Assignment 2 -report- completed as (part of) the requirements for 'Collaborative Business Processes 31247'

What are aspects of collaboration in business goals, deliverables, activities, design and technology?
Collaboration involves the use of Information Technology and other tools to assist groups of people to achieve a shared task. Collaboration processes are infused in business processes and therefore are present in the creation of business goals, deliverables, activities, design and technology. Business Goals
The creation of business goals is an important process in establishing the foundations for a business’ direction. Collaboration tools are used to facilitate team meetings and the communication of ideas between members of a group. The use of such tools fosters discussion allowing each member to provide their specialised skill set and knowledge to the group. The use of online collaboration resources, such as social networks and web applications allows each member of the group to contribute from any location or device that has Internet access. Deliverables
The creation of deliverables is subjected to a collaboration process. Reports, overviews and analysis are made through a collaborative effort with several people often contributing to the creation of a deliverable item. Those items can then be further subjected to a collaborative process and used by another group of people to create another item, report or idea. Collaborative tools, such as Google Docs, allow members of a group to contribute to reports through an online environment. Activities
Business activities can be very diverse, ranging from complex tasks involving large numbers of people down to much simpler tasks involving only one or two people. Regardless of complexity, collaboration plays heavily on the execution of these tasks. Every business activity relies on some kind of collaborative process, with several people combining their knowledge and expertise to effectively and efficiently complete a task. Collaboration takes place in business activities in many forms such as:
• Informal communication and collaboration through the use of casual emails, text messages or instant messaging on social networks.
• Formal communication and collaboration in team meetings, teleconferences and project or task documentation. Design and Technology
Collaborative processes are present in almost all facets of a business, including the design of new products and the use of technology to achieve business objectives. Technology plays a key role in fostering a collaborative culture, facilitating the collaboration process and allowing members of a group to work together to achieve a task much more efficiently. Hardware and software packages such as computers and mobile phone devices allow people to stay connected and communicate irrespective of location. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of collaboration technologies available ranging from those which are freely available to anyone, instant messaging or social network websites, to those which are created for specific groups or companies, an example being IBM’s BeeHive internal network, which allows employees to share ideas on projects and research areas of interest.

A screenshot of IBM’s internal social network dubbed “Beehive” where employees can collaborate on pet projects and share ideas.

Task 2. Web 3.0 Collaboration Systems The Internet is a diverse and continuously changing entity. The dynamic nature of the Internet has coined several terms that assist in describing its structure and the attitude towards it and its use. These terms serve as a description of the Internet's attributes, social attitudes towards it and how it is used to achieve different tasks. The Internet has been labeled with these terms “Web 1.0”, “Web 2.0” and “Web 3.0” in an attempt to classify the stages that it has gone through since its inception. Web 1.0
Web 1.0 is a loose term which identifies the “classic Internet”, that is, the Internet as it was previously used and viewed since its creation through to the early 2000s. Web 1.0 classifies the Internet as consisting of a series of web pages created to distribute information. In Web 1.0, users were simply fed information and had to actively search numerous web pages to extract information that they needed. In a business context, the Internet was used as a marketing and promotion tool, feeding consumers with information about the business. More recently, this paradigm of information distribution has developed significantly to one of participation, leading to the creation of the Web 2.0 concept. Web 2.0
Web 2.0 refers to the Internet that enables people to interact and share information through collaborative means. It is the interactivity of Web 2.0 services that distinguishes the services from those of Web 1.0. If Web 1.0 was a one-way broadcast, then Web 2.0 is two-way conversation. It is characterised under the concept of cloud computing where information is edited, stored and retrieved on the Internet. Many organisations have ventured into web 2.0 as an essential part of modern business. Informal communicational channels have always been the backbone of business and the collaborative means that wikis and forums provide are rapidly becoming this communication stream. Social networking means these informal communications are captured in a continuous nature and are broadly accessible. The re usability of these conversations between co-workers and executives in varied contexts allows a new dimension for information communications.
Web 3.0
Web 3.0 furthers the notion of collaborative web structures by extending on the scope of what they can achieve. Where web 2.0 allows users to collaborate on each others information, web 3.0 would self collaborate the information for its users. Its use of specific data tags in all information stored on the Internet, along with semantic web searches would allow for multiple activities to be carried out at once with little user inputs. The ability of 3.0 online networks allow people to see through the market or community and collectively match, learn, consume information in hours not months.
Business would be able to utilise this within its collaborative infrastructures with the use of large scale market research. As consumers browse sites, make purchases, comment on various topics this information is stored and tagged. Semantic searches would allow business to enter in set fields (e.g. top 10 most popular movies) and would retrieve a collaborated group from sales, reviews and general user communications.
Within internal organisation web 3.0 online networks would allow workers to collaborate on work form any location on the globe. The entrance of real 3D online communities ( similar to that already seen in 2nd life) would allow for workers to remotely log into boardrooms and collaborate on meetings, notes could be taken in wikis, which can link to personal work objectives, this can then added to a diary that provides a work plan for scheduled tasks. • understand the collaborative business activities through IT impact of business
The integration of data such as the semantic web, linked data, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, mashups, and APIs in Web 3.0 will enable businesses to extract more actionable, relevant and useful insight from information. Significant impact may be seen in areas such as marketing, corporate information management, and customer service where a vast amount of the work in these areas is related to researching and gathering information. The integration of web 3.0 will increase business productivity and provide businesses with a more time efficient, cost efficient way of running daily business operations.

