Web2.0 Collaboration Tools
Collaboration2.0 - a new generation of virtual collaboration products or just slicker marketing?
A hot topic at present on the web is the suggestion that we have now reached a new level of products, services and suppliers. Some are calling it Web2.0 and others such as BusinessWeek are calling it WebSmart.
Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, attempts to summarise what he believes to be the core competencies of Web 2.0 companies:
- Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
- Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
- Trusting users as co-developers
- Harnessing collective intelligence
- Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
- Software above the level of a single device
- Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models
So what about collaboration2.0?
This discussion on so-called Web2.0 got me thinking whether there might also be a clear set of emerging collaboration technologies and companies - let's call them “Collaboration2.0” which might be as different from ‘Collaboration1.0’ as Web2.0 is from Web1.0?
So to try and start some debate, here is my discussion starter on some current interesting trends in virtual collaboration technologies which individually may not be significant but when taken together might collectively constitute the new wave of Collaboration2.0:
********Collaboration1.0 -> Collaboration2.0
- Formal Projects -> Informal teams, networks & loose groups
- Intra-organisational -> Inter-organisational
- Asynchronous Discussion Forums -> Chat Rooms & Social Networks & Reputation Systems
- Mailing Lists -> Syndication/Notification/RSS
- Document management & version control systems -> Wikis, Lightweight file sharing and Blogs
- Email-centric communications -> Mobility & Presence-aware applications
- Traditional Telephony & High-end Video Conferencing -> VoiP, Mobile Phone Integration, web conferencing & Flash-based products (no downloads)
But what do you think?
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Ken, it is great to see this kind of discussion about web collaboration tools. As a representative of ProjectSpaces, I am not sure where we fit in with the Collaboration 2.0 vs. Collaboration 1.0 categorization. We do support many informal teams, networks, and loose organizational groups. ProjectSpaces is capable of meeting both intra-organizational and inter-organizational needs simultaneously. Some clients run ProjectSpaces as an internal shared space, while they concurrently have an additional space for outside users. We certainly have tools in our product that fall within in both the Collaboration 1.0 and Collaboration 2.0 realm. Quite honestly, I don't believe many of our clients are ready to switch over to Collaboration 2.0 tools entirely. Adoption of collaboration tools is a concern we constantly consider whenever we introduce new functionality to our ProjectSpaces. Many users develop a comfort level with the tools they have and are sometimes apprehensive when you introduce new technologies. Therefore, when we do integrate new technologies (whether web 1.0 or 2.0) we do so in a way that does not disrupt user habits.
Great post Ken, I guess the criteria that you have mention is being solved now. If you are still looking for something to meet the criteria, check out cyn.in ( http://cyn.in).