I had the pleasure of being invited by Hinchcliffe & Company to attend their Web 2.0 Executive Bootcamp as a guest VIP blogger. The session was a day-long interactive session all about Web 2.0 - including education on all of the aspects of Web 2.0, as well as examples of innovators and discussions about implications and applications for personal and business use.
The day was organized around Hinchcliffe’s Seven Principles of Web 2.0. I could, and probably will, write an entire blog post on my interpretation of each of these Principles. For now, I will focus on making this a synthesis of the event and highly recommend that anyone interested in Web 2.0 attend one of these bootcamps. If you find this post interesting and useful, the bootcamp should be worth your time … of course, the constant changing nature of Web 2.0 will ensure everything is fresh and new, so this is pre-reading.
I think the course can actually appeal to both those that are Web 2.0 neophytes as well as to those that are in the early adopter camp, which is where I’d put myself. The Seven Principles are a good organizing framework for Web 2.0, and each explodes out into a web of interesting implications and opportunities for enterprises looking to leverage Web 2.0. For heavy Web 2.0 adopters, there will be some very familiar territory covered (e.g. what is a wiki, blog, etc. and how to set up), however, the content was delivered in such a way that if you were already at a high level of understanding, the content allows you to think at the next level for each of the Seven Principles.
Below is a list of the Seven Principles and some of the salient points that I thought came out of our discussion on each:
This one seems to speak for itself. The premise is that the Web is becoming the primary location for our applications and data. The difference this time is the network effects are far stronger than on the PC or Client/Server platform. With a global audience of over 1 Billion people using the Web, and the application of Reid’s Law - each new human node in the network increases the network’s value exponentially, this new platform is immensely more valuable for all users. We had a fairly deep discussion of the impact of these network effects and the opportunities. Case example - with services such as Amazon’s S3 in the cloud, what is the impact on M&A for new startups? If a startup can get reliable storage services for $0.15 or less per Gigabyte and the service scales, then the need to sell to a larger company to support its growth diminishes. Now extrapolate that to a series of viable services that scale, are reliable, and are cost-effective … the potential to innovate up the stack appears to grow massively.
The core argument here is the combination of the sheer number of mobile devices and their ability to connect to the Web at high speeds. With over 2 Billion handsets about to be sold this year, and a growing number with robust web browsers and flash in the browser, the ability to leverage the web while mobile will increase substantially. Add on to that the use of SMS and RSS integrated with web services, and the mobile device is now intricately tied to the web. Outside the US in fact, the mobile phone is becoming (or may be) the preferred (or most frequently used) way to access the web. Services that appeal to younger web users seems to be leading the charge here … Facebook and its use of SMS is a prime example … Google also has great mobile services for Gmail and Reader. The Blogging Contribution Chain [hmm ... the notion of a 'Contribution Chain' is interesting in the context of Web 2.0 services - this should be studied, though I'm sure it has been ... if not, I'd like credit for the term please!] was highlighted as an example in the bootcamp. Bloggers can post from multiple places, including Mobile phones. Also, with RSS, the blog posts can be read while mobile (mobile RSS reader or Google’s mobile Reader).
This is the topic of data as the new “Intel inside”. As people come to a web service and participate, they are contributing data - intention data (clicks), personal data, new content, ratings, etc. Web services that are the first to aggregate interesting and useful data establish a clear leadership position and a high barrier to entry for competition. Witness Google and its search index capability due to page rank data, Amazon and product reviews, Craigslist and classifieds. We discussed opportunity areas where new companies can be formed around this notion of data as the competitive advantage.
A core part of Web 2.0 is being agile, nimble, quick, and collaborative. This is all achieved with a lightweight programming and business model. Gone are the days of long software development lifecycle. Web 2.0 work is done with speed to market and speed to adoption in mind. This requires more agile methodologies, a perpetual beta product, shorter release cycles. It also involves a shift in design patterns. Hinchcliffe and Company highlights a number of Web 2.0 mantras, and at least one came out in this section, namely “Web 2.0 is not about push, it’s about pull.” A fundamental tenet of Web 2.0 from a design perspective is putting the person at the center of your service - they’re in charge. As such, we discussed the Architecture of Participation extensively, including how to create one and some components that are required in order to create one - being open in design and using the simplest standards to get the job done. The information in this area was quite rich
Staying on the topic of ‘rich’, we transitioned into the principle of creating rich user experiences and how to do that. This discussion included an overview of the main Rich Internet Application tools available today - Ajax, Flash/Flex, and now SilverLight from Microsoft. Despite my initial read on SilverLight, it actually sounds more powerful than I originally believed. We reviewed the basic positives and negatives of each, and the notion of the proprietary plug-ins required to run Flash and SilverLight applications vs. the openness of Ajax. Also discussed was the current complexity of Ajax due to the myriad toolsets available and thus lack of productivity. We closed with a good discussion on Widgets - the notion of being able to create functional chunks of application capability that can be distributed across the web and embedded in remote websites - examples include Google AdSense, and YouTube. In fact, it was interesting that a lot of YouTube’s early viral success was because it was easy to embed video clips in MySpace pages to share with that powerful social network. For a good look at widgetization of the web, check out WidgetBox.
