I just came across Afilimonov’s notes from Gartner’s Social Software in the Enterprise Roundtable:

There is general lack of understanding what social tagging is and what it has to offer. Most companies are just curious about the phenomenon but don’t see real application in their business. Adoption rate is close to non-existent. Only one company reported piloting social tagging technology to help employees find information on corporate policies and guidelines. HR department is the main driving force behind the initiative. The stark difference here is IBM where adoption of social tagging in the workplace is relatively high. At least that is what they say about use of Dogear technology internally at IBM.

There are a few things in here that make me think:

1. Is social tagging the same as social bookmarking? I don’t think so. Tagging is something you can do as part of most social software, including social bookmarking services like Cogenz.
2. If not, then why the hell wasn’t social bookmarking being discussed? It is simpler for employees to understand than blogs or wikis, and doesn’t require the cultural change that they necessitate.
3. I’m intrigued about HR being the driving force - need to think about this one.
4. Dogear isn’t social tagging - it’s social bookmarking (see thought #1)
5. Maybe the lack of understanding extends to Gartner too?