Our good friend and fellow intranet expert Jane McConnell, of NetStrategy/JMC, has just published the Digital Workplace Trends 2012 report. This is a unique view of the current state of intranets globally, and their future direction. With a focus on the "digital workplace", the report has a usefully broad view ...
Blog category: Enterprise 2.0
December 21, 2011 by James Robertson
Digital Workplace Trends 2012
Tags: digital workplace, Intranets
October 26, 2011 by James Robertson
What is a social intranet?
The phrase 'social intranet', while appearing more commonly, still generates both interest and confusion. What makes an intranet 'social', and what are the differences between 'social intranets' and 'traditional intranets'? A philosophy and way of working Social intranets are not a technology, or a specific set of features or functionality. Instead, they represent ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social intranets, social tools
September 29, 2011 by James Robertson
Enable commenting on intranet news
Two major trends are affecting how intranets are used to communicate to, and connect with, staff. The first is the move by internal communications teams away from just top-down corporate communications to two-way communication and dialogue. The second is the rise of collaborative and social tools, which promise to transform how staff ...
Tags: Collaboration, communication, Intranets, news, social intranets
September 7, 2011 by James Robertson
Two-speed intranets
You'd think from the buzz about social media and collaboration tools that the world is changing rapidly. And you'd be right. These tools are transforming the typical corporate intranet. The intranet doesn't need to be a one-way communications channel and home for policies. With the availability of new tools-and new ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, innovation, Intranets, strategy
September 6, 2011 by James Robertson
Reverse innovation of intranets in global companies
Global companies, whether banks, pharmaceutical companies or non-profits, have a particularly strong need for great intranets. With tens or hundreds of thousands of staff across dozens of countries, intranets must be the glue that connects staff together. Yet delivering a great intranet in a global business isn't easy. Typically major intranet ...
Tags: global, innovation, Intranets
September 2, 2011 by James Robertson
Ok, so I might’ve said “blogs and wikis are dead”
It seemed that my keynote talk at KM Singapore helped to change some people's thinking about intranets. Challenging the notion that they are old, dull sites containing policies, I generated new enthusiasm for what intranets can (and should) do. But the most controversy came during the question-and-answer session, where ...
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, Intranets, social tools, wikis
July 29, 2011 by James Robertson
Deploying microblogging in organisations
Microblogging inside an organisation provides staff with the ability to post short messages to everyone in the organisation or a select group. A variety of online tools can be used, for example Yammer, SocialText or an internally built solution. Deploying microblogging involves more than understanding the technology, because it is ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, microblogging, yammer
May 25, 2011 by James Robertson
Presentation: Delivering a mobile enterprise
Yesterday I was honoured to give a presentation at the monthly meeting of intranet managers organised by NetJMC. These were some of the world's largest organisations, across a range of industries. There ...
Tags: enterprise, Intranets, mobile, mobile devices, user experience
May 20, 2011 by James Robertson
Presentation: Bringing intranets and collaboration together
Yesterday in Stockholm, I gave a presentation at a local IntraTeam community group meeting. A friendly bunch of people, with lots of good conversations (and great lunch!). These were the key ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
May 19, 2011 by James Robertson
Internal social tools that support the business
Yesterday I gave the keynote presentations at Intranätdagarna (Intranet Days) 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden. A friendly crowd, and some great presentations from the other speakers. The talk shared in this post looked at social ...
Tags: business case, intranet, social media, social tools
May 18, 2011 by James Robertson
You can’t change corporate culture using social tools
It's been a busy couple of days for enterprise social tools. IBF24, just finished, had a big focus on the social tools that are being rolled out in organisations of every size, from Yammer to team sites, from status updates to rich staff directories. There was also palpable enthusiasm for social ...
Tags: culture, social media, social tools
May 16, 2011 by James Robertson
Four types of enterprise mobility
Mobile functionality is a mega-trend that has already had a huge impact on the day-to-day life of consumers around the globe. For organisations of all types, it is clear that similar changes will occur within the enterprise. While there has been quite a lot said about mobile enterprises, and how to ...
Tags: enterprise, mobile, mobile devices
April 28, 2011 by James Robertson
Planning your SharePoint intranet project
Starting a SharePoint intranet project, whether creating a new intranet or redeveloping an existing one, can be daunting. Alongside strategy and design questions are now a myriad of technology decisions, often exploring uncharted territory within the organisation. At a basic level, intranets based on SharePoint are just like every other intranet. ...