Hinchcliffe states that this principle is tied tightly to the third principle, “Data is the competitive advantage”. We returned to a core principle of Web 2.0, namely that “it is about the people”. A paradigm shift is required to truly understand this and create a valuable Web 2.0 service - need to recognize that the people that come to use your service are “partners”, and their use and contributions make the service more valuable. These partners increase the value of the service through their contributions and their intention data that is contributed through their usage, not to mention their referrals and word of mouth that enable exponential growth. Services need to be sure to empower the users to improve the service. Some interesting and some now familiar examples were discussed (the Chevy Tahoe design your own ad campaign). An interesting one was XM Radio’s 20 on 20 campaign, which allowed users to design the programming for Channel 20. In a Digg-like rating fashion, users were responsible for the top 20 songs for Channel 20. Ratings for Channel 20 on XM rocketed up from the basement to being consistently among the Top 3 XM channels. We also discussed collective intelligence as a core enabler and component of social networks, blogs and Wikipedia.
I had to leave at this stage to catch a flight and get back to work on the Next Generation Enterprise revolution. Information on this Principle can be found on the Web from Dion Hinchcliffe’s writing, as well as their corporate site, and other bloggers who have written about Hinchcliffe’s work.
Overall, this bootcamp was a rich discussion of Web 2.0 and the core principles discussion was also followed by other items such as a discussion of Enterprise 2.0. Very thought provoking information, and a good framework for thinking about the complexity and overall opportunity of Web 2.0.
I’m now going to think a bit about this notion of a “Contribution Chain” as part of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 services. If people are at the core of Web 2.0 services, data is the core competitive advantage, and harnessing collective intelligence is key, then knowing how the Contribution Chain works is vital to Web 2.0 service design, growth and scalability. Though, Chain may be too rigid … may need to think about “Contribution Webs” or “Contribution Ecosystems” or “Contribution Networks”.
^ brian
Technorati Tags: e2.0, enterprise20, hinchcliffe, web20
I had the pleasure of being invited by Hinchcliffe & Company to attend their Web 2.0 Executive Bootcamp as a guest VIP blogger. The session was a day-long interactive session all about Web 2.0 - including education on all of the aspects of Web 2.0, as well as examples of innovators and discussions about implications and applications for personal and business use.
The day was organized around Hinchcliffe’s Seven Principles of Web 2.0. I could, and probably will, write an entire blog post on my interpretation of each of these Principles. For now, I will focus on making this a synthesis of the event and highly recommend that anyone interested in Web 2.0 attend one of these bootcamps. If you find this post interesting and useful, the bootcamp should be worth your time … of course, the constant changing nature of Web 2.0 will ensure everything is fresh and new, so this is pre-reading.
I think the course can actually appeal to both those that are Web 2.0 neophytes as well as to those that are in the early adopter camp, which is where I’d put myself. The Seven Principles are a good organizing framework for Web 2.0, and each explodes out into a web of interesting implications and opportunities for enterprises looking to leverage Web 2.0. For heavy Web 2.0 adopters, there will be some very familiar territory covered (e.g. what is a wiki, blog, etc. and how to set up), however, the content was delivered in such a way that if you were already at a high level of understanding, the content allows you to think at the next level for each of the Seven Principles.
Below is a list of the Seven Principles and some of the salient points that I thought came out of our discussion on each:
This one seems to speak for itself. The premise is that the Web is becoming the primary location for our applications and data. The difference this time is the network effects are far stronger than on the PC or Client/Server platform. With a global audience of over 1 Billion people using the Web, and the application of Reid’s Law - each new human node in the network increases the network’s value exponentially, this new platform is immensely more valuable for all users. We had a fairly deep discussion of the impact of these network effects and the opportunities. Case example - with services such as Amazon’s S3 in the cloud, what is the impact on M&A for new startups? If a startup can get reliable storage services for $0.15 or less per Gigabyte and the service scales, then the need to sell to a larger company to support its growth diminishes. Now extrapolate that to a series of viable services that scale, are reliable, and are cost-effective … the potential to innovate up the stack appears to grow massively.
