enterprise 3.0: new representations of new markets: Preview

September 29 - October 2, 2007
The Greenbrier
300 West Main Street
White Sulphur Springs, WV 24986

Preview

Al Chandler, the legendary business historian, demonstrated that competitive advantage comes from the invention of new management practices which are made possible by technological changes. Historically, these changes included advances such as the railroad which transformed logistics and distribution, and the personal computer which gave every executive knowledge and computational power at the desktop. Today, we stand on the brink of another explosive change-Web 3.0-which will have profound effects on how we organize, lead, and manage our organizations.

Web 3.0's predecessor-Web 2.0-deals with technologies such as web services that are meant to provide seamless connections between applications and people. It encompasses wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds which help individuals form and strengthen social networks throughout the web and throughout their organizations. Major companies from McDonald's to Nike are already using these new media to improve their relationships with their customers and employees, and politicians and governments are using them to communicate with their constituents.

We are in the era of the "mashup"-the fusing together of two or more applications to create a new and more useful capability, such as overlaying Google maps with the Yellow Pages. While most organizations are still grappling with how to use some of these technologies, we believe the more profound effects will come from the next generation of applications which will create value by doing more than merely bringing together applications and people.

At this DiamondExchange, we are inspired by the observation of science fiction author William Gibson, "the future is already here-it is just not evenly distributed." In that spirit, we will examine the emerging next generation of networked applications encompassing identity and increasingly "intelligent" programs. We believe new social behaviors will evolve from new, virtual depictions of reality, nascent institutions, emerging currencies, and greenfield markets, and will have deep, economic, legal, and social implications over time. Those who see these changes early can learn and adapt faster.

Take Second Life as an example. This on-line virtual world is a new representation of reality. While some think of it as a game or fantasy land, the reality is that some people on the site are making real money in virtual space. Many companies have begun to advertise, conduct market research, and build or plan a presence there, including IBM, BestBuy, Sears, and Reebok. But participation in Second Life is not limited to corporations and individuals-it is becoming a political forum as well. All four of France's presidential candidates had virtual headquarters in Second Life, and U.S. politicians have held press conferences and interviews there.

The objective of most organizations is not necessarily to create a "Second Institution." Instead, it is to learn about what is possible in a virtual environment before applying that knowledge in the real world. The 3.0 environment will allow for richer simulations of complex scenarios and decisions than are possible today. It will re-define how we think of identity-virtual and real-making identity more secure and more portable. And it will start to encompass situational awareness-the dynamic assembly of different threads of data, including identity, preferences, and locations-to provide the right information to the right people at the right time, as the military has already done.

If Al Chandler is right, it is your job as a leader to invent new management practices, and to design the capabilities enabled by these new technologies into your business models and operations. At the next DiamondExchange, we will explore the management possibilities emerging from Web 3.0 technologies, and what they mean for how organizations operate and compete.