Microsoft and Enterprise 2.0
by Bill Ives
I recently did a post on IBM and Enterprise 2.0 in response to Jerry Bowles, Five Predictions for Enterprise 2.0 in 2007. Here is one on some things Microsoft is doing in Enterprise 2.0. The new Sharepoint seems to be the center of Enterprise 2.0 related activity, at least as far as I know, but first the discloser stuff. I have no current business relationship with Microsoft. It has been a client when I was with past employers. I interviewed a few Microsoft bloggers for my blog book, including Scoble, and several of my current business partners have done a lot of Microsoft related work, especially Sharepoint. I have not implemented these products myself so I am only reporting what I heard from others and this is not a product endorsement, just an attempt to start a conversation.
Here is a useful summary of the capabilities of Sharepoint and knowledge management by Mauro Carderelli. He covers knowledge management from a web 2.0 perspective. The new Sharepoint has templates for blogs and wikis, a social networking capability and RSS. Here is the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Product Guide. It states in support of the integrated platform concept that “Office SharePoint Server 2007 has an open, scalable, services-oriented architecture that provides support for interoperability standards including XML and SOAP, which makes it easier to integrate with existing processes and applications.” They are certainly aware of the possibilities and moving in make Sharepoint a platform for Enterprise 2.0. This will especially appeal to current Sharepoint users who can likely get these additional services for little additional software cost.
Here’s a screencast on the use of wikis/blogs in Sharepoint. It is produced by Channel 9, a Microsoft related site. Mauro recently did this article on creating wikis through the new Sharepoint in which he briefly relates this capability to Enterprise 2.0.
Microsoft has encouraged their employees to blog to try to establish more personal relations with the market and there are many Microsoft bloggers. Here is a list of current and former Microsoft employees who blog that I got from Anne Stanton. The site has links to other lists of Microsoft bloggers. Microsoft’s relationship with the blogosphere is mixed, both supporters and detractors, as you might imagine. Here is a recent controversial move, Microsoft hands out Ferraris to bloggers.
