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.