“Do you know how to solve this problem?”

He asks me this as I blink into the unbelievably bright sunlight filtering through the eerily still, gauze-like drapery and curls of smoke rising slowly from his cigarette. During the time it has taken him to ask this question, I have been served what seems like my 12th cup of tea and he has answered a cell phone call, signed a requisition for a printer, and seemingly fired someone. I am somewhat distracted.

“Have you ever heard of Facebook?” I say, cautiously waiting to tip my E2 hand.

He chuckles, lights another cigarette, and adjusts his position in the comically oversized chair. His squint and deep drag of the Marlboro Red fronts his clear contemplation of whether his amusement/annoyance is caused by my youthful response or my youth itself.  I am used to the reaction, having added the translation of “very young” to my limited Arabic lexicon long ago. Despite the incredulity of my question, he bites.

“Facebook…very popular. Is this your solution?”

“Somewhat. Seems to me a vibrant, online community of practice dedicated to the open exchange of ideas and problem solving between the private and public sector would be more valuable than a survey with respect to collecting economically significant information about disparate constituents of the IT industry. How accurate do you think your survey data is?”

The half finished cigarette is put out. Barely visible but ultimately unnerving beads of sweat appear on my forehead. He leans in, looks at my business card again and smirks a bit. In a good way, but a smirk nonetheless. On the fence is better than out the door.

“Interesting…Go on,” he says, eyeing the ever increasing delta on the clock between my scheduled end time and now.

“Imagine a website where individuals executing within an IT discipline can connect, discuss common questions, find answers, and establish an online reputation. In the same way you think about Facebook using social means for social ends, this community would leverage social means for professional ends. Furthermore you forget the silos of government, private sector, and academic institutions and drive the community around the focal point of practice. Tupac lived the ‘Thug Life’. Well this is the ‘IT Life’. Topics ranging from daily troubleshooting to industry mobility can be surfaced and addressed at the personal level, before they reach the departmental or ministerial level.”

He orders me another beverage to make my daily tea count an even baker’s dozen. It’s 11:17 in the morning. I am convinced that I can flap my arms fast enough to opt for the aerial route back to the office. Despite my teeth performing jumping jacks from the caffeine, I know he is sold with his next question.

“What do I get from this website?”

I pause. Mostly for effect. Partly scrambling for an answer.

“You get more and better information about the IT industry than was ever possible with a survey.”

Another pause. I lean in. Mostly for effect. Partly because my spine is going numb. I go on.

“Each participant in the community must register to participate. You ask some very basic questions to establish a profile and learn a bit more about the user. Nothing too difficult or overbearing, but enough to create a baseline. As they interact with the community, two things will happen. One, their content is rated and they ascend to arbitrary levels of expertise within the IT community. Two, you can analyze whether their stated area of expertise is congruent with their demonstrated area of expertise. Next time you want to analyze the industry, you mine the profiles according to your desired parameters. Spot trends, focus growth initiatives, identify sub-industries ripe for foreign investment or impending unemployment. As the system advances you may want to consider only mining the profiles of users at a certain reputational level. This way you will get seemingly more accurate data, as verified by the community at large. Seems to me this would be way more valuable than a survey with limited participation and unverifiable results.”

He puts his cigarette out. I finish my last gulp of tea. A minion of sorts escorts in the next meeting party. We both stand. He reaches across the table to shake my hand, lowers his voice and asks a question.

“What do you call this concept?”

I smile and proudly state “We call it Enterprise 2.0.”

He smiles as well. “You have my support”.