UberNoggin

“What if someone posts something bad about us?”

“Anyone can edit our wiki? Can we block them?”

“How can we limit our employees from leaving our island in Second Life?”

“If we post our pictures can just anyone look at them?”

If I had a dime for everytime someone in business asked me these questions…well I wouldn’t need to blog anymore. I’d be lying in a beach somewhere where the humidity index is below %100 percent (it’s so hot in Indiana right now Al Roker actually put a clip art toaster on top of our state during todays weather forecast). It’s not that I mind the questions. I completely understand where they come from. Insecurity and Ignorance.

Gartner is at it again. Releasing press releases that cause a flury of fear mongering regarding Web 2.0 and virtual worlds. First of all, is this really a press release? I thought press releases were intended to make us aware of NEWS! Warning that corporations should be careful in virtual spaces is only news if you’ve been living in a bunker for the last two years. There’s absolutely nothing new in this release unless you were previously ignorant of the risks of any marketing and PR undertaken by companies. The only way to absolutely protect your company’s image is to have no image at all. The minute you advertise your service or product you open yourself up to scrutiny. Same goes for IT investments. Second, if you create a database, a website, a file sharing system, or just an email address you shouldn’t do it without first investigating the technology, understanding its usefulness, and the security risks involved. ‘Nuff said?

No.

Back in June, Gartner released the devastatingly useless news that by 2010 50% of governments would pull out of web 2.0. How many web 2.0 government applications do you know of? **crickets** That’s what I thought. I don’t remember any wiki-fied 1040EZ forms when I did my taxes this year nor do I recall any participatory sites for telling Bush what we all think about the war. Even more than business, government is a somewhat closed system. There are lots of ways to voice your opinion but aside from hearings and voting there are really no bottom-up models for open-source participation. So, half will pull out? Half of what? And the reasons for Gartner’s conclusions are almost laughable. They boil down to these: 1. If you give people voice they might not say what you want to hear and 2. If you give government empoyees a voice they might actually show themselves to be real people rather than bureaucratic robots. Gasp!! No, as near as I can tell the only politicians interested in web 2.0 are the ones currently running for office and pretending to care what we all think. Once elected their doors are shut.

But enough ranting, back to my point. The concerns and fears that businesses and governments (and I’ll lump some education institutions into this as well) have about web 2.0 come from two sources: insecurity and ignorance.

Insecurity: the fear that you aren’t what you say you are and that other people might notice. There are really easy solutions to this. Either be what you claim to be: put out a good product, offer a worth while service, represent the values of those who elected you OR don’t let people have a voice so those who notice your fraudulence can’t spread the word. The fears about web 2.0 in business and government basically boil down to these issues. Why not let your customers voice their problems with your product? Chances are they’ll tell you exactly what you should do to improve it and bygolly you could actually make a better product or at least explain to your audience why your product is flawed the way it is. Dialogue is key here, folks!

Ignorance: operating without all pertinent information on a situation. We don’t even teach children to run away from things they don’t understand. We teach them to be inquisitive, to ask questions, and to experiment. If you set up a web 2.0 site that gets vandalized or you establish an island in Second Life that gets taken over by malicious scripts you have no one to blame but yourselves (or the lackey you relied on to do your research, assuming you did any). There are successful ways to use web 2.0 technologies to your advantage and they rely on understanding the purpose of these shifts in technology. People want to be heard. They want to participate. They want to be a part of your product/government. If you give them the correct channels and actually listen to what they have to say web 2.0 can be incredibly beneficial.

Maybe I should tack a list to the end of this blog and publish it as a press release.

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