by Dudley Molina, Founder and CEO, ePath Learning, Inc.

This article was orginally published on CLO's Trainingprism.com January 7, 2007

The day of giant corporate software purchases and lengthy implementation, rollout and adoption periods is over. The future lies in bottom-up, user-driven services. This was recently stated by Oracle veteran Ray Lane. But he wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to recognize that the day of web-based services is here. In fact, there is no buzzword more popular in technology today than Web 2.0; and word is spreading fast in mainstream business media as well. Business Week recently touted Web 2.0 as one of the ‘Best Ideas of 2006’. So, what benefits does consumer-driven Web 2.0 bring to the corporate environment and how does this relate to organizational learning?

First let’s begin with a basic definition of Web 2.0 and its origins. The term Web 2.0 was coined in 2004 as a title for a conference now held annually by O’Reilly Media. Today, Web 2.0 describes any online service that is contributory in nature. Much has been written about the social networking side of Web 2.0. The most recognizable examples of Web 2.0 sites are the volunteer-written encyclopedia, Wikipedia; video contribution site, YouTube; the social networking site, MySpace and the ever popular online marketplace, eBay. Unlike the first generation of websites, which were literal corporate brochures or strictly e-commerce, the second-generation of Internet services allow people to collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable. What better application of this new methodology than to learning? Through Web 2.0, it becomes possible to eliminate many of the barriers that had previously hindered the development and deployment of anytime, anywhere learning. In the context of learning management technology, web-based learning management serves up a comprehensive solution that gives all stakeholders – employees and managers – the tools they need to improve their productivity.
What is important to note about the evolution of web-based services are the benefits that businesses can stand to gain from them; namely short implementation periods and rapid ramp-up time. Affordability, ease of use and accessibility are also key. Another characteristic that consumer-driven Web 2.0 applications bring to the corporate world is the ability to share control between the decision maker or ‘driver’, as well as the user. As Ray Lane states in a recent Business Week article, “In the 1990s, (we) moved away from a focus on the users to a focus on the buyers. Now, the technology and all these services available with Web 2.0 allow the users to make the decision. It's very powerful. They start using it and talking about it, get value from it, and all of a sudden you've got 20 users.” Businesses who utilize web-based learning management solutions can begin to create a corporate knowledge base that grows from the ground up. Employees can take courses via a pre-defined learning path, on an as-needed basis, or simply search for ‘just in time’ information.

Since the subscription based model is so much more affordable than legacy enterprise solutions, business people can implement on-demand applications ‘on demand.’ Enterprise-wide buying decisions can be driven at the individual level and grow. Use breeds adoption. All of the features formerly available only in expensive legacy products are provisionable in the subscription model so that any corporate subscriber can choose to use one or all of these features via the same enterprise portal.

The impact over time is the evolution to what can be called a “Learning 2.0” mindset. Learning 2.0 creates a mash-up of “pushed” training with “pulled” learning via an enterprise-wide learning portal where development and contribution of content is distributed out in the organization to employees, subject matter experts, and training professionals alike. It is the evolution of a "command and control" mindset in learning management to one of shared contribution, collaborative content development, ubiquitous content access, and learner engagement.