When we talk about Web 2.0 in this blog it will be in the application of Web 2.0 technology to business problems inside of the enterprise.  As we begin our discussions a look backward is in order.  In the mid-1990’s email use first through online providers such as America On-Line and then through ISP connections introduced this old “new” technology to the casual business and executive user.  Certainly email has been in use for years both over the Internet and in private company networks.  However, the children of the senior executives of companies introduced them to this new form of open communication. It was only a short time before the business users began using it to communicate with colleagues and friends.  It was a short time after that that IT executives were “convinced” that it was time to open up their internal networks to the outside world.  Virtually overnight companies adopted Internet based email connections so that within five years most companies were connected to one another.

Shortly after the email use by executives and business people was brought to IT executives, marketing department developed HTML web-sites were handed off to IT as a “gifts” for them to now maintain.  These easy to develop static web-sites were soon doing two things to IT executives.  The first was that marketing types hit the wall in developing sites, and what was once fun was now drudgery and boring.  These sites needed to be maintained and they were becoming an important corporate asset.  And – the access to other forms of data was now beginning to be needed – as well as the ability for secure user’s access for confidential or commercial transactions.   What began as a marketing initiative became a series of IT run the business applications.

So in the recent past we have had at least two innovations for IT to develop and support that came out of the Internet and in an unplanned fashion.  As we discuss Web 2.0 and related technologies and issues – it will be with the benefit of living through each of these disruptive events.   I was working in the messaging based email space in the mid-1990’s and that market as transformed by the Internet based mail and messaging systems.  Similarly, over the last eight years I have been dead in the middle f the webs transformation of business systems.

Web 2.0 to most people is things like the social networks of Facebook and Second life and the “mash-ups” that all seem to include the ever more popular Google Maps.  In our discussion these tools that create social networks and mash-ups will be applied to the Enterprise.  Both are going to have a profound effect on how companies share information with its stakeholders and both will be disruptive.  Sounds like fun.