sit well with the increasing expectation amongemployees that the companies for whom they workshould provide them with access to the same technol-ogy capability that they are able to use from their own

homes. The use of Facebook by employees is a classicexample of employees wanting the ability to createcommunities and to connect and communicate with one

another in a manner not typically supported by traditional corporate IT software. The fact that social software is largely free means that employees are oftenexperimenting with new tools way ahead of their ownorganizations. They have the ability to create and publish their own content on non-proprietary tools andexpect to have access to the same capability and functionality within the companies for whom they workThis shift is inevitably uncomfortable for some organizations who view this lack of centralized control assomewhat anarchic and who have therefore respondedby shutting off access to non-proprietary Web 2.0 tools

This is a short-sighted approach and one which, personally, I feel will inevitably backfire as individuals chooseto work for those organizations that support them inworking in a way they want to and which encouragescreativity and experimentation. It is unfortunate thasome companies equate social software with timewasting on behalf of their employees rather than tryingto understand the benefits which social software couldbring. For the majority of companies the use of Web 2.0tools is still very much at the experimentation phaseand provides an opportunity for organizations to learnin parallel with their employees. Far from shuttingthem down, organizations should be encouraging their

employees to use the tools to determine how they canbe used effectively in a business context. The information intermediary can play an extremely important rolein this process.

Information intermediaries are ideally placed to acas internal consultants in identifying practical applications for social software within their organizationsUsing their knowledge of the business in which theircompanies operate they can help to generate ideas forpiloting social software within a specific business context. For example, organizations that have a large number of staff working away from the office may want touse Web 2.0 tools as a means of enabling their staff tofeel connected while out on the road. The creation of aChief Executive Officer (CEO) blog where the CEOreports on a regular basis regarding key business developments, significant new business wins, recruitment, strategy etc. enables those not in the office tostill feel a part of what is happening despite the physical distance separating them from their colleaguesProviding the facility for employees to ask questionsand provide comments strengthens this connectioneven further.


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Another example lies in facilitating the creation ofCommunities of Interest. In my experience, enablingemployees to make people to people and people to con-

tent connections is one of the most frequently requestedasks of social software. People are continually askingthe questions who knows who and who knows what.By building Communities of Interest employees withsimilar subject interests and expertise can moreeasily find one another and share knowledge acrossthe organization. This is particularly valuable in large,global organizations where it is not possible to phys-ically meet and know everybody who could be a usefulcontact. The potential benefits to the organization inreducing the amount of time wasted looking for infor-mation, reducing the amount of unnecessary reworkand in improving employee productivity and satis-faction are not to be underestimated. Information inter-mediaries are ideally placed to identify pilot groupswho would benefit from having their own Communitiesand in helping to set up and provide feedback on therunning of the pilot.

Other areas in which information intermediaries canbecome involved include running podcasts of key busi-ness meetings and significant presentations, runningvirtual meetings and helping to set up feeds.

Information intermediaries are in a strong positionto leverage their network of internal connections and

to become involved with other departments who arelooking to maximize the use of social software. Typically,Marketing and Communications departments arelooking to use social networking tools as a way of im-proving employee engagement with the organizationand of increasing internal collaboration. Informationintermediaries can provide advice, education and helpin setting up blogs, wikis, podcasts, communities ofpractice and so forth. They can also provide help insupporting pilots by identifying groups who wouldbenefit from the use of social software and subsequentlyin working with the pilot groups to identify require-ments, gather and document feedback and provide

recommendations.

It goes without saying that the information inter-mediary should stay closely connected to the corporateInformation Technology (IT) department, which willinevitably be looking at ways in which social softwarecan be used within the organization. With productssuch as IBMs Lotus Connections now offering inte-grated access to a number of different social software,there are clearly benefits to be had from consideringsuch products at an organizational level. My advicewould be to get involved in any pilots and product trials

at an early stage. Piloting social software is not likepiloting the usual array of corporate IT applications.For a start, people dont have to use the tools! The com-

munication around product trialling needs to betailored in a different way to that typically adopted byIT departments. Its unlikely that an email from ITextolling the benefits of the product under trial andencouraging everybody to use it will have much impact.Its vital to identify a pilot group in advance of runningthe product trial and to get a few key business stake-holders involved in discussions around the pilot beforeit even starts. In this way, youre more likely to havean engaged pilot group who will want to test the prod-uct. The best marketing for social software has to beby word of mouth. If the pilot group thinks the productis good, word will get around. This inevitably meansthat the centralized IT department will have to re-linquish some of the control that theyve typically hadaround such pilots in the past, but this is somethingthey will have to get used to.

