Enterprise tagging - off to the races...

TechCrunch outlines some of the features in a new product out there developed called ConnectBeam.

It was just matter of time before someone ran with the Tagging behind the firewall idea. From the page describing ConnetBeam's benefits:

• Bookmark, retrieve, and reference information useful for day-to-day work
• Feel at ease that your saved information is secure
• Find “experts” on topics within your enterprise
• Share information with fellow employees and partners in a trusted, and easy to use environment

The second point is referring to the topic discussed at the Seattle Mind Camp 2 (SMC2)session, Delicious Inside. Both hosted and self-hosted solutions were discussed as one being better than the other (corporate data security being the issue, rather than cost or complexity). It seems ConnectBeam are going to provide both.

I've signed up as beta tester to have a look at the UI / UX. Now, I'm going to state the obvious here: this is going to be one of many offerings that'll go to market over the next few weeks and months in this space that will involve social bookmarking inside the firewall.

The challenge companies wanting success by installng / renting / using this software won't be technical though. It will be the cultural challenges around adoption that will be the toughest to figure out.

As Dave Winer pointed out in the SMC 2 session, some companies and their employees will 'get it' and some won't. Success or failure with social applications like these will rely on programs of end-user education, showing the benefits of its use to the end-user (the Delcious Lesson as an example) . My guess is that there is some threshold that needs to be reached, a critical mass of users inside the organisation that 'get it', use it and get to some tipping point - after that, if you're not using it you're an out-of-the-loop employee. That's the theory, anyway. And that's where Dave and I disagreed. Sort of. I agree with his view that you can't force users, but you can create awareness, encouragement, etc. I think the benefits of success are worth the effort in trying at least.

Update: Postbubble also discusses the adoption challenges.

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 28, 2006
  Alex. You are right about stating the obvious - this sounds very similar to something I've been working on. Screenshots and more info available on my blog.
  
  We're just about to go into the first stage of a private beta, so if you are interested in taking a look, please drop me a note at niall@cogenz.com.
• Anonymous
  July 03, 2006
  I agree with you.
  We've been fortunate to have a handful of companies guide us in this direction, based on their direct and immediate needs.
  Let's see how the market shapes up.
  best,
  Puneet
  
• Anonymous
  November 19, 2006
  I've written about 'Enterprise Tagging' or 'tagging behind the firewall' before,