Tags: content migration, design, Intranets, planning, project planning, SharePoint, strategy
February 3, 2011 by James Robertson
The appetite for enterprise mobile functionality
I've been in New Zealand this week doing client work, and one of the client sessions that I facilitated highlighted the very real appetite and demand for enterprise mobile functionality. The client in question has a pretty typical intranet: well-structured and content-rich. Future visions might be expected to include further upgrades ...
Tags: enterprise, innovation, Intranets, mobile, mobile devices
January 14, 2011 by James Robertson
Mobile devices are personal devices (and what this means for enterprise apps)
People consider their mobile phone to be one of their key personal possessions, never far from their body. Psychologically, they are personal devices, in a way that is very different from desktop computers or other home electronics. This is shown in the way that the current crop of mobile applications are ...
Tags: enterprise, mobile, mobile devices, usability
December 16, 2010 by James Robertson
What six things do staff want on their mobile devices?
The adoption of internet- and web-enabled mobile devices is one of the 'mega trends' that will reshape many of our day-to-day tasks. Not just a consumer phenomenon, mobile devices will also have a big impact inside enterprises. As discussed in the article Elements of a mobile enterprise strategy, there are ...
Tags: Intranets, mobile, mobile devices
November 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet Innovations 2010: key themes from this year’s awards
2010 is the fourth year of the Intranet Innovation Awards, the global competition run by Step Two Designs. The awards were created to help uncover the work and achievements of intranet teams worldwide, and every year they give unparallelled insight into the leading edge of the field. In 2010 there ...
October 6, 2010 by James Robertson
Four stages of enterprise mobile adoption
Mobile devices are currently transforming how we live our lives, again. Having taken for granted the ability to make calls when away from the home or office, mobile data access and always-on devices (such as iPhone, Android, etc) are ushering in a new age. Lagging somewhat behind, enterprises delivering services to ...
Tags: enterprise, maturity, mobile, mobile devices
October 5, 2010 by James Robertson
Collaboration tools require new ways of working
Collaboration and social tools promise to transform how organisation work, dramatically improving the way that staff communicate and work together. They also provide new ways of storing (and retrieving) corporate information. For all this, these are deeply unfamiliar tools for most "normal" staff (ie not us). They are not drop-in replacements ...
Tags: adoption, Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
August 31, 2010 by James Robertson
Putting people at the centre: social staff directories
The term 'social intranet' has become popular in recent times, and describes an intranet with social media tools -- blogs, wikis, microblogs, comment functionality and more -- embedded within the core intranet software platform. However, before a social intranet can be successful, work must be done to enrich and develop ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social intranets, staff directories
August 19, 2010 by James Robertson
How did intranet homepages become so static?
Something strange has happened to intranet homepages. Despite the diversity of staff needs and activities, intranets have ended up with a fixed, static and unreactive homepage that only targets generic requirements. Having fought so hard to balance competing stakeholder demands, intranet ...
August 16, 2010 by James Robertson
Intranet vs enterprise 2.0 vs social software: an obvious case of terminological controversy
Denis Zenkin discusses the confusion between intranets and enterprise 2.0. To quote: Intranet is basically a practical tool that creates a unified workplace for an organization supplying a number of benefits. In my opinion, the list of must-have features include collaboration, communications and knowledge base. I agree with Denis on this ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social intranets
August 10, 2010 by James Robertson
To technology strategists: how to blend enterprise + business + people?
Jane McConnell has written an insightful piece on balancing three perspectives of intranets. To quote: When I work with global organizations to help them define the business objectives of the intranet, we do it from these 3 angles. The problem is when we push each dimension to its logical conclusion, ...
Tags: Collaboration, communications, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
August 3, 2010 by James Robertson
5 key features to consider when choosing a social intranet
Angela Cullen lists key features to consider when choosing a social intranet. To quote: By using a forum or threaded discussion tool, you can engage your employees around specific topics and challenge them to start talking about topics that matter to them. For instance, Project Managers might discuss the ...
Tags: Intranets, social intranet
August 2, 2010 by James Robertson
Making the case for enterprise activity streams
Christopher Lynch discusses the value of activity streams on intranets and in collaboration tools. To quote: From a purely practical standpoint, various activity streams, and social software in general, are extra tools layered on top of the current systems a worker has in place. This is inherently true because we’re not ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, social tools
July 30, 2010 by James Robertson
The intranet is dead. Long live the intranet.
