I’ve decided to broaden the scope of the blog to include Collaboration. While I may not have too much commentary on the subject I can at least sign post to some really great resource.
If you are interested in Microsoft’s BPOS take a look over at Brett’s Blog. It contains everything you need to know to get started with BPOS.
If you are interested in collaboration, have you looked into Stack Overflow [http://stackoverflow.com/faq] – although this specific site is about programming, the underlying platform, Stack Exchange, is an interesting way to promote group discussions and capture knowledge from across the web… I don't think it is a replacement for IM or Sharepoint, but is best described as on the Collaboration Continuum somewhere between forums and wikis. Do you think that this platform could be useful in the enterprise?
I'm a big fan of open source software, two of my favourites are WordPress and Asterisk and I really support how the software by its nature is open to allow modification and custom development. And you are right, Stack Exchange I'm sure could find a place in the enterprise.
The problem Enterprise IT functions have with open source is that they find it very hard to buy and implement and the IT industry follows a heard mentality.
Vendors and Suppliers find it hard to monetize open source and are therefore unlikely to push open source solutions or services. Combined with the fact that most IT shops do not have the skills or capabilities to deploy open source on their own it is very hard for open source to be found in large scale organisations.
I'n not saying this is always the case, I'm sure there are examples but given the functionality, flexibility and speed of deployment open source offers to an enterprise IT shop I'm surprised why there isn't more.
I'd certainly have open source as an option for my IT shop, especially when I am looking to innovate or introduce new unproven systems that may prove costly to implement with a closed sourced vendor.