Articles by Month: March 2005

Task-free usability testing: summary of UPA seminar

Dan Brown has written a blog entry on task-free usability testing, summarising the discussions at a recent UPA session. To quote:

The technique boiled down to keeping the test open-ended, not forcing users through pre-determined scenarios or tasks. Instead, users were invited to explore the site on their own and comment. Each panelist presented a slightly different version of this theme.

I'm not sure anything here is radically new, but it's always good to see people not afraid to play with variations on techniques...

Posted by jamesr at 11:17 PM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Implementing a pattern library in the real world: a Yahoo! case study

Matt Leacock, Erin Malone and Chanel Wheeler have presented an interesting paper on the use of pattern libraries at Yahoo!. To quote:

A case study of the definition, design, and roll-out of an interaction design pattern library at Yahoo! Inc. The process for defining the requirements, design of the application, process for defining the lifecycle of a pattern, as well as the organizational challenges involved are all discussed.

Posted by jamesr at 10:55 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Comment on the Intranet Roadmap

I've just received some further comments on the Intranet Roadmap, as follows:

"James Robertson wants to arm intranet teams with the proven techniques needed for building intranets. His Intranet Roadmap identifies the core activities that generate key designs and deliverables. A wall chart with five vertical timelines James calls "streams" of concurrent activities, the Roadmap provides an excellent starting template if you use project planning software. An accompanying booklet describes all the activities and their supporting techniques, with further online references to learn about each one."

Bob Doyle, Editor In Chief, CMS Review

Posted by jamesr at 08:39 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Designing embraceable change

Jared M. Spool has written an article on designing for change, in reference to an intranet project. To quote:

One day, last September, the employees came into work expecting things to be just like they'd been for 9 years, only to find that a brand new design had been launched. Not only were they not consulted on the radical changes, they weren't even warned.

The changes were dramatic. A new home page had new terminology and a new taxonomy for all the critical elements of the business. The intranet now sported a search function (something the old design lacked), but every query returned dozens of results, most of them seemingly irrelevant.

Posted by jamesr at 08:47 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Evangelising usability: Change your strategy at the halfway point

Jakob Nielsen has written an article on strategies for evangelising usability within an organisation. To quote:

Paradoxically, the more successful you are at evangelizing usability in your organization, the higher the likelihood that you'll have to change your strategy. The approach that takes your company from miserable usability to decent design is not the one you'll need to get from good to great. A company progresses through a series of maturity levels as usability becomes more widely accepted in the organization and more tightly integrated with the development process. If you are the company's leading user advocate or usability manager, one of your main jobs is to prod the company to the next level.

As usual, there's an emphasis on usability testing to the exclusion of almost every other activity (such as user research, IA, design, etc). Otherwise, this is a reasonable article...

Posted by jamesr at 08:39 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

Personal learning

Denham Grey has written a blog entry looking at the role of personal learning. To quote:

My thoughts around learning have been profoundly altered by reading Wenger, Brown & Duguid and von Krogh and focus on collective workplace practices. Have come to appreciate the role, value and importance of social learning, situated learning, learning in community and culture. That more is learned on the playing fields and in discourse with peers than from the sage on the stage. Even in very structured training situations, it is the breaktime conversation, the secondhand explanation from a colleague that situates the new concept, validates its importance and sanctions its legitimacy.

Posted by jamesr at 03:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: E-learning, Knowledge management

Taking it to the People: Applying KM in Telstra (April 7, Sydney)

Details on the upcoming NSW KM Forum meeting:

WHY: Knowledge Management practitioners must convey their ideas in simple, direct and comprehensible ways to get the support of management and staff. Tonight's session looks at ways that KM tools and techniques can be packaged for greater use and effectiveness - using Telstra as an example.

WHO: Alister Webb currently works in Telstra's Consumer & Marketing Division, developing KM techniques and helping his colleagues apply them. Alistair has a background in IT project management and web design and has also been a screenwriter and music journalist.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Thursday 7th April WHERE: Standards Australia, 286 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Call James Digges 0414 191 009 for after hours entry to the building

HOW MUCH: Free

(See the website for full details.)

Posted by jamesr at 08:47 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Book review: The Heart of Change

The Heart of Change
John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen

Before starting to review this title, I'm going to go back to the earlier title that outlined the fundamental change process advocated by John Kotter: Leading Change. My review of this highlighted the practical value of this book, and the depth of experience it distilled.

