Web 2.0 Global Survey Result from McKinsey

In the McKinsey September newsletter, the result of a three year Global Survey on Web 2.0 is summarized. Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, answered this years survey. 69 % of the respondents answer that they have benefited from the application of Web 2.0 technologies.

“When we asked respondents about the business benefits their companies have gained as a result of using Web 2.0 technologies, they most often report greater ability to share ideas; improved access to knowledge experts; and reduced costs of communications, travel, and operations. Many respondents also say Web 2.0 tools have decreased the time to market for products and have had the effect of improving employee satisfaction."

Thank you Malin for the link :)

Read more on McKinsey Quarterly

Web 2.0.. 3.0.. 4.0...

I read somewhere that the notion Web 2.0 has reached far beyond the top of “Peak of Inflated Expectation” at the Gartner´s “Hype cycle curve” (which aims to illustrate the over-enthusiasm for technologies in society).



The notion is interesting in itself, since it aims to define websites with focus on interaction, participation and involvement of users, in opposite to Web 1.0 sites which would be providing one-way information toward passive consumers. As my colleague Kristoffer said on a lunch last week – it is ironic that one calls them 2.0, since Internet the key aspects of Internet have always been about interaction, participation and involvement. That some websites have not been able to fully utilize the interactive opportunities of the new media should not make it eligible to classify them as the standard 1.0.

Anyway, now we see a rapid upgrading process, and discussions about web 3.0 and even 4.0 (where 3.0 is more individualized content derived from web 2.0 platforms, and where 4.0 is up for debate whether it is constant online-sites, real 3D, convergence with biology etc).

Some examples of attempts for Web 3.0 sites would perhaps be the Swedish ventures Newsbrook.se (personalized news site) and totiki.se (an attempt to merge several other web 2.0 sites) although both still in their infancy, and the more diffused iGoogle. An interesting example of Web 4.0 could perhaps be irlconnect.com, which is a Silicon Valley startup aiming to create a visual social network connected to the GPS, Twitter and other technologies to directly link communication to geography. The question from many “oldfashioned” is Do we really wish to be connected always? The answer from the Generation Y is – We already are…

A bit interesting also with irlconnect.com is the (perhaps political) choice of launching the beta-site with only selected web browser compability.

EURAM contribution accepted

Today I received a confirmation that my paper was accepted to the European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference held in Liverpool 11th -14th of May. It was of course very nice. Last year, in Ljubliana, I participated with a paper based on my thesis. This time I wrote a paper named "Stories of Web 2.0 mobilization - retrospective vs. "in the making". The aim is to show the differences in accounts, when gathering empirical data through retrospective interviews of (successful) processes compared to when you follow them over time. If you wish to know more about it, please send me your e-mail (bjorn.remneland@handels.gu.se).

The track I will participate in is called "Open Models in Knowledge Intensive Sectors: Free/Open Source Software and beyond", and the track leader is Lorenzo Benussi from Italy. I really look forward to the conference. This year over 730 papers were submitted. Exactly how many was accepted, I do not know.