Enterprise 2.0: Leveraging Prosumerism 2.0 Using Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

Background: An Overview Of Enterprise 2.0 And Web 3.0

In one sense, Enterprise 2.0 is the use of Web 2.0 within business organisations (see Platt, 2007). That is, it is about applying Web 2.0 inside the enterprise firewall. In this regard, it is a collective term referring to technologies and business practices leveraging Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, wikis, social networks, media sharing sites, mashups and RSS feeds for business purposes. The essence of these applications is that they are collaborative and participatory in nature. They help facilitate collaboration and participation between enterprises and their distributed employees and between enterprises and their networked partners and customers regarding sharing content, knowledge, information and services (McAfee, 2006).

In another sense, Enterprise 2.0 is a fusion of Web 2.0 and service-oriented architecture (SOA). As such, it enables enterprises to have access to a Web of distributed and networked customers, partners, applications, services and devices thereby harnessing the collective intelligence (CI) and sourcing the wisdom of the crowd (WoC). This results in an increased competitive edge stemming from innovation and productivity (McAfee, 2006; Platt, 2007). Similarly, the use of Web 2.0 by enterprises to interface with customers or consumers is known as B2C 2.0 (Business to Community 2.0). B2C 2.0 differs from the traditional Business to Customer (B2C) in that it is characterised by online social collaboration, community networks and personalised user experiences (Platt, 2007).

On a different plane, Web 3.0 is a nebulous concept characterised by diverse views (see Murugesan, 2007; Spivack, 2007). In this chapter Web 3.0 is used to encompass the Semantic Web (Davis, 2007-2008; Spivack, 2007). The contention is that semantic technologies that are applicable to the Semantic Web are incorporated into Web 3.0. Thus, Web 3.0 is part of the semantic waves characterising the evolutionary and versionary stages of the Web: Web 1.0; Web 2.0; Web 3.0; Web 4.0; etc. Web 1.0 was a static, self-containing publishing Web intended to connect information to the Internet and commercialise the latter. Web 2.0 is a participatory Web allowing users, content, services and applications to interact. It is underscored by the architecture of participation. Web 3.0 is the nascent third generation Web technologies and services intended to take all what Web 2.0 stands for to new semantic heights while Web 4.0 is touted as an intelligent Web (Cheney, 2007; Murugesan, 2007).