Enterprise 2.0 -- Putting Vision in Perspective
When it comes to new media, I often see practitioners fall into two camps – techies and non-techies.
I was reminded of this dichotomy last week at our Technology Association of Georgia Enterprise 2.0 Society Speakers Series here in Atlanta. The presenters were from Brighthouse and their discussion centered less on technology and more on the power of new media to unleash new ways of thinking, communicating and marketing.
Geoff Livingston in a recent article exploring the value of a Chief Blogging Officer position mirrors that point of view. “The problem is that too many people focus on the actual tool: the blog.”
So in the world of techies and non-techies, where do you stand?
For the most part, techies focus on the features and tools. Non-techies talk about community, conversations and strategy.
At their best, techies guide us through the maze of new applications, while non-techies give us context. At their worst, techies get bogged down in the minutiae, and non-techies soar into generalities.
In their passion, both sides are self-proclaimed evangelists offering competing visions for a communications practitioner. One talks about the primacy of the message, and the other talks about the tools to deliver it.
Professionally I prefer the term advocate. Evangelism sounds too extreme. Trying to keep a foot in both camps, I am either a really smart consensus builder or a just plain wishy-washy generalist.
Especially in the context of Enterprise 2.0, I say enough with the Age of Aquarius (primacy of community) and -- to borrow a title of a book from Ray Kurzweil -- the Age of Spiritual Machines (primacy of technology).
In the rough and tumble world of today’s enterprise, perhaps it’s time to take the “new age” out of new media and give vision form and function. Vision by itself can only take you so far especially when management needs a business case for adopting social media.
Sometimes as Brighthouse CEO Joey Reiman suggested to me, it does take one voice with passion and vision to get the ball rolling. But at the same time, I don’t believe blogs, social networks and community building will be widely embraced in the business world until we start grounding web 2.0 in practical terms that address real business objectives.
So in the context of today’s enterprise, non-techies and techies alike can benefit from a little perspective. Perhaps we should focus on how we are going to reach the millennials (the generation Y who are tomorrow’s consumers) and not millenarianism (how we are going change the world).
Let me get back to you.
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