Leader: Consumer education

Firms wanting to exploit Web 2.0 features need to hand over control to users

The term “Web 2.0” is an absurd phrase and, in that sense at least, the concept has deserved the righteous kicking it has received in the media and elsewhere. However, the elements underlying that umbrella term are anything but frivolous and are now quite rightly finding their way on to corporate networks.

The consumer web’s smarter user interfaces, extensive use of multimedia, and simple means for publishing, inviting and subscribing put older paradigms to shame. Using tricks stolen from Facebook, LinkedIn and Wikipedia offers a way to wriggle out of the deathly embrace offered by business applications designed back in the mists of time. Who knows, perhaps even knowledge management systems may become usable rather than falling into disuse and becoming decaying fodder for jokes.

Blessed with so many new options for revamping software, it might seem pedantic to quibble but there is a caveat to the use of consumer web technologies for the office cubicle crowd. That issue is loss of control, evidenced in the first generation of the web when familiar UI look-and-feel was thrown out to let graphics designers take over the public web site, intranet and extranet.

To get the most out of the latest web technologies and the consumer experience, a delicate balance of dictatorship and laissez-faire will be needed.