Bambi Francisco, Columnist and Correspondent for MarketWatch, Inc. sees the definition of Web 2.0 as "getting the audience to participate in the pFritzuction and marketing of content." Liking the definition, Bambi. So how do you take a Wiki or other Web 2.0 technology and get participation and marketing in the B2B space? Robin Neidorf, General Manager of FreePint, Ltd. sees Web 2.0 about breaking down barriers and creating connective tissues between publishers and consumers and getting them to be part of one continuum. "It's not about you, it's about them," Robin notes, where "you" is the publisher and "them" is the audience that used to be treated as a passive resource. Rod Smith, VP of the IBM Emerging Technologies Group, looks at Web 2.0 and sees a more messy mix, a set of characteristics and technology that are adopted outside of traditional IT channels to provide better integration and collaboration. Fritz Nelson, SVP of CMP Technology sees Web 2.0 technologies allow for direct conversations between entities - staff, customers, suppliers and any combination of those constituents in a way that the technology has allowed people to collaborate more effectively than ever before.

Bambi asked who's using which Web 2.0 technologies and how. FreePint uses Web 2.0 interally, for example using Google Calendar and Skype for quick collaboration and file sharing. CMP has tools like BlogCentral and WikiCentral, but the interesing part Rod sees is listening to clients and seeing what they are needing. For example, clients used to need heavy software to reach databases, now their information can be accessed more readily and can be used in ways that may not have been intended but are nevertheless quite useful. Fritz sees RSS, blogs and wikis as important to IBM's corporate environment, but they're still getting used to taking advantage of the technology to the extent that consumers using it. But Bambi notes that Wikis have been known to fail - what are the challenges of integrating Wikis? Fritz notes that project teams are spread throughout the world in IBM, causing conversations like "well, we could solve this if we had a Wiki," but then people don't use it. For the tools to work everyone has to have buy-in, otherwise domination by some members will put off collaborative content. IBM uses both their own technologies and external technologies, but mostly it's the mindset that's the hurdle, not technology. "It's a corporate commitment to use it," Fritz notes.

"You cannot create a culture of collaboration with a technology solution," notes Robin (the old "build it and they will come fallacy comes back). It's a generational difference as well, Robin notes. A young man Robin met was using IM to communicate for a project, and communicated with dimension via messaging: the young have learned how to use technology to be a core part of being able to communicate their persona and not just information [COMMENT: the not-so-long lost art of writing for communications has been born, now supplemented via video with verbal communications taking on a new discursive capability]. Rod noted that they've been using Wikis to do enterprise mashups to make subscription content more compelling: things can be put together quickly in "5-minute applications," creating the ability to respond to business and relationship opportunities quickly. What used to take months to do can be put together in days or weeks as a result.

Businesses will cooperate with Web 2.0 moves "but they don't want to be surprised," Rod notes. CMP build an application for weather that had taken a client six months to attempt: they did it in an afternoon. The democratization of innovation requires both lean development and lean partnerships that allow ideas to come together collaboratively with clients so that the surprise factor is greatly reduced. Bambi asked Fritz about IBM's mashups; Fritz notes that if publishers are bold enough to go to mashups they can provide compelling content that will allow users to read more effectively [COMMENT: again, the need for on-the-fly licensing that argues for context rights management]. He searches for the "killer app" for enterprise use that IBM can exploit, allowing clients to solve large-scale business problems with Web 2.o technologies. For Fritz CMP's clients their needs focus on getting information that drives business transactions as much as processes. Last year Fritz saw Web 2.o as a down-the-line tool, but clients were responding with demand on the front end that could use mashups to allow for fast innovations. Robin listens to clients through Web 2.0 technologies that allow them to respond to their clients' needs more effectively - for example, finding that their audience had interest in copyright issues.

Bambi: how do you create social media, how do you claim your brand through it? Rod: Getting close to customers and shortening the time to solution is the key: the improved relationship is the brand, if you will. Bambi: should corporations be using consumer apps like facebook? (??) Fair enough question, as personal content merges with media and enterprise content more frequently. Fritz sees the intersection as learning from models like Facebook and applying them to other uses. Bambi: videos are hot also, "kind of Web 2.0," what sort of queues can be taken for business from consumer video portals? Fritz: key is layering on more content, video has to be high quality, useful and practical, as well as entertaining. It can be a form of content that can start a conversation, Fritz notes, and not necessarily a time-waster. Rod: searchable video and audio is key, search has just begin to touch on these sources effectively [COMMENT: note Google Video's search engine becoming the search engine for YouTube]. Robin: video has great potential as a learning tool, the Web is ideally very visual but usually is very text-heavy: video breaks this up and provides different experiences to get more in-depth experience.

Bambi: search isn't perfect, Google leaves a lot to be desired for text, much less video. Tags are used to help people find videos and digital processing technologies are trying to get it more searchable, how do you make it accessible? Fritz: but it on CMP TechWeb as an example, "to some degree video has a 'cheap trick' personality," Fritz noted, citing Claymation-like videos as education tools on some tech portals to get people thinking. It's not necessarily about the search: it's about helping people get concepts. Video can also be used for collaboration, Bambi noted, where videos are embedded in emails for comments. Fritz: click here to send is easiest and best way so far.

Bambi: Second Life, is it worth setting up shop in virtual spaces? Robin: makes sense for a small number of companies. Nobody asks whether one has to be on the Web today, it's a frontier where companies can test out brands in a safe environment. Fritz's a cynic on Second Life, doesn't seem immediate applicability to corporations. Rod: has a long way to go.

Question: Best practices for video? Fritz: keep it short. Rod: new technologies helping companies build revenue via videos and audio, speech to text conversions allowed people to listen about a software download during the download process, and make decisions about what to do next. Robin: propensity to download to listen things on the train, make it convenient.

Question: Farmers are not uploading videos, when does this become a true tool to reach audiences in business. Rod: I'm a farmer, use technology heavily to manage farm, farming is collaborative, mostly word of mouth, farmers may not post a blog but automated sharing of data from sensors and equipment might be very useful. Can it be more automated, can I share it easily, these types of things will drive usage. If it's costly and manual, won't go anywhere. Travel and insurance have efforts underway, experimenting a lot. Fritz: some industries share information more than others. Niches will come up, the power of the community will drive applications.

Bambi: 55 million blogs, when there are more webcams embedded in PCs we'll see more adoption then [COMMENT: will skip over that and go to mobile in many instances].

Question: Web 2.0 makes audience engagement stronger, shows potential advertisers a lot of value, how is that presented? Fritz: As publishers we collect statistics, saw which stories are getting a lot of interaction, "we're going to do more of that" could be a simple response. But then you start playing around with HOW you write for audiences and engage them, what's a more valuable response. How do you get organic interest in what you produce. You have to experiment with how you evoke that response, rarely that people say today "oh, we've got that nailed." Rod: IBM DeveloperWorks site, up to 2005 syndicated feeds were just starting, now 70 percent feeds. People started forming communities of interest around specific topics, started to build them into DeveloperWorks, feeds help to keep communities in touch with content. Long tail effect, articles on Ajax, 20x reads by keeping it tuned into communities. Robin: Need to pay very close attention and dialogue.

Good panel overall, very meaty. Predictions from panel? Fritz: lines between television and online video disappearing, a few years for now you won't think as to whether something is on regular TV versus online. Rod: Mashups, dashboards, "last mile" completion of value proposition for back-room assets. Web 2.0 helps to make services out of information. Robin: Breaking concepts away from Web itself, moving to mobile and portable formats. Bambi: videos and wikis big in corporations this year.