The Long Tail of Control: can we realistically accept an Enterprise 2.0 model?
Interesting posting by Dion Hitchcliffe which reviews the debate between Andrew MacAfee and conservative Nicholas Carr about the potential of the Web 2.0 to transform the enterprise.
It also carries an interesting graphic on the Long Tail as it affects power and control.
Here is the conclusion:
“And this is where this shift of control is changing things. Previously, innovation often came from the top of the enterprise and trickled down to the consumer. But the tools for creation of content of almost every variety is becoming pushed out to the edge, is virtually free, and driven by passion-filled individuals who can create wonders in their spare time. The inversion of control is changing where the innovation is happening and that’s why we’re seeing it on the Web first. There’s little doubt that it will pour into the enterprise in due time, but since it’s largely not created there, it’ll happen in the wild first. The Long Tail of control, created by the forces of Web 2.0, will push the majority of content creation into the tail. And significantly, that means that most folks won’t have to be frequent creators or even consumers of this content, but that will be more than enough to create what everyone wants, a likely embarassement of riches once things really get rolling.
The upheavals and outcome of all this is as unclear as it is significant because enterprises are primarily organized around central control and focused innovation, two things easily disrupted by this shift of control. Now that innovation, content creation, and control over its distribution now happens mostly at the edge of the network and in The Long Tail it will be fascinating to see what the ongoing fallout will be as entire industries are likely remade in the process.”
