Technology News: Collaboration: Enterprise 2.0 Platform Highlights Widgets, Wikis

Near-Time is striving to help companies build a better workforce the open source way. The company recently teamed up with the Institute for Open Economic Networks to develop workforce partnerships via the Open Source Workforce Development initiative.

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Near-Time is making collaboration easier, one wiki and widget at a time. The company recently teamed up with the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) to develop workforce partnerships through the creation of the Open Source Workforce Development (OSWD) initiative. The new initiative is paving the way for regional business leaders to collaborate on building a workforce with 21st century skills.

"Open source workforce development promises to accelerate job training and economic development through grassroots collaboration," according to Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time.

Its on-demand, Enterprise 2.0 platform is now being used by organizations for economic development, trade and entrepreneurial ventures.

Leveraging Assets

Near-Time's Web 2.0 platform provides the proving ground for "Strategic Doing," a concept that concentrates on identifying transformative initiatives that can engage members of a community to hit the ground running.

Conrad explains that as the baby boomers retire, businesses in many sectors will face staff and skills shortages and will need to leverage their assets to succeed. Near-Time's wikis, weblogs and forums provide a fast and easy way to promote such an educational initiative with global connectivity.

Extensive Training Not Needed

Conrad says updates to Near-Time's platform continue on an ongoing basis to keep the technology on the cutting edge, including widgets and individual customization. For example, the U.S. Department of Labor's Web site retained its branding , but the site is now powered by Near-Time, which serves organizations in more than 40 nations.

"The adoption is real," says Conrad. "Users can work together on our consumer-based platform with others in their businesses."

If you can read and write and are ambitious, he says, the Web 2.0 applications are easy to use. "They don't involve extensive training," so collaboration is no big deal for tackling some of the economic development challenges we face today.