It sometimes seems wierd posting about wiki's and Enterprise 2.0 as for our team it has been a natural way to work since the early days of our company. Right after accounting systems, issue tracking and source control, the wiki was one of our first major systems in our company and truly the first system that touched every team member and partner that we worked with - it crossed boundaries.

At that stage, it was interesting employing staff and team members that had never used a wiki before - it was certainly interesting watching those familiar with older more rigid and closed systems learn how to adapt to being open and transparent. Back then, it was us that was different.

Nowadays things have changed, and over time not being open, collaborative and transparent is seen as different. I remember being an early subscriber of using LinkedIn and being told that it was a silly idea - fast forward back to today and it is common practice to use LinkedIn not only to recruit, but also check references of a future possible employee. A phrase from speaking to a colleague in London who was hiring a few months back comes to mind - "If the candidate is not on LinkedIn, you really have to ask yourself, why not? Are they not connected, or is there something they don't want everyone to know". The truth is that you can't assume just because someone is private that they are bad - but you have to accept that the perception will change over time.

Enterprises now need to accept that Enterprise 2.0 is here and mainstream. Here's a nice video just released by Robert Mahowald, Research Director, IDC titled "IDC Video Podcast:: It's Time to Get Serious About Enterprise 2.0". Granted, it is not the most exciting video to watch, but has some great points and a prediction that within 5 years social collaboration tools will be an inseperable part of the enterprise collaboration environment.

Integration and Collaboration - the two ingredients that enable an organisation to increase business velocity.