Doing some online research to find out what motivations lead to the use of web 2.0 tools lead me to a few articles on web 2.0 tools being used in the workplace. The navy and other areas of the defense department have been using these technologies, particularly blogs, to “solicit ideas and connect with navy personal”.
“Wikis are being used across the Government as digital meeting places where federal users can share information, create, and collaborate. The extensive search capabilities of these tools allow users to retrieve information regardless of the wiki organization. Additionally, these tools allow people to collaborate on documents much more efficiently than emailing revised versions of documents as attachments”
A few examples of Web 2.0 technologies in use are. “Intellipedia, a highly successful wiki, is used by the federal intelligence community (IC) and has resulted in increased collaboration and knowledge sharing across 16 IC agencies and other security-related Departments. The DoD has also launched a wiki called DoDTechipedia to improve collaboration on technological solutions among agency scientists, engineers, acquisition workers and operational warfighters. At a federal-wide level, the Office of Management and Budget’s wiki at max.gov has been used not only to streamline routine budget processes and facilitate federal budgeting efficiencies, but also to enable federal collaboration throughout a variety of communities. Most recently, the Smithsonian Institution creatied a public facing wiki at http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com to invite public collaboration to transform the organization’s digital presence on the Web.”
During the 2008 presidential election web 2.0 tools were used like facebook and twitter to communicate with the vast amount of American’s following each candidate. In one case, after the election, President Obama did not follow through on a campaign promise and his social media network of friends began a large debate complaining about the decision. One of the Presidents top advisers had to jump on the social network to cool the flames. The author of the article I read this in argued that in this case the social media forced the president to address and issue that in the past he might not have had to mention.
In another study, “based on a survey sent to nearly 20,000 HR professionals, found that 83 percent of respondents see the potential of social media and Web 2.0 in the workplace, particularly when it comes to improving communication, learning and knowledge sharing.”
So whether its the navy, the defense department, other government agencies, or Human Resource departments, it seems that all area’s of the workforce are beginning to adopt the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the office. It just makes sense. We are learning how powerful Web 2.0 tools can be in the classroom, its only natural for the workplace to start using these powerful tools.
This cycle’s back requiring a further expansion of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. If the workplace is beginning to use Web 2.0 tools and its use is expanding than we can expect these tools to be taught in the classroom to prepare the student for the world.
Today we do not see a strong presence of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. In the discussion forum for this module and previous one’s my classmates and I talked about motivating factors for teachers to adopt Web 2.0 tools and to not adopt them. I think we are very close to a point when the teacher cannot afford to not use these tools in their classroom.
As with anything there are good and bad that go with Web 2.0 tools. Will my workers be using them to collaborate and be more efficient or will they use it to talk on Facebook with their college buddies? Can the worker be trusted to use tools at work for only work purposes, that they use at home for fun? In an article I read during this class the author asked if it even mattered?
I forgot which article is was (we read so many) but the the author, a heavy Web 2.0 user believed the line between work and play at home and at work was blurring. He argued he might use his Web 2.0 tools at work for fun, to chat, to connect with friends, to do personal things in between working, but he will do the same at home .At home in between relaxing and playing using his Web 2.0 tools he will check his work email and get some work done.
One article I read had research showing the growth of "Independent international research undertaken by Clearswift in 2007 found that just 11% of global businesses were making use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Salesforce.com. Three years on, the latest figures show over two-thirds of companies are allowing and encouraging the use of web collaboration or social media tools in the workplace. in the workplace. “Independent international research undertaken by Clearswift in 2007 found that just 11% of global businesses were making use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Salesforce.com. Three years on, the latest figures show over two-thirds of companies are allowing and encouraging the use of web collaboration or social media tools in the workplace.”
This article argued that there are new concerns in with using web 2.0 tools int he workplace, that are shifitng from productivity issues to security concerns
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