Web 2.0 is More than Bells and Whistles

Web 2.0 is the current flavour of the month in the online world. Businesses, start-ups and established corporations are embracing this new trend like, well, Web 1.0 circa 1999. What can Web 2.0 offer your business? We will explore three somewhat overlapping aspects of Web 2.0 and discuss its impact on organisations. There are three “spheres” of Web 2.0:

• Technology Architecture;
• Business Models;
• Aesthetics.

What drives the business model for a company to establish a Web 2.0 project? It’s about communication. The simpler the communication method, the greater the capacity to communicate more effectively, which inevitably leads to more people sharing knowledge. We have seen the explosion of user generated content, such as You Tube, MySpace and Flickr. Companies are now moving towards “employee generated” and “customer generated” content. Instead of managers and the executive writing “top-down” directives, we may see the emergence of “bottom-up” policies and ideas emerge and discussed from staff and “lateral” policies introduced from the macro data of customer experiences. Of course, the cultural aspects of the organization needs to support such open discussions and this level of workplace democracy for this to work. This also includes engaging with your customers in an open dialogue and be prepared to hear their opinions: good and bad.

But haven’t we heard this all before? Didn’t IT knowledge platforms of the past from Lotus, Microsoft and the myriad of other software providers going to help knowledge sharing and customer satisfaction? Yes, they did help. But as employees become increasingly comfortable with consumer oriented Web 2.0 websites the more they become familiar with both the culture and technology tools that aid knowledge sharing. Similarly, customers now expect companies to have online forums and blogs and be intimately involved with the brand and product experience- thereby increasing their loyalty.

So what is the software platform that enables Web 2.0? In simple terms, the software architecture of a website consists of a database (where raw data is stored in logical groups, eg. user login details), the code (which communicates with the database and decides what is displayed on a particular page) and the presentation (or the “look and feel” of the website). These are separate modules that communicate with each other. For example, if we change the presentation or “look and feel” of a website we don’t have to worry about changing the structure of the database. This means we can have database designers working on the database structure, the coders working on the programming and the graphic designers working on the presentation of the site. Of course, there will be interface points that need to be managed but by separating these three basic layers allows innovation to prosper in each layer as a specialist can develop solely for a particular layer and not have to worry about the other. For example, it is unlikely that a database programmer will have the artistic flair of a graphic artist designing a website’s “look and feel.”

You have probably noticed that new Web 2.0 websites like, YouTube, Flickr and the myriad of blogs out there, somehow look different. Bolder, cleaner, gradients, bigger text and less cluttered. Screen elements can be resized and buttons fade. The technology fuelling this innovation is AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript). We won’t be going into its details, but the key message is that AJAX is helping improve the look and feel and more importantly the usability of the web. By usability we mean that the web user experience is moving towards what we expect of PC software (eg. Word, Outlook etc.). Think of it as having the best of both worlds – the user experience we expect from PC software coupled with the power of being online via your web browser.

The other important technology, XML (Extensibile Markup Language) is a common language that allows software (be it on the web, PC or mobile) to communicate with each other. So by having that common format, data can be exchanged and presented in unique ways.

So how can Web 2.0 “aesthetics” help corporations? One of the key problems facing executives is the real time reporting of what state their organization is in. Revenue, expenses, customer satisfaction, burning issues, media and PR “buzz.” In most cases, the information is there; in fact one can argue that there may too much information. The trick is to turn information into knowledge (and hopefully knowledge into wisdom!). Web 2.0 technologies can be used to distill information into dashboard objects – charts, dials, bar charts etc. For example, below is a snapshot from Salesforce.com’s analytical dashboard:

Note the wonderful, colourful snapshot of the organization an executive can get and cut through the information “clutter.”

Concluding remarks

As with all new corporate technology, it’s important to have realistic expectations about what it can achieve. If you want a knowledge sharing blog make sure you have a knowledge sharing culture first with your customers. Want a great executive dashboard? Make sure you have a visually creative development team that can transform your old boring spreadsheet data into an imaginative array of dashboard indicators to help you, at a glance, get a hold on how your organisation is performing.