Since the start of the industrial revolution in the early 1700s, technology advancement is moving extremely rapidly as compared to earlier days of human existence. Development in metallurgy brought about the possibility of mass producing products of all kinds which includes copper wires, machinery, guns, engines and many more. I probably do not have to explain how this development have changed our lives. Other huge developments in technology came about in the development of electricity, telephones, air travel and the internet. If I were living in the 1700s, I will surely not think that there could be a day, 300 odds years later, that people could communicate online, video conference and access to the world of information from a mobile device (well telephones haven’t been invented in the 1700s). So what is the future of technology for us 100, 200, 300 years from now? This is one question I don’t think anyone can answer however, let’s look at the near future of information technology development for us.
Information technology in organisations have jump leaps and bounds within the last 30 odd years, from the simple desktop computers to enterprise applications like ERP, SCM, BI and so on. Internet has been one of the key drivers in the development of such systems as it allows fast communication between two parties. Looking at many of these technologies, I realised that they are targeted at automation of manual tasks or improve information flow. So far technology have yet to harness the power of humans. Even though I have been preaching about the benefits and possibilities of leveraging the wisdom of crowds, social networking and collaboration, there is still alot to be done. I still feel that alot of organisations are targeting improving the performance of their work teams or strong tied teams (read this to understand what I am talking about) they have left out optimising leveraging crowd wisdom, innovation and getting the right people together quickly to solve a task. I believe that this is the immediate future of enterprise technologies. After all, the great Michael Porter believes that “Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity”.
Secondly, in a previous post, I have discussed that I have kinda reach the limit of information processing with the current set of technologies I use. However, I felt that there were decisions I make on a daily basis that is repeated and generally always the same. Decisions like if there is a car in front of me, I must slow down; if I read a report and find some clues of a problem, I will raise it. There are redundant things we do everyday like getting to work or reading a report, processing the information and raising issues. Artificial intelligence is probably next in the pipeline for technology advancement. Within the scope of AI, there are many sub issues we need to solve first, for example, heuristics and natural language processing. With these technologies, humans could optimise their time for work and leisure and reduce the non-productive activities we have to get through daily.
This is an exciting era to live in and I am excited to see how things pan out. This is obviously just my personal take on what I think of the future. What is your take?
I think there is a strong difference between collaboration software and social business software. Collaboration is about leveraging virtual teams and increase efficiency in working together. Its basically targeting only the strong ties section of McAfee’s Enterprise 2.0 Bull’s Eye. However, organisations who are not targeting the weak, potential and no ties part of the organisation would be losing out as there is so much more skill that could be leveraged by connecting with those groups. This is where social business software sits…
I think collaboration on real deliverables is absolutely critical for the success of an organisation however, its not just collaboration. Its also connecting and creating new relationships across the organisation. Its also about finding the right people to do the right job at the right time effectively.
Many business leaders acknowledged that Enterprise 2.0 is something important to the organisation and some of these leaders have spent time investigating how they can implement it and leverage the benefits of Enterprise 2.0. A smaller group of them have adopted Enterprise 2.0 within their organisations. This is all great news.
I believe that many leaders do not understand that Enterprise 2.0 changes the way people work within an organisation – from the top all the way to the bottom. Gen Y’s are looking for open communication, honesty, information and innovation. The younger generation is expecting alot from their leaders and this is will have a growing impact on organisations as more Gen Y’s enter into the workforce. Leaders must start changing the way they manage their organisations, the old command and control way of doing things is slowly fading away. Collaboration, communication and innovation are all important aspects.
I am not saying that all command and control should be removed. What I am saying is that leaders need to find the right balance in everything they do. Constantly seeking feedback on issues that affect individuals, collaborate and listen to employees, embrace and fine-tune innovations.
Having being part of an Enterprise 2.0 implementation, I soon found out that collaboration and communication is awesome. My efficiency is way through the roof and I can accomplish more within a day. However, what I also found is that when I am faster and more efficient, I was taking in alot more information and processing more tasks within the same day. Technology could help deliver the right information to me when required but I can only do that much within a day. I can only process a certain amount of information a day and complete that many tasks (tasks that requires brain and decision making functions).
Where is the future for Enterprise 2.0? Once organisations embrace this technologies, are we at the peak of human collaboration, communication and sharing?
Some might contest that artificial intelligence and agents could help to deliver even higher capabilities, but AI has been a concept for over 20 odd years and nothing really concrete has emerged. Even Business Intelligence nowadays is dependent on the reports and analytics we design and implement into the production system. AI has still some distance to cover before it can be commercially viable.
What I am trying to say here is that as employees are becoming more efficient with the help of technology like Enterprise 2.0, BI and things like that we are bounded to the fact that we can only do that much a day. Are we reaching a point where humans are at the most efficient and there is not much more room to grow?
With the recent economy crisis, many universities are facing a huge drop in thier funding from corporate organisations and layoffs is somewhat common. In the most recent event, even Harvard is facing a tough time. Having spent alot of time in universities, I have found that many of the ideas I discuss with my professors years ago are becoming an industry trend now and first movers have become rich and famous. There’s money to be made.
When I was in University, and no offence to my Alma Mater, I did some really silly projects that had absolutely no value (financial or educational). Considering that most universities groom the future talents in their space and having many thousands of them on campus, I am pretty sure we can do something to optimise the usage of the brain power that is lying around. Not just from the professors or PhD holders but also from the young and energetic students. There is wisdom and knowledge in universities and there is also a huge crowd!
By leveraging this knowledge and the power of crowds, Universities could set up successful startups and once it starts making money, the money could then be fed back into the university as extra funding and benefit both the students and employees. As far as I know, Univeristies have been doing this and even some employees have came out on their own and implemented their own great ideas. Since this is the case why not make it bigger and better?
G'day, Sean here. I am a senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and also a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne and my proposed thesis title is "Implementation of Enterprise 2.0 and its Value in Organizations"
This blog is dedicated to topics surrounding Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Collaboration, and IT strategies for organizations with the aim of increasing efficiency, increasing profits and reducing costs. Hope you enjoy this blog.
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my employer's and/or University of Melbourne's positions, strategies or opinions. I have not been compensated in any way for the content.
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Since the start of the industrial revolution in the early 1700s, technology advancement is moving extremely rapidly as compared to earlier days of human existence. Development in metallurgy brought about the possibility of mass producing products of all kinds which includes copper wires, machinery, guns, engines and many more. I probably do not have to explain how this development have changed our lives. Other huge developments in technology came about in the development of electricity, telephones, air travel and the internet. If I were living in the 1700s, I will surely not think that there could be a day, 300 odds years later, that people could communicate online, video conference and access to the world of information from a mobile device (well telephones haven’t been invented in the 1700s). So what is the future of technology for us 100, 200, 300 years from now? This is one question I don’t think anyone can answer however, let’s look at the near future of information technology development for us. 
