Web 2.0 in small business

If today we suggest the Internet audience to answer the question “Have you heard about Web 2.0?”, The overwhelming majority will answer in the affirmative. However, if you ask these people to name several projects that use Web 2.0 technologies in business, few of them would name at least one such project. And no wonder, every day there are new publications about projects focused on the development of communities. There are publications about solutions that use data from third-party popular projects. But to find publications about the use of the potential of Web 2.0 in the corporate infrastructure is not so easy. As a result, developers often simply “do not see” Web 2.0, trying it on with corporate solutions. I decided to try to consider the technological process well known to developers, a typical technological process of a web development studio in the light of Web 2.0 trends.


So, we list the sequence of iterations in the process. The client goes to the studio. The client-manager communicates with him, and in parallel notes the conversation. If a client has a poor understanding of their needs in e-business, they are asked to fill out a special questionnaire. Then a quotation is formed and transferred to the client. After coordination of this document, the project structure is agreed, then the template structure. Further the technical task is developed and coordinated until the final version is developed. Further it is proposed to agree on a design concept, then graphic templates. Then make-up and programming of the project. After that, the stages of testing and delivery of the project begin.

How to increase the efficiency of the process? This is an extranet system that includes a number of colo-application. We see that at each stage of the technological process the corresponding different types of documents are formed, which should be kept in the general archive. Moreover, in the process of approving documents, their versions sometimes multiply exponentially. Sometimes you can see documents with the heading "The most recent TK, stopudovo, 2". Obviously, Outlook is not the best solution in this case and requires a tool for collaborative work on documents that allows access to folders for a given group of users, supports various file formats and version control. It would not be bad to use the functionality of a ready-made solution, say www.esnips.com to create a file archive online. It would be just great to use the possibility of viewing electronic documents through the Web www.scribd.com . However, neither the first nor the second project offer an open API for implementing The Long Tail. Thus, this task can be solved either by developing your own solution or by integrating an extranet system with an internal electronic document management system.
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In addition to electronic document management, the process needs effective time management. For RG Lab, we use an application developed in Lotus Notes for this purpose. Fortunately, Lotus offers a ready-made SOAP server and, accordingly, getting a full-featured web-based application within the extranet system is not difficult.

We are beginning to emerge something like an AWP studio employee. AJAX allows you to organize a customizable “desktop” interface (www.pageflakes.com) so that studio employees can observe all the processes of interest on one page. Bearing in mind the covenants of Tim O'Reilly, we must encourage staff to interact. Add to the system a knowledge base (KMS). The easiest way is to integrate Wiki-based software. By the way, the same platform can be used for corporate bulletin boards. Then we add an AJAX-based chat to one of the “desktop” windows. Moreover, due to the fact that the API of leading instant messaging pagers (www.meebo.com) is available today, we can organize bridges between networks so that employees can use familiar programs. Integration with 1C and a bit of “shamanism” will allow employees to possess operational information about personal accruals (salary, bonuses, etc.). You can add task scheduling capabilities to your system by integrating Google Calendar . However, when the API www.HipCal.com (http://www.hipcal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=149) is opened, it will be possible to provide system users with full-fledged personal online organizers.

Summarizing, we can say that today, of the stated trends of Web 2.0, only a service-oriented architecture and AJAX-based interfaces are applicable to optimize e-business for a small company. Syndication and participation architecture can give a certain effect to companies with a large staff. The Long Tail model has good prospects if the owners of popular services open their API and support the OpenID initiative. I see no reason for them to open the API for use in private closed networks, but the trend of paid rental services is gaining momentum.