2009 has seen many businesses adopt social media tools as an important part of outreach strategies.  The Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (CSRI) at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has started a study of Web 2.0 and corporate responsibility.  Their report is slated to come out early next year, but some of the key people doing the research spoke at the Carnegie Council.  Marcy Murningham, an associate at CSRI, has been looking at "interactive engagement and accountability between" civil society groups and companies.  While Web 2.0 tools have been available for at least a few years now, many companies have onle recently started employing them.  Murningham says that this is because companies have a hard time using tools that might disrupt their "certainty of routine."

You can watch the full discussion here.