Talking about "Creativity with Control" is something that is looked at and commented on in a variety of different ways, especially when dealing with the enterprise. Above, you comment on how:

"The fundamental issue is that Web 2.0 services tend to be somewhat anarchic, putting more control in the hands of the individuals who create the content, while removing the filtering and formatting that large companies tend to prefer."

This is true, and that is the creativity part, which I think is great. Giving the employees ability to create and build new applications to better serve their organizations not only increases productivity, but it offsets IT app backlog.

The issue here is that there has to be some sort of control to make sure that the information or data going into these Web 2.0 applications is safe. And by safe I mean that it has to be somewhat protected (from malicious or outdated information) and standardized, etc. If people are building Web 2.0 applications and mashups that rely on critical data, control is definitely needed. There also has to be a checkpoint to make sure that the information isn't being exposed to individuals or external teams that could use this information to harm folks' companies.

It's a fine line with creativity and control, and there has to be some balance (which I think folks are still figuring out) but that said, when looking at it from the enterprise perspective, they are going to need that control for their own security. And if they implement Web 2.0 the right way, they won't be stifling employee creativity.

As to Facebook, it is a totally separate ballgame. I use Facebook, and I promote events on there and attend events promoted on there. But do I post critical information that is enterprise confidential? No way. And that's what we have to be aware of moving forward.

For more information, check out Anant's blog on this topic: http://jhingran.typepad.com/anant_jhingrans_musings/2007/10/creativity-vs-c.html

Feel free to hit me with any questions too. As I said, we're still shaping this and it would be great to get feedback.

Cheers,

Lauren Cooney
IBM CTO Office

Thanks for your comments, Lauren.
I think you said it best when you described a "fine line" between creativity and control. The challenge will be that individuals are going to increasingly demand more of a role in creating content and corporations -- even as they say they embrace Web 2.0 -- will be reluctant to give up control.

And I suspect, when companies keep too much control, more and more corporate information will move informally to more open sites such as Facebook.

You mention that you wouldn't post confidential information on Facebook; I think the challenge is that so many people are able to do just that, and might even have incentive to do so. ... It's an interesting challenge.