BEA chief calls for "enterprise MySpace"

The founder of service orientated architecture firm BEA Systems has called for the setting up of a business equivalent of MySpace that can be used to collaborate on enterprise projects.

Speaking at the opening keynote of the BEAWorld conference company founder Alfred Chuang said that a similar portal to consumer site MySpace should be created for enterprises, where code and ideas could be shared and developed among enterprises.

"I made intentional comment on MySpace," said Chuang in a press conference after the speech.

"There's no doubt that culturally there's a new method of communications around. If you grow up with the virtual space you don't think of life any other way so it makes sense to collaborate online for the next generation of workers."

He said that initially he saw such collaborative ventures as occurring mainly within individual enterprises but in the longer term these would be extended to inter-company collaboration and out into a totally open environment.

"Alfred said what about a business MySpace, well why not?" said John Woodget, managing director of Intel UK.

"Software lifecycles are moving from months and years to days and weeks and this kind of approach is needed. Look at how many software updates Flickr puts out for example."

He pointed out that newer software like AJAX, RSS and Flash was drastically speeding up the pace of software development and making creating new tools a lot easier. This led to faster cycles of software development that could leave established companies left behind.