Innovation and collaboration takes many forms at ‘Big Blue,’ including countless Intranet 2.0 tools such as thousands of wikis, blogs and the increasing popular Beehive.
Beehive is akin to Facebook, but slightly different. It is an employee social networking site.
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Like Facebook, Beehive users (appropriately called bees) can:
- create a profile
- post pictures
- post updates
- post comments
- organize events
- tag others’ photos
Read the entire case study: Beehive builds buzz at IBM
web 2.0 in the enterprise is fine but what about actual usage.
yes, 40.000 photos get posted but how many people actually read the blogs, wikis and look at the photos… let alone leave a comment.
It would be interesting to see what usage stats are and what the user behavior is like.
as expected… no comments by anyone. more or less proofing my theory that web 2.0 in the enterprise is a big hype put out by software vendors and consultants.
Well it shows how little you've learned “anonymous”. There are 3 comments here right now. But 'comments' are not a measure of usage or value. They're just comments. I guess Cisco's 65,000 wikis and many millions saved from them is just hype by a software vendor too? Oh yeah, they use open source software. I guess innovation and collaboration are just buzzwords at IBM where they make millions based on collaboration software.
Tony,
Firstly anonymous and Thomas is one and the sam person. I was just too lazy to retype my name and email address.
Secondly, you are totally missing my point. What I was asking for was to see actual stats rather than anecdotal comments.
The fact that a company has 650.000 wikis doesn't mean they are actually being used. So far I have seen very little in terms of usage stats to actually proof that web 2.0 in the enterprise is working. Yes Cisco say they saved millions but there has been no explanation how they arrived at that figure.
Discussion with Intranet managers and consultants at every single Intranet conference I have been to in the last 8 months indicate that the adoption figures seem to be very low.
Yes geeks like us leave comments on web sites and engage in discussion. However, it would appear that your average run of the mill office drone couldn't care less about engaging in a web 2.0 fashion with their co-workers.
I would love to see case studies that include statements like “we saved millions” to show how they arrived at that assumption. Anything but hard facts based on figures are assumptions which I would put down as hype.
You're not paying attention close enough. For starters, my name is Toby. Secondly, I have cited some case studies previously – do a search on 1Up.com and Placemaking (two stories on how wikis have saved significant money at two small companies). Finally, I've seen the Cisco spreadsheet on their ROI and its impressive — and it is millions. While you're entitled to your opinion, you're wrong that any of these are assumptions. So, no, its not hype, but reality and I've not missed the point as I've written dozens of articles on the subject and they're all available here or via link on this site.
The value of Web 2.0 is a huge debate in the communications community right now. I believe that it's correct to be sceptical but I also believe stating it's all hype shows your lack of understanding.
Web 2.0 improves search, refines content and creates dialogue. It's an extension of what's already happening in companies with directories, phones and email. There is a large number of people that say they need more proof. It's interesting because I saw the same argument from print news journalists in the 1990's about the Internet. There was an arrogance about print. I really wish they would have embraced the technology so quality journalism wasn't at risk today.
When Web2 became named, a lot of us were excited, not by the frivolous apps, names and pastel colours, but because the functionality is what organisations have needed for years.
Email, like democracy, is not perfect but it was the only system we had. With wikis and human categorisations, meaning was made that added meta-value over and above the file name.
Enterprise 2 hyped? Its not hyped enough. Oddly, its usually top-level management and the knowledge workers who get it.
Good points guys.
Interestingly though, we have found in our work with clients, and we talk with thousands of employees via surveys and focus groups, and many dozens in management too (face-to-face), and neither really seem to get or have a need for Web 2.0. But the techies do get it — and so do the communications folks. Its IT and communications that have taken up the Intranet 2.0 mantle.
I think that office desks applications have the real success here because the companies behind such projects have the money power to promote them in an aggressive way.
Not sure what you guys are all on about. I am working for IBM, I am a bee in the hive, I quite like the whole thing. This project was obviously a case study to see what can be done. I quite like the fact you dont have your personal mail box on the page. IBMs sametime is more than a simple messenger and allows at least all IBM employees to connect fast and easy.
Through beehive I have met amazing people from all over the world in a short time. The “event” function allows us to create meetings, both virtual and physical and finally there is a little space within a large company for each employee to be as creative and communicative as they like. The project has turned into something real that encourages every member to connect and find out about each other!
Over all I must say i am deeply impressed with “the Hive” and I have only found out about the whole thing a week ago!
Fantastic input Ellen, thank you. Can you give us any anecdotal examples of how Beehive has helped you or your colleagues connect with others or better deliver a project, or some sort of success story, however small?
Regards,
Toby
thank you 🙂