Legal KM

Enterprise social software, also known as Enterprise 2.0, is a term describing social software used in "enterprise" (business) contexts. It includes social and networked modifications to company intranets and other classic software platforms used by large companies to organize their communication. In contrast to traditional enterprise software, which imposes structure prior to use, this generation of software tends to encourage use prior to providing structure. The association AIIMdefines Enterprise 2.0 as a system of web-based technologies that provide rapid and agile collaboration, information sharing, emergence and integration capabilities in the extended enterprise.

The term "Web 2.0" describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

I thought it was a good time to go straight to the source and speak with the visionary CEOs leading the E2.0 charge.

In this four-part CEO series, we'll look at one shortcoming the industry has faced so far and work to rectify it with Defining Collaboration in 2009.

From there, we're identifying the Top 5 Challenges facing Enterprise 2.0 in 2009 and looking at the ways these firms plan to survive the coming storm.

First there is an effort to better structure information as it is captured. Second, there are efforts to create structure out of chaotic information (a.k.a. BLOBs), which is where next-generation search tools come into play.

For now I will break search into three categories: Keyword, Concept and Semantic.

Keyword or word searching, for this discussion, is that of searching for exact word matches.

Headshift is Europe's leading enterprise social computing consultancy. We have over 5 years' experience in designing, implementing and growing next generation social software solutions. Based in London, we also operate in New York, Paris, Sydney, Rome and Zurich to serve the needs of international companies and local markets alike.