Intranet-based staff directories are only truly useful when they contain comprehensive information about staff members. This means going beyond just a name, phone number and email address. Staff directories should provide a photo, job title, organisational unit, reporting structure, plus much more. The challenge is that no single system will hold all ...
Monthly Archives: April 2009
April 28, 2009
Sources of staff directory information
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: active directory, Intranets, ldap, staff directories
April 28, 2009
Use good interview techniques
Successful intranets are delivered on the back of an in-depth understanding of staff needs and issues. This involves getting out from behind the desk and spending time with operational and frontline staff. The earlier article Conducting intranet needs analysis outlined a structured approach to conducting user research to improve intranets. A ...
Categorised under: Intranets, James' articles, Knowledge management, Usability & user-centered design
Tags: interviews, Intranets, research
April 28, 2009
Moderating internal discussion forums, blogs and other social media
When starting intranet-based online discussions in an organisation, whether they are forums, blogs, comments on articles, or internal Twitter-style tools, how should you go about moderating them and maintaining their effectiveness? Where do you begin with writing policies and guidelines on use? Should you even monitor the discussions at all? ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, discussion forums, governance, moderation, social media
April 28, 2009
Have just received GITC5 certification from Queensland Government
We're pleased to announce that we've just received GITC5 certification from the Queensland Government. This should make it much easier to get us in to do work, as we've already jumped through legal, financial and operational hoops. To quote: The Government Information Technology Contracting Framework Version 5 (GITC V5) contains ...
Categorised under: Announcements
April 28, 2009
CMIS gets new momentum, thanks to Chemistry
Kas Thomas has written a post on the Chemistry project to implement CMIS (the CMS interoperability standard). To quote: There's been an interesting development with regard to Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS, the new, yet-to-be-ratified content API being considered by OASIS). The Apache Foundation, it turns out, has begun incubating ...
Categorised under: Content management
April 28, 2009
10 DOs and DONTs of organizational change
Ross Dawson has posted 10 do's and dont's for organisational change. To quote: 3. Select and discover pilots Pilots are the instrument of experimentation, of trying new things within safe boundaries. Choose what new things you want to try and how to go about it, so you find out what works ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: change management, culture, Enterprise 2.0
April 27, 2009
The differences between web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0
Andrew Mcafee discusses the differences between web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0, and where his research is focusing. [Thanks to George Dearing.]
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, web 2.0
April 27, 2009
Visualization: Wikis in the enterprise
Ross Dawson posts a nice visualisation of wikis in the enterprise. To quote: Today we are continuing our series of visual representations of social media tools inside organizations, taken from our Implementing Enterprise 2.0 report. The diagram below was used in the chapter on wikis in the enterprise, to ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, wikis
April 24, 2009
10 tips for a successful wiki
James Everett has written a post outlining 10 tips for a successful wiki. To quote: There are dozens of different wikis, from free open source models to commercial enterprise packages. Use your list of criteria to research the available options and evaluate each to see how it fits your team. ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Collaboration, wikis
April 23, 2009
Workshops sold out, new dates
We've been pleased (and a little surprised!) how quickly our Brisbane intranet session has sold out. With a waiting list building up, we've announced a second date for 17 June 2009. This is also filling fast, so you'll need to be very quick. We're down to haggling over the ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
April 22, 2009
Principles for designing global-local intranets
A little while back I wrote a post about the global-local challenge for many intranets. To quote: In any large organisations, there will be many different business units, with different needs. Individual staff across the organisation will also need specific tools and information. The challenge is to meet global needs ...
Categorised under: Intranets, Usability & user-centered design
April 19, 2009
Lewisham House blog
Just a quick announcement, for those that might be interested: I've set up a new blog, Lewisham House, covering our household efforts to save the environment and to grow our own food. Having just moved to Lewisham in inner-west Sydney, we finally have enough space for some serious gardening, mostly ...
Categorised under: Announcements
April 17, 2009
Determining the ROI of enterprise 2.0
Dion Hinchliffe writes about the ROI of enterprise 2.0, to quote: Despite recent statistics showing that Enterprise 2.0 tools have spread to about a third of businesses globally, there remain ongoing questions being asked in the enterprise software community about the real returns that they provide to Many IT solutions ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
April 16, 2009
Toward content quality
Colleen Jones has written an article on content quality, providing a simple but effective checklist. To quote: How do we know whether content is any good? This simple question does not have a simple answer. Yet, I think having a good answer would help us show our employers and clients ...