Having participated in a social software pilot in aprofessional services organization I learned that anyproducts that require training are much less likely tobe adopted, particularly as most non-commercial prod-ucts require no training at all. Products need to be easyto use and as accessible from outside the office asthey are from within it. Perhaps most obvious of all,but often overlooked, products need to fill a perceivedneed otherwise theyre unlikely to be used. Its for thisreason that getting business buy-in and sponsorshipat a very early stage is a key part of the success criteriafor any pilot.

As I hope is clear from the earlier examples, there isno shortage of business applications for social software.It does however require somebody to own the respon-sibility for initiating them and to manage the processaround gathering feedback and honing the ongoingbusiness proposition. This represents a fantasticopportunity for the information intermediary to workwith the business on projects around Web 2.0 appli-

cations but its an opportunity that they must pro-actively reach out and seize.

Generation Y

In addition to advances in technology, there are also ahost of changes in society that are having a pronouncedeffect on how people are choosing to share informationand to communicate with one another. Perhaps one ofthe most marked of these changes is represented by the


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coming of age of Generation Y, which is roughly cat-egorized as those individuals born between the years197898. In the UK alone this represents a population

of approximately 8 million.

This is a generation of multi-taskers who are highlytechnologically literate, creative and mobile. EmmaReynolds, co-founder of Ask Gen Y, summarizes by saying:As the worlds first truly mobile and connected gen-eration, we have grown up with internet, broadband,wi-fi, Google, CD, DVD, MTV, MP3, SMS and MMS.This multitude of choice, this freedom, this instant con-nectivity, this speed of globalisation is all weve everknown [3]. It should be added that this multitude ofchoice and instant connectivity is also what membersof this generation expect their employers to provide.

Emma goes on to say, You wont find many GenY-ersin the local library and its highly unlikely we wouldever use a real dictionary to check a spelling. Thisclearly provides a challenge to organizations in de-veloping an infrastructure that will support theiremployees irrespective of where and how they chooseto work. Additionally, it provides a challenge to theinformation intermediary when marketing theirservices to a generation which does not expect to goto a physical location to seek information, and whichexpects access to information any time, any place,anywhere.

Generation Y individuals are less likely to displaysignificant employee loyalty to their organizations anddont expect to stay in the same job for any length oftime. Many will have more than one career during theirworking life and many will have portfolio careers.They are looking for flexibility in the way in which theywork. As organizations compete to attract the toptalent, providing tools that enable employees to workeffectively from outside the office while staying con-nected will become increasingly important and will helpto differentiate the successful from the less successfulcompanies.

Other changes driven by a tech-savvy generationinclude the increasing use of video as a means of shar-ing information more widely. At the beginning of thisarticle, I made reference to the figure of 100,000 dailyuploads of video on to the internet of which approxi-mately 65,000 are uploaded on to YouTube. It is tobe expected that this figure will increase exponen-tially over a short period of time. As Katherine Seelyecomments [4]:

Were moving to a society that is video-based from onethat is text-based The Internet culture recognizes

that Internet video is more authentic, more granular,less scripted than television.

Using video as a form of communication representsa further change to the way in which we are choosingto connect with one another. Its now possible to searchand watch video clips from across the web and touse them in a corporate context. For example, usingMicrosofts Live search [5] its possible to retrieve andview a wealth of video clips on practically any subjectimaginable. You will no doubt have noted that each othe three major UK political parties is now using videoto promote their message and to draw attention toissues of concern. Additionally, an increasing numberof corporations are using video technology to communicate with their shareholders, clients and the genera

public. Anybody attending the Online Conference o2007 [6] will have been struck by the number of presenters including video within their presentations. Theuse of video is a very powerful tool and one which theinformation intermediary should also be leveragingboth as a means of self promotion and also of connectingwith those people whom they help and support.