David Reinhardt writes about the death of intranets, replaced by social tools. To quote: Prince was wrong – it’s not the internet that’s dead, it’s the intranet. When I talk to clients about intranets as a collaboration hub they cock an eyebrow as if I’m speaking 2003 speak rather than ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social tools
July 29, 2010 by James Robertson
Understanding new solutions
In today's world new solutions and applications appear every day, and some are more useful and interesting than others. It's part of an intranet team's role to know what's around and be able to make recommendations about suggested improvements. However some teams are reluctant to explore new areas such as ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, intranet teams, Intranets, social tools, web 2.0
July 1, 2010 by James Robertson
What does the intranet look like in a social business?
Janus Boye asks the question: what does the intranet look like in a social business? To quote: Social media has evolved from distracting fun to hype to significant mainstream adoption over the last 18 months or so. Will the intranet remain unaffected by this? Or are there any emerging signs ...
Tags: Intranets, social intranet, social media
June 25, 2010 by James Robertson
5 enterprise 2.0 myth mantras that must die
Thomas Vander Wal has written about five enterprise 2.0 myths, as follows: It is believed that it is the Millennials (those recently out of university and roughly 22 to 27 years old) that are expecting or demanding these social tools. Often people make the link from Web 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0 ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
June 7, 2010 by James Robertson
Social intranet governance
Toby Ward has written about social intranet governance. To quote: Where every organization should include specifics for social media use, if your organization does not have a separate, superfluous social media policy (that’s right, a social media policy is largely superfluous if you have proper governance and content / editorial ...
Tags: governance, Intranets, social media, social software
May 13, 2010 by James Robertson
Social intranet vs intranet 2.0
Toby Ward outlines his take on social intranets vs intranet 2.0. To quote: An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a ...
Tags: intranet 2.0, Intranets, social intranet, social software
May 13, 2010 by James Robertson
How Bundaberg Regional Council uses its wiki
Bundaberg City Council has kindly shared some details on how they using their wiki as an intranet. To quote: Bundaberg City Council (BuCC) started using a Wiki to help manage its assets in mid 2006. When BuCC was amalgamated with three other municipalities in March 2008 (Burnett Shire, Isis Shire & ...
Tags: councils, Intranets, local government, wikis
May 10, 2010 by James Robertson
When was the last time your intranet empowered anyone?
Steve Radick asks the question: when was the last time your intranet empowered anyone? To quote: If you stopped using the terms "social media," and "Enterprise 2.0" and just started telling people that you "have some ideas for improving our Intranet that will make our employees want to log on ...
May 10, 2010 by James Robertson
Senior executives need to get social on the intranet to do their job
Allen Butcher argues that senior executives need to start using social media, to support intranet strategy. To quote: At each one, collaboration and social media was very much at the forefront – and the importance of securing a place at the top table for change to be approved. And ...
Tags: Intranets, social media
April 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Drop The pilot
Andrew McAfee argues that pilots should be abandoned. To quote: I believe these kinds of pilots are unintentionally set up to fail, or at least underwhelm. This is essentially because they contain too few people, most of whom know each other too well. While I agree with Andrew that pilots are ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, pilot
April 30, 2010 by James Robertson
Forming organic online communities on the intranet: #hashtag everything!
Simon Goh explores the interesting idea of #hashtagging everything on an intranet, to spontaneously create internal communities. To quote: Twitter has popularised the use of #hashtags as a way to aggregate relevant tweets together. #hashtag is a special kind of tag because people learn about them before using them. For ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social media, tagging
April 6, 2010 by James Robertson
Alstom: communities of practice
When I was recently in Europe, one of my stops was Paris, for an intranet breakfast event organised by Jane McConnell. This brought together some of France's biggest companies to talk about intranets, and it was a great morning. One of the presentations was by Alstom, talking about their efforts ...
March 7, 2010 by James Robertson
The future of intranets in Copenhagen
I've been talking about future intranets since late last year, leading up to my keynote at the IntraTeam Event in Copenhagen. As expected, this turned out to be a wonderful conference, with Jane McConnell's keynote a real highlight, along with many other interesting sessions. As always, plenty of great ...
