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]

Enterprise 2.0: The Strategic Planning of Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Happy Fav Five Friday!

The Expression of 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.

listening: shareskiAtFlickr

Planning Enterprise Architecture: What? When? Where? Why?

You can get an idea about my perspective on Enterprise 2.0 here “The Art of Enterprise Architecture in E 2.0“, but we can save each other the time and sum it up in one word, “Listen“.  The strategy of enterprise 2.0 architecture starts with four simple questions.  Identify your stakeholders, ask them the following four questions, and listen to their answers.

• Why would you hide knowledge?
• What would make life easy for you?
• When do you share with others?
• Where can you connect with others?

This sounds pretty simple right?  I like to think of enterprise solutions as a party and this is the invitation.

4 Simple Questions on Enterprise Architecture

• Why would you hide knowledge?
  • The why question comes first, because if you don’t know why, then you can drop the whole thing.   I hope this does not sound like a sarcastic question.  Would you share your bank account information, social security number, or other private data in a public space?  Organizations don’t usually freely share information with their competitors.  We usually don’t share work-product, but it would be nice to have a controlled collaborative space to complete the work with invited co-workers.  This question usually helps us discover additional treasure about knowledge management.
• What would make life easy for you?
  • In the enterprise, this is usually framed around goals and vision statements.  Expect to hear about time and things that consume time, which can create barriers for accomplishing goals.  Listen carefully here and take notes, this is the foundation to adoption.
• When do you share with others?
  • All people share differently.  People choose to share when they are motivated.  What motivates them to share?  Listen carefully and take notes here because collaboration is the foundation of successful Enterprise 2.0.
• Where can you connect with others?
  • People easily connect with others when they feel comfortable.  Using the word “can” here instead of “do” will help open the door to new ideas.  Different types of conversations take place in different types of environments.  Would you have a detailed conversation about salaries in the middle of a design meeting?  Some people need “face time”, while others are perfectly fine in the virtual environment.  Deeper levels of connection surface detailed conversations.  Higher comfort levels relate directly to true engagement.  Listen carefully here because level of comfort and how people connect to each other are the keys to drive collaboration.

Image from Pragmatic EA

What is purpose of Enterprise Architecture?

• To provide the business with:
  • Structural Models to aid Strategic Planning
  • Governance to manage alignment to the Strategic Plan
  • Metrics to measure execution of the Strategic Plan

Learn more at Pragmatic EA http://pragmaticea.com/

Fav 5 Friday: Enterprise Architecture

1. Enterprise Architecture Matters – IT Tool Box
2. Fixing Enterprise Architecture: Balancing the Forces of Change in the Modern Organization
3. TOGAF Version 9 “Enterprise Edition”
4. The DoDAF Architecture Framework Version 2.0
5. There is no Enterprise 2.0, there is your Enterprise 2.0.

I also like the conversation here: Do Today’s Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Get at all Close to the Original Vision of EA?

Happy Fav 5 Friday!

Thoughts on Enterprise Architecture (EA) for E 2.0 Solutions

Happy Fav Five Friday!

Photo of Pyramid & Sphinx of Khafre/Chefren in Giza Egypt by Ankur P

The Cornerstone of Enterprise 2.0 ROI

The cornerstone of enterprise architecture in your organization unites people and process.  Yes, I put “people” first because I believe if you put process or even technology before “people” is the fast-track to failure and your organization will soon look like a scene from that movie 2012.  I hear so many organizations say they value people, “Our customers come first…”, “We value our employees…”, this core value seems lost on some enterprise projects.  The strategy of capturing return on investment (ROI) is “listening”.  Listen to your employees.

• What is in their way of helping you and your organization on the path to success?
• Who has the next great idea that will catapult your organization past your competitors?
• What if this great idea came from multiple sources? How would you connect them?

Your customers are smart about your products and services.  Your customers are also smart about your competitors products and services.  You may not be able to find a customer that knows everything, but a gathering of your customers can help you learn more than you know now.  Listen to your customers.

• What do they like most about your products or services?
• What do they like least about your products or services?
• Who prevents them from always using your products and services?
• When do they need your products or services most?
• Where are they and how can you get more?

You are smart.  You have thoughts and ideas about a strategy for a positive future.  You also have many resources at your disposal to help shape these thoughts and ideas into plans.  You can connect with unlimited resources to help execute these plans.  Listen to you.

• What would make your life easier?
• When do you share with others?
• Where can you connect with others?
• Why would you hide knowledge?

One Cloud by Liber

The Cloud is Moving into the Enterprise

Cloud Computing is moving toward the enterprise or maybe its the other way around.  Amazon (Elastic Compute Cloud [Amazon EC2] ) has a facility near Washington DC, actually just down the street from my house.  We also welcome IBM into the DC neighborhood, see what IBM thinks about Cloud Computing.  The movement towards Government 2.0 will also have government agencies thinking more about cloud computing.  You can see what Vivek Kundra (The Federal Government’s CIO) thinks about the future of Government IT in this report by David C. Wyld “Moving to the Cloud: An Introduction to Cloud Computing in Government”.

The Art of Enterprise Architecture in E 2.0

The art of enterprise architecture is all about connecting people and leveraging resources.

You may not be ready for the cloud yet, but there are many resources to help you with your needs.  The key to information architecture is to capture knowledge in “Shareable Content Objects”.  I believe the day of creating “web sites”, “portals”, and such will soon come to an end.  The future is about less risk and distributed responsibility with Platforms, “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) [ Cloudware ]  We will be free to focus on connections and content for distribution channels. The content distribution channels will continue blending together as we see mobile, web, and traditional media becoming one.

5 Favorite Resources for Platform Development

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
• Open Source Project SocialSite: Widgets and Web Services for Social Networking
• Presto Mashup Server by JackBe
• How to build a Social Networking Website with Drupal
• The Yahoo Developer Network

Enterprise 2.0 Strategy

The process of implementing enterprise 2.0 is a broad topic.  Ross Dawson does a great job covering this in his book, “Implementing Enterprise 2.0: A Practical Guide To Creating Business Value Inside Organizations With Web Technologies“  You can also find some great people and resources from the “Enterprise 2.0 Conference“, I have a small article about the conference here: 5 Trends Supporting the Future of Enterprise 2.0 There are a lot of smart people sharing their expertise on the web, here are just a few of my favorites this week.

• Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at Océ
• Enterprise 2.0: What do we know today about moving our organizations into the 21st century?
• The 2.0 Adoption Council
• E2TV: Enterprise 2.0 Conference Videos
• Enterprise Mashups in Major Transition

This next one is older, but important

• Enterprise 2.0 To Become a $4.6 Billion Industry By 2013