Web 2.0 lessons from the BBC

By Jeff Brainard | October 16, 2007, 9:35 am | 0 Comments

Forrester Research recently posted an interesting blog that discussed how the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) adopted various Web 2.0 tools and some of the tricks they used plus the realities of large-scale successful deployments. Today, the BBC has thousands of wiki users and hundreds of people blogging. According to the BBC, they are now seeing incredible value from these tools; however, it was by no means an overnight success. Here’s some of the key lessons the BBC learned from their Web 2.0 experiment:

*Web 2.0 tools inside the enterprise can be a catalyst for more collaborative business workplaces* – For the BBC, its enterprise-wide collaboration today spans several continents and over 47 language services. “People need to work together who come from wildly different backgrounds (cultures, languages, etc.).” They found simple tools like forums worked better than many formal initiative they had tried in the past.
*Start small, focus on the right use-case, don’t be afraid to experiment, and make sure ownership is clear* – Since Web 2.0 tools, like wikis and blogs, change the traditional hierarchical, command-and-control structure of how communications and collaboration occur, organizations have to be ready for the inevitable ‘flattening’ effect these tools will have in the workplace. “One thing that helped at the BBC was that the forum environment was collectively owned; this helped people take responsibility for how it was used.”
*Trust breeds more trust (aka ‘the love you get is equal to the love you give’)* – Replacing power and control with trust is critical for stimulating adoption and success with Web 2.0. “The BBC found that when people are given responsibility, the right tools, and a little coaching, most of them will do the right thing.” The BBC also found that creating some loose structure through policy and best practice guidelines for the tools did help make employees and management feel more comfortable, which also contributed to positive adoption.
*Take risks, challenge yourself, and don’t be afraid to go where no one has gone before* – Of course, this is the source of all great innovations. And in BBC’s case, this involved going into areas where the boundaries of comfort and tradition were challenged. “At the BBC, employees were allowed to post on internal forums about anything they wanted to. Someone started a conversation about the pros and cons of being single. This evolved into something awfully close to a dating service. Managers, as you might imagine, were cringing.” As it ended up, soon a BBC producer decided to do a program on being single and realized that the BBC employees participating in the forum discussion had already done half the work for the piece. This ended up becoming a great example to the BBC of how something that didn’t seem even close to business ended up delivering true business value.

You can read the full article about the BBC on Forrester Research’s website or by clicking here.