IBM lends gravitas to Enterprise 2.0 trend

Leveraging Web 2.0 in the enterprise will mean transforming IT to fit a new paradigm of end-user needs While far from being the first major enterprise software vendor to offer Web 2.0 capabilities, IBM today jumped into the game with both Big Blue feet, a move that will surely accelerate enterprise adoption of Web-based social software. And when that happens, IT will have a lot to think about and do to ensure th

Leveraging Web 2.0 in the enterprise will mean transforming IT to fit a new paradigm of end-user needs

While far from being the first major enterprise software vendor to offer Web 2.0 capabilities, IBM today jumped into the game with both Big Blue feet, a move that will surely accelerate enterprise adoption of Web-based social software.

And when that happens, IT will have a lot to think about and do to ensure that Enterprise 2.0 delivers on its many promises.

IBM today announced three major collaboration and social networking applications under the heading of a Web 2.0 Goes to Work Initiative. The three applications are IBM Quickr 8.0, IBM Lotus Connections, and IBM Info 2.0.

IBM has been using the concept of collaboration and information sharing internally for the better part of a decade, according to Jeff Schick, vice president of social software at Big Blue. Schick tells me that seven years ago the company built employee profile capability within IBM -- called Blue Pages -- that support connecting people to people, people to information, and people to the extraprise.

With 6 million lookups per day, Blue Pages gives IBM employees access to co-worker's phone numbers, IM presence, and profiles -- which help them locate colleagues with a particular expertise.

This week IBM officially launches the commercial version of all this under Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections, and Info 2.0. While the concept may have been around for 10 years, I'm certain the technologies IBM is using today are far different.

Quickr is team collaboration software, and Connections is a social-networking application in the vein of MySpace and FaceBook, but with an enterprise focus. The apps have a lot in common in terms of the technologies underneath.

Quickr allows users to share and organize content libraries, create online collaboration sites, and access libraries through plug-ins on their desktop applications.

Connections offers five capabilities, including profiles to find people with expertise in particular fields, communities to build team sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and something called Dogear, which is essentially a way to share bookmarks. Another feature called Activities allows users to monitor their work with a dashboard, share tasks, and establish best practices.

Finally, Info 2.0 is a mashup technology that gives users the ability to mix and match components from various applications to make new applications. The example IBM offers is a store manager tracking inventory shipments against weather reports from national weather advisories and then mapping that with Google for inventory management.

IBM tipped its hand about all this in January and this summer will be under a full head of Web 2.0 steam, shipping these applications by the end of June.