Web 2.0 powers up

By Vicky Burger, ITWeb portals content / relationship manager

Johannesburg, 30 Oct 2007

Web 2.0 and social computing harness the power of user contribution, collective intelligence, and network effects, says Victoria Bracewell Lewis, senior analyst of e-business products and channels at Forrester Research.

Bracewell Lewis will speak at the ITWeb Technology Roadmaps Conference, on 31 October, in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

Web 2.0 and social computing are changing the relationship between companies and their customers. As trust in established brands and media fades, consumers turn to one another for advice and validation, she states.

"Web 2.0 technologies and social computing are revolutionising brand building, giving customers improved ability to provide feedback about and to companies," says Bracewell Lewis. "It is understanding and tapping into consumers and their drivers that will determine Web 2.0`s impact and value."

Advertisers and media need to tap into this energy for innovation and communication, by integrating Web 2.0 with their marketing mix, she says. Marketing and technology in companies must work together in the design and implementation of a Web 2.0 strategy.

Working together

Web 2.0 and social computing tools foster, encourage and drive collaboration, and research indicates that co-operation, often organised from the bottom up, plays a much greater role in achievements, says Bracewell Lewis.

Stafford Masie, country manager for Google SA, and MC for the conference, agrees. Web 2.0 is an evolution of the mass social networking phenomenon and is all about interaction and collaboration, he says.

"From all online collaboration and interaction, we have seen the theory of the wisdom of crowds being personified. Open source software has resulted from this type of collaboration and immense innovation on the edges of the Internet," Masie says.

He adds that collaboration is core to enhancing client service and retention for businesses, ensuring more and deeper consumer participation in the conception and development of products.

Here to stay

"According to Radicati, the social networking market is expected to be worth $920 million this year and to blossom to over $3.3 billion by 2011," Masie adds. These revenue numbers are staggering, he says, and indicate the significant investment that has started in Enterprise 2.0 technologies by business customers.

A report by Gartner, published in July, says the social software market will grow from $226 million in 2007 to more than $707 million by 2011.

Regardless of which numbers are accurate, says Masie, "what`s clearly driving this market is the shift of consumer-oriented Web 2.0 tools to the domain of `enterprise social computing` and addressing real business problems".

Clearly, Enterprise 2.0 is more that just hype, and the value of social software is shaping up to create a billion-dollar market opportunity, he concludes.