Categorised under: Content management, Intranets
Tags: content
April 15, 2009
Don’t miss out: Sydney workshops are filling up
The second reminder for today is about our upcoming events in Sydney, which are down to the last handful of places: Expert session: intranet strategy and managementSydney, 7 May 2009 This intensive intranet strategy session will give you the tools, ideas and methodologies you need to make a success of ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations
April 15, 2009
Intranet Innovation Awards: 3 weeks to go
Just a reminder that there's now less than 3 weeks to get your entries in for this year's Intranet Innovation Awards. In these tough economic times, this is not the time to be shy! Instead, it's a great opportunity to get some visibility for work already done, as external ...
Categorised under: Intranets
April 15, 2009
Enterprise web vs consumer web [2.0]: top six differences
Jeremy Chone talks about the differences between enterprise 2.0 and web 2.0. To quote: Although there is evidence that the two styles will converge in the future, enterprise and consumer Web architecture and technology are quite different today. If one talks to an enterprise application architect, he or she will ...
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, web 2.0
April 15, 2009
Beyond web-centricity in content management
Gadgetopia has written a post about separating presentation from content, using announcements on an intranet as an example. To quote: Consider an intranet. A company decides it needs a centralized “announcements” system — a communication vehicle to get information to various people in the company. So, they grab some Web content ...
Categorised under: Content management, Intranets
Tags: Content management, content management systems, Intranets
April 14, 2009
New report: Governance and support for SharePoint team sites
I'm pleased to announce the release of our latest report: Governance and support for SharePoint team sitesA best practice case study Microsoft SharePoint is now rapidly spreading through organisations. In terms of team collaboration, this is meeting a very real need. If unmanaged, however, this explosive growth will generate ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Information management
Tags: Collaboration, governance, team
April 6, 2009
Reviewing intranet-based collaboration setups
Maish Nichani has provided a set of guidelines to review intranet-based collaboration, building on our Intranet Review Toolkit. To quote: The ability to form groups and collaborate on the intranet is key to making the intranet a place for ‘doing work’. A well-planned collaboration setup allows staff to use the ...
Categorised under: Collaboration, Intranets
Tags: Collaboration, Intranets
April 3, 2009
Video interview from Denmark
At the end of the excellent IntraTeam conference in Denmark, I was invited to do a quick video interview. I'm still a bit over-excited after giving my presentation, and I seem to be blinking very slowly (jetlag? strange video effect?). Still, some useful ground ...
Categorised under: Conferences & presentations, Intranets
April 3, 2009
Review: Successful Enterprise Search Management
Successful Enterprise Search ManagementStephen E. Arnold and Martin White Every survey has shown that search causes considerable frustration within organisations. As the volume of information grows exponentially, so does the difficulty of delivering an effective search, and user dissatisfaction is reaching record levels. This book therefore comes just in time. ...
Categorised under: Book & product reviews, Search tools
Tags: search
April 2, 2009
No designer is an island
Sarah B. Nelson talks about the role of collaboration in design. To quote: When I suggest collaborative design to some designers, I often hear, “Yuck! Collaboration is just design by committee!” They aren’t wrong. Poorly facilitated collaboration can kill a design project and demoralize a team. But the truth is, ...
Categorised under: Usability & user-centered design
Tags: usability
April 2, 2009
Web Workplace – a new word for intranet?
Jane McConnell suggests that Web Workplace could be a new word for intranets. To quote: We need to find a new word for "intranet". Why? Because we need to wake people up, lose the "dead wieght" we have with the word "intranet", help people - especially top management - focus ...
Categorised under: Intranets
Tags: Intranets
April 1, 2009
CMS selection – death to the features matrix
Seth Gottlieb has written an article arguing against feature matrix in CMS selection. To quote: Nothing looks more convincing than a score where one option has more points than another. But, users don’t necessarily want to use a system just because it has the highest cumulative, weighted score. They want ...
Categorised under: Content management
