Web 2.0

Overheard: Freemium biz model explained

The Open Source Software vendors have a similar model where they offer the software for free download and sell consulting, maintenance and support contracts for revenue. Don Dodge, Freemium - Free to paid conversion rates

Don Dodge does a good job weeding through the Web 2.0 biz-speak and nailing down why the Freemium model could actually work for some start-ups.

Do the math. 100,000 free users convert to 3,000 paid users. They pay between $10 to $50 per user per month. Lets use $25 as an average. That is $75K a month or $900K per year. That is an excellent revenue stream for companies that typically have 3 to 5 employees.

Overheard: Biz Stone explains Twitter

When people hear about Twitter, their immediate reaction is that it’s the simplest and stupidest idea in the world. They do not want to know that their brother is eating a hot dog right now, but then they discover that their friends are on it. And so are the L.A. Fire Department, NASA and JetBlue. Then they get it. Biz Stone, as quoted in Twitter took off from simple to ‘tweet’ success

Biz Stone used to work for Google — I wonder what his parents look like? Who would name their kid Biz Stone? It’s like they knew he’d be famous.

Overheard: Monetizing Tweets

The Silicon Alley Insider blog reported that Summize was acquired for an estimated $15 million in cash and Twitter stock. Are Twitter search ads next? Mark Walsh, Twitter Buys Search Engine Summize

Overheard: The best way to make $$ from social media is to run a conference on it

I hate to say it, but the best (and likely only) way to get ROI in Social Media is to run Social Media conferences. Steve Baldwin, commenting on David Berkowitz’s article Ten Questions Not To Ask A Social Media Panel

David’s satirical blog post about “what not to ask a social media panel” got a lot of virtual heads nodding.

Overheard: Web 2.0 is not about the cloud

Enterprise 2.0 is not about the cloud. It’s about sharing information inside the firewall to solve business problems.

Wanted to jot down that thought before I forgot it.

Overheard: Enterprise Web 2.0 inbreeding

Spending too much time with the ‘in crowd’ who ‘get’ Enterprise 2.0 can result in serious over-enthusiasm and lack of realism. Martin Kloos, The state of Enterprise 2.0 and why we need new stories

Ever since Forrester released a report last month saying that Web 2.0 technologies will have a world-wide market value of $4.6 billion by the year 2013, the early adopters have been patting themselves on the back, saying “I told you so.”

Not so fast, bucko. 2013 is a long way away and enterprise IT is not just going to open its doors to the new kids on the block just because a new generation is entering the workplace. What’s more likely to happen is that legacy IT applications will make updates, incorporating Web 2.o features that work for a particular industry or software application.

At the very least…those Web 2.0 apps wanting consideration will need respectable names. Manly names. Serious names. Names IT professionals don’t feel embarrassed talking about at manager’s meetings. Twitter? Tweets? I don’t think so.

Overheard: If you build it, they will wreck it

Years from now, we may come to realise that the defining characteristic of Web 2.0 wasn’t gradients, bubbles and excessive use of JavaScript – it was a false belief in user-generated content. Ian Harris,  Can you trust Web 2.0?

Overheard: Social media and the enterprise? Not yet

The IT guy is someone my heart goes out to, because he’s got an extremely difficult job. People who he reports to see him as a cog in progress and a drain of money; the people he’s supposed to serve see him as a bottleneck. Shel Israel, as quoted in Naked IT: Shel Israel on social media and IT (includes podcast)

Michael Krigsman writes: The Global Neighborhood interviews [sponsored by SAP] point toward the future, to a time when the enterprise embraces social media as a mechanism to enhance communications. However, that time has not yet arrived, and for the moment, social media remains an interesting curiosity for most large enterprises. On the other hand, forward-thinking organizations are studying how to integrate social media, minimizing disruption wherever possible, to gain its benefits.

I agree with Michael. Until social media translates directly into dollars, we’ll be stuck with the status quo. The legacy systems already in place are just to big, complicated and expensive to mess with — and the IT guy would be the last person on the planet to ask for more on his plate.

BTW, I love the tag line for Michael’s blog IT Project Failures. “Rearranging the deck chairs.”

Overheard: Biting the hand that feeds you is not good for CRM

One of the biggest challenges facing many organizations is that the Internet and, more specifically, Web 2.0 tools are helping to make customers more informed than employees. Sharon Richardson, Google Reader For CRM

Whilst customers have become more informed thanks to the Internet, too many organisations are ensuring their employees become less informed by banning access to the very tools that customers use - Facebook, Myspace, Wikipedia, Google, the Internet…

Overheard: Facebook as an intranet CMS

“They established a private Facebook group for Serena employees and they built a few simple custom Facebook apps to better enable intranet functions. Now they provide links through Facebook to documents stored securely behind the firewall. Access is just as secure as any other method.” Bill Ives, Serena has Adopted Facebook as Their Intranet