Since writing that review, I have found myself returning again and again to Leading Change. In my mentoring work around redesigning intranets or developing KM strategies, this book has given me a strong foundation for supporting our clients. Everything that I've seen reinforces my belief that Kotter has captured a fundamental approach to change that addresses the issues that have bogged down organisations everywhere.

It was therefore with some enthusiasm that I started into The Heart of Change. This book builds on the process outlined in the earlier title, and gives real-world case studies of how to put it into practice. (Note: Leading Change is required reading, as this book pre-supposes an understanding of the overall approach to organisational change.)

Key stories are presented, like laying out the 424 different types of gloves purchased across a nation-wide organisation, or stopping the production of an airline until the required parts came in (instead of trying to "catch-up" at the end of the production line).

It would be easy to dismiss this book as "yet another storytelling book", but that wouldn't do it justice. Yes, it uses key stories drawn from real organisations to present the message of the book, and yes, this makes it a very enjoyable and easy read.

Around these stories however, Kotter drives home the importance of targeting the hearts of staff when implementing change. Again and again, he returns to the need to capture a deeper emotional response in order to get real change. While it sounds somewhat "new age", Kotter backs this approach up with plenty of concrete examples and details.

In summary then, anyone looking to implement change in an organisation (whether enhancing an intranet or merging two departments) should read these two books.

Overall score: 9/10

Posted by jamesr at 05:55 PM | Permalink
Categories: Book & product reviews

Portals: are you ready to make the leap?

Shiv Singh has written an article exploring when to migrate to a portal for your intranet or extranet. To quote:

For a business manager, choosing a portal package is not an easy decision. While the benefits for corporate IT departments are numerous, the advantages to a business division are not readily apparent. And, high-end content management systems, enterprise search solutions, personalization engines and document management systems can provide many of the portal benefits at a lower cost. Here are some recommendations to consider before migrating an intranet or extranet to a portal platform.

This is a good article, as it highlights that an organisation needs to be ready for portals, which while powerful are also demanding...

Posted by jamesr at 08:29 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Intranets

Wild information: content in its native environment

Kassia Krozser has written an article on the nature and types of content. To quote:

This first article defines content types that need to be accommodated by your CMS and analyzes common problems we've faced when it comes to corralling content. The second article in the series unfolds the roadmap to a successful CMS implementation: the Content Inventory. Our final pieces looks at content migration and the triage process often needed to migrate content in a timely manner.

Posted by jamesr at 06:15 PM | Permalink
Categories:

To be, or not to be: intranet justification

Paul Chin has written an article on justifying intranets to management. To quote:

It's our job, as intranet professionals, to help management see the true worth of an intranet beyond the dollar. They need to understand a properly built and managed intranet has long-term benefits that will affect the company and its culture as a whole. It's not just a matter of how much money it will save or make --- and if management doesn't have the foresight to realize this, then perhaps they have missed the whole point.

[Thanks to elearningpost.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:27 AM | Permalink
Categories: Area Health Service project, Book & product reviews, Conferences & presentations, Content management, Design & usability guidelines, Document & records management, E-learning, Information architecture, Interface design, Intranets, Intranets, James' articles, Knowledge management, Metrics & ROI, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design, Web development, Weblogs, XML

Component content management in practice

Bill Trippe has written an article that focuses on the specialised field of component content management. To quote:

Yet, despite the best efforts of the ECM vendors to provide an all-encompassing platform for enterprises, specialized vendors continue to focus on challenging, specific content management applications. One specialized area for content management is the need for some organizations to manage large volumes of content that is used to support complex products before and after the products are sold. Examples include auto and truck manufacturers, airlines, and airplane manufacturers. In these cases, highly complex products are supported by lengthy, complex, and voluminous technical documentation, parts lists, troubleshooting guides, and maintenance manuals. Along with the sheer volume of information, this kind of application is marked by the requirement for the content to be kept up to date over many years, for it to be published in many physical formats, and for the content to be of the highest technical quality and accuracy.

Posted by jamesr at 04:30 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Feedback on Staff Directories report

We've had some positive feedback on our recently-released Staff Directories report:

Step Two does it again. This consultancy focuses on the real world strategies that make intranets work. With its latest report, Staff Directories: Designing and implementing an effective online staff directory, the Step Two team recognizes that that one of most organizations' oldest collaborative tools--the trusty staff directory--remains one of the most popular tool on intranets. But like so many tools that made their way online, preliminary iterations of intranet staff directories don't live up to their digital potential. The report will help any organization harness the power of tried-and-true strategies as well as emerging technologies to leverage this tool and its power to bring employees together on an effective intranet.

