Web 2.0 Four Tips for Getting Good ROI from Web 2.0 Projects

As a IT project manager I read alot of professional periodicals. Today I came across this article that seems as if it were written for me. CIO magazine ( along with Information Weekly, is a good source of information for current or aspiring IT managers who may want to end at the C Level of management) published an article giving details about Four Tips for Getting Good ROI from Web 2.0 Projects.

The article discusses the fact that recent research performed by the Burton Group shows that there is still a bit of a struggle for business leaders to implement an effective strategy when trying to introduce Web 2.0 technologies and measuring some type of Return on Investment.

CIO magazine also interviewed Jeff Stafford the manager of capital investment and innovation strategy for Embarq, a high-speed internet and phone company which "had some early success making Web 2.0 part of its overall innovation strategy to improve idea generation and ultimately create new products. " During the interview Mr. Stafford detailed four keys to implementing Web 2.0 technologies and how to get some sort of measure.

1.Target Your Inefficient Communications:

Embarq has communicated both internally and externally using staple enterprise technologies: phone, teleconference, and, of course, e-mail. There's an inherent slowness to those interactions. What we needed was a place to collaborate in a central location, where all the information could be visible.

Stafford decided to implement the Jive Social Business Software, an application suite that includes blogs, wikis and discussion forums.

2. Pick a Software Delivery Model:

Many social software vendors run on a purely software-as-a-service (SaaS) based model, where the data is hosted offsite and users access applications using a web-browser.

Embarq, however, knew that its people wanted to talk about product development and other R&D related projects over a social software platform, so it wanted to own the servers housing the data.

Jive includes profiles for each user to upload his or her picture and list expertise. Each site you set up within Jive has the capability for blogs, wikis and discussion forums on certain topics.

3.Executive Buy-In Is a Must:

Social technologies in the consumer space thrive because end-users adopt them through "viral channels," enterprise social software needs some top-down encouragement in order to drive adoption. This doesn't mean you need to mandate that people use the technology, but if the boss mentions that the technology may help bolster a project, the chances for success improve

4.Measuring Your Web 2.0 Success: Time is Money:

It's often difficult to assign hard ROI numbers to social software projects, since it doesn't replace any existing infrastructure but compliments or improves it. As a result, Stafford says you should measure how much faster the platform allows you to accomplish tasks and collaborate on key projects.

Web 2.0....Those who are in the business world actively implementing new strategies

So the summer is almost here, and the weather is excellent, but I am going to be the diligent little MBA'er and continue to do my homework. Recently I had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation about web 2.0 technologies. The presenter was Dwight Gibbs, who us currently the CTO of Input, an information provider of government contract information. Mr. Gibbs has an entertaining presentation style and insightful outlook on the direction Input should go with Web 2.0 technologies. Mr. Gibbs eluded to the fact that many opensource web 2.0 technologies can be used to implement problem solving solutions at a very low cost. Mr. Gibbs went on to give details about the differences in Web 1.0 and 2.0(how data is presented, how sites are and information is coveyed, the dangers of over collaboration, when new content is just a re-hashing of previously produced data, lack of original thinking) and how a company or individuals may capitalize on these differences, and what is yet to come from collaborative development and user generated content.

Like all the presenters from this Mr. Gibbs has a in depth background when dealing with technology. Serving as a technical leader in all the companies he has either started or been employed by, Mr. Gibbs has a unique view point on how Web 2.0 has transformed the way the static web has moved towards a more rich and interactive experience.

I believe the biggest thing I took from the presentation is the fact that someone how has a background similar to myself (implementing new technologies to increase efficiency and solve current issues) can actually learn how to find out the answers to the question WHY should we implement these technologies and HOW do they actually help benefit the business.

Oracle buys Sun Microsystems (Own Java Own the Web 2.0 World)

I'm sure every one saw the big news of the day, Oracle (famous for their very efficient business class Enterprise Relational Database Management System) and Sun Microsystems(the company that created the language that is given the most credit for ushering in the Internet era) have agree in principle for Oracle to buy Sun (Heck this is almost as big news as the Jay Cutler being traded to the Bears by my Denver Broncos).

