Industry Snapshot: Business and Web 2.0

Last week, the MIT Enterprise Forum hosted a full-day event on Web 2.0.  There were lots of fun and sexy (OK, not literally) peeks at the latest in web video, audio, and blogging.  There were many interesting discussions and several intriguing points were raised. For instance, the ever-increasing amount of customer-generated dynamic content is turning current search paradigms on their heads (good thing Google has so much capital….).

One of the most interesting things about this conference was the subtle, but fundamental shift in the focus from technology for technology’s sake to the consumer (both for B2B and B2C businesses).  In the past, events like this would spend much more time on technology…and even more technology—and, if someone remembered, they would admonish you to remember the market.  Today, there is a real understanding that the customer is your partner. You have to listen to them closely and, in many cases, let them make decisions about how you are going to do business.

This leads to the other, and much more fundamental, shift that was touched on—the realization that companies will have less control in a Web 2.0 world.  We see it now as consumers blog about products, as online communities develop a life of their own (see our book review below) and as customers become full-time innovation partners.  This loss of control has huge implications.  Although it was mentioned a number of times at this conference, it is a fact that most people have not really thought through as of yet.  So, why not? We’ll try to tackle this topic in next month’s newsletter.  Stay tuned.