We've updated our Enterprise 2.0 Events List to include all the relevant events we know of happening over the next 12-18 months (if we've missed any please let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Included is the Office 2.0 Conference 2008 which is returning to San Francisco this September. It will be the third year for Office 2.0 with IT|Redux promising "a bit more users, a bit less vendors, a bit more fireside chats, a bit less panels, and the usual débauche of sleek high-tech gadgets that is our gathering's trademark." -  look out for more details coming soon as the event is planned in "nine weeks with no staff".

Also updated is our Enterprise 2.0 Vendors Directory. We have started to populate it with Software Vendors, Consultants and System Integrators. If you'd like to add your company to our directory simply click  the 'Add your listing here' link in the appropriate directory section.

Gartner have predicted that Enterprise Mashups “will be the dominant model (80 percent) for the creation of new enterprise applications” listing them as one of the Top Ten Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012. In May 2008 Forrester defined Enterprise Mashups as "custom applications that combine multiple, disparate data sources into something new and unique"  and projected that the enterprise mashup market will reach nearly $700 million by 2013. 

At the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston IBM provided a richer definition. In Enterprise Mashups - A Technical Deep Dive Nicole Carrier (Product Management Lead for Lotus Mashups) defined Enterprise Mashups as "a lightweight web application created by combining information or capabilities from more than one existing source to deliver new functions & insight."  and described the characteristics that are common amongst Enterprise Mashups:

• Rapid creation (days not months)
• Reuses existing capabilities, but delivers new functions + insights
• Requires limited to no technical skills
• Often mixes internal and external sources

Managing organisational cultural change is a well known challenge and was a common theme from the Boston conference case studies. Without the support of the management and employees Enterprise 2.0 technology projects can fail disastrously. Euen Semple , an independent business advisor on social computing with grounded experience of cultural change, recently posted a list on why he thinks most companies will fail at Enterprise 2.0. The CIA  (USA Central Intelligence Agency) case study at the conference strongly highlighted how they overcame these challenges.

Tony Byrne  felt that the CIA "shared many good nuggets about overcoming institutional and cultural resistance" and describes in detail the CIA's historical culture of collaboration. Don Burke from the CIA said at the conference "implementing social software is more of a cultural challenge than a technical one" and recommended "to start small and simple" to "get people who are uncomfortable with the tools to quickly make and edit and publish". Starting small and simple was echoed by the Lockheed Martin case with Lockheed's Shawn Dahlen saying "Think big, start small, move fast." and their Enterprise 2.0 project tagline "Express, Discover, Connect". C.G Lynch  from CIO magazine has a more detailed account of the CIA cultural challenges.  

Steve Wylie and his team at TechWeb must have put a great deal of time in convincing six global Enterprise firm's into presenting at the Boston Enterprise 2.0 conference in June 2008, however it proved to be worth the effort. Various news and blogger reports on five of these cases are summarised below: CIA (USA Central Intelligence Agency); Lockheed Martin (Defence Technology); Pfizer (Phamaciucals); Sony (Computer Entertainment) and Wachovia (Banking).  

These real world and tangible cases of Enterprise's adopting Enterprise 2.0 presented by enthusiastic internal project evangelist caught the focus of many conference attendees. This interest and excitement continued post the event with the CIA and Lockheed receiving much of the attention.

Lockheed Martin 

The Lockheed Martin presentation on the last day created a lot of excitement because of the extent Lockheed had developed and adopted a rich internal social network application with 4000 users and the potential to go to 150,000.  Alex Howard of Whatis?com in his report said "this unlikely candidate for early adoption of enterprise 2.0 technologies was one of the unexpected hits of the conference" and blogger Jen Robinson said the "session was terrific" on his post. The presentation is well summaried by C.G. Lynch of CIO and blogger David Hobbie and includes implementation and justification advice from Lockheed.