In the business context, early use of Web 2.0 technologies were primarily related to sales and marketing. These efforts were geared towards the use of popular consumer Web 2.0 applications to deliver product information and s advertising channels.

More recently,however, companies have begun adopting Web 2.0 technologies as a core element of their productivity and knowledge sharing infrastructure. As the popularity of Web 2.0 has grown, companies have noted the intense consumer engagement and creativity surrounding these technologies.  Many organizations, keen to find analogous benefits in the form of business innovation, are experimenting with Web 2.0 tools.  The use of inward facing wikis, blogs and network oriented communities have been been deployed to tap the vast potential of underused human capital exposed by Web 2.0.  The current market share of Web 2.0 technologies is currently estimated at $1 billion, with an expected annual growth rate of 15% through 2015.

For all its vast potential, Web 2.0 presents challenges in its deployment.  These challenges are borne by the very nature of Web 2.0 technologies, and how their characteristics fit within the norms of business operations. Companies have become well socialized on the implementation of technology, and how new tools are deployed and used.  The latest Web 2.0 tools challenge these expectations, requiring a fundamentally different mind-set and approach from that of earlier IT programs.

Whereas today most business applications are process and data-centric, Web 2.0 technologies are interactive and dynamic.  Many workers, accustomed to ERP and CRM systems, simply process information in the form of reports or use technology to execute transactions.  Web 2.0 technologies introduce a new paradigm in which users are required to generate new information and content, or to edit the work of other participants.

Challenges likewise exist from the management perspective. Driven by their experiences of the last generation of complex and highly technical implementations, many executives find the relatively lightweight and unstructured nature of Web 2.0 uncomfortable.  Leadership in deploying Web 2.0 requires managers to understand the new levers of change, and build a fresh worldview of how these technologies will drive value in their organizations.

In understanding Web 2.0 technologies - and how they might work within business - it is important to explore their behavioral underpinnings.  As participatory-based systems, Web 2.0 applications are driven by a unique set of user activities and expectations. 

While success of consumer oriented Web 2.0 proves the strength of these new behaviors, they are often unprecedented or ill translated to the business context.

At their core, Web 2.0 technologies are participatory and collaborative.  They thrive on direction, as opposed to structure, allowing members to work within the boundaries of the community but without rigid process.  Participation is voluntary, motivated by a strong social and interpersonal drive to contribute to a unifying cause.  

Participation in Web 2.0 applications is also strongly associated with the desire to provide expertise or opinion, and to gain recognition (albeit sometime anonymously).  Personality type A are 

The community effect is also an important behavioral aspect of Web 2.0 participation.  Users expect to receive informational value, and correspondingly feel obligated to contribute to the collective knowledge of the community.