Management Information Systems:

Chapter 5: Enhancing Collaboration Using Web 2.0

Web 2.0 may sound as a complex term to us, but in fact, it can be considered part of our daily lives. Web 2.0 is the term used to describe the wave of change in business models and in Web site functionality that has transformed the online world. Web 2.0 introduces unprecedented ways to connect with friends, share knowledge with colleagues, or collaborate with a team of engineers from long distances apart. Some examples of Web 2.0 applications are Facebook and Wikipedia, which most of us already know of and use.

More formally, Web 2.0 refers to dynamic Web applications that allow people to collaborate and share information online. One of the basic concepts associated with Web 2.0 is the shift in a users’ role from passive consumer of content to creator; that is to say that nowadays not only are people retrieving information (content consumer) from the web, but also they have started to create their own web pages (content creator) and other forms of online content. In addition, Web 2.0 has allowed for the emergence of social software (or social media) allowing people to communicate, interact, and collaborate in various ways.

Regarding the business world, Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way workers relate with each other and with external people. Enterprise 2.0 is referred to as the use of Web 2.0 techniques and social software within a company’s boundaries or between a company and its customers or internal/external stakeholders. Social software can help to harness the wisdom of the crowd by leveraging the collective intelligence of large groups. Collective intelligence is based on the idea that distributed groups of people with a divergent range of information and expertise will be able to outperform the capabilities of individual experts (such as the use of online encyclopedia Wikipedia).  For organizations, using Web 2.0 applications can be an important factor in being able to attract or retain employees as younger generations (who grew up using social software such as myself) are joining the workforce.

1. Enhancing communication with Web 2.0

Social software can enhance communication within organizations as well as between an organization and its stakeholders. Blogs, made up of chronological entries that comment on virtually any topic of interest to the author, are widely used by individuals and organizations to communicate with internal and external stakeholders. Social presence (or microblogging) tools, such as Twitter, allow sending relatively short status updates to one’s followers.  In contrast to asynchronous discussion forums, blogs, and microblogs, instant messaging (or online chat) emulates real-time written conversation. It is used mainly for synchronous internal communication as well as for sales and customer support functions. The social network site Facebook has integrated instant messaging functionality. Virtual worlds allow people to communicate using avatars. They can be used to showcase products or hold rich interactive communication.

2.  Enhancing cooperation with Web 2.0

Web 2.0 applications facilitating cooperation depend on the network effect to provide the greatest benefit to users. The network effect refers to the notion that the value of a network (or tool or application based on a network) is dependent on the number of other users; if a network has few users, it has little or no value and vice versa. Media sharing applications allow people and organizations to share images, videos, slide shows, or podcasts with others. Examples of these are Flickr(images), Youtube(videos), Slideshare(presentations). Social bookmarking allows users to share and categorize Internet bookmarks, which can be helpful in organizational knowledge management efforts. Delicious is a popular social bookmarking site. Similarly, social cataloging helps to categorize and share academic citations, information about books, music, and so on. An example of this is web site named Zotero. Closely related to social cataloging is tagging; tagging refers to manually adding metadata(data about data) to a piece of information such as a map, picture, or Web page, this describing the piece of information for others and making it searchable.

3. Enhancing collaboration with Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies have enabled new forms of collaboration for organizations and individuals. With increasing globalization, virtual teams and virtual meeting have become more important for organizations. These and other technologies have enabled Web-based collaboration tools such as Google Apps or Microsoft SharePoint as well as content management systems. The users are central to the new Web environment and are no longer passive viewers of information. As the Web has evolved, individuals can now generate content using several methods, such as wikis, which are Web sites in which people can post, edit, comment, and access information (Wikipedia is the most popular). The idea behind wikis is that they allow anyone to contribute information or edit prior contributions. Another emerging topic in the Web 2.0 environment is crowdsourcing, or the use of everyday people as a cheap labor force.

 4. Enhancing connection with Web 2.0

For individuals, social networking has become an important way to meet new friends, connect with family members, or meet new colleagues and business partners. Similarly, organizations use social networks for internal connection as well as to connect with their customers, such as Facebook. The reach of social networks is also used by business organizations to market their products or services through viral marketing. Viral marketing resembles offline word-of-mouth communication, in which advertising messages are spread like viruses through social networks. As the web has grown immensely since its early days, finding relevant information has become increasingly difficult. In order to increase the relevance of search results, search engines such as Google or Bing now offer social search functionality. Social search incorporates blog posts, status updates, and other information from people within and outside a person’s social network as to supplement generic search results and enhance the quality. Syndication helps to connect people with the most current blog posts, podcasts, videos and news stories. Further, Web 2.0 technologies enable a rich user experience through Web services, widgets and mashups. However, many see Web 2.0 only as a transitional period and regard the semantic Web and Web 3.0 trends, such as the World Wide Database, open technologies, open ID, integration of legacy devices, and intelligent applications, as the future of the Web.

Web 2.0 has proven to be beneficial to individuals and companies in many ways and without a doubt it will most likely keep doing it as time passes.