Business 1.0 circles Business 2.0

Reports the Chicago Tribune: YouTube deal leads to surge in online speculation
The future of business: social networking? But what does that exactly mean?

Should an Internet arms race begin, it will likely be fought over online audiences. Building a large Web following is hard to do, and many of the big public Internet companies will seek to buy what they have had trouble creating: new-generation social-networking sites with large followings of users who spend time posting videos or creating their own Web pages. For example, Google's interest in YouTube was likely sparked by the failure of its own video site ? Google Video.

The cash pours in

Venture capitalists have anticipated the interest in Web 2.0 companies and have poured funds into start-ups. In the first half of the year, they put $262.3 million to work in 49 deals, according to VentureOne, a division of Dow Jones & Co., already surpassing the $199.1 million and 51 deals of all of last year.
A persistent theme behind their investing has been sites with user-generated content–from blogs to videos to Web pages with photos and family information. Now they hope for a Google-inspired spending binge.

The question is however, can you buy communities? And I believe that in fact many companies can build their future, not by buying, but by building. By trying to get to grips with what all this peer to peer flow of communication is all about.
On our blog we have reported on a wide range of examples that demonstrate that whether it be the harnessing of collective intelligence for scientific purposes, to multiplayer online gaming, to mobile, to entertainment to folk culture and beyond
what will we end up with - too many me-too's - if we all say "I want one like that."
What we should be saying is - This is who we are, this is what we do, how can we create something that will ATTRACT our stakeholders, our audiences, that creates genuine value that we can develop over time.
Look at the news and media groups Tribune awaits bids as sector's woes mount and Media Old World - Media New World and Why is mobile social networking worth $3.45b?
I admit it is complex, because there are so many issues to consider - but the real skill is to craft somethig of value, build it from inside out, because that way the learning enters your own 1.0 orgainsation, and there is a collective cognitive learning which benefits the entire organisation.
It might be better to run a series of workshops to explore what your orgainsation could be doing in this space and what skills you need to get there, rather than going to buy something you don't understand.
SMLXL are currently working with a number of companies to explore how they can build, adapt and attract. In a world of business 2.0
You can always drop us a line if you would like an outline of our workshop approach.
Just a thought.

Bookmark to: