Having just returned from the Future of Web Apps conference in London, I was shocked to find that even basic stuff like back ups is not standard practice among developers. It also seems that 15 years of selling applications into the enterprise hasn’t provided enough visibility for the lessons developers need to learn if they are to be successful in that environment. The most interesting aside is the belief among some that implementing social software like blogs and wikis is easy because they’re relatively cheap.
I spent a good hour discussing this with Suw Charman, who was involved in the Social Text implementation at Dresdner Kleinwort. As I said here, there was a real sense of deja vue during which I found myself nodding furiously in agreement and eventually not bothering to take notes.
So much of what Suw said seems depressingly familiar. Starting with the notion that because there is a lot of excitement around social computing as the Next Big Thing and is incredibly cheap to acquire that it will magically make its way into the business. It won’t. There was a lot of talk about being at the beginning of something and trying to figure it all out. I can relate to that but I believe that adoption patterns for social software are not that different from any other software implementation. You still have to overcome cultural and emotional barriers to adoption but in this case those same issues are attenuated to a higher level.
The good news is that so far at least, the big ticket consulting groups have not gotten into the game to any discernible extent. That means consultants like Suw can plough a furrow that sets the parameters for implementation and cost with which the Accentures of this world will struggle. Who knows, over time we might yet see the formation of a different type of consulting organisation. One that is leaner, agile and intent on achieving results rather than those that are ponderous and loaded with methodologies that stifle and constrict innovation.
The bad news is that companies are often looking at social computing as a marketing thing and engaging with agencies who wouldn’t know a software implementation from a hole in the ground.
The biggest issue is the blase manner in which social computing mavens seem intent on putting a bullet to their brain by trying to find convoluted ways of redefining ROI so that it is rendered irrelevant or unintelligible. That won’t cut it in the finance office where the cheques get cut for those implementations. The sooner we excise that kind of thinking the better.
