Andrew McAfee, associate professor at Harvard, gave the keynote address at Office 2.0.
Using an illustration reminiscent of a Mercedes logo, he divided technologies into three groups: Structured Interactions (orders, expenses etc); Unstructured Interactions (such as email or firefighting activities); and Tasks (spreadsheet, drawing etc). The segments were labeled Enterprise IT, Network IT and Function IT respectively.
Until now, he pointed out that these three things existed in isolation with not much boundary spanning. The advent of things like blogs, wikis and tags means that not only are the boundaries breached, a 'footprint' of activities can be left behind. Patterns and structures emerge as users collaborate and the barriers become porous.
Of course, whether collaborative technologies are adopted depends on the individual, the management and the organisation. A punishment culture, for example, would prevent users risking exposure. A hoarding culture would prevent managers from sharing the information in their departments. McAfee talks about the difficulty of sustaining fiefdoms should the new technologies be adopted.
Other issues include the present technical 'endowment' - organisations with an existing large scale Notes or knowledge management system will look askance at the new stuff. Old economy companies will be scratching their heads more than newer organisations.
McAfee offers no answers, that's not his job. What he does (and I'll revisit it in a column or a feature) is to pose questions and suggest a structured way of thinking about the issues.
As he said to the conference "We are at a very early stage and the crystal ball is not clear."
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