Enterprise 2.0: The Prodigal Parent

Stranger titles have appeared on this blog...

Following the Enterprise 2.0 conference on Twitter via its hashtag #e2conf, I noticed a strange phenomenon: most tweets weren't about Enterprise 2.0, but Social Business

In a post of over a year ago, appropriately titled Social Business Design - the beginning or end of E2.0?, I wondered what Dachis' definition was going to do to Andrew McAfee's, and now it seems, the time has come to pass the verdict

Rewind the clock to May 2006; Andrew McAfee defines E2.0:

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of freeform social software within companies

Needless to say, that definition is hugely tool-focused, as is the entire post. Later-on that month, Andrew made another attempt:

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers

For those of you now thinking he introduced people in that definition: you couldn't be more wrong. Andrew uses this definition to elaborate on the definitions of Social software, Platforms and Emergent, and once more restating that of Freeform

Fast-forward to October 2009: still, Andrew's talking tools and tech, people do play a part in those stories but they almost appear as necessary evils: they're just pawns in the great chess game

One month later, Dachis defines Social Business Design:

• People
• Process
• Technology

clearly placing technology at the very, very end, and people first

Wow. Scary! Up till then, E2.0 was an IT-fest, selling the proverbial tech fix for a human problem, and even though the 80's are part of last century and a while ago, IT people still aren't prone to handle humans very well - more about that in a next post...

Enough of that. Back to the conference. Enterprise 2.0 was mentioned in the hashtags, but not in the topics itself. Dion Hinchcliffe said at some point

Very interesting: IBM, Jive, & Adobe have all been using Social Business in their keynotes instead of Enterprise 2.0. #e2conf #socbiz #e20

which made me remark:

Where #E20 used to be about tools, process and people, and #socbiz about people, process and tools, they now seem to mean the same *cough*

and yes, that was slightly sarcastic

Maybe Dion got inspired as his next tweet seemed a Gandhi-like gesture:

My take: Any #e20 <--> #socbiz debate just isn't as important as focusing on solving business problems by better connecting people together

A great remark, but a little too quick for me. Did Enterprise 2.0 just suddenly die here? Dennis Howlett made a cunning remark the other day by saying

Lets be clear: @mcafee is an academic who stumbled across a way to make $$ talking case studies that proved his theory....sort of..

which was truly, truly too true to be good (...)

One year ago, Dachis seemed to be the prodigal son to E2.0, stepping away from the extremely IT-focused approach wielded by Andrew McAfee, and embracing people as the core focus of "Business 2.0". Over the past year, they and Altimeter have grown hugely just doing Social Business, and now Ray Wang takes that a few huge steps higher with his Constellation Research Group

This week, E2.0 returns to Social Business almost as a prodigal Dad, begging to be let in. I say we give the old man a break - but let's remember this parable and tell its tale the next time someone suggests that tools are at the heart of solving our issues...