Michelle Manafy, Editor EContent magazine & the Intranets newsletter

Posted by jamesr at 05:38 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

IA good; UX bad?

It is very interesting to contrast two blog entries today:

The first has Lou Rosenfeld talking about happy times for IA. To quote:

It's been a couple weeks now, but yet another IA Summit observation: just about everyone I spoke with who was even toying with changing jobs was entertaining multiple offers. And just about everyone I spoke to who was recruiting IAs--even from respected organizations like Yahoo!--was struggling to find talent.

The second blog entry is from Peter Merholz suggesting that user experience is dead. To quote:

Reading the notes from a recent panel on UX disciplines, and remembering the notes from an earlier, similar, panel, I am left with the thought that the phrase "user experience," as a meaningful term describing practice and concern, is dead. Dead dead dead.

We live in interesting times...

Posted by jamesr at 05:18 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Usability & user-centered design

The 18 commandments of knowledge-conscious managers

Martin Dugage has written an article on the 18 commandments of knowledge-conscious managers. To quote:

I like the idea that Knowledge Management is really about Knowledge Conscious Management, or to put it differently, Managing in the Knowledge Age as Professor Klaus North puts it. Incidentally, this explains why it is so difficult to introduce in 20th century organizations, which do not recognize mastery of knowledge flows as a source of competitive advantage.

The HR department of my company asked me to write a short memo and call it "the ten commandments of knowledge management". I thought it was a good idea -KM is a faith with its manifesto (e.g Cluetrain)-, but couldn't find enough time to reduce everything to ten commandments, and I have eighteen!

[Thanks to Jack Vinson.]

Posted by jamesr at 11:42 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Simple rules for CoP self-organisation

Shawn Callahan has written a blog entry outlining some simple rules for CoP self-organisation. To quote:

Communities of practice are often regarded, with good reason, as self-organising social systems. I was wondering the other day whether some simple rules for a community of practice could encourage beneficial self-organisation, enhancing learning. Here are a few possibilities.

Posted by jamesr at 09:57 AM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Tags turning web chaos into categories

Matt Hicks reports on the growing use of folksonomies, highlighting some of the early leaders and adopters. To quote:

In the halls and session rooms at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference here, a series of talks this week explored the growing use of tags to let users associate keyword metadata to Web information.

Among the early implementers of tags are Ludicorp's Flickr photo-sharing site, the del.icio.us social bookmarking service and the Wikipedia collaborative online encyclopedia. During one conference session, leaders from the three upstart services explored the impact of their decisions to turn categorization over to individuals rather than enforcing established categories.

Posted by jamesr at 02:55 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Stop the madness!

John Maloney has written a blog entry that highlights the problems with centralised information management. To quote:

The wide codification, reposit and syndication of enterprise information for all employees has been a complete failure. Central aggregation and access of vast document stores for every employee is a disaster. This collapse of these hugely expensive subsystems is often called the "Empty Portal Syndrome" or portalitis.

While I definitely agree with the description of the problem, I have a feeling that I'm going to find the proposed solution as impractical (and foolish) as the current approaches...

Posted by jamesr at 10:52 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Intranets

Wireframe UX

UXCentric has posted a blog entry on Dan Brown's poster on representing data in wireframes. To quote:

Dan Brown helps us reach that goal with his outstanding poster, Representing Data in Wireframes (PDF). It's a huge (three by six feet) guide to "techniques for representing sample data and information in a wireframe, the risks associated with each technique, and best practices for applying them." Although you'd need a large format printer to actually produce the thing, it's perfectly readable at high magnification in Adobe Acrobat. Get it while it's hot.

Posted by jamesr at 10:30 AM | Permalink
Categories: Usability & user-centered design

XML content management and single-sourcing

Rick Sapir has written an article on XML content management and single-sourcing. To quote:

Creating an XML-based Content Management System to single-source technical publications is as simple as 1 - 2 - 3. Rather than focusing on any single tool or solution (and thereby forcing users to change to match the tool), this article describes one possible three-step process for using XML to single source your content deliverables. It is up to the tool providers to create a tool that matches the need.

Posted by jamesr at 10:16 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, XML

Book review: What's the Big Idea?

