Hi Sören,

I am actually finishing my MSc thesis in 'Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Organisational Strategies' by Cranfield University, UK.

Some of my thoughts and information sources can be found through the project blog (www.thebestofenterprise20.blogspot.com)

Moreover, if you had 15minutes you could contribute to support some of the conclusions for the future of VLEs in a survey that you'll find posted in such blog.

I'd be very glad if you could complete it today.

Keep in touch.

Rafa.

Hi Sören,

as I browsed through this blog yesterday for the first time ever, I found this article and was wondering if you know the "Sensitivity Model Prof. Vester". I read about it a few years ago in Vesters book "Die Kunst, vernetzt zu denken". In my opinion it sounds like a great tool for looking at complex systems of nearly any kind.

The Sensitivity Model is a methodology where a group of people tries to construct a model of the system they want to examine. The goal is to collect the system relevant variables and there relations to one another using a special software (which costs a lot of money). At the end the software is able to run different simulations of the constructed model, visualizing the impact of the system on certain variables or, the other way around, the impact of single variables on the system. It is possible to change the "values" of different variables and let the software show the effect on the system at all. Moreover the role of the variables become visible. Is a variable one with a great impact on the system at all or does it react strongly on changes of other variables within the system.

The point here is that people are not very good in analyzing complex systems. We all tend to simplify things or simply do not have enough knowledge to overlook every single aspect of a system. The Sensitivity Model helps in collecting all the isolated aspects that different people know about a system and connects them to a model, which then reveals the "true" overall behaviour by running different simulations. In order to get good results it is important that the group working on the model consists of people with different views on the system and different opinions about it.

So I don't want to write a thesis. But what do you think about an experiment: Try to find a group of differently thinking people who are interested in giving an answer to your question by using the Sensitivity Model. It is important to have advocates as well as sceptics! (And by the way: I really would like to be a part of that group to get the chance to learn how the Sensitivity Model "feels like")

If you are interested, take a look at http://frederic-vester.de/eng/sensitivity-model/. You can find a short description of the Sensitivity Model and its software here: http://frederic-vester.de/uploads/InformationEnglishSM.pdf. There is a list of publications as well. Maybe "Auf dem Weg zum lernenden Unternehmen...: Organisationsentwicklung durch Simulation? Erfahrungen mit dem Einsatz eines DV-gestützten Simulationsverfahrens zur Lösung von komplexen Problemen im Bereich Führung und Personal." is of special interest to you :-)

Soren,

Sounds awesome. It seems natural that the changes should improve innovation and client relationships. Seems that the challenge is often to get the people to really embrace the change - whether they're a VP, a senior software developer, an engineer in the test lab...or even the folks in shipping and recieving. This orientation seems to work well for companies that grow up from that thinking in their base - harder for older companies to take on. A comanies culture develops early in its life, and communication/communications methods tend to be central to the culture.
Good luck with the direciton, I'm sure you and the good folks at Coremedia will be even more successful with it....and I can't wait to read the thesis.

Hello Sören

I’ve just completed my dissertation for my MBA (Technology Management) during which I researched how wiki implementations should be managed in business and the extent to which wiki management and usage could encourage collaboration and organisational learning. The ‘agile’ and ‘creative’ aspects of your hypothesis may not be too far removed from ‘adaptiveness’ and ‘creativity’ themes of the learning organization, although your overall emphasis on ‘Enterprise 2.0’ is obviously wider than my study of wikis, and certainly raises very interesting issues for longitudinal research.

From my research I concluded that wikis have improved organisational information flow, enabled people to work/communicate more efficiently and effectively, learn from past experience and share knowledge/ideas, in organizational contexts which are not averse to collaboration and learning. Accordingly, wikis provided platforms for collaborative and emergent behaviour, which could not satisfactorily proceed through existing technology. However, there were lesser indications of wikis’ ability to help people network and identify new business opportunities (which provides the opportunity for blended tools to bridge this gap). Also, it was not possible to conclude from the research whether slight changes in certain learning organization characteristics resulted from wikis’ fostering of such collaborative/emergent behaviour or will become more pronounced as wikis mature. (Note that 47% of the 102 wiki installations surveyed were under a year-old.)

Whilst I collected some elementary cross-sectional data/opinions on wiki management and its effect on organization learning and collaboration, it was beyond the scope of the study to establish definitive measures/metrics to assess wikis’ impact in that regard (if indeed that is possible/worthwhile) or whether there are consequential effects on organisations’ productivity/performance. Likewise, in terms of the hypothesis you are suggesting, some causal connections would need to be established between ‘Enterprise 2.0’ and improved agility and creativity, making an organization more competitive, which then actually improves its business performance – more than just ‘staying alive’?

You can read more about my research at http://pennyedwards.net.