Web 2.0 for the Enterprise

General requirements

An evaluation of software platforms shows that currently no product offers sufficient support for the variety of Web 2.0 applications useful to a company. Therefore, specific features must be built from scratch or based upon an existing software platform. The class of software platform that comes closest to providing the desired functionality is Content Management Systems (CMS). A content management system, by its nature, supports organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. When choosing the right platform, the following aspects should be considered:

• Object orientation: Object orientation means that a program is seen as a collection of independent data units, rather than a collection of functions. Every unit (or "object") can be related to any other object, and can receive or send data. All objects rely on the same consistent mechanism for data storage. Therefore, every object can be handled using the same set of methods, and access to each object can be regulated by a standard set of permissions. Introducing new object types (blog entries, calendar entries, wiki articles and so on) does not affect existing object types, and new methods can be assigned to objects according to their type.
• Object relations: The system should enable the creation of object relations. This makes voting, tagging or indexing mechanisms easy to implement.
• Role-based, granular permission management: This is indispensable for enabling truly "social" processes. In combination with object relations, reading or editing rights - as in real life - can depend on relationships (for example, membership in a group or friendship with another user).
• Multi-author collaboration: Simultaneous work conducted by several persons on the same object (such as an article) must be supported. This includes intelligent version management to prevent version conflicts.
• Change notification: The platform must be capable of generating email notices when specific events (defined by the user) occur. This has broad application throughout the application; for example users might want to be notified when they receive a new private messages, or when changes occur to an article the user is interested in, or when new forum or blog entries are posted. Email notifications help ensure that users return to the community frequently. To avoid antagonism caused by email spam, all notifications must be fully configurable by the individual user.
• Open standards and transportable data: Output of all content should be possible, independent of the target medium. This is crucial for further extensions of the application, for example in the direction of mobile device integration. Support of the XML format is critical not only for RSS streaming, but also for integrating with other applications.
• Scalability: The software should be cluster-ready, so that the portal can be scaled cost-effectively in the event of rapidly increased usage.
• Support availability: To avoid dependency on a single support channel, professional support from the manufacturer as well as from professional service providers should be available. This ensures that the risk incurred by developing applications within the dynamic and fast-changing Web 2.0 paradigm is mitigated, and that the solution can be quickly adapted to new technologies and use-cases.