SharePoint is rapidly spreading through organisations at the moment, and in terms of team collaboration, this is a good thing. There is a very real need to be met, and it will require a mix of tools, including team spaces. That being said, we've argued before that the unmanaged spread of ...
Monthly Archives: September 2008
September 30, 2008
Best-practice approach to SharePoint team spaces
Categorised under: Collaboration, Information management, Intranets
Tags: Collaboration, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, team spaces
September 30, 2008
Asking participants to “pretend” in user studies
Jared Spool has written about the dangers of getting users to pretend during usability testing. To quote: One of the places we kept noticing this was when we watching people shop online. Asking a shopper to pretend to purchase (“Could you find a pair of shoes you might like to ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: usability, usability testing, user research
September 29, 2008
Should knowledge workers have enterprise 2.0 ratings?
Andrew McAfee asks: should knowledge workers have enterprise 2.0 ratings? To quote: So one approach would be to graph where everyone stands within the organization along six dimensions: authoring, editing, interacting, tagging, uploading, and positive feedback. A simple radar graph would instantly show were an individual is on each, based ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
September 29, 2008
What intranet CMS’s can learn from wikis
The "Wiki Way" is getting some traction at the moment, and it's often positioned as the replacement for "old fashioned" methods of publishing. In particular, wiki advocates target the limitations and failures of web content management systems, the tools most often used to publish and manage corporate intranets. Now, wikis are ...
Categorised under: Content management, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: cms, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, versioning, wikis, workflow
September 24, 2008
Implementing records management: the morning after
Ganesh Vednere has written about the activities after a records management system has been implemented. To quote: So you've chosen the right records management (RM) package, got the smartest developers in your firm to design and develop the solution, and today you successfully went into production with the application. Lo ...
Categorised under: Document & records management, Information management
Tags: edrms, records management, rm
September 23, 2008
Announcing the winners of the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards
The winners of this year's Intranet Innovation Awards have now been announced. Global in nature, these awards celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to the enhancement and delivery of intranets. Uniquely, the awards recognise individual intranet improvements, and not intranets as a whole. The awards are about improving all intranets, ...
Categorised under: Announcements, Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: awards, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, winners
September 21, 2008
Photo: The arch
Stitch: the arch Walcott Street, Bath, England Walking idly through Bath, stumbled across this stone arch, set into the cliff wall. Presumably some Victorian fancy, cobbled together from older ruins nearby.
Categorised under: Photos
September 19, 2008
Quick turnaround usability testing
Paul Nuschke writes about quick turnaround usability testing techniques. To quote: It starts with any number of scenarios: Design and development have taken too long to produce a prototype, you need to release in three weeks, and you suspect there may be design flaws. You are trying to incorporate usability ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: usability, usability testing
September 18, 2008
“My sites”: do they work?
"My sites" is a concept coming very much into vogue at present, driven by the adoption of SharePoint and a range of other intranet and enterprise 2.0 platforms. The idea is to give each person within the organisation a place to publish their identity, share their links and collect together ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, my sites, personalisation, portals
September 16, 2008
Content value analysis for intranets
Patrick Walsh introduces the idea of content value analysis for intranets. To quote: Sampling would have to represent a fair percentage of the content and samples would have to be taken from several areas of a site or sub-site. Areas must be selected without bias. In an intranet with 1,000 ...
Categorised under: Intranets
September 15, 2008
Open-source web CMS: the right question? [+ audio]
View SlideShare presentation When selecting a content management system, the question of open-source vs closed-source often comes up. Which ...
Categorised under: Uncategorized
Tags: cms, open-source
September 14, 2008
Photo: Stitch: Pulteney Bridge
Stitch: Pulteney Bridge Bath is simply packed with beautiful architecture, from end-to-end, including this bridge. Carrying only a 50mm prime lens, I turned a challenge into an opportunity. (You'll want to view this at a large size. ...
Categorised under: Photos
Tags: bath, photo, pulteney bridge
September 12, 2008
Achieving effective Enterprise 2.0
Martin White has written an article on achieving effective Enterprise 2.0. To quote: There is a lot of interest at the present time in the role that Enterprise 2.0 web applications can play in enhancing business performance. A recent global survey by McKinsey indicated that after an initial period of ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
September 11, 2008
Naming the intranet
When creating or relaunching an intranet, the question of whether to give the site a name often comes up. This briefing explores when to name an intranet, and how best to do it. Why name your intranet? Having a catchy and memorable intranet name is a great way of promoting the intranet. A ...
