I think it was Bohr who, when asked by a young student how could the old physics school so vehemently deny the emerging Quantum Physics, which for “anybody” was so obvious, and what could be done to convince them, answered that (a) it’s very hard to change when you are famous for what you already think, and (b) to not despair, because most of them were old people, and all that was needed was for them to die of old age and then things would change… And they did (I apologize for any licenses I am taking on the real story, recovered from my youth as a physics/math major).

Why the reference? Well, hopefully, the conflict between structured, control-driven and defensive products and unstructured, user-centric and inclusive ones that are bringing most of the innovation into today’s enterprises will be decided somehow outside of the corporate IT environment: companies that take advantage of the transformational capabilities of Web 2.0 innovators will outpace those that don’t. Further, the same IT groups that so intensely devote themselves to the “old generation” and to “follow the pack” are in themselves a dying breed (in relative terms), because they are increasingly less viable, less “competitive” with providers in the SaaS, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 “side” of the industry. “Anybody” who in five minutes gets a box.net share going (actually, it takes much less than that), and starts exploring viable collaboration models in a few more, knows that going to IT and asking for a similarly effective installation of SharePoint (or any other similar medicine), would take longer just waiting on the phone for an answer, and several orders of magnitude more for getting something done, and even more orders of magnitude to get to a resulting business efficiency (if it ever came).

So, let’s hope that the new, more agile business models and the products that support them keep evolving, changing, adapting: dinosaurs are not forever. Cheers

Just read your last two posts that primarily focus on SharePoint. I thought you would want to check out a ‘challenge’ that Box.net is issuing: that it’s easier and faster to use Box.net to share files than SharePoint. You can see more details here: http://www.box.net/simple

We’re launching more than a challenge, though. Our goal is really to increase awareness that collaboration software and platforms should make sharing simple, not complex and overly structured / rigid.

Apart from the challenge, we also have some fun t-shirts to playfully show people that alternatives to SharePoint exist; an animated video that will give you a chuckle; oh, and did I mention there’s also a billboard? https://enterprise.box.net/shared/6d5slclhxr

Please check out the site and Box.net; would love to hear your thoughts / feedback.

Kind regards,
Amy
Box.net