WIIFM or WIIFE?

So I see these CIOs teasing David Margulius about Web 2.0 at the hallowed Churchill Club. Are these guys Luddites? Do they not see the excitement in this Dan Farber report from the AlwaysOn summit on the Future of social networks - execs from Facebook, Ning, MySpace, Wallop on the panel? Do they not see we are at the forefront of exciting trends like digital identities and social networks? Can they not see the renewed life in old networks like Plaxo?

The answer may lie in how most people seem to be using a network like LinkedIn. Folks I talk to say LinkedIn has been great for personal job hunting. Few talk about it as a sales tool. Or as a recruiting tool for their companies. When that tipping point occurs, you will see CIOs interested because their VP of Sales and VP of HR will push for it. Today these tools are about "me" and people I know and like, not the "enterprise"

The CIOs in the Dave panel above clearly are using emerging tools - in the context of helping employees collaborate. Show them solutions to their problems and they are interested.
But talk  to the CIO about individuals as sports fans or voters for a particular candidate and the interest drops (unless it is a CIO of a sports team or a political campaign).   

But instead of showing the CIO business solutions with these tools, we are hyping them and arguing in Wikipedia who deserves credit for terms like Enterprise 2.0  - a pompous term to start with as it ignores all the other innovations in telemetry, mobility, analytics and other areas which are actually showing more impact on the Enterprise.

Earlier in the week there was a bit of a dust up in the Enterprise Irregulars (that I am part of). Some of us were miffed that Stowe Boyd remaned his blog the Irregulars. Did not bother me much. Stowe is focused on the consumer centric WIIFM market. I want the EIs focused on the WIIFE.