The core argument here is the combination of the sheer number of mobile devices and their ability to connect to the Web at high speeds. With over 2 Billion handsets about to be sold this year, and a growing number with robust web browsers and flash in the browser, the ability to leverage the web while mobile will increase substantially. Add on to that the use of SMS and RSS integrated with web services, and the mobile device is now intricately tied to the web. Outside the US in fact, the mobile phone is becoming (or may be) the preferred (or most frequently used) way to access the web. Services that appeal to younger web users seems to be leading the charge here … Facebook and its use of SMS is a prime example … Google also has great mobile services for Gmail and Reader. The Blogging Contribution Chain [hmm … the notion of a “Contribution Chain” is interesting in the context of Web 2.0 services - this should be studied, though I’m sure it has been … if not, I’d like credit for the term please!] was highlighted as an example in the bootcamp. Bloggers can post from multiple places, including Mobile phones. Also, with RSS, the blog posts can be read while mobile (mobile RSS reader or Google’s mobile Reader).
This is the topic of data as the new “Intel inside”. As people come to a web service and participate, they are contributing data - intention data (clicks), personal data, new content, ratings, etc. Web services that are the first to aggregate interesting and useful data establish a clear leadership position and a high barrier to entry for competition. Witness Google and its search index capability due to page rank data, Amazon and product reviews, Craigslist and classifieds. We discussed opportunity areas where new companies can be formed around this notion of data as the competitive advantage.
A core part of Web 2.0 is being agile, nimble, quick, and collaborative. This is all achieved with a lightweight programming and business model. Gone are the days of long software development lifecycle. Web 2.0 work is done with speed to market and speed to adoption in mind. This requires more agile methodologies, a perpetual beta product, shorter release cycles. It also involves a shift in design patterns. Hinchcliffe and Company highlights a number of Web 2.0 mantras, and at least one came out in this section, namely “Web 2.0 is not about push, it’s about pull.” A fundamental tenet of Web 2.0 from a design perspective is putting the person at the center of your service - they’re in charge. As such, we discussed the Architecture of Participation extensively, including how to create one and some components that are required in order to create one - being open in design and using the simplest standards to get the job done. The information in this area was quite rich
Staying on the topic of ‘rich’, we transitioned into the principle of creating rich user experiences and how to do that. This discussion included an overview of the main Rich Internet Application tools available today - Ajax, Flash/Flex, and now SilverLight from Microsoft. Despite my initial read on SilverLight, it actually sounds more powerful than I originally believed. We reviewed the basic positives and negatives of each, and the notion of the proprietary plug-ins required to run Flash and SilverLight applications vs. the openness of Ajax. Also discussed was the current complexity of Ajax due to the myriad toolsets available and thus lack of productivity. We closed with a good discussion on Widgets - the notion of being able to create functional chunks of application capability that can be distributed across the web and embedded in remote websites - examples include Google AdSense, and YouTube. In fact, it was interesting that a lot of YouTube’s early viral success was because it was easy to embed video clips in MySpace pages to share with that powerful social network. For a good look at widgetization of the web, check out WidgetBox.
Hinchcliffe states that this principle is tied tightly to the third principle, “Data is the competitive advantage”. We returned to a core principle of Web 2.0, namely that “it is about the people”. A paradigm shift is required to truly understand this and create a valuable Web 2.0 service - need to recognize that the people that come to use your service are “partners”, and their use and contributions make the service more valuable. These partners increase the value of the service through their contributions and their intention data that is contributed through their usage, not to mention their referrals and word of mouth that enable exponential growth. Services need to be sure to empower the users to improve the service. Some interesting and some now familiar examples were discussed (the Chevy Tahoe design your own ad campaign). An interesting one was XM Radio’s 20 on 20 campaign, which allowed users to design the programming for Channel 20. In a Digg-like rating fashion, users were responsible for the top 20 songs for Channel 20. Ratings for Channel 20 on XM rocketed up from the basement to being consistently among the Top 3 XM channels. We also discussed collective intelligence as a core enabler and component of social networks, blogs and Wikipedia.
I had to leave at this stage to catch a flight and get back to work on the Next Generation Enterprise revolution. Information on this Principle can be found on the Web from Dion Hinchcliffe’s writing, as well as their corporate site, and other bloggers who have written about Hinchcliffe’s work.
Overall, this bootcamp was a rich discussion of Web 2.0 and the core principles discussion was also followed by other items such as a discussion of Enterprise 2.0. Very thought provoking information, and a good framework for thinking about the complexity and overall opportunity of Web 2.0.
I’m now going to think a bit about this notion of a “Contribution Chain” as part of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 services. If people are at the core of Web 2.0 services, data is the core competitive advantage, and harnessing collective intelligence is key, then knowing how the Contribution Chain works is vital to Web 2.0 service design, growth and scalability. Though, Chain may be too rigid … may need to think about “Contribution Webs” or “Contribution Ecosystems” or “Contribution Networks”.
