Tammy Erickson, managing director at Enterprise solutions provider nGenera, kicked off this week’s Enterprise 2.0 Conference (which has, this year, expanded to reach both coasts with another in Boston) in San Francisco (You can follow @destinationCRM, or the hash tag #e2conf, for some live tweeting). Her morning keynote discussed the changes companies are facing as they come out of the recession and are forced to confront the demands of an increasingly digital enterprise.  “Corporate executives understand that these tools are not about kids, not about social activities only in the sense of non-business,” she told the audience. “These are business tools! They have very substantial applications for a number of activities.”

However, Erickson did put out a disclaimer by stating that 2.0 applications aren’t necessarily for all companies because being “2.0″ isn’t just about the technology: “It’s a thought process of what we’re trying to accomplish…the underlying activity of business objectives,” she said. The technology is just there to help make it effectively happen.

observed the behaviors of enterprise that exhibit “successfully” collaborative environments and that found that the companies shared these 10 commonalities:

• highly engaged, committed participants;
• trust-based relationships;
• networking opportunities;
• selection, promotion, and training practices based on collaboration;
• organization philosophy based on supporting a “community of adults”;
• executives who create a “gift culture” (“encourage anyone and everyone to give freely of their time and insight to help colleagues”);
• leaders possess both task-and relationship-management skills;
• productive and efficient behaviors and processes;
• clearly defined individual roles and responsibilities (don’t micromanage!); and
• people have important challenging tasks.

On top of that, Erikson shared ten activities — or “collaborative intents” — that can come about once companies actively leverage enterprise 2.0 technology and foster a culture of collaboration.

• connect previously unrelated ideas;
• access untapped people or expertise;
• distribute work or risk;
• co-create;
• detect emerging patterns or trends;
• pool judgements;
• determine group-wide preferences;
• air and debate multiple views;
• influence view or norms; and
• coordinate in time and space.