Uniquely Valuable: The Benefits of Adopting Web 2.0 Tools for Organizations

What do proliferating social networking applications have to do with the way a business runs? A lot more than you might imagine. Indeed, emergent social software platforms (ESSPs) provide valuable capabilities that are nearly impossible to acquire without them-unique Enterprise 2.0 benefits. In this chapter Andrew McAfee lays out six powerful benefits of using ESSPs in organizations: group editing, authoring, broadcast search, network formation and maintenance, collective intelligence, and self-organization. Each one is described in detail, along with the ESSPs most closely associated with it. And McAfee offers deep insights into the remarkable ways these benefits can reshape the way organizations get their work done. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 5 of "Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges."