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You've probably heard of the term Web 2.0. It was invented by computer book publisher Tim O'Reilly and refers to the increasingly large number of internet applications that are collaborative and interactive.

There are many examples - Wikipedia, Second Life, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, photo sharing site Flickr and a host of others. These have emerged just in the last few years and have already changed the way many of us use the internet.

Indeed, they have changed the way many of us live. This tends to be especially true of younger people, to whom cyberspace is almost as big a part of life as the "real" world.

Until now, Web 2.0 applications have mostly affected individuals. Companies and government organisations have largely retained more traditional methods of communication. The primary collaborative technology for most organisations in the modern world has become email, which is very much a Web 1.0, or first generation, internet application.

That is now changing. Web 2.0 applications are increasingly finding their way into the enterprise. This phenomenon has, inevitably, been dubbed Enterprise 2.0. That term was invented last year by Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee, who has emerged as something of an international authority on the subject. Last week I heard a remarkable presentation by Professor McAfee on the state of play with Enterprise 2.0 worldwide. His talk was beamed in via Skype from Orlando, Florida, where he was attending an enterprise search conference. He spoke to 200 of us assembled in a conference room in Sydney's Luna Park to discuss Enterprise 2.0 in Australia.

First, Professor McAfee defined the subject. Fair enough. He invented the term, after all. "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers."

Those "emergent social software platforms" are the Web 2.0 applications we looked at above. Professor McAfee refers to these as "free and easy" applications, in contrast to something like email which he describes as "a channel which closes down after each message".

Another key point about these "emergent applications" is that the important thing is how the software is used, not about how it is delivered, or how it is developed, or how it is integrated. The key to Enterprise 2.0 is usage - getting more people in the organisation using software applications that enable them to share ideas and information.

The event I attended where we heard Professor McAfee's words of wisdom was the grandly named "Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum", run by Sydney company Future Enterprise Network (FEN). FEN (futureexploration.net) is run by Ross Dawson, who has become one of Australia's leading internet gurus in recent years. He also runs regular events on the future of media.

We also heard, via the wonders of a Skype videolink, from Euan Semple, formerly head of knowledge management at the BBC. Mr Semple reported to us from his sister's kitchen in Munich, where he was working as part of his new career as an adviser to European companies on Enterprise 2.0 issues.

We also heard, from real live individuals within the room, about a number of Australian companies and their use of Enterprise 2.0 technologies. Westpac is using Second Life for staff training. Bionic ear company Cochlear uses a wiki for software development. Pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag has developed a blog-like corporate internet for internal communications. Clearly, Enterprise 2.0 is here.

But there is reluctance to embrace the technology in many quarters. Mr Semple told of some of the problems he had introducing the technology at the BBC. "There are significant cultural hurdles. Many senior managers are not comfortable with the tools. I often found it was easier to go around barriers rather than confront them. It is easier to apologise afterwards than to ask permission up-front."

He spoke about one manager who could not initially believe that staff could be trusted with social networking tools in a work environment. He was worried that they would waste time, or that material in blogs could be read by people outside the organisation and give away corporate secrets.

These sorts of issues, as many speakers discussed, are common barriers to the introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies in many organisations. But the common theme was how these barriers can be overcome and the many benefits that the technology can bring to the organisation.

"It's cheap, it's easy and it conforms to the way knowledge workers work," Professor McAfee says.

"Among strongly tied co-workers, a wiki can function as a kind of online whiteboard. Among those with looser affiliations, social networking tools are very important, and can serve as bridges to other networks, just as they do in the personal sphere.

"And blogs are great ways of coming across serendipitous information, helping innovation and fostering new ideas."

We've been hearing for years that companies need to be smarter and more responsive and that they need to find new ways to tap into employees' capabilities. Enterprise 2.0 tools would seem to offer just those capabilities. This may scare some people of my generation but with the Gen X and Gen Y types coming through, they will have no choice.

graeme@philipson.info