What's the Big Idea?
Thomas H. Davenport, Laurence Prusak

The concept of this book is a fascinating one. Rather than just looking at a single "great idea", it explores the "marketplace of great ideas", investigating what makes a good idea, how to select these ideas, and how best to put them into practice. In an age when gurus are all too commonplace, this is a topic of considerable interest.

The book promises to cover a number of important topics, including:

• distinguishing promising ideas from rhetoric
• refining ideas to suite an organisation's particular needs
• packaging and selling the idea internally
• ensuring successful implementation

I found this book to be an enjoyable and easy read. There is extensive use of case studies, examples and quotes (drawn from the authors' researches) which gives the book a strong "narrative" feel. It is also written in a casual and no-nonsense way. Even when having to read it on planes and in brief moments stolen away from other activities, it wasn't hard to get through this book.

The book works through all the issues from the role of gurus, to the key player in this book, the "idea practitioners". It is hard to disagree with anything presented in this book, and the coverage of the subject is good.

Despite that, when I turned the last page of the book, I found myself going back to the dust jacket to double-check what I was supposed to have learnt. Revisiting the four bullet-points listed above, I don't feel that these were covered powerfully enough to change my current practices, or to give me any deeper insight into the nature of things.

In summary, I think the authors were on to a great idea when they came up with this book, but despite all their research, weren't able to uncover any startling insight. The book was written anyway, and while it's a pleasant and interesting read, it doesn't necessary add a lot of value beyond introducing the concept of the "idea practitioner".

If you are new to the field of management theories or guru presentations, definitely read this book. If you've been through it all before several times, I don't think you'll learn anything new.

Overall score: 5/10

Posted by jamesr at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Categories: Book & product reviews

AOP Case Studies

The UK-based Association of Online Publishers has created a collection of case studies, showcasing of excellence and innovation in digital publishing. To quote:

The online case study bank reinforces our core objective of promoting the online publishing industry. We aim to showcase the very best in digital publishing and marketing: allowing our members to learn from each other's achievements, while promoting the breadth of innovation happening in the industry to advertisers and agencies.

[Thanks to Brendan Quinn.]

Posted by jamesr at 07:42 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Information architecture

Applying usability principles to your CMS

Tony Byrne has written an article on usability and CMS. To quote:

Usability has moved to the forefront in the past few years, especially for corporate Web sites, as marketing managers seek to understand and measure whether their investments in Web communications are really paying off. Now that Web-based applications have proliferated, enterprises are beginning to look more closely at application usability in general and the usability of content management systems in particular.

[Thanks to Paula Thornton.]

Posted by jamesr at 04:07 PM | Permalink
Categories: Area Health Service project, Book & product reviews, Conferences & presentations, Content management, Content management, Design & usability guidelines, Document & records management, E-learning, Information architecture, Interface design, Intranets, James' articles, Knowledge management, Metrics & ROI, Search tools, Usability & user-centered design, Web development, Weblogs, XML

Underused IA tools

Peter Van Dijck has written a blog entry looking at underused IA tools. To quote:

Us IA's have a lot of tools at our disposal (personas, sitemaps, task analysis, …), most of them taken and adapted from other disciplines. But I have the feeling we’re somehow selective in which tools we appropriate. Here are some tools that we don’t seem to use much, even though they can be extremely useful.

Posted by jamesr at 09:38 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

The Journal of IA Failures

Lou Rosenfeld has been pondering the concept of a Journal of IA Failures. To quote:

Something I'd like to see: reporting on IA failures, and what was learned from the carnage. Failure stories are a literary genre in and of themselves; even the most dispassionate, technical ones are hard to put down. That's what makes them such great learning tools.

Posted by jamesr at 09:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

IBM's intranet and folksonomy

Bud has posted a very interesting blog entry on IBM's plans to use folksonomy on their intranet. To quote:

IBM will soon experiment with folksonomy. They are motivated by a need to maintain the pace of updates to how information is organized in their intranet and a need to help users access their system.

[Thanks to Peter Van Dijck.]

Posted by jamesr at 08:13 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets

Comparing Portals, CMS, and "Nukes"

The latest Ask Tony column compares portals, CMS and "Nukes". To quote:

A portal generally delivers content so it can be consumed. But portal software packages typically aggregate content and data from a variety of locations, and in many cases, include search and collaboration services as well. A web content management system generally supports the production of content, but some CMS products deliver content as well, which can make them "portal-like." This is especially the case in the open-source world, where CMS packages often grew out of dynamic page delivery systems.

