I’ve been quite critical of senior management in recent years (if not harsh and down-right insulting of some of those dim-wits) for their lack of action and support for the intranet. But some executives have come to look beyond their French-cuffs, golf junkets, and internal politicking to realize the potential value the intranet represents:
• A competitive advantage in a global economy
• A business system that promotes costs savings & efficiency
• A sales system that supports sales activity, if not increases revenue
• A communications channel that can engage all regardless of location
• An HR vehicle that helps attract, retain and engage employees
Patrick Walsh, an information architect with the BBC, believes that part of the intranet’s future is that of a more lean, svelte, and productive intranet.
“Any user from the CEO to the receptionist should be able to point to content they find valuable. To achieve this you need to understand what content your users really need to create value within your organization,” says Patrick in his blog Intranet 2.0: the need for ‘lean intranets’. “Once you’ve done this then remove everything that doesn’t add value from the intranet.”
While the intranet should become leaner, the volume of information will continue to grow (with good reason). Therefore a great intranet (Download (free) the Good to Great Intranet Matrix) will continue to grow, but hopefully become more efficient in weeding-out unnecessary or stale information.
This of course is somewhat at odds with Intranet 2.0. which promotes and encourages volumes of more information in the form of:
• user comments
• blog posts
• wiki contributions
• discussion threads
• podcasts & vlogs
• etc.
Can the ‘lean intranet’ and Intranet 2.0 co-exist? The answer lies in high-effective and fine-tuned information architecture, smart search engine indexing, and rigorous information management and intranet governance (policies).
I’ll expand on this in some detail in my keynote address on “The Future of Intranets” at the upcoming jBoye08 conference in Denmark this November 3-6 (I know not too many North Americans can fly to Denmark for a conference, but if you can, or you’re already in Northern Europe, this conference may well be the intranet conference of the year. Reserve your spot today).
Speaking of the future of intranets, please take 10 minutes to take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and learned lessons.
--
Speaking of making Intranet 2.0 work… Here’s some very interesting, practical wiki advice from Jessica Merritt (thank you to Kelly Senora) and the Smart Teaching Blog: "50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom"
--
On a completely unrelated, offline note… I came across a big black bear on a hike last night on one of the local mountains north of Vancouver. He was busily gorging himself on blueberries in a mountain meadow. Like the one who uses my backyard as a toilet or a highway to my neighbor’s bird feeders, I easily chased this particular bear away with a few shouts and waves of my arm. In truth, black bears are little babies (as kids we’d used the moniker “fraidy cats”). But here in the wilds of British Columbia, sometimes the norm dissolves and a bear goes crazy…. Bear attacks B.C. man after jumping on fishing boat.
BOOKMARK THIS:
Digg this 
Post to del.icio.us 
Post to Slashdot 
reddit
Facebook 
StumbleUpon 
Add to Technorati Faves