February 26, 2010 by James Robertson
8 guiding principles for pilot programs: a key for enterprise 2.0
Ross Dawson shares 8 principles for piloting enterprise 2.0. To quote: Pilots often establish the tone for how broader initiatives are received across the organization. Stories – both positive and negative – about the success of pilots often filter out very widely. A successful pilot can easily take a life ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
February 23, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: put people at the centre
This future principle explores where intranets should be heading. Previous principles include act proactively, not just reactively, provide universal access and it's more than the intranet. They support two "future scenarios": starting a new job and driving the engine of change. Up to this point, the ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, enterprise experience, future, future principle, Intranets, user experience
February 18, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with Sabre on their online social tools
Sabre Holdings is one of the largest travel services businesses in the world, quietly connecting travel agents with airlines, as well as running major sites such as Travelocity. Sabre Town, their enterprise social space, provides a ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, sabre, social tools
February 16, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with NYK on wiki-based intranet news
NYK is one of the world's largest shipping and transport firms, with 770 major ships sailing the oceans. In an incredibly competitive market, it is vital to quickly respond to industry changes and competitor moves. To facilitate ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, news, wikis
February 11, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: it’s more than the intranet
I've been talking about the future of how staff will work in organisations, starting with Sarah's first day, and then exploring products and innovation. An important question has been raised by more than a few people: So is this still the intranet? Or should we be calling it something different? An ...
Tags: enterprise experience, future, Information management, information systems, Intranets, strategy
February 9, 2010 by James Robertson
Future principle: Act proactively, not just reactively
Today's intranets are very passive. They provide a remarkable volume of information, tools and resources, but they sit idly waiting for someone to look for it. This often means that staff don't get the information they require at the point of need. When a new policy is created, it's emailed out ...
January 28, 2010 by James Robertson
Future scenario: driving the engine of change
This is the second future scenario exploring the future of intranets (and beyond) in organisations. The first covered Sarah's first days at work, and this looks at innovation, product management and streamlining business processes. It's an impressive list. When all laid ...
Tags: future, future scenario, innovation, Intranets
January 18, 2010 by James Robertson
Social intranet products: am I missing something?
I've been looking at a number of "social" and "enterprise 2.0" intranet solutions recently. (I won't name them, as we maintain strict vendor-neutrality.) These are all intended to be out-of-the-box intranet solutions for medium-sized organisations, and they provide rich social functionality. This includes: team spaces wikis blogs social updates (eg Facebook/Twitter) rich personal profiles home-page "latest updates" ...
Tags: Intranets, social media
January 15, 2010 by James Robertson
Video interview with AEP on award-winning ideas system
When I was in San Jose for the KMWorld conference, I organised an awards ceremony for the US winners of the Intranet Innovation Awards. This also allowed me to do video interviews with a number of ...
Tags: ideas system, innovation, intranet innovation awards, Intranets
January 13, 2010 by James Robertson
Sprint’s intranet engages all employees from entry level to executives
Jennifer Sniderman explains how social tools on Sprint's intranet, "Sprint Space," helps to engage staff:
Tags: blogs, Intranets, social tools
December 22, 2009 by James Robertson
The culture of collaboration and what it means for your intranet
Maish Nichani writes about the culture of collaboration, and its relevance when planning projects. To quote: Many organisations are waking up to the fact that collaboration is a key piece of the intranet puzzle. I have spoken to many such people in charge of collaboration in their organisations and what ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
December 21, 2009 by James Robertson
The problem with social (the term)
Thomas Vander Wal has written about the problems with the word social (as in social media, social tools). To quote: I have run into the connotation of social as a term that has associative connotations to the hippy movement (the slide image Andrew uses with his presentations), socialist (non-capatalist or ...
Tags: social media, social software
December 14, 2009 by James Robertson
Participation vs. adoption
Christy Schoon writes about the difference between participation and adoption when it comes to enterprise 2.0. To quote: These days in the Enterprise 2.0 world everyone talks about adoption. Adoption is important if you are going to see business results (more to come in future blog post about adoption ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
December 14, 2009 by James Robertson
Gold winner: COWI (Denmark)
[caption id="attachment_3888" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="COWI's project sites have enabled faster and more effective working across teams and departments, while maintaining compliance with the organisation's strict methodology."] Post 9 of 10 in a series of blog posts giving more insight into this year's ...
