Comments on: Are Collaborative Structured Databases an Opportunity for Businesses? http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/05/19/are-collaborative-structured-databases-an-opportunity-for-businesses/ Thoughts on Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, and SaaS Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:38:35 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Enterprise 2.0 » Blog Archive » Collaborative Structured Databases (or Social Cataloguing) http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/05/19/are-collaborative-structured-databases-an-opportunity-for-businesses/#comment-115 Enterprise 2.0 » Blog Archive » Collaborative Structured Databases (or Social Cataloguing) Tue, 20 May 2008 08:44:15 +0000 http://groupswim.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-115 [...] team behind GroupSwim are asking if collaborative structured databases are an opportunity for business: We believe this the principle of a collaborative data source is a very powerful extension to the [...] [...] team behind GroupSwim are asking if collaborative structured databases are an opportunity for business: We believe this the principle of a collaborative data source is a very powerful extension to the [...]

]]> By: Niall Cook http://blog.groupswim.com/2008/05/19/are-collaborative-structured-databases-an-opportunity-for-businesses/#comment-114 Niall Cook Tue, 20 May 2008 08:30:42 +0000 http://groupswim.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-114 Yes, they are. I have used them in the past for capturing and organizing ideas, but there is clearly a bigger opportunity. In my book, I call them Social Cataloguing tools and consider them to be more cooperative than collaborative due to the fact that they support informal working where there are no pre-defined goals. In the enterprise, social cataloguing has endless possibilities. Any type of corporate data - competitor intelligence, suppliers, contact data, etc. - could be handed over to employees for collective management rather than central administration. I think the biggest barrier is that in large organizations there are people employed specifically to do this job. Managers are therefore reluctant to risk reductions to their headcounts (and power bases) by replacing them with software that allows everyone to do the task and thus intermediate those people. Yes, they are. I have used them in the past for capturing and organizing ideas, but there is clearly a bigger opportunity. In my book, I call them Social Cataloguing tools and consider them to be more cooperative than collaborative due to the fact that they support informal working where there are no pre-defined goals.

In the enterprise, social cataloguing has endless possibilities. Any type of corporate data – competitor intelligence, suppliers, contact data, etc. – could be handed over to employees for collective management rather than central administration.

I think the biggest barrier is that in large organizations there are people employed specifically to do this job. Managers are therefore reluctant to risk reductions to their headcounts (and power bases) by replacing them with software that allows everyone to do the task and thus intermediate those people.

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