Categorised under: Intranets
September 11, 2008
Simplify the search user experience
Out of the box, most search engines are poorly designed for the needs of general intranet searchers. Cluttered with complex features, these search tools can easily be overwhelming for staff who simply want search to work ‘like Google’. The first step that the intranet team should take when installing a new ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles, Search tools
September 11, 2008
Staff directories benefit from cross-linking
Staff directories (internal phone directories) can be much more than just a way of looking up contact numbers. In any large or complex organisation, they can also provide a way of ‘navigating’ through the relationships between staff, business units and locations. One of the key conclusions from examining successful staff directory ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles
September 10, 2008
Wikis Not Word! Gaining adoption through psychological warfare
Seth Gottleib has written an unusual post on building wiki adoption through psychological warfare. To quote: Your company has a perfectly good wiki but your (otherwise intelligent) co-workers insist on emailing you Microsoft Word documents to review. Your gentle guidance has been ignored. Your snarky comments have been equally ineffective. ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, wikis
September 10, 2008
Web 2.0 is about giving up some control
Gerry McGovern writes that Web 2.0 is about giving up some control. To quote: Web 2.0 and social media mean that for teachers a declining part of their job involves telling. An increasing part is listening to the class and facilitating them in having conversations. Teachers should help moderate these ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: web 2.0
September 8, 2008
Intranet 2.0: the need for ‘lean intranets’
Patrick C. Walsh has written an interesting post on the idea of lean intranets. To quote: I think that a lot of senior managers are sceptical of Intranet 2.0 because Intranet 1.0 in many organisations is not providing the goods. Perhaps a new way of thinking about intranets is required. ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, intranet 2.0, Intranets, lean
September 8, 2008
Seven personal skills for effective collaboration
Shawn Callahan has outlined seven personal skills for effective collaboration. To quote: It's easy to talk about what collaboration is or is not or the types of collaboration. What's difficult is to change your practices (read behaviours) to improve your chances of an effective collaboration. Here are seven personal ...
Categorised under: Collaboration
Tags: Collaboration
September 5, 2008
Blogs no longer equal conversations?
Alex Manchester has questioned what blogs mean, in the context of today's usage. To quote: For me these days a blog is little more than a sophisticated, easy-to-use website platform. A place where an individual or a department/function can have their own site quickly and easily. Simplistic that may be, ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Content management, Enterprise 2.0
Tags: blogs
September 5, 2008
Enterprise social Software technology
Tony Byrne has written about enterprise social software, from an analyst perspective. To quote: While agreement around the core concepts of "social software" has remained elusive, the underlying phenomenon is quite real. To date, industry analysts have quite properly focused on the cultural and organizational aspects of social software technologies ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
September 3, 2008
Now Twittering
Just a quick note to say that I'm now Twittering, and my username is "s2d_jamesr". I'll try to keep the tweets on topic, although I make no promises!
Categorised under: Announcements
September 3, 2008
Enterprise 2.0: the nature of the firm
ReadWriteWeb have written about enterprise 2.0 and changes to organisations. To quote: Enterprises are all about secrecy, structure and control. Social Media is exactly the opposite. Secrecy, structure and control have served real needs for a long time, they work. When the irresistible force of social media hits the immovable ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
September 3, 2008
Tale of two tunnels: web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0
Thomas Vander Wal has written a post comparing web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0. To quote: One comment I made yesterday is, "the difference between Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is like the difference building a tunnel through rock and tunnel under water". That this is getting at is Web 2.0 takes ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, web 2.0
September 1, 2008
Employee social networking at Sabre
Toby Ward has published a case study on employee social networking at Sabre. To quote: The results have been spectacular: 60% of questions are answered within one hour (one hour!); each question receives an average of 9 responses (9 responses!). The system has already led to more than $150,000 in ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: case study, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social networking
September 1, 2008
Easy Pickings
Patrick Lambe writes about the dangers of pursuing low-hanging fruit, and outlines his "REACH" planning model. To quote: Mary sums up brilliantly: “Collecting low-hanging fruit is a knowledge management tactic NOT a legitimate strategy. Strategy sets your goals and gives you a reason for the projects you undertake and the methods ...
Categorised under: Information management, Intranets, Knowledge management
Tags: Knowledge management, low hanging fruit, pilot, strategy