^ brian
Technorati Tags: e2.0, enterprise20, hinchcliffe, web20
Forrester Research has been taking the lead recently in defining the potential for companies to leverage the Web and new Web 2.0 technologies and processes to enhance their marketing and significantly improve their ability to engage directly with their customers. The latest report addressing this topic comes from Laura Ramos and is titled B2B Marketing Needs A Makeover - Now. You can read a summary of the report by clicking here.
One point of interest from this report is that B2B marketers are still relying primarily on trade shows as a way to directly reach their customers. Even if the right people are at the trade shows, the venue is hardly conducive for engaging in constructive dialog about customer needs or for relationship building. Moreover, once the show is over, the direct connection ends.
This is where Web2.0, or Enterprise2.0 if you prefer, can shine.
What seems to be lacking in the Forrester summaries and in the online dialog about the Forrester reports is a clearer definition of how corporate marketers can leverage Web2.0 technologies to successfully drive their marketing programs and generate increased leads and loyalty. In fact, this seems to be a general problem not specifically related to Forrester. A lot of buzz exists about corporate blogging and Enterprise2.0, yet very little in the way of offering advice on what specifically to do, or even how to do it in a way that generates meaningful results.
Kalivo is finding in its sales efforts that many to most companies are highly interested in leveraging innovative online social technologies to drive their marketing processes. Yet, nearly all of those that have an interest are unsure of what their needs are in this area, and what types of solutions they need to implement. It turns out that these prospects are willing to experiment with solutions, such as Kalivo and others, in an effort to learn more about what will work to engage more directly with customers and drive increased leads to their business.
Part of Kalivo’s role is coaching our prospects through the process, and highlighting the benefits of our approach to the solving the problem. However, as a service provider with a solution to sell, our perspective by definition will not always be viewed as impartial. In fact, we have done our research and believe our approach is best; yet only time and results will ultimately tell the truth. In the meantime, Kalivo and all other service providers that aspire to provide solutions in this emerging market will benefit if an independent company such as Forrester would go beyond defining the opportunity for companies, and take the lead in recommending how to seize the opportunity and which technologies and service providers will best serve companies looking to be marketing innovators on the Web. With all of the experimenting going on among companies in this area, the opportunity for valuable synthesis should exist.
I intend for this blog, and the Kalivo Customer Hub to be a source of research, thought-leadership, and conversation for our customers, prospects, and independent firms such as Forrester in the area of corporate Web marketing and customer engagement. I would also be highly interested in contributing to a broad research effort, by Forrester or any other qualified firm, that begins to define and synthesize tangible “best practices” as to how companies can begin to successfully drive leads and loyalty through effective Web customer engagement strategies.
– brian
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Being a CIO During a Recession
by David Trafford on 2009-06-29 02:56 AM read 422 times |
At a recent nGenera Insight dinner Professor Michael Earl of Oxford University opened the discussion by reflecting that nobody seems to be confident about making predictions about the national or local economy at present. His own instinct, based on observations in the UK and North America, discussions with the financial community and experience of past downturns, was that recovery was likely to be slow and relatively distant. He posited that there are four different - and not mutually exclusive - generic strategies for CIOs in coping with these difficult times: two on the supply side of IT and two on the demand side.
One is cost management, such as adopting budget cuts, headcount restrictions and pursuing technology procurement savings. A second is re-engineering, for example revisiting sourcing strategies, re-balancing IT skills and re-architecting IT platforms.
On the demand side is re-calibrating the applications development portfolio, for example focusing on mandatory and quick payback projects, or improving MIS and financial control systems. Finally, there is preparing for the upturn - probably in a smart and low profile way.
It was agreed that while there are sector-specific and even firm-specific variations, most IT functions are embracing cost management actions, especially budget cuts. Also several are looking at re-engineering, especially sourcing strategies alongside the pursuit of better deals with all types of vendor.
Re-calibrating applications projects too is happening, particularly ranking projects under capital rationing. Preparing for the upturn, however, is more difficult, especially given current uncertainties. Perhaps at this stage it is more a question of thinking or anticipating what would be 'cool' projects in terms of competitive advantage once green shoots of some vigour appeared, rather than initiating a new project now.
However, whether addressing supply-side options or demand-side options, one critical success factor is clear. IT decisions still have to be made with the business and so strong relationships between the CIO and the CIO's team with other senior executives still must be developed and nurtured. And perhaps the climate for such partnership is getting easier as more and more business leaders do realise that IT underpins most business operations and management processes today. In other words, there is a real chance that mature decisions about how IT can respond to downturn are being made.
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