Posted by jamesr at 09:34 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Determining a KM strategy in a Government agency

I've been involved in a number of interesting projects recently, so I'm going to make more of an effort to blog a little about these.

One recent engagement was with a Federal Government agency, to help them determine a KM strategy. They had been discussing KM internally for some time, and while these conversations were very interesting there was no progress being made towards working out a concrete approach.

To attempt to kick-start things, I was brought in to run a half-day facilitated session with the KM working group. The goal: determine the start of a concrete and practical KM strategy that could be applied in the organisation.

As is typical in these sessions, the discussion was broad-ranging. In the end though, we came up with a consensus approach that was both interesting and practical. A brief summary of this:

A high level vision statement will be drafted for the KM strategy, highlighting the goal of improving the capacity of the agency to deliver its mandated functions, even in an environment of (increasingly) limited resources. This would be achieved by focusing on the front-line staff who are most important to delivering the core functions of the agencies: the inspectors.

A piece of user research (needs analysis) would then be conducted with the inspectors, to identify their working practices, key information needs, as well as the bottlenecks and issues impacting on them. A range of techniques would be used, including: interviews, workplace observation and contextual inquiry.

One very nice idea raised by a member of the working group was to use the "graduate program" participants as researchers. They are "buddied" up with an experienced investigator, and could conduct longer-term observation (using diary methods, or equivalent).

The results of this research would undoubtedly identify many opportunities for changes or improvements. These would then be slotted into the high-level vision and strategy, allowing the activities to be prioritised and time-tabled.

This gives both a strategy view, and a very practical way of working out the on-the-ground activities required to achieve the vision.

Of course, it's very early days, and there is much work to be done to make this high-level concept into a real project plan. Still, it's a good start.

This top-down and bottom-up approach to developing a KM strategy is one that I outlined in an earlier article. I also think that the use of ethnography-derived research techniques is a valuable approach to KM in the business world.

Posted by jamesr at 04:43 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Character traits

Shawn Callahan has posted a list of character traits, which are very useful when constructing archetypes or personas. To quote:

When extracting archetypes from a body of narrative, I have found it useful to give the workshop participants a large list of character traits to increase the richness of the process. Here is the poster I use.

Posted by jamesr at 01:26 PM | Permalink
Categories: Knowledge management

Intranet teams survey -- only 2 days to go

It is only 2 days until the Intranet Teams Survey is closed. We've had over 250 responses so far, but it would be great if you could spend 5 mins to add your organisation to the results...

The topics covered in the survey:

• Where in organisations are intranet teams located?
• How big are intranet teams?
• What skills do they have?
• Are websites and intranets managed by the one team, or separate teams?
• How large are intranets?
• What tools are used to publish intranets?

(The full results will be publicly released.)

Thanks in advance!

Posted by jamesr at 08:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

What happens to staff if they don't do their recordkeeping?

We've been doing a bit more work in the area of records management recently, and I've been chatting to a fair few people about approaches. Our interest is not on the back-end aspects (retention, disposal, etc) but on the adoption of records management practices by staff throughout the organisation.

Mostly, organisations seem to have a single message that they use when communicating to staff:

"You must use the records management system, because it's extremely important that we meet our legislated requirements."

The question I ask however is: what happens to staff if they don't do records management? In your organisation, consider the answers to the following questions:

• Are staff rewarded for fulfilling their recordkeeping requirements?
• Are staff penalised for not doing recordkeeping?
• Are individual staff even assessed to determine whether they are meeting their obligations?
• Is recordkeeping included as part of the "performance evaluation" criteria set up (and assessed) by HR?
• Beyond the "number of documents added to the system each month", are there meaningful metrics on the overall usage of the records management system?

My point is this: we wave our hands about a lot, saying how "important" records management is. When it comes down to it, however, we don't actually do anything to ensure it really happens.

This sends a clear message to staff: this isn't really important, otherwise something bad would happen to me if I don't do it. I'm not saying that recordkeeping should be enforced, but I am highlighting the gap between words and actions. One way or another, these two things should be aligned.

(For more on this general topic, see my earlier article Rolling out a records management system.)

Posted by jamesr at 04:31 PM | Permalink
Categories: Document & records management

Intranets: strategy first, usability second

Gerry McGovern has written an article highlighting the importance of intranet strategy, before usability. To quote:

More and more intranet teams are buying into the need for usability. However, usability is not a strategy, and without a clear strategy, usability can become a pointless, wasteful and counter-productive exercise.

