"We found that Second Life allows more user engagement than traditional video or phone conferencing," says Thomson's Breakstone, who is testing Second Life as an environment for meetings. "One employee told me, 'I've participated in lots of meetings and I tend to be very quiet, but I felt very comfortable opening up in Second Life.'"Where's the Beef 2.0?
Sick of hearing about Web 2.0? You're not alone: Our recent InformationWeek poll found heavy skepticism about Web 2.0 technologies. Few enterprises are adopting them, and fewer still find them useful.
Complaints starts with the term itself.
"Web 2.0 is a widely used phrase devoid of meaningful content," says George Stasky, a network administrator at cellular repeater company Certified Installation Associates. Stasky investigated Web-based applications as a way for the company's engineers to share information while at customer sites, but quickly rejected them all. "Stop reading the brochure and start using some of these technologies in a simulated environment. You will soon see that they fall short of their promise and disappear."
When asked to define Web 2.0, more than half of respondents said that it's an overhyped buzzword. (See figure.) It's easy to see why: Every popular Web site seems to get stuck with the "2.0" label, and vendors have been quick jump on board the bandwagon. But while most enterprises will see little business case for using MySpace or YouTube, other Web 2.0-style technologies are finding a place. A look at early adopters of wikis, mashups, social networking and Second Life shows how the latest consumer fads can have a real impact on the workplace.
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