by Robert Millard

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat (arguably one of the Top 10 business books of 2005) lists three vectors that have "flattened the world" over the past few years, dissolving geography as an impediment to global business. These are:

• A critical mass of technology that really can revolutionize global communications to an extent that is difficult to fully conceive;
  
  
• A new generation of tech-savvy "Generation Y" youngsters entering the job market, who are at ease with this technology and who can use it in ways that us "older folk" (i.e. anybody older than about 30) can hardly even imagine; and
  
  
• The entry of new countries to the global economy, competing toe-to-toe in western markets with established businesses, offering the same or better quality at very competitive rates.

Think about the jump from typewriters to personal computers. From letters and faxes to emails and blackberries. Today, we are on the verge of another leap of similar magnitude, this time aimed at moving internet communication from effectively being a one-on-one tool where data is largely one-way and asynchronous, to it being a highly effective synchronous and interactive tool for communicating and collaborating within teams. Even very large teams. While older professionals are still wedded to emails as the primary communication medium (complaining loudly about the information overload that they cause,) the Gen Y's entering the workplace today have already moved beyond this. These changes are so profound that they have spawned a new term: Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 has enormous implications for improving knowledge management practices in professional service firms, and also for the way that firms can approach strategy formulation and implementation.

Rod Boothby, of Innovationcreators.com, is one of the foremost thinkers in the world on Web 2.0 and how it is likely to impact on organizations. Amongst other things, he has been responsible over the past couple of years implementing Web 2.0 tools in accounting giant Ernst & Young. He has also drafted a White Paper on the next generation in office productivity tools. What are these Web 2.0 tools? According to Boothby says, these are some of the things that we can expect the new generation of professionals in our firms to use, on an everyday basis:

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