December 9, 2009 by James Robertson
Get ready for intranet 3.0
Sarah Bates writes about the concept of intranet 3.0. To quote: It seems that intranets--and the related online communities within them--are being viewed by senior management as drivers of efficiency and productivity, and as "cultural glue," during turbulent times. Let's get rid of the people handling travel booking and automate ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
December 8, 2009 by James Robertson
Future scenario: starting a new job
Another year, another job. After 18 months in the last job, and a few months looking for work, Sarah is starting into her new role. The firm seems sounder than the last one, and its consumer products are red hot right ...
December 1, 2009 by James Robertson
Slidecast of the 2009 Intranet Innovation Award winners
Last week we held an awards ceremony at the KMWorld conference in San Jose. In addition, I gave a 50 minute presentation that shared plenty of detail on a number of the winners. The ...
November 23, 2009 by James Robertson
Future principle: provide universal access
In 2015, staff will have universal access to information and functionality, delivered at the point of need, regardless of where they may be. This means going beyond the "intranet as an internal website", a concept that has been holding back intranet teams for many years. A few of the ...
Tags: future, Intranets, ubiquitous access
November 23, 2009 by James Robertson
The immense value of expertise location will help drive enterprise social media
Ross Dawson has written about the value of expertise location. To quote: I have been interested in the field of expertise location for over a decade, from back when knowledge managers were building 'corporate yellow pages' and other tools to find the best expertise in the organization. Unless a large organization ...
Tags: expertise location, social media
November 20, 2009 by James Robertson
I’m going to start talking about the future, and I need your help
Our unwavering efforts over the last 7+ years have been focused on helping teams deliver better intranets. This has all been about "today", and what we can do to make intranets work better. This has involved uncovering successes (and failures) from across the globe, and distilling these into best ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, future, Information management, Intranets
November 12, 2009 by James Robertson
Gold winner: Sabre (USA)
[caption id="attachment_3888" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Sabre Town is social networking for the enterprise, an in-house developed, Facebook-style platform that's led to quantifiable savings for the company. Screenshot courtesy of Sabre."] Post 4 of 10 in a series of blog posts giving more insight ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, social networking, web 2.0
November 9, 2009 by James Robertson
Gold winner: IDEO (USA)
[caption id="attachment_3877" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Rich people profiles, including projects and availability. Screenshot courtesy of IDEO."][/caption] Post 2 of 10 of a series of blog posts giving more insight into this year’s Intranet ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, intranet innovation awards, Intranets, web 2.0
November 8, 2009 by James Robertson
Intranet 2.0 after the global financial crisis?
Heading towards the end of the year, it's interesting to start to look back on what has been a roller-coaster of a year. The Global Financial Crisis seems to have transformed everyone's thinking, and the ripples are still being felt in every industry. So what has this meant for the present ...
October 27, 2009 by James Robertson
Creating a social media policy for your department – here’s over 100 examples to draw on
Craig Thomler has blogged on a list of social media policies. To quote: Social Media Governance recently released a list of 106 social media policies that can be drawn on, including nearly thirty from government (including the APSC's Circular 2008/8: Interim protocols for online media participation).
Tags: governance, social media
October 26, 2009 by James Robertson
An accountant’s advice in making the business case for enterprise 2.0
Bill Ives highlights a report on creating a business case for web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0. To quote: While measuring return on investment on many enterprise 2.0 initiatives can be difficult, it is also very useful for a variety of reasons. The business case should ensure that the success ...
Tags: business cases, Enterprise 2.0
October 19, 2009 by James Robertson
Intranet strategy with collaboration products ensures fresh content
Jessica Scarpati writes about collaboration on the intranet, drawing on the opinions of a few in the industry. To quote: Building an intranet to house static content such as an employee directory and benefits forms can make a portal as dated as a corporate brochure. Making unified communications (UC) tools ...