I agree 100% with this, and it was the reason why we developed the Intranet Roadmap (which has an entire strategy stream).

On the consulting side, we are often brought in after a usability study has been conducted, but future directions are still not clear. We then conduct a proper "needs analysis", which feeds into the development of a vision and strategy. Only then does the client know what steps to take, and where to head...

Posted by jamesr at 07:32 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

CMS Marketplace in Japan

Tony Byrne has written a few notes on the state of the CMS marketplace in Japan, having just attended a conference there. To quote:

Just back from several days in Japan talking to CMS vendors and practitioners. The CMS marketplace remains as fragmented in Japan as nearly everywhere else. Local vendors predominate in web content management. International vendors tend to focus on large DM systems for major multinationals.

Posted by jamesr at 11:09 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Return to call centres

It has been a while, and it's good to get back into some call centre work. I've been conducting a review of an existing call centre as part of a knowledge management project, and have just delivered the final report to the client.

As usual, the findings have proven to be very interesting. The major issue that has arisen is the "addiction" to the use of e-mail to distribute all news, information and updates to call centre staff. This is how the call centre currently operates:

Various groups within the organisation (such as product, marketing, etc) send e-mails to call centre staff, containing updates and news. Many of these e-mails contain documents (such as tax office reports), which may be a dozen pages or more in length.

Call centre staff need to retain this information, in order to answer questions that may arise any time in the coming months (or years). There is no centralised (corporate) storage of these documents or information.

Each call centre consultant is therefore left to "fend for themselves". In practice, everyone has a substantial set of folders within their e-mail application, containing an archive of past communications. They search this collection when required to find answers to customer questions or issues.

Documents are also stored on the desktop, on the hard drive, network folders, or printed. If they can't find something, they ask the person next to them, who forwards an e-mail containing the desired document.

This massive (120+ times) duplication has an obvious impact on the efficiency of the call centre, staff satisfaction, not to mention on the quality and consistency of advice given.

Existing online (intranet) solutions were put in place, but weren't used. When staff were asked why, they indicated that "everything important was sent by e-mail, so why would we look at anything else?". A good point.

One of the recommendations will clearly be to break this addiction to e-mail, and to instead use the intranet as the single communications channel. E-mails will still be sent out, but containing only links back to the online resource. (Of course, many other activities and changes have been recommended.)

PS. I think that this situation is pretty typical in call centres, so this organisation isn't doing any worse than anyone else. Still, these are big and important issues to solve.

Posted by jamesr at 11:04 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, Knowledge management

Open Publish keynote speaker

I'm pleased to report that Martin White will be the keynote speaker for the upcoming Open Publish 2005 conference to be held in Sydney on July 27-29. Martin will be presenting on creating an information-centric organisation.

(Martin is the author of the recently-published Content Management Handbook, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. Martin has a tremendous depth of experience in both content management and intranets.)

We are also organising some dates for Martin to present his one-day content management workshop. These are expected to be run in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne around the time of the conference. E-mail me to be notified when we have finalised dates and details.

Posted by jamesr at 02:19 PM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

Blogs & wikis: Technologies for enterprise applications?

Lauren Wood has written an article that looks at the use of blogs and wikis in the enterprise. To quote:

Blogs and wikis are flexible practices and technologies that are increasingly being used within companies and organizations to ease the creation and dissemination of information, as well as making it easier for companies to communicate effectively with customers, partners, and the public. This article discusses some of the salient features of blogs and wikis, and give examples of companies who already have implemented one or more of these systems.

Posted by jamesr at 07:53 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management

The Information Architecture Institute is public

After some discussion, AIfIA decided to rename itself to just the The Information Architecture Institute. This is a much better name! To quote:

To achieve wider recognition for information architecture, the Institute's leadership embarked on a process to create a new identity. While the AIfIA name has been well-received and well-known in the user experience community, the name has little equity in the world beyond. Difficulty with spelling and pronouncing AIfIA led us to look for a simpler, clearer alternative.

The new name, The Information Architecture Institute, brings the desired clarity and simplicity to the brand. The new identity, and accompanying new logotype, will roll out across all media in the coming weeks. Please bookmark www.iainstitute.org.

