It used to be that when we needed help with a work-related problem, we stuck our head over to Jeff in the next cubicle, or made a phone call to a trusted colleague. Now, when we have an issue, we go to a global community of experts, advisers, and knowledgebases. And, likewise, we assist others across the globe.
Welcome to one of the revolutionary shifts in our work brought on by 'wiki-nomics,' in which the world has become a gigantic virtual workplace.
My ebizQ colleague Gian Trotta just posted a compelling interview with John Schmidt, chairman of the Integration Consortium, and senior vice president for enterprise architecture at Wells Fargo Bank, who talked about the implications of wiki-nomics.
Schmidt compared "wiki-nomics for architecture and integration" to "enabling outsourcing at the individual level."
Personal outsourcing -- what a cool concept.
Of course, the term "outsourcing" causes shudders to run up many IT professionals' spines, but Schmidt said he's not talking about sending tasks to lower-paid workers somewhere else on the globe. Unlike the traditional model for outsourcing -- firms contracting out functions or processes to an outside firm -- "individuals are starting to outsource their problem-solving and their own professional development," he says. "They're leveraging things like wikis, blogs, other collaboration events to collaborate in real-time with other individuals."
In today's world, IT professionals go to Google, Wikipedia, and other online sources of support, Schmidt says. "They write out their question in their blog and look for their community to respond and help them. ...they extended their network of peers to outside the four walls of their company. ...they're taking their problems and their professional challenges to the world."
In the same interview, Schmidt also talked about the growing confluence of "integration" and "architecture," which, he says, "have always been two sides of the same coin.... architecture is in fact a key discipline and aspect of any kind of integration in terms of trying to make organizations work together effectively."
Schmidt pointed out that many organizations attempt to break big integration projects into bite-sized segments, which often results in siloed chaos. Architecture can keep all these project pieces aligned, he believes.
The complete interview can be found here.
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