SMEs using Web 2.0 to punch above their weight

At the 21st Century Global Summit today I had the opportunity to meet Dr Lisa Harris of the University of Southampton, who is running a very interesting programme for small companies about using Web 2.0 technology to punch above their weight.

It was very interesting for me, as we have completed some work recently in this arena, and our findings were that small office/home office (SoHo) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are driving the usage of modern technologies far more than corporates, and its been done mainly for economic reasons rather than any Web 2.0 "religion" per se - the technology is cheap to buy and use, and also tends to interoperate better than older technologies. The fact that it is also easier to use is a welcome, but secondary benefit.

What we've been trying to get is a handle on what "best practice" is emerging in the space - most of the work to date that's published has been around web working by independents (cf Web Worker Daily) and although we have some emerging conclusions its always useful to cross-collate with others. (And there is some self interest - we are drinking the kool aid ourselves, so other people's experience is very useful)

If you add to this the increasing evidence that there are changes in the value chain as it disaggregates, and Coase's law implies that as transaction costs fall you need smaller companies than were once required, and we are looking at the seeds of a fairly major shift in the structure of industry.

Thus Lisa and the team's work is very useful I believe - here is an introductory presentation they did on the subject.