Posted by jamesr at 09:04 AM | Permalink
Categories: Information architecture

Stop the pendulum: i want to get off

Lou Rosenfeld has written some pragmatic comments about the natural home for the intranet. To quote:

I'm not sure that any single department can be the home for a multi-departmental intranet or, for that matter, a large public web site. Can Communications really be responsible for the accuracy of the highly technical documentation that Product Development is churning out? Can it manage the tuning of the intranet's search system without some help from IT staff? Can Communications (or any one business unit) conceive of--much less assemble and manage--the kind of multi-disciplinary team required to design and manage a truly quality information system? What about organizations which don't have centralized Communications departments?

I'm in 100% agreement with all of this! Organisations are complex, and we need to work within this complexity, rather than trying to over-simplify things to bit-sized concepts...

Posted by jamesr at 08:57 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

New Staff Directories report

I'm excited to announce the release today of our new Staff Directories report. This 91-page report contains best-practice guidance on the design and implementation of online staff directories.

In this report you will find:

• detailed exploration of staff directory fields and features (both common and advanced)
• dozens of screenshots illustrating key points
• design guidelines for all staff directory pages (including search screens, profile pages, organisational charts, and more)
• in-depth discussion on how to keep your staff directory up-to-date
• outline of practical approaches to developing your staff directory
• full results of a public survey into staff directory usage
• tips and suggestions relating to all aspects of staff directories

If you are implementing a new online staff directory as part of your intranet, this report will be invaluable. If you are enhancing an existing directory, the best practice guidelines and suggestions will provide many ideas on the next steps to take.

[Full details on the report]

Posted by jamesr at 02:28 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Creating an upwards spiral for your intranet

The second CM Briefing for March looks at how to create an upwards spiral for your intranet. To quote:

Many intranets are trapped in a 'downwards spiral': process and resources issues lead to poor-quality content, which reduces trust, which leads to more problems, and so on.

If intranets (and intranet teams) are to succeed, this must be turned around to become an 'upwards spiral', where each success (no matter how small) leads onto further improvements.

This briefing explores the nature of the problem, and outlines some approaches to reshaping the intranet into something that grows and prospers.

Posted by jamesr at 02:20 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Three levels of information management

The first of my CM Briefings for March looks at the three levels of information management that exist within organisations. To quote:

When developing an information management strategy within an organisation, it is useful to consider information needs on three levels:

• corporate
• team, division, business unit, etc
• individual

The needs of each of these three levels must be met if a coordinated and effective solution is to be maintained in the long-term.

Posted by jamesr at 02:13 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Online staff directories: survey results and key findings

My KM Column article for March explores online staff directories, presenting the results of a survey conducted last year, along with the key findings from additional research. The list of key findings:

• Include more than just phone numbers
• Provide an effective quick search
• Deliver a dynamic organisational chart
• Provide self-service capability
• Usability test the staff directory
• Ensure the staff directory can be printed
• Include all staff
• Provide extensive cross-linking

Posted by jamesr at 02:07 PM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets, James' articles

Ten best intranets of 2005

Jakob Nielsen has announced the results of their latest intranet awards, summarising some of the key findings. To quote:

Selecting the ten best intranets gets harder every year because the number of great designs keeps increasing. While tough on the judges, this is good news: it shows that the intranet usability movement is winning. More and more companies are treating their intranets as productivity tools and are investing in improving their design's usability instead of leaving the intranet to grow as it may.

The recommendations from our previous intranet-usability reports are now being widely implemented. This year's designs were so good that our list of runners-up included at least ten additional intranets that were worthy of being recognized, featured, and emulated. However, a top-ten list can only include ten winners, so we had to select the best of the best.

Posted by jamesr at 07:52 AM | Permalink
Categories: Intranets

Connecting people with content

Shawn Callahan has written an article on getting information to the sales force, without the use of a 'knowledge repository'. To quote:

Organisations are still jumping to the conclusion that they absolutely need a 'knowledge repository' to successfully harness employee know-how. While a database (let’s be honest with ourselves, it's just a database) can be an important part of a knowledge solution, by itself, it’s typically an expensive waste of time. This white paper provides an alternative approach where content generated by subject matter experts (SME) creates new social networks, which in turn can provide useful pointers to content held in the 'knowledge repository.' People access the database at points recommended by the subject matter expert in context of the seeker's current need. It's a type of social indexing. While the paper takes a sales force application area, the solution is widely applicable.

Posted by jamesr at 07:44 AM | Permalink
Categories: Content management, Intranets, Knowledge management