Coming for your job...or at least the way you do it now...

(photo credit) I keep telling people that the whole "Web X.0 thing" (I thought I had that original idea this morning, Googled it and found like 520,000 results with the oldest one seeming to date from 2005 by Joi Ito  - 2005 in Web Time being something akin to the Paleoproterozoic) really reminds of the introduction of e-learning.  The excitement in some circles feels very similar and the trepidation in other circles also has a very deja vu ring to it. The other similarity is inevitability.

Imagine if you drove the car your have now to work but when you got to work and had to drive any where, you had to take a horse-drawn carriage. How would that strike you? Web X.0 becoming mainstream in the enterprise is being driven from the consumer-side. Why is that important? Because it is outside the control of companies and organizations. People will see and use these tolls and then they will come to work expecting them and no, it won't be just the Gen X'ers, Millennials, or Gen Y's. The tools will are  already becoming integrated with your existing enterprise platforms, so they're already inside the firewall. What can you do? Change. The hardest thing in the world - re-conceptualize everything from incentives to strategic objectives to make the best use of these emerging technologies and innovations - not in a faddish, short-term way though; create a process for evaluating and integrating these changes in a way that makes sense from a business perspective - the most important thing though is the starting point - don't start from a place that says "how little can we allow through and still keep going?" - ask instead "how much can we allow through and still remain coherent?"

Here is one for you: Web 2.0: Companies Will Spend $4.6 Billion By 2013, Forrester Predicts
(excerpt) "Though still considered an upstart technology, Forrester believes that conventional Web 2.0 elements -- social networking, RSS, blogs, wikis, mashups, podcasting, and widgets -- are fast becoming the norm for communicating with employees and customers. The report highlights megacompanies such as General Motors, McDonald's, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, and Wells Fargo among those who already have jumped into the Web 2.0 pool with both feet. Additionally, some 56% of North American and European enterprises consider Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008, according to another recent
Forrester survey."

Want more? How about JackBe and Kapow releasing enterprise-grade mashup platforms? And before you say - "Yeah but my enterprise has security concerns, blah blah blah" Check out JackBe's case study of their work with the Defense Intelligence Agency and then talk to me about security concerns.

More?? How little companies like Intel releasing a client-side mashup creator and Microsoft releasing Live Mesh? Check out these business and career focused apps on Facebook. Or some of the great app from the Webware 100 Winners. Oh for Pete's sake, even Dilbert is doing it.

So please, much as with the "Should we use games for learning?" question - can we put the "IF" we'll use Web X.0 tools for learning and really get down to creating some design principles and case studies and processes that will help? Because your job will change..will you change with it?