Just What Is This Web 2.0 Thing & Why Should You Care?
Just when you think that you’ve got this Internet thing figured out, it goes and changes on you. When you become CIO the Internet is going to be both your best friend (always on connectivity) and your worst enemy (security). However, just like everything else in life the Internet keeps changing – now we’re using the Web 2.0. There are some fantastic tools out there for you, but will you know what to do with them when you are the CIO?
It’s Not Going Away, Now What Are You Going To Do?
Now I know that you’re bright and smart because you are reading this article. However, let’s take just a quick moment and make sure that we’re all on the same page here. When the Internet first showed up, it was all about allowing you to “get somewhere”. You could go to AOL, CNN, Yahoo, etc. and see what content they had for you. This was all and good and businesses all opened up their own web sites and everyone pretty much knew what was going on.
Well apparently that wasn’t good enough. Things moved on and a whole new set of tools were invented that built on the original Internet and made it even more user friendly – say hello to the Web 2.0. The tools that make up the Web 2.0 ecosystem are all about allowing people who are using the Web to connect with each other – it’s all about “connectedness”.
When you become CIO this is going to matter because everyone is now expecting more from your company. It’s no longer enough to be a destination, now you are going to have to work with your IT department to make sure that you are a player in the Web 2.0 world.
Why Doing Nothing Is Not An Option
Guess what – even if when you became CIO you put your foot down and said “Balderdash, we’re not going to get involved with this Web 2.0 foolishness” it wouldn’t work. The world is becoming filled with blogs (including one very popular one called The Accidental Successful CIO), wikis, mashups, and so on. Your employees will be using them even if you chose not to do so.
Instead of being a stuck-in-the-mud CIO, you will have an opportunity to do more and move faster than the CIOs who came before you. That is because the Web 2.0 tools are changing the way that corporate software applications are developed. Instead of being these big stand-alone application, now they are becoming sleeker Web Services that use what’s already on the Internet to perform functions as well as playing nicely with other applications.
If you turn out to be a really clever CIO, you’ll have one of those break-through moments that can define a career. What you’ll realize is that what the Web 2.0 tools really allow your IT department to do is to enable the company’s customers to do a lot work for themselves. Things that used to require somebody in the company to do (selecting product options, checking on the status of an order, paying a bill) can now be done online and with Web 2.0 tools they can be done much easier than ever before.
The clever CIO will be able to reduce the company’s required headcount while at the same time improving customer satisfaction. What’s even better is that you’ll be able to do this with the IT department that you currently have – you won’t need lots of additional staff.
What All Of This Means For You
The Web 2.0 has arrived and you need to be ready to deal with it when you become CIO. It has the potential to both help and hinder the tasks that you will need to do as CIO.
The Web 2.0 is a set of tools that transforms the web from a set of places that we go to a way to connect with other people. You will need to work with your IT department in order to harness these tools. Your goal should be to harness the power of the new tools and create ways for your company’s customers to do more by themselves.
If you can figure out how to do this, then you’ll end up saving your company both time and money. You had better hurry up, the Web 3.0 can’t be that far away…
- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills
Question For You: Of all the different Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, Ajax, etc.) which do you think is the most valuable to a CIO?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
If you want to be a CIOs, then there’s no need for me to tell you that we are living in troubling times We are always trying to do two things: hold on to our jobs and find ways to move up the corporate ladder. One of the best ways to do both of these, or so we have been told, is to go out and get an MBA. Maybe it’s time to look for a better way to accomplish what we’re trying to do…
