What is Office 2.0?
For some while it has the accepted norm for PC users to use the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access) or some equivalent like OpenOffice.org as their basic productivity tools for composing letters, creating spreadsheets, designing presentations, writing e-mails, or making databases. These programs work and store their files on your desktop or laptop PC, and enable you to create ad-hoc systems for the things not covered by the standard business applications that your organisation uses, most often by using of Excel spreadsheets and e-mail for collaboration. This is the Office 1.0 environment.
Office 2.0 makes use of the evolution of web 2.0 tools and the Software as a Service concept. SaaS provides the ability for business applications and productivity tools to be accessed solely through a web browser and an Internet connection, so that the application and all of the data reside up on the Internet rather than your desktop PC, taking some of the IT management headache away from you and giving it to your service provider.
Following the first Office 2.0 Conference, Ismael Ghalimi, one of the early proponents of this concept, defined Office 2.0 as:
“Office productivity environment enabled by online services used through a Web browser. By storing data online and relying on applications provided as Web services, it fosters collaboration and extends mobility, while promoting a user-centric model that fuels innovation and increases productivity.”
As well as providing web based equivalents for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, mail and databases, there are a much wider range of productivity tools that a user can pick and chose from to help with their workflow and business processes.
What Office 2.0 tools are available?
Ismael’s IT|Redux has the most comprehensive directory of the available tools, categorised by topic:
The Office 2.0 Conference
The first conference dedicated to this topic was held in San Francisco on October 11-12, 2006. Here is the conference website and other resources:
Office 2.0 Conference
Rationale for Office 2.0
Office 2.0 Mashup List
Rules for Office 2.0
My commentary and analysis from attending the conference:
Office 2.0 Conference report - part 1
Andrew McAfee at the Office 2.0 Conference
Office 2.0 Blitz Demos
Office 2.0 Conference report - part 2
itensil at Office 2.0
Office 2.0 Conference report - part 3
Other blog posts on the conference:
What I learned at the Office 2.0 Conference - Ismael Ghalimi
What I really said at Office 2.0 - Esther Dyson
Boundary Spanning at Office 2.0 - Andrew McAfee
Office 2.0: Post-conference wrap up - Dan Farber
Office 2.0, irrepressible Ballmer, salesforce.com’s Apex and more… - Dan Farber
Venture capitalists weigh in on Office 2.0 - Dan Farber
The best of Office 2.0 - Jeff Nolan
Congratulations Office 2.0 Conference! - Don Campbell
Reflections on Office 2.0 - Dennis Howlett
Adoption roadblocks - part 1 - Dennis Howlett
Adoption roadblocks - part 2 - Dennis Howlett
Office 2.0 VC Panel…Going out with a bang? - Jason Wood
The Yin & Yang of Enterprise Software - Jason Wood
Office 2.0 Announcements: Google, Zoho - Zoli Erdos
Office 2.0 Conference: Two Views of Office 2.0 - Charlie Wood
Office 2.0 Conference: the outcome - David Tebbutt
Office 2.0 Conference: Reports and Links - ETech@Work
Office 2.0 - key takeaways - Mark Crofton
Office2.0 version 1.5, Additional Insight from Day One - Brian Solis at PR 2.0
Office 2.0: Usability for the Common Man - Brian Reed’s Business Certainty
If you want help, advice or would like to make suggestions, please mail me.