Aside from the rumblings this will send thru the world of Microsoft, the sure to come complaints that opensource will either soon go away or garner more support than ever (especially since Oracle has their own "unbreakable" Linux operating system), I wonder what consequences this will have on Web 2.0 technology. Sun has a bevy of tools that are opensource; the NetBeans IDE (which I actually think is better than Eclipse), Project Kenai (which allows developers to freely post projects and have forums for discussion), JavaFX (allows you to bring expressive, feature-rich content to mobile devices), and many many more. You add that to the company that has made database RDBMS systems better than anyone else (yes I am biased. DAMN SQL Server for getting rid of Data Transformation Services (DTS)packages). Add to that Suns Hardware platforms, and it seems that the newly formed Sun-Oracle (or SOracle...Sunacle....S/O, O/S.....ahh they will figure it out) has the tools in place to make a end run at a lot of Microsofts .net platform and products. It has yet to be seen if this latest transaction caused by the poor economy will bera big fruit, but it is going to be fun to watch. I know where I work this is all the Geeks are talking about. That's about 4000 geeks!!!!!!

Web 2.0: Google ad words the webinar series

I may have mentioned the fact that I am currently trying to finish up my MBA (in break neck fashion.......I'm just tired of school, but I think I am learning alot). Well the Web 2.0 strategy class I am enrolled in has provided with the opportunity to learn more about why businesses and entrepreneurs should implement these technologies, not how I can as tech professional I can implement these technologies(In other words don't think about what tools I need to make these things work but how I should try to use these things to make my company more efficient or increase revenue). Well our Professor Bliss, has had a series of informative speakers come to class and talk about how they view and utilize, and where they see these technologies taking us into the future. One speaker mentioned the power of Google adwords and how this tool has been key in new marketing campaigns. So I decided to research AdWords a little more. I can across Google's AdWords Webinars series.

These series of webinars cover everything from "Getting Started & Tracking Conversions" to "Advanced B2B Advertising". These webinars are hosted by Google employees, many of which have had a major role in developing different aspects of Ad words and and Google Analytics (a web hosted tool set that allows customers to view multiple reports on how effective their websites are performing). I recommend anyone who has an e-commerce website who is trying to drive traffic to their purchase page to definitely check out this source of free information. Even if you don't choose to use Google's tools you can learn alot about how to drive more traffic to your site by using the correct keywords.

Web 2.0 databases....part deux

After performing somemore research on Greenphosphor, this is what I've found out:

Created by Green Phosphor is a gateway which can take a database query or a spreadsheet and place a 3D representation of it into a virtual world.
Allows users to take a database query or a spreadsheet and place a 3D representation of it into a virtual world.
Allows users to see data, and drill into it; re-sort it; explore it interactively.
People are represented in the virtual world as avatars and use the to interact with the data its self. (Personal Assistant)
Content Injection and Control Protocol allows applications to place interactive content into virtual worlds. By providing a standard, cross-platform way for external entities to interact with users inside a virtual 4d spacetime, CICP promotes software innovation. Here are some of the benefits:
proprietary, closed-source software can participate in open-source virtual worlds
the same version of an application can be used within multiple virtual world platforms
application intelligence resides outside the world; only temporary, spontaneously-generated content lives in the world
the complexities of in-world scripting and programming are handled by the protocol
leverages HTTP
takes advantage of virtual worlds with distributed architectures by transmitting data directly to the clients
supports fully interactive content which is essentially the "avatar" of some external program
automatically adjusts for lag when streaming content updates
Greenphosphur created CICP to function as HTTP for virtual worlds. Greenphosphur has implemented CICP for Sun Wonderland, and released it under the GPL. Greenphosphur has also implemented it in Second Life with the help of a Java servlet and released it under a BSD license. Greenphosphur is working on an OpenSimulator implementation, as well as implementations for the leading commercial virtual world platforms.
CICP was created so that data visualization gateway could work with multiple virtual world platforms.CICP will also be useful to developers of artificial intelligence services, architectural model gateways to virtual worlds, process modelling systems, and any other application which benefits from the rich collaborative environment that a virtual world offers.

I believe that this could be a useful collaborative tool that would be used to visulalize a database or spreadsheet in a 3-d environment, In my opinion, it would be difficult to come up with a situation where I would need to have a visualization where multiple folks need to analyze data of this magnitude in at the sametime. Greenphosphur first idea is to work with a drug company that is trying to model their drug discovery and development. I am sure that there is an educational opportunity where kids can interact looking at historical/mathamatical/ or scientific data. Maybe even solar system data and deepspace data telescope data.

