Historically, I haven't made a practice of referencing other people's blog posts unless I felt I had an additional spin on the matter. But sometimes (no, many times), that means I'm potentially doing a disservice to both readers of this blog and to my friends who deserve to have their conversations extended to a broader set of eyes.

So from now on, I'm going to make a concerted effort to call your attention to interesting blog posts that stand well on their own.

First up, Andrew McAfee (a fellow Irregular) and his fascinating take on applying the flip-test to Enterprise 2.0 initiatives:

A Technology Flip Test: Introducing Channels in a World of Platforms [Andrew McAfee]

The writer and and cultural observer Stanley Crouch, when asking his audience to consider a given issue, sometimes proposes a 'flip test' in which important elements of the status quo are reversed. It's an effective way to unmask hidden assumptions and double standards. And it can work quite well for questions around technology.

One useful flip test consists of mentally switching the order of appearance of a new technology and an existing one. At a conference years back I was sitting on a panel that was asked to talk about future of the book. As the discussion was heating up about the inevitability of the electric media, someone on the panel (I wish it had been me) proposed a flip test. He said "Let's say the world has only e-books, then someone introduces this technology called 'paper.' It's cheap, portable, lasts essentially forever, and requires no batteries. You can't write over it once it's been written on, but you buy more very cheaply. Wouldn't that technology come to dominate the market?" It's fair to say that comment changed the direction of the panel. [continued]

enterprise2.0 enterprise20 flip test irregulars enterprise irregulars mcafee social software emergent software andrewmcaphee woodrow