10 recommendations set to begin WEB2.0 implementation

Expert selection 10 suggestions to help you start building a more Dynamic Web site, jump into the Web2.0 era ...

It's hard to find a credible strategy to make the company's Web site more dynamic now that Web2.0 's propaganda is overwhelming. Here we offer 10 recommendations from leading experts and IT managers who have paved the way. They will help you to contact Web2.0 and understand its productivity, strength, and problems.

1 Start blog using WordPress or TypePad

These two sites offer free hosting and simple tools that only take a few minutes to master. Also noteworthy is that two companies also sell a corporate version of the blog software (a typepad called movable Type), which can run inside the corporate firewall.

All blogging software can easily create RRS (Really Simple Syndication), which can be used to track new content and the teams that are collaborating to ensure each other keep up with the latest posts on the site.

David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" (Wiley, 2007), talks about why RSS is so important: "RSS is my favorite way to track markets, companies and ideas," he says. "Getting information into my browser as an RSS feed is much easier than I used to look for myself." And it also bypasses the increasingly congested and annoying e-mail channels. ”

2 start Wki as your intranet or extranet

Wikis are Web sites that are easily edited by users, and users can modify pages and upload their own content. There are a number of free hosting sites, such as Wetpaint.com, and Jive Software Clearspace has a hosted version, for up to 5 users free, or large-scale implementation is 29 dollars per person per year, This comes with the option to install the software on your own server.

"Blogs and wikis are a very good primer because they are both community-driven and lightweight," said Eric Raarup, vice president of IT strategy and developer planning at Inetium Company. "Today's users are creating their own content, responding to what they see in the discussion area, uploading their own documents; This is happening in the interest group. "and Scott says," wiki as a way for potential customers to show that there are a lot of active people using their products or services, for many organizational structures are adopted. ”

The most typical example of this is the blue Cross and Blue Shield program launched in four states in the Pacific Northwest/mountain state region, the largest health insurance company in Regence. Regence set up a series of mild forums last year, covering childcare, nutrition and difficult issues.

"We use Jive's technology to integrate our people into what we care about," said Will McKinney, vice president of customer-directed health systems at Oregon State Portland in the United States, Regence. The company also uses their intertwined content management systems to maintain a series of "Live Diaries" or stories written by real people, using their own names and discussing issues like weight loss. The company also has a team of in-house content editors who travel across the region and use video to record each member's story and post it on the member's Web site.

"We want our members to come in and talk about themselves," McKinney said. "Our intention is to reach out to the entire community, including people with chronic illnesses," he said. It helps people ask doctors questions and makes sure they understand what you need. The interest, response and acceptance of the event was faster than I had expected. Our clients are very eager to talk about and publish their own ideas. ”

"Wikis can be a great collection of things for internal consumption," said David O ' Berry, the IT director of the Southern California Probation Service (Department of probation). "They can be used to speed up the dissemination of information within the organization and to synthesize business knowledge for our business experts." ”

"Clearspace can be deployed either inside or outside the corporate firewall," Jive's CEO David Hersh said. "It can be used to share ideas and show the best corporate realization, and to form communities." We provide a mechanism for organizations that want to collaborate with their employees and customers. We also provide a single architecture and consistent approach for starting blogs, wikis, and podcast. ”

3 Select a web-friendly database server

Most Web2.0 technologies require better access, reporting, and front-end query interfaces to existing enterprise databases. So the best place to start is to choose lightweight projects that can quickly get information and publish it online. "Dabble db is Web2.0 very friendly," said Bob Matsuoka, founder of runtime Technologies in New York. "It's a common object database that uses simple data types and is easy to use." "Depending on the information on the site, you'll only need a few minutes to upload your data to the spreadsheet, and write a simple application that runs on the server for one months and spends only a few dollars, or creates a free public application."

You don't need to network each client/server database, but consider what kind of database is better if your users have tools to search for data and create their own arbitrary reports. Also consider the mix of public and private data that will benefit your business and how users use data to accomplish tasks. "One of the things we're dealing with is lowering the threshold-there's already a lot of client databases and web programming," Matsuoka said. "We play the role of bonding both internal and external data." We also do a lot of development work to export data to XML, ical, and other output streams that can be manipulated from our database. ”

"You need to consider that the platform that will support content does not need it to be included in every part of the site," Raarup said. "When you turn to more dynamic content, people will look for more personalized experiences." Then people think there's a reason to go to your Web site. ”

"The point is that all big software companies are progressing slowly," Matusoka said. "On the contrary, smaller companies, like us, are doing SQL-level database integration and creating better front-end applications and providing links to back-end databases." "He talked about a project in which they created a very attractive Web page for an academic client to display publishing information, and they also created RSS output so that the editors could easily track who wrote the papers.

4 Learn some Web programming interfaces

It makes sense to learn the programming tools of the leading web vendors, such as Amazon, Google, and Yahoo, where they are free, to mention just a few choices. These and other sites can easily start to construct applications, and spend the smallest price and effort. They can also be used to combine public data with your private data, known as mashups.

"Google apps is easier to use than Microsoft's equivalent desktop Office products," Matsuoka said. "Once you start using them, you start thinking about how you can incorporate Google Docs into your business workflow." That's their real power: Get private information, use free technology, and provide storage for that data. For example, many users want to integrate the information they maintain in their desktop calendars or PDAs. So we use ical input to integrate different types of data. ”