The role of the information

intermediary

Inevitably, there are some risks associated in cultivating an environment where everybody has the abilityto publish information. It would not be appropriate insome highly regulated industries or where there is aconcern regarding security. Rather than remove thecapability completely, it would be far better to produceguidelines on what type of information is appropriate for sharing and also to produce guidelines on howto write it. While writing in a casual, chummy mannermay be appropriate for Facebook, the same cannot besaid for the corporate environment. Producing guide

lines and advising on content sharing is an area inwhich the information intermediary can get involvedand where experiences of working with one part othe organization can be used to the benefit of anotherSimilarly, raising awareness of the potential securityissues around publishing information that a potentiallyvery large audience will be able to see falls well withinthe remit of the of the information professional.

In my opinion, one of the traits of a good informationintermediary is that they are well connected withinthe organization. They should be able to act as the noda


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Business Information Review 25(3)

point of a number of different networks and facilitatethe connections between them. Im sure that were allfamiliar with being recognized as the go-to person who

has the answer to every question, but what happenswhen we are not around? By building up a schematicview of the different networks and publishing this infor-mation we help to improve the sharing of knowledgeacross the organization. Inevitably, networks die outas their purpose has been achieved and new ones springup to take their place. There is an ongoing role for theinformation intermediary in maintaining the currencyof the information and also in proactively workingwithin their company to understand the changes tak-ing place and to facilitate the communication of thesechanges to a wider audience.

Weve talked a lot about the use of social softwarewithin an organizational context and its importantthat, as an exponent of the positive applications of thissoftware, the information intermediary is also seen tobe proactively using it during the course of their ownwork. Creating a personal or departmental blog, settingup a wiki, using video and podcasts both as self promo-tional tools and training aids are just a few applicationsfor this technology. Information intermediaries shouldalso be thinking about creating their own Communitiesof Interest as a means of sharing information and increas-ing access to the knowledge that they are generating.

None of the above is difficult to implement but they dorequire managing to ensure that the information thatthey communicate is both timely and relevant. Theywill also need to be marketed within the organization.

I firmly believe that its important for the infor-mation intermediary to be at the vanguard of both thediscovery and piloting of new technologies. A key partof the role should involve identifying new technologies,talking with potential suppliers, testing new productsand raising the awareness within their organizationsof products that could be of benefit. There are a greatmany products available today for little or no cost, but

taking the time to evaluate them and giving criticalreviews plays to the core strengths of an informationintermediary. In this respect, its essential to develop areputation as somebody who has an interest in cham-pioning the new, who is not afraid to experiment andwho is sometimes prepared to fail in order to be ultim-ately successful. To achieve this, it is paramount thatthe information intermediary builds and maintainsfirst class relationships both with the businesses thatthey support and the IT departments with whom theymust work.

So what does this all

mean for you and me?

The advent of Web 2.0 technologies and their appli-cation in a business context represents more than astep change. Its a paradigm shift. We have alreadymoved a long way from libraries as centralized reposi-tories of information towards a much more decentral-ized approach to creating and sharing information. Theemphasis is on people not information. If you thinksocial software is about managing information, youvemissed the point. Rather than controlling information,its about developing communities, facilitating commu-

nication and enabling networks.Organizations are increasingly focusing on lever-

aging internal information and on connecting peopleto people and people to content. The skills that infor-mation intermediaries need in order to do this are verydifferent to the traditional library and research andinformation skills. Its vital that information inter-mediaries develop and apply the soft, consultative skillsthat will enable them to help their organizations lever-age their internal information and to make those allimportant internal connections. Now, more than ever,information intermediaries need to be proactive and

really market their roles. The days of large centralizedinformation departments are over and are very unlikelyto come back. Unless information intermediaries rec-ognize that the landscape in which they operate hasshifted and continues to shift, they risk being leftbehind, and potentially becoming obsolete. My personalview is that there has never been a better time to bean information intermediary. The opportunities forpersonal development and the ability to really con-tribute to the organization are there for the taking.Its all about making it happen! The rewards for successare high, the challenge is to ride and harness the wave.

References

[1] G. Oliver Young with Eric G. Brown, T. J. Keitt,Jeremiah K. Owyang, Rob Koplowitz and Heidi Lo(2008) Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market Forecast:2007 To 2013,Cambridge, USA: Forrester Research.

[2] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/enterprise_social_software/

[3] www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/11/29/cmgen29.xml (More information


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about Ask Gen Y can be found at the websitewww.askgeny.co.uk)

[4] Katherine Q, Seelye (2007) YouTube passesDebates to a New Generation, New York Times (14June). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/US/politics/14youtube.html/

[5] Live Search (www.live.com)

[6] www.online-information.co.uk/index.html

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