If you are in corporate and have little faith in the meaningful potential of Enterprise 2.0 technologies in business, and if you're looking for a hero, meet Babson College professor Tom Davenport. 

Representing the other side of this debate, as very well reported and summarized by writer Sharon Gaudin in this CMP Intelligent Enterprise piece, is Harvard Business School associate professor Andrew McAfee. That link takes you to a static bio of Professor McAfee. This link takes you to the blog he created… the first for Harvard Business School faculty ever.

You should read Ms. Gaudin's piece for the full perspective from each of these professors. But their respective positions are in my view vividly demonstrated by what you find and learn when you go online to check our Mr. Davenport versus what you find and learn when you go online to check our Mr. McAfee. Tom Davenport who calls himself an agnostic or 'doubting Thomas' when it comes to Enterprise 2.0 technology effectiveness in the corporate world does not appear to have a blog. I could not find a link to a blog of his own either on his site or by searching on Google blogs by author. That's not surprising given his stated view of Enterprise 2.0 value. But lest you think this means Professor Davenport never posts anything, here's a list of his recent postings courtesy of Google.

Lastly, in the piece by Ms Gaudin, Professor Davenport is quoted saying the following: "I have yet to see any major example of how capitalist organizations make more money because of Enterprise 2.0 or any example of corporate culture being transformed by Enterprise 2.0. I have no problems with using Web 2.0 technologies in organizations, but I do have some problem with the idea that it means a radically new version of enterprises." … Davenport said the idea of giving employees more of a voice isn't new and there long have been techniques, if not technology, to enable it. Want to know what a worker is thinking, put up a suggestion box, he said.

I think he's probably kidding about that suggestion box idea. He's making a joke. It's not possible an individual as accomplished as Professor Davenport could have missed the interactivity component of the Web 2.0 world. He can't possible think a suggestion box fosters conversation and community. Instead, I think he's saying that interactive community conversation in business has not yet demonstrated to him any real corporate value.

Obviously, I disagree, but I enjoy the debate because I'm living in the real world of that debate right now. About 75% the time I encounter corporations that side with Professor Davenport. The rest are in varying degrees very interested in the possibilities of Enterprise 2.0. The profile of the companies in the smaller group is, in general, in marked contrast to the ones in the larger segment… but that's a post for another day.

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If you lead, manage or teach at a major university and you're still not blogging, either just as yourself or on behalf of the institution, you're missing out on some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Not to mention it is the cheapest, fastest, and most effective means of communicating with an audience you crave… people who are looking for you online.

Look, for example, at what I found. This link takes you to a blog offered by the Randolph Community College Library. Library? As in hard copy books and periodicals? Yep. Scroll down the page and to the right in the sidebar you'll see they have enlisted seven staff contributors. Examine for a second some of the recent posts such as the one entitled, "Top Ten Web Tools for College Students."  Do you think this sort of thing means anything to current and would be students in North Carolina where Randolph Community College is located? Do you think that this sort of online interactive conversational "community" effort might distinguish and differentiate an institution like Randolph Community College over competitive schools in that region? Absolutely.

Here's their standard website, by the way.

I suppose f you're with a prestigious Ivy League college or at a university with a national reputation, it's tempting to dismiss this sort of thing. You might think, "That may be fine for a small regional community college about which few people are aware, but it's not for us." As noted earlier this week, however, organizations within Harvard University offer blogs.

Do you know, for example, that a fully-functioning, customized blog template can be built in about a week… all using OpenSource software that is free?  Do you know that a blog embedded in your static, traditional website can deliver Search Engine Optimization benefits that will significantly boost overall traffic better than almost anything else you can do?

Blogs are also a 24×7x52 platform for instantaneous communication. Information about, and rapid reaction to, major events or a crisis can get out as fast as it is written. If you are being ignored or criticized by the local establishment press, a blog is your own newspaper… your own viewspaper.

Randolph Community College at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro, North Carolina, may be just a small, regional school. But a lot of people could take a lesson from how this 'community' college is living up to its name in more ways than one.

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