Tags: Collaboration, communication, Intranets
October 14, 2009 by James Robertson
Social intranets as the new talent management system
Sean R. Nicholson raises the idea of social intranets as the new talent management system. To quote: As Social Intranets are becoming more commonplace, however, a unique phenomena is occurring. Employees are sharing their previous experiences, subject knowledge, and expertise with fellow employees, management, and executives each day, providing a ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, social tools
October 14, 2009 by James Robertson
Five key topics to be discussed for a Enterprise 2.0 strategy
Enterprise2Open write about 5 key topics to be discussed for a Enterprise 2.0 strategy. To quote: As we are talking about a new way of operational structure within Enterprise 2.0 activities we also have to have a look at the organizational structure. While the traditional organizational structure is based on ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
October 7, 2009 by James Robertson
The third way for designing enterprise wiki information architectures
James Dellow discusses how to structure wikis, suggesting a balance between up-front and organic approaches. To quote: Last week I was talking to someone about enterprise wiki adoption. I ended up sketching a rough diagram like this so we could talk about the need to design (in an active, participatory ...
Tags: Information architecture, wikis
September 22, 2009 by James Robertson
Giving internal visibility to social media
Last night I met up in Geneva with Ernst Decsey, the intranet leader at UNHCR. Some years back we did a fairly big IA project as part of their global intranet redevelopment, and it was great to see how far things have come since then. I found one part of their ...
Tags: Intranets, social media
September 22, 2009 by James Robertson
The nonsense of Enterprise 2.0
James Dellow has written a piece on the nonsense of Enterprise 2.0, pulling together a range of discussions on the topic. To quote: The nonsense paper was interesting because it helped to reveal some truth about why information management projects dressed up as knowledge management often failed to live up ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
September 21, 2009 by James Robertson
Top 5 social media myths
Matthew Hodgson has written an article about the top 5 social media myths. To quote: Social media holds great advantages, whether for improving internal collaboration, communication and social learning, or for building and enhancing trust through more responsive communications with key stakeholders and clients. Unfortunately, some organisations still hold onto ...
Tags: social media
September 16, 2009 by James Robertson
Surveying the enteprise 2.0 landscape
Andrew McAfee writes about a recent survey into web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0. To quote: Internal uses are more popular and powerful than external ones. Adoption rates were highest for internal uses than either customer or partner one. Across all industries and geographies, the percentage of adopters reporting measurable benefits ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
September 8, 2009 by James Robertson
Implementing enterprise micro-messaging with yammer at Océ
Bill Ives reports on the use of Yammer at Océ. To quote: The low barrier to entry helped expand the number of users. The intuitive and attractive interface also helped. Samuel said that there were only about 15 to 20 people using Twitter in the company when he introduced Yammer. ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, twitter, yammer
September 1, 2009 by James Robertson
Enterprises should live in a mobile world
Mobile devices have changed radically. In just the last two years new devices, such as the iPhone and modern Blackberries, have transformed the ability to access the net. Gone is clunky WAP, in is an amazing user experience away from the desk. Have enterprises taken advantage of this? In this year's ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, mobile devices
September 1, 2009 by James Robertson
28 reasons why organisations avoid social media
Craig Thomler has pointed to a list of 28 reasons why organisations avoid social media, and has created a "bingo" version. To quote: Below you'll find Jeff's 28 reasons arranged on a single page, ready to be downloaded and used as Social Media Bingo. If your organisation is still avoiding ...
Tags: social media
August 30, 2009 by James Robertson
Using audio and video on the intranet
Video and audio is part of the web, deeply ingrained in everyday browsing, whether it's a news site with audio reports, a social network with links, songs and videos suggested by friends and acquaintances, or the now-famous YouTube. As with many web technologies and trends, there are parallels between the ...
Tags: audio, communications, Intranets, rich media, video
August 30, 2009 by James Robertson
Collaboration: questions to ask
Staff and business areas often identify a need for collaboration tools, without knowing what the best solution would be. They may have some familiarity with a handful of tools, but not know how others work. As discussed in the earlier article Successful collaboration requires support, there needs to be a ...
Tags: Collaboration, governance, needs analysis, questions, user research
August 30, 2009 by James Robertson
Mitigating enterprise collaboration risks
There are many perceived and actual risks when collaboration tools are introduced within organisations. This table lists some of the key risks, and outlines options for mitigating or eliminating them. (Thanks to the participants of our 'Succeeding at collaboration' workshops for their input on this list.) RiskOptions for mitigating the risk Inappropriate ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, risks
August 21, 2009 by James Robertson
BTpedia – BT’s corporate wiki
Mark Morrell has written about BTpedia, BT's corporate wiki. To quote: BTpedia was created in 2007. Beta testing with users has led to a small application becoming a critical place for people to share how to do things in BT. Without advertising or publicity it has grown to over ...
