Dachis acquires The 2.0 Adoption Council
In a move that surprised me, Dachis Group has acquired The 2.0 Adoption Council. Quite what they've acquired is something of a mystery. I was under the impression that 2AC is a sort of club where like minded enterprise 2.0 evangelists get together to share and learn experiences. I liken them to an independent buyers group. According to Susan Scrupski, who runs the 2AC show and now joins Dachis as an executive director, that's not the case: "They're here to learn from each other about how to do this... the Dachis Group can provide amazing resources to help them learn more, learn better, learn faster." Maybe so.
But what's really happened is that an otherwise semi-open peer-to-peer group has been taken 'private' within the Dachis orbit. 2AC members get access to Dachis expertise (presumably at a price for individual consulting engagements) while Dachis gets access to a blue chip list of execs engaged in making enterprise 2.0 a reality. It's certainly a novel way of creating a sales channel.
RT @mkrigsman: @gyehuda @lehawesImportant to ensure the @20AdoptionCouncil remains a neutral player. >> We are committed to this.
Being committed to something and pulling it off are two different things. It's difficult to see how that will work when Dachis is in the consulting business with product partners. It will create some interesting tensions and Dachis will need to tread very lightly if 2AC members are not to feel like they're being pressured into taking up consulting assignments.
In virtual 2AC meetings, members guard their anonymity very carefully, especially when discussing project specifics. In this new scenario, while there will be little difficulty in maintaining anonymity, it will be a natural temptation for Dachis people to be looking at those events as sales opportunities.
There was no immediate response for comment from Dachis Group.
In the meantime, Susan Scrupski says that she will continue in her role as the person nurturing the 2AC community.
UPDATE: I spoke with Jeff Dachis, CEO Dachis Group who said that: "There's a lot of value in connecting with people who are doing this stuff. At the same time we think we have experience that can benefit the community. We're not there to sell them anything, we're just there as community members. Over time we'd be interested in participating in research with council members. Our hope is that we'll become smarter and they will as well."