Web 2.0 etiquette,,,,,,Yeah Thats Right.....Manners

So I haven't been on my soapbox for a while(too much work...so little time). So I thought I would pass along some advice that I read about in a recent Baltimore Sun Article "Had enough texting? Invoke Flesh Rule" I know I am supposed to be blogging about how Web 2.0 technology is changing the way the world works for the better.....well lets talk about how it's changing it for the worse. The article authored by Janet Gilbert details how we technologically advanced humans have forgotten about the "Flesh Rule"....and for those of you with fiendish grins....get your mind outta the gutter.

The Flesh Rule states that when engaging in any social, business or leisure activity, you should always give the person who is physically present your full attention. In other words, the person in the flesh rules - not the person on your cell phone, your BlackBerry or your iChat.

It seems these days that people are forgetting how to communicate face to face. They'd rather the only face they see is the little shiny panel of their Iphone or CrackBerry.

It can happen, especially in a world where there are so many ways to be in contact with geographically distant people, thanks to cell phones, PDAs, e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

Janet seems to have the same opinion I have about going to far with new tech and social media technologies. She states that she sees violations of the Flesh Rule all the time. Here are a couple of examples that she has had experience with

•You enter a fast-food restaurant. On your way to the counter, you notice a parent talking on a cell phone while distributing meals to two children under age 5. Fifteen minutes later, the parent is still on the phone, while the children sit there like potted plants, only the human kind with little brains that can process the fact that they are being marginalized. Flesh Rule!

•You are at a party with a friend, Constance, who constantly sends text and photo messages to another friend, Missy, who had to miss the party. Flesh Rule!

•You are behind a person in the deli line who is talking on a cell phone about her mother's medical condition while ordering luncheon meats. You overhear, "Mom's gall bladder was about to - hold on, could I have that shaved? So, yeah, it was inflamed and - wait, could you slice from the rare end?" Flesh Rule!

•You are at a restaurant with a large group, and the person sitting next to you is text messaging between courses. In this case you may wish to add "Bon appetit" to your standard "Flesh Rule."

•You're speaking to someone in a work setting, and his "instant messenger" beeps. He apologetically excuses himself to attend to it, but becomes increasingly involved with the electronic interchange, holding up a finger to indicate "one minute." Flesh Rule!

Or how about when you are out at brunch and your friend whom you are with starts a fifteen minute text conversation about whether or not she should have worn her skirt because it is so nice outside. Flesh Rule!!!! Or if your at a tequila bar about to down $24 shots of Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Tequila(the good stuff) and one of your boys nearly spills all the shots your carrying because he has his face plastered in a phone screen trying to send some stupid video text of the bar we are in to some girl who is in the same bar with us.......ahh hell with the Flesh Rule thats a SLAP Rule!!!! (Sorry, but recent events have me a little hyper these days).

I agree with Janet when she says:

I think we can agree that it's high time we incorporated the "Flesh Rule" reminder into our daily lexicon. If it's not too much trouble, perhaps we can also resurrect "please" and "thank you." But remember: "Flesh Rule" is not an aggressive phrase. It should always be spoken as a gentle acknowledgment, not unlike "God bless you." Because it's definitely not about disconnecting.

But I also think that saying it a little aggressively sometimes can drive the point home as well. Well me and the box are done.

ADOBE AIR.....The next "cool" WEB 2.0 tool

CIO magazine posted an article about the Web 2.0 Expo Conference and what items were a big hit. The article goes on to detail about how

Adobe had its hand in a couple announcements concerning big consumer Internet brands at the conference this week. The first concerned Facebook and its ecosystem of developers who utilize Adobe Flash. Flash is a technology that enables applications and websites to become more animated, helping add features like online video. People who develop third-party applications for Facebook that users install on their Facebook pages make use of Flash (around 12 of the top 20 Facebook applications have Flash).

I did a little more digging into this ADOBE AIR product, turn out the runtme engine allows

developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.

This means that application developers can create systems that can operate offline and then activate further functionality or upload data when an active Internet connection becomes available.

This is good news is for businesses. They can establish a more persistent connection with existing customers by

* Deliver fully branded experiences with desktop functionality
* Leverage existing personnel, processes, and infrastructure
* Develop and deliver RIAs efficiently using proven Adobe technology
* Increase the ROI of your web investments

In other word consumers can place orders for items, search company catalogs, and perform other task that usually require a constant internet connection without being connected.

This can save millions of dollars in overhead, reduce the need to allow employees to have connection to the internet or use an internet browser. This also reduces security overhead and the use of firewall software. The benefits can go on and on. In the end this could mean goodbye to Internet Explorer and Firefox on company desktops.