AIIM is offering free Enterprise 2.0 training, at least for a short while. They have a ten-part course on Enterprise 2.0, and AIIM is offer one of the ten sessions for free...

A lot of folks are confused, and justly ask what the heck is Enterprise 2.0 anyway? Jake opined a while ago that the Enterprise 2.0 label might be a little unnecessary... because its all pretty much the Web 2.0 stuff anyway. I agree in part... a lot of the initial buzz about Enterprise 2.0 is pretty much just making blogs, wikis, and social software more "enterprisey."

However, its also about streamlining business process management, data mining, and data visualization with freaky new tools... and a lot of cool new security offerings. Personally, I think that solving Enterprise 2.0 security problems is easier than solving Web 2.0 security issues... because cross-domain single sign on is a lot easier to do in the enterprise... and there's less spam ;-)

I'd also like to emphasize that real Enterprise 2.0 shouldn't be focused on the latest buzzwords... it should be about empowerment, simplicity, and evolution. Bill Gates recently reminded us of the dirty little secret of software: tradition enterprise apps are more about tracking and monitoring employees, rather than empowering them to do their jobs better. Enterprise 2.0, if it takes the lead from Web 2.0, should break that command-and-control mold to enable bigger, better, faster innovation. Otherwise, it shouldn't even be called Enterprise 2.0.

To paraphrase Clay Shirky, innovations aren't socially interesting until they are technically boring. Frankly, I'd argue that enterprise applications could certainly benefit from some technical boredom... instead of re-architecting your solution every 5 years with the latest and greatest ivory tower buzzwords -- J2EE, EJB, Portals, SOA, CEP, ESB, etc. -- just use the simplest things that works.

To sum up... Keep it simple (stupid!), focus on usability, and your audience will love you... Or as Einstein would say:

Things should be made as simple as possible -- but no simpler.

Always good advice...