Vickers exhorts SharePoint and competitors to "step up their game."

Development Opportunity, originally uploaded by Camera Slayer.

I'm at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston this week. Many of the sessions have included a lot of common-sense information ("Align your enterprise 2.0 strategy to your business strategy!") as well as definitions of the differences between organization 2.0 and web 2.0. Most of the attendees I've spoken with are familiar with these concepts and are looking for more out of the conference - for example, real-life stories about how obstacles have been overcome, and a more in-depth next-level discussion of these technologies.

Amy Vickers of Razorfish was one of the few presenters I saw who went to this next level. She discussed many of the common pros and cons about SharePoint and its competitors in terms of what they offer for Enterprise 2.0, and then said "These are the usual arguments... and I think they're the wrong arguments, completely."

She presented a long list of the common functions that are receiving the focus in the discussion of these technologies (blogs, wikis, search, tagging, etc.), and then switched the focus to a shorter list of "Business Activities" for which she exhorted all providers to "step up their game." I found myself agreeing completely with her recommendations - we've got the basic functions covered, but there are some areas which still aren't optimal, or aren't even part of the conversation (yet). Following are the six topics she identified for improvement:

1. Communications (including branding) – Top down, bottom up, and laterally

2. Collaboration (dynamic views) – Both asynchronous and synchronous.

3. Community (internal and blended) – Formed around affinities.

4. Findability of content and people – multi-faceted, relevant, social

5. Crowdsourcing – Helpful information, ideas, tasks.

6. Knowledge Networks – Capture of fleeting and tacit knowledge, and connection within system.