Andrew McAfee coined the term Enterprise 2.0 nearly 5 years ago in an article in Sloan Management Review. He was describing the application of Web 2.0 principles and technologies (wikis, blogs, collaborative communities, crowd sourcing, etc.) to the business ecosystem. Only recently has Enterprise 2.0 come to take on a more refined meaning – a suite of tools, systems, and platforms to integrate various Web 2.0 tools. These days, Enterprise 2.0 systems are a booming market with everyone from IBM and Microsoft to 3-person boutique firms and open source platforms offering a variety of wares.

So, do non-profits need Enterprise 2.0 systems? No. Let me be clear though: most businesses don’t need Enterprise 2.0 systems. What both non-profits and businesses need are Enterprise 2.0 solutions.

Several keynote speakers at the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston hit on a theme that was largely ignored on the expo floor: the business needs and outcomes haven’t changed; the means, tools, and strategies have. This is a tremendously important distinction, and one that I’m going to reiterate throughout my time here. If you need to know one thing about Enterprise 2.0 is that culture, people, and strategy are significantly more important than tools. If you understand that, and can commit to those three principles, you are 80% of the way, maybe even more.

Non profits need Enterprise 2.0 solutions, and this blog is dedicated to helping you assess your needs, map out strategies, identify the tools to enable your success, use data to drive your decisions, and build a truly collaborative culture in and outside of your organization. And despite the buzz around Enterprise 2.0 and the emerging marketplace surrounding it, I’m going to show you how to do it for almost no cost.

Welcome!