Last week I had the good fortune of participating in a series of thought-provoking discussions at the Enterprise UI Summit in Aspen, Colorado.

The event was hosted by Jive Software and attendees included user experience experts from companies like SAP, Google, Adobe and RIM. The group shared design challenges, best practices, and visions for the future of enterprise software with an emphasis on the influence of the consumer Web and social software. Agenda items included:

- Show and Tell: Design Challenges, Process and Inspiration
- Microsharing in the Enterprise
- User Profiles: Best Practices from the Consumer Web
- Panel: Making Enterprise User Experience Better

Twitter was a surprisingly hot topic at the summit. Many attendees discussed how they have used Twitter to improve communication in personal and enterprise settings and the group debated the potential benefits and pitfalls of introducing these kinds of communication tools within a corporate environment. Personal (employee) profiles was another hot topic. In particular, the group discussed the questions of data portability, ownership of content, and integration with consumer sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Many thanks to the friendly folks at Jive Software for hosting such a terrific event!

p.s. Get my take on enterprise software UI in this Enterprise UI Summit attendee profile.