Mark O'Loughlin

World Leaders attending Davos-Klosters at the end of this month, are being challenged to rethink, redesign and rebuild the world.  The agenda will challenge attendees to help "shape the post-crisis world".  Given this challenge the World Economic Forum, in addition to its normal programme, are launching a web 2.0 collaborative platform, WELCOM.  They hope this will enable leaders to build knowledge, share insights and reach out to key online stakeholders over the course of the year.  To me this again communicates that web 2.0 is considered now as a key component in any collaboration strategy.  Especially, in this instance, where the community is geographically dispersed.  I shall be very interested to see the additional value that the World Economic forum obtain from using WELCOM throughout the year. 

The programme this year will focus on:

• How to Strengthen Economic and Social Welfare 
• How to Mitigate Global Risks and Address Systemic Failures 
• How to Ensure Sustainability 
• How to Enhance Security 
• How to Create a Values Framework 
• How to Build Effective Institutions

Let's hope WELCOM can support attendees address some of these issues in a "post-crisis world" during 2010.

Rumours are circulating as to whether Apple will in H1 2010 release a tablet based computer.  Their delayed entry into the e-reader market could signify that they have been working behind the scenes to offer a step-change experience, equivalent to that of the iPod, to e-reading and not just rush to release a 'me-too' product to market.  It is rumoured by some reports that the New York Times' Editor spilt the beans or at least gave a big hint, which if it was to be revealed to be true, could signify that already Apple is building the partnerships to deliver content behind the scenes.  Could this explain Rupert Murdoch's recent announcement to Google?

We must not forget if there is a a revolution in the wings then it started a few years ago with the emergence of XML and RSS - the ability to subscribe to news feeds that can be delivered in a common format so they can be edited locally.  From my own perspective, I hope the rumors turn out to be true, despite my growing shelf of e-books I have held out from the current range devices on the market, maybe the iSlate may tempt me to make the trip to Regent Street in the spring.  

I found this site useful as it outlines how the iSlate could look and function.

2009 was a tough year, there's the good news. The bad news is that 2010 may well be tougher for those that choose not to respond.  Often it is the resisting change and not the change itself that is the harder act.  It could be argued from one perspective that the well oiled IT machine has over last few years stabilised, we are after all at ITIL v3.  IT is in many ways predictable, performs okay in many organisations and from a CFO point of view has managed to get a reasonable control of costs.  In 2009 many IT departments survived through costs cutting, doing the same for less and managing to resist deeper, underlying change.  IT managed to survive shaving a few percentage points off the operating expenditure and got through 2009 without severe casualty.  The problem is that if IT continues to  think like this then it is thinking in a vacuum.  The underlying problem remains and that is in 2009 the markets and business arena fundamentally changed.  The information system that is IT has to also respond, it is required to provide the information needs of organisations who now operate in a more connected and agile world.  In 2010, in my humble opinion, we will start to see reactions to the changes in the business arena from many large organisations.  Traditional market watering holes have shrunk and in order to survive organisations will need to follow customers/suppliers to find new ones.  Those organisations hoping the storm has passed without their world changing may be resisting change which may leave them to find themselves left behind.  Pockets of ‘green shoots’ are likely to emerge in 2010 if they have not already - interesting, niche companies, exploiting new gaps in the market and hungry to make a yard on established players.  Established payers have no choice but to respond and react to new competition and one of the key enablers to support this response is through information - IT.  Up-to-date, configurable, real time information will need to be available on the move across organisations.  It is in my view the time for IT to embrace change and again underline its value-add over and above commodity services in the boardroom.  There are threats on the horizon to IT through consumer based technology,  social technology and a born-connected generation are all converging on the business arena, meaning that customers, suppliers and users are changing and emerging with new expectations of IT.  We now approach the festive period, and after the challenges of this year it is a welcome time to reflect upon 2009 and gain energy and focus ideas for 2010, the questions is coming back next in 2010 how will you respond?   

On first examination it may seem a reasonable practice to suggest that collaboration technologies should require a well argued business case prior to investment, but you may ask where is the hook, on what do you pin the business case?  If given this task today then it would be wholly reasonable to consider a starting point of cost of communication, and no doubt you would quickly reveal that face-to-face communication in your organisation would carry a high premium, that , in some cases, may not provide best value.  With a little more thinking; adding in the cost of travel numbers you have an outline business case centred on removing 'unneccessary' face-to-face communication and therefore associated travel costs.    

With social technologies however, the business case may require a little more thinking and assumptions may be overly streched as you try and model demand and associated benefit for Wiki’s, Blogs, access to Facebook, Twitter and the likes.  One of the challenges is that in most cases the use of these technologies is not mandatory they are more viral and very much user benefit led.  Altruistic and not process based.  Voluntary not mandatory.  Users decide when, what and how often they contribute so business case assumptions on uptake and overall use may be a little difficult to accurately estimate.  Leaving for the moment the challenge of quantifying the benefit of say Twitter over and above email, could we think about the business case in a different way?

Let’s turn the business case on its head, and think what is the cost not to collaborate, this may make a little more sense.  In reading recently Maria Azua’s The Social Factor he quotes one CIO’s sentiments here “This technology [social technologies] is not just an opportunity it is a necessity.”  A necessity, as is an office (in most cases), a phone, web site is to most organisations.  That is a shift in thinking, no longer a nice to have but a necessity.  In his view core to doing business in today’s “social age.”  Customers and suppliers are starting to expect you to use them, new employees (the so called Generation Y) expect to use them, existing employees expect to use them.  After all taking one scenario, why should we limit our use of social technologies when inside our corporate buildings or logged in remotely working from home.  We are, according to Azua, in a new age, a socially defined age and to get ahead organisations need to provide the tools for us to be successful.  If our organisations delay or do not we will go elsewhere eventually as necessity begins to bite.  Where could we go?  Outside the firewall, outside the website filter and even possibly use our 3g phones to access social technologies to interact with suppliers, customers and colleagues.  I will step over in this post the infringment of our information governance responsibilities that may bring.  Here’s the challenge, because of necessity we will have gone, corporate control would have been lost, and the cost to get us back in the future may be far greater should we even come back.  Now creating an argument around the increasing necessity of social technologies, just to be in the game now that would generate an interesting business case.

Next week www.ted.com comes to Oxford for its annual conference, where 700 delegates debate some of the most important ideas of the day.  Split in 12 sessions ranging from 'What we know' to 'Nature's Challenge' it is an interlectual feast of ideas and debate.  Unfortunately I will not be attending, but one comforting factor is that many of us are still seeking out intellectual debate, we want to debate the big issues and seek out those with big ideas that can possibly address them.  If this is not provided through the mainstream politics and media we will seek it elsewhere.  That is why ted.com freely releases the videos from the event, it wants to provide a platform for intellectual debate.  Each presenter is limited to 18 minutes, I strongly recommend having a look if you have not already done so.