Forget about open source, here comes open source

Technology moves so fast that while traditional firms (Read: Enterprise 1.0) and academic institutions (Read: Schools 1.0) may be actively pushing for open source, not a few are still blissfully clueless about the next wave of open source. Mash-ups and Web-based productivity tools are the order of the day. I am talking about Web 2.0 which could be a compelling argument for shifting the desktop to the webtop. For a discussion on the technical merits of a wholesale shift to the webtop, read Ebrahim Ezzy's article Webified Desktop Apps vs Browser-based Apps.

But as K.C. Jones of TechWeb Technology News reports:

"Web 2.0 is about people and Enterprise 2.0 will be less about less [sic] top-down structure and more about structure developed freely through lower-level interactions, said Harvard Business School Associate Professor Andrew McAfee and Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield.

'The technology is not different,' Mayfield said. 'There are enough people, with a critical mass, using the Net long enough that we're beginning to see advanced social behavior.'

Mayfield said businesses should be asking themselves whether their Intranets are made of people. He added that the Web works well and businesses should be trying to replicate it behind their firewalls."

Mayfield and McAfee recently spoke at Interop New York.

"They explained that executives often fear turning over control to employees but giving employees control can actually increase their adoption of new software, cut down on corporate spam, shorten meeting times and increase the speed at which information is disseminated through a company."

More of that in Web, Wikis: Models For Business Software, Panelists Say - E-business & Business Technology News by TechWeb.

Now how soon can we see the school of the future (Read: Schools 2.0)? Sauce for the goose ...

technorati tags:Web2.0, Open+Source, Webtop, Schools2.0

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