The impact of Web 3.0 on businesses in relation to advertising will also be significant, as easier tools will be developed to assist in the interaction of products, services, and users through different channels rather than putting in a large number of advertisements on a website hoping users will click on them. However a problem with this is that, although these tools make it easier for advertisers and also make advertisements more relevant, the 'fine line' between useful and intrusive is hard to define. Businesses only want to pay for customers with attributes that match the target market, on the other hand, customers want their privacy. This means that marketers will need to precisely target customers without violating individual's rights of privacy, an issue that still hasn't been completely solved with Web 2.0.

With the evolution and diversity that comes with Web 3.0, software, microformats and hardware will play a major role. Also, as 'understanding' the information and data becomes more frequent, real-time collaboration will also increase. Tools for businesses such as marketing tools and financial controlling tools allow users to create ads, manage campaigns, optimize the product range, marketing, profitability and cash flows is a more simplistic way. Web 3.0 will be built on a user-friendly interface, therefore extensive training will not be necessary, therefore reducing costs and increasing productivity. Flexibility in relation to place of work and work hours will also be impacted, as stated above, web 3.0 online networks would allow workers to collaborate on work form any location on the globe. Collaboration is made easier through ease of use and the several channels available.

• understand the role of the IT professional and responsibilities in collaborative business processes and social networks
Web 3.0 would create a new type of profession. New technical skills would be required by certain IT professions to cater to the new Web 3.0. Certain roles would require more technical skills and employees would essentially need to be more technologically educated. These roles could be researching tasks and web development tasks where an in-depth knowledge of the Web 3.0 is required. Other roles would be made easier due to the specific nature of the Web 3.0. Statements such as "Where should I go today?" could be understood by humans, but computers have a harder time understanding it. Web 3.0 will enable computers to understand statements and questions that are usually not understood by computers today. This would make certain tasks easier for employees and even general users. Things such as booking plane tickets, ordering, finding specific items etc. would be much more easier and time efficient due to the accurate nature of Web 3.0. As we move towards a web where the context of content is defined by data, and where the web is capable of reading and understanding content and context, a massive amount of data, software, hardware and such is required to support it. This results in complexity of the system however, it focuses on 'simple complexity', that is, a complex system with a simple user interface to cater to the needs and convienience of users. Some tasks will be less time consuming and some will be more time consuming depending on the task at hand (as stated in the previous paragraph). Due to the flexible nature of Web 3.0, some tasks can be done from home, or work -generally any internet device. This may lead to a more informal work environment, however certain areas such as management and human resources which require human interaction would require employees to be at work. Ultimately this will depend on the workplace policies.
• Identify issues and suggestions for improvement
With the move to a web 3.0 internet and a semantic search system lies great concern for business. With improved smart search parameters semantic aims to discover and organize whole web pages rather then just the objects they contain. This increases the risk of certain objects to be withheld from search results (2009, Wilde). This is an issue that has arisen within the ranks of Google, that currently a move to semantic searches is likely to affect the way there engines work and that they would require to be re-modeled. Within the new system it will become more common for users to search for specific objects (e.g. one song form a whole album, or one particular product within a business) and through this would be neglecting all other products the business offers. This would mean that business would have to change the way it markets itself on the internet or risk being heavily neglected within user traffic.
References

Brafton Tailored News, 2009, 'Will Web 3.0 Affect SEO?'. [Online]. Available at: http://www.brafton.com/industry-news/will-web-3-0-affect-seo-$1261206.htm
A Discorvery Company, 2009, 'How Web 3.0 Will Work'. [Online]. Available at: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-30.htm
BNET Business Network, 2009, 'What to Expect From Web 3.0'. [Online]. Available at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=68