This week IBM (NYSE:IBM) introduced its "Web 2.0 Goes to Work" initiative, designed to bring Web 2.0 social computing applications such as blogging, tagging and group collaboration into enterprise IT environments. The suite of enterprise-class applications gives enterprises the ability to take advantage of social computing systems without relying on unknown or unsecured public services.

"Web 2.0 Goes To Work" consists of several applications including Lotus Connections, an integrated suite of software for sharing tags, bookmarks and directories, and Lotus Quickr, a group collaboration suite. In the recent Nemertes' benchmark, "Building a Successful Virtual Workplace," we found strong interest in Web 2.0 applications, with 18 percent of enterprises using blogs, 32 percent using wikis, and 23 percent beginning to deploy RSS (really simple syndication) as a way of managing information flows throughout the organization.

However, IT executives expressed concern over the inability to ensure that enterprise usage of public and opensource Web 2.0 applications conforms to policies and requirements for information management. They were especially concerned about sensitive information ending up on public sites such as Blogger, or public wiki services brought into the organization by individual workers or workgroups. IBM's goal is to deliver a social computing platform capable of meeting business requirements for compliance and control, and the announcement underscores the growing importance and awareness of Web 2.0 in the enterprise.

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