IF IBM Does It Will They Come?

 

From ZDNet.com

» IBM demos ‘On Demand Workplace’; Will Web 2.0 deliver productivity gains? | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Some quotes:

…IBM demoed its enterprise 2.0 experiments Tuesday including its On Demand Workplace–an application that’s part intranet, part Facebook and part Web service that becomes an interface to legacy systems.…

…Big Blue’s challenge: Herding and harnessing 372,000 employees. Hennessey noted that his job as CIO is to simplify, transform and innovate. That’s easier said than done.…

…Among the notable ODW features demoed:

• Employees have their own profiles based on content and function. Personalization is also allowed via imported Google Gadgets and RSS feeds. The potential gain: These “Blue Pages” serve as expertise locators so you can find that DB2 administrator when you need one.
• Portlets are available for business units and employees for customization. Blogging, wikis and employee content encouraged. The potential gain: Knowledge management.
• Applications are being delivered as Web services via ODW. The payoff here is obvious: Application consolidation. Once legacy apps become Web services you can gradually cut off parts that aren’t necessary.

There are a bevy of questions yet to be answered. Among them:

• What are IBM’s guidelines on mashups inside the company? Google Gadgets were ok, but Google is a big IBM partner.
• What are the thoughts on security with this stuff? RSS feeds are nice, but whenever there’s a Net connection and some data swapping there’s a risk.
• What are the productivity gains Hennessey is hoping to see to move ODW to production? It’s obvious that the goal for IBM is to have its workers collaborate better across the globe. How exactly will that be measured? …

This is all really cool. But I keep wondering about whether people will really use these tools or stick to what's familiar and comfortable. This is a recurring theme of mine based upon my experience at work.

Most of my associates are not users of these kinds of technologies. The forge along using whatever tools they prefer in the way they prefer. This is, to some extent, policy and to another extent necessity. This is because most of our employees are freelancers and we can't dictate the tools they use. The remainder are either uninterested or unable to take advantage of these kinds of technologies or are managed by those with similar or greater disabilities.

So I wonder. Will IBM meet it's goal:

"IBM is hoping to get about 10 percent of its employee base using ODW to garner a statistically relevant mass of feedback."

And more interestingly, will IBM ultimately adopt this or a descendent platform or will the forces of inertia keep the same old inefficient tools in place.

Does IBM and do IBM'ers speak Web?