Comments on: Australia Big on SOA but Not So Much on Social

By: Andrea Di Maio

Andrea Di Maio — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:11:38 +0000

Anthiny, I’m not sure about this either. Australian government clients have been amongst the very first to really get “web 2.0″ behind the hype. Of course, as you know, I don’t believe there is much of an “Enteprise 2.0″ need in government, but I would argue that Australia is in much better shape than most of Europe when it comes to figuring out how to make good use of social software.

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:16:21 +0000

Excellent Mark, thanks!

By: Mark Elliott

Mark Elliott — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:00:40 +0000

While I agree, Australia seems to be lagging a bit in the Enterprise2.0 arena, I’ve been a part of some pretty great world-leading projects in gov2.0 space. Interesting that there’s such a distinction.

Have a look at http://futuremelbourne.com.au and weplan.parks.vic.gov.au if interested – both employing wikis for internal collaboration on drafting management plans as well as collaborative public consultation (Melbourne’s city plan in the case of Future Melbourne).

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:10:27 +0000

Glad to hear it. Because I’m hoping to do my Enterprise 2.0 Strategy presentation at Symposium Australia in November.

By: Brian Prentice

Brian Prentice — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:17:52 +0000

Thanks for the full disclosure Anthony

From my observation, we can’t completely dismiss end user adoption of consumer-facing social networking sites from the discussion of enterprise social software use.

All I can say is that from my conversation with many clients in this country there is definitely an interest in social software – where it fits, how to benefit from it, issues & challenges. Aussies, however, are far more pragmatic when it comes to spending up on technology. They tend to hold off until the is a solid business case and the hype has died down before jumping in. If anything I’d suggest you might have been experiencing that dimension of the Australian IT culture.

BTW – the pub is a great place to get some quality research done!

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:07:37 +0000

Thanks for the stats. I should state that Brian is a Gartner Analyst in Sydney.

I want to clarify that I am talking about enterprise social software use not consumer side social software (Facebook, MySpace, etc.). I met mostly with CIOs, CTOs, and IT directors not the “SOA guys.”

The fact that the general populace is active doesn’t necessarily mean that enterprises are. Although over time I would expet a correlation.

BTW, I was at a local pub with some Australians who were very actively communicating with friends on Facebook.

By: Brian Prentice

Brian Prentice — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:07:38 +0000

Assessing the interest in social software is best done by looking at the uptake of Facebook, LinkedIn and other popular sites. Asking IT staff is probably not the best way of figuring this out.

Here are a few stats (found here – http://www.radicaltrust.ca/2008/08/25/global-facebook-population-breakdown/). As of August 2008, Australia had the 6th highest Facebook population in the world. That represents a penetration of 20% of the nation’s population compared to 10% of the US population. Also, Australia is one of the only offices that wasn’t closed by mySpace. mySpace population is 2.1 million in Australia. LinkedIn is 647,000. (http://digitalmarketinglab.com.au/index.php/2009/05/10/australian-social-media-statistics-compendium/) This is in a country of 21 million people.

With all due respect Anthony I think that Australia is very much there. Just because some SOA-focused IT guys didn’t want to talk about social software doesn’t mean it’s not important to everyone else!

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:37:21 +0000

The definition of E2.0 seems to be in constant flux. I have esed Enterprise Web 2.0 in the past.

By: Avigdor Luttinger

Avigdor Luttinger — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:23:47 +0000

Welcome back. I am campaigning to change the perception that Enterprise 2.0 is just about social software in the enterprise context. I consider that it covers the entire scope of Web 2.0 in the enterprise context, and certainly also Enterprise Mashup’s and Enterprise RIA.
Looking forward to discuss this next week.

By: Anthony Bradley

Anthony Bradley — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:25:30 +0000

And I should also mention that there was a good amount of interest in enterprise mashups.