E 2.0 – Twitter & Facebook inside the Enterprise?

How many minutes does it take for someone to mention Facebook or Twitter in an Enterprise 2.0 presentation?  Usually I hear someone explaining Enterprise 2.0 by saying “It’s like facebook inside the firewall.  You may also hear references to Twitter when covering enterprise 2.0 communication channel topics.  We also hear about twitter and facebook when people are discussing “Activity Streams“.  Dion Hinchcliffe covers “Activity Streams”, Microblogging, & more in this article: Ten emerging Enterprise 2.0 technologies to watch Other interesting news about “Activity Streams” is the patent granted to Facebook.  These are great tools in the Social Media/Networking space, however, most Successful Enterprise 2.0 Solutions are created around specific business needs & workflows.  Enterprise 2.0 is not facebook or twitter, but it is important for us to understand why these Social Media and Networking sites are so popular and apply our knowledge within our Enterprise 2.0 Architecture.

Shinjuku architecture by Stefan (Flickr)

Enterprise 2.0 Architecture

Enterprise 2.0 Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise. The equation values of collaboration and communication provide solutions for supporting goals, visions, & missions of the enterprise. The equation of business remains fluid, therefore the structure should not be rigid.  You can see more of my thoughts and resources on Enterprise Architecture in this article E 2.0: The Strategic Planning of Enterprise Architecture

Ross Dawson explains implementing Enteprise 2.0 in this article 8 Guiding Principles for Pilot Programs: A Key for Enterprise 2.0

Mark Fidelman wrote this interesting article The Machiavellian Guide to Enterprise 2.0 This article is packed with external resources, the most interesting is “Adoption Can’t Be Driven” by Paula Thornton.

Did someone from the Facebook Team visit you?

Did you read your Twitter Manual?

Are these silly questions?

Seems like most people in the Social Media world have adopted these services like a fish to water.  Most features are very intuitive, which leads to rapid adoption.   This experience feels like a result of Design Thinking.

Design Thinking

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative  resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.  It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases. Outside the box thinking is encouraged in these earlier processes since this can often lead to creative solutions.

In organization and management theory, design thinking forms part of the Architecture/Design/Anthropology (A/D/A) paradigm, which characterizes innovative, human-centered enterprises. This paradigm also focuses on a collaborative and iterative style of work and an abductive mode of thinking, compared to practices associated with the more traditional Mathematics/Economics/Psychology (M/E/P) management paradigm.  [Wikipedia]

5 Quick Dev/Design Tips from Twitter & Facebook

How we interact with technology is evolving.  Our expectations are higher and our patience is lower. The World Wide Web is a very competitive place, but twitter & facebook are seeing unbelievable growth.  Solutions inside the Enterprise have less competition and should experience rapid adoption.  Adoption rates may vary, so here are some areas to review, if adoption rates are not meeting expectations.

1. Adoption by Design is superior to any well written manual with petty pictures.
2. User Experience using Web 2.0/3.0 technologies to improve speed & behavior.
3. Use of standard Design Patterns for intuitive interfaces.
4. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) supporting sharing information across multiple devices in multiple formats & views.
5. Experimenting with Features along with collecting feedback, helps to keep users interested and shows you care.

You can also review Yahoo’s Design Pattern Library and additional resources at Best Practices & Guidelines for Developers & Designers.

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to leave a comment or two.

Tags: Architecture, Enterprise 2.0, Facebook, Platforms, Twitter

The Top Five Faces of 2009 for Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 is the art of adding value to your business.  There are many artists in this field, so it was very difficult to narrow down this list to the top five faces in 2009 for Enterprise 2.0. Please feel free to add your favorite enterprise 2.0 heroes in the comments here!

Andrew McAfee

Ross Dawson

Bill Ives

Hutch Carpenter

Dion Hinchcliffe

Enterprise 2.0 Architecture is not Easy

Enterprise 2.0 Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise.  The equation values of collaboration and communication provide solutions for supporting goals, visions, & missions of the enterprise.  The equation of business remains fluid, therefore the structure should not be rigid.

The complexity of business  is why it takes a true collaborative effort to create successful Enterprise 2.0 solutions.  This is why I am thankful for the information these artists/architects so willingly share with the community.

Thank You!

Andrew McAfee coined the phrase “Enterprise 2.0” in a spring 2006 Sloan Management Review article to describe the use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches by businesses. He also began blogging at that time, both about Enterprise 2.0 and about his other research. [More]

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. [More]

Bill Ives has served for over 25 years in leadership positions as a consultant in learning, knowledge management, other business applications of emerging technologies, and most recently with social media such as blogs and Twitter.[More]

Hutch Carpenter is VP of Product for Spigit. Spigit helps companies manage innovation, providing idea management and prediction market software for enterprises.[More]

Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, enterprise architect, keynote speaker, author, blogger, and consultant. [More]

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, strategy

Best Practices & Guidelines for Developers & Designers

spaghettiByhipperspectiveOnFlickr

Recipes for Avoiding Spaghetti Code: Best Practices & Guidelines for developers & designers.  The visual term “Spaghetti Code” comes from unstructured code, usually created by junior developers, which is difficult to extend and time consuming to maintain.  Developers & Designers can adopt Best Practices early to create Guidelines that will increase development time and decrease cost.

Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site

The Exceptional Yahoo Performance team has identified a number of best practices for making web pages fast. The list includes 34 best practices divided into 7 categories.  [Learn More]

Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site by Yahoo

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library

This Yahoo library shares user interface patterns with the web design and development community. Yahoo has 50 patterns today and more on the way. [Learn More]

http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

PEAR Coding Standards (including Docblock Comments)

The source code of PEAR packages are read by thousands of people. Also, it is likely other people will become developers on your package at some point in the future. Therefore, it is important to make life easier for everyone by formatting the code and docblocks in standardized ways. People can then quickly find the information they are looking for because it is in the expected location. [Learn More]

PEAR Coding Standards (including Docblock Comments)

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.sample.php

Zend Programmer’s Reference Guide

Coding standards are important in any development project, but they are particularly important when many developers are working on the same project. Coding standards help ensure that the code is high quality, has fewer bugs, and can be easily maintained. [Learn More]

Zend Programmer's Guide

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/coding-standard.html

W3C Markup Validation Service

This W3C validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. [Learn More]

W3C Markup Validation Service

http://validator.w3.org/

Avoiding Spaghetti Code & the Mess That Can Follow

These are my five favorite resources to help avoid “Spaghetti Code”.  There are plenty more resources available on the web, I hope you find these helpful.  I am thinking more about Ravioli (encapsulated code) and Lasagna (modular code with logic layers).  I hope to find the time to write about this, but I would also like to hear your thoughts on code development “Best Practices” & Guidelines.

spaghettiMessByoddharmonicOnFlckr

Tags: Architecture, Best-Practices, Code, Guidelines