What do wikis, blogs, podcasts, social
networks, virtual worlds, and the rest do for
corporate productivity and management?
BY STEPhEn J. anDRioLE
Business
impact of
Web 2.0

Technologies

tHis artiCle desCriBes research designed to measure the impact of the business value of wikis, blogs, podcasts, folksonomies, mashups, social networks, virtual worlds, crowdsourcing, and RSS filters—all Web 2.0 technologies. Properly deployed, they may well permit companies to cost-effectively increase

their productivity and, ultimately,
their competitive advantage; the re-
search reported here includes results
of interview, observation, and survey
data-collection from select compa-
nies and industries primarily in the
U.S. across six performance areas:
knowledge management, rapid appli-
cation development, customer rela-
tionship management, collaboration/
communication, innovation, and
training. The results include caution,
skepticism, and a significant contri-
bution to collaboration and commu-
nication. Wikis, blogs, and RSS filters
have had the greatest impact, while
virtual worlds have had virtually none.
Security remains a concern, but we
found that communication and col-
laboration are generally well served
by Web 2.0 technologies.

key insights

Web 2.0 technologies can help improve collaboration and communication within most companies.

These technologies should be assessed to determine real impact, and a number of assessment techniques, including interviews, observations, and surveys, can be used to measure impact over time across multiple business areas.

These technologies can help improve collaboration and communication across multiple vertical industries, though many companies are cautious about deploying them.