The future's bright? The future is a half-burnt candle...

Whilst preparing to co-run a session in a couple of weeks to a second-year Executive MBA class, we've been looking for examples of how Web 2.0 and Social Media tools are used NOW in Operations, or Supply Chain Management and so on.

We already have a load of examples of how they could be used, but we don't have many examples of how they are used. I've used the great Social Web to ask a question (via Twitter and LinkedIn Groups: the APICS The Association for Operations Management and Supply Chain Management Group) and have had the enormous response of ZERO comments or answers. None!

I admit, this surprised me. A few months ago I posed a question to another couple of groups (on E-Learning) and got around 20 long text answers (near essays in some cases) from people around the world.

So, does this mean that none of the people on the LinkedIn groups, despite understanding the importance of social networking, understand what Web 2.0 is and how it can benefit their sector?

Or does this mean that they understand Web 2.0 and have implemented it (beyond 'Web-integrated ERP') and can't be bothered to answer?

Or is there, in fact, a huge business opportunity waiting to happen? Communications tools (such as Blogs and Twitter) being used to improve communcitions along the supply chain.

Folksonomies and Wikis being used to improve training and enable workers at all levels of an organisation to participate in creating strategies, guidelines, work processes etc.

Widgets being made from Mash-ups that provide Operations managers with all the information at their finger-tips, comparing and combining all possible data sets (from their organisation but also further up and down the supply chain) so that they know what their clients' clients' clients' clients are doing now, and ensuring their suppliers' suppliers' suppliers' suppliers are not going to create a shortfall in production.

This stuff is obvious, isn't it? Or will it take another ten years before SAP and their ilk integrate Web 2.0 features (by which time we will be on Web 7.43)?

If anyone has any comments or examples of Web 2.0 in an operations context that are being used NOW, do please let me know.

And if anyone wants to invest in us setting up a consultancy to exploit this huge hole in the market, again, let me know! ;-)