August 17, 2009 by James Robertson
Social networking on intranets
Jakob Nielsen has also written about social media on intranets. To quote: As people embrace social media in their private lives, they naturally expect to use similar tools within the enterprise. This is especially true for younger workers who use these tools in everyday life. Open communication, collaboration, and content ...
Tags: Intranets, social media, strategy
August 17, 2009 by James Robertson
Social media on a global intranet – how do you choose?
Jane McConnell discusses social media on intranets. To quote: An intranet manager asked me recently how to prioritise ideas about social media for the intranet. They are a global organization and are currently attempting to bring all the local intranets under the same umbrella. They ran a workshop, and lots ...
Tags: Intranets, social media, strategy
August 4, 2009 by James Robertson
The five forces of enterprise 2.0 adoption
Michael Indinopulos has written about five forces of enterprise 2.0 adoption, drawing a line between the "Kumbaya Crowd" and the "Gordon Gecko Group". To quote: The Kumbaya Crowd and the Gecko Group share a common picture of what motivates individuals. They both think it's all about maximizing personal profit. The ...
Tags: adoption, Enterprise 2.0
July 24, 2009 by James Robertson
How to write a corporate Twitter strategy (…and here’s one I made earlier)
Neil Williams has published a complete corporate Twitter strategy, developed for the Cabinet Office in the UK. To quote: You might think a 20-page strategy a bit over the top for a tool like Twitter. After all, microblogging is a low-barrier to entry, low-risk and low-resource channel relative to other corporate ...
Tags: governance, policy, social media, twitter
July 22, 2009 by James Robertson
Cutting through the hype of social media
When discussing intranets and related enterprise-level software, it’s easy to get caught up in the technology. There are many features and components, so much whizz-bang functionality. It can be difficult to stay on target and focus on a piece of technology that will simply do a job that needs doing, ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, social media
July 21, 2009 by James Robertson
12 rules for bringing ‘social’ to your business
Dion Hinchcliffe has written a post outlining 12 rules for bringing 'social' to your business. To quote: But for most of us to really get strategic value from social business, we'll need to understand the ground rules. In other words, let's ask and answer the tough questions in making this ...
Tags: enterprise, social networking
July 9, 2009 by James Robertson
FOI and implications for collaborative, crowd sourced environments
Matt Hodgson explores FOI implications for collaborative tools within government agencies. To quote: I heard a story recently about a boss who was afraid to use a wiki, even inside the walls, because it didn’t fall under the strict editorial control processes normally required for their conventional paper documents or ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, foi
July 2, 2009 by James Robertson
Will social media kill off the intranet in years to come?
James Bennett has written an extensive article on the impact of social tools on intranet-based communication. To quote: The intranet currently forms an integral part of the internal communication strategy in most organizations as an information provider and collaboration tool. But social media also allows collaboration, dialogue, documentation and much ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
July 1, 2009 by James Robertson
Insights from the e20 challenges at J&J
Abigail Lewis-Bowen has written about her experiences of enterprise 2.0 at Johnson & Johnson. To quote: Coach Leaders ahead of time about the essence of communicating with these tools: praise the good, ignore the bad, be prepared to accept criticism, and never come across as critical or negative. Doing so ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
June 17, 2009 by James Robertson
Why businesses don’t collaborate – new research report
Stewart Mader has published some research into why businesses don’t collaborate. To quote: Many businesses think they collaborate. But content professionals today are tugged in multiple directions, and expected to multi-task their way through an increasing amount of work with the help of software tools designed to make them more ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0
June 16, 2009 by James Robertson
Five wiki gardening tips
Matt Wiseley has written about wiki gardening. To quote: I wrote a few months ago about keeping the chaff out of your site with a regular Wiki Spring Cleaning. This is just one in a set of activities often referred to as Wiki Gardening. Now that it is actually ...
Tags: Collaboration, wikis
June 16, 2009 by James Robertson
When it comes to enterprise 2.0, every vendor wants to own the user
Interest in enterprise 2.0 and collaboration remains high within organisations, despite the economic downturn. The range of tools in the marketplace is growing, and capabilities are improving. So far, all good. The challenge is, however, to work out where to fit these tools in the enterprise landscape. Most organisations have a ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets
June 15, 2009 by James Robertson
What is government 2.0?
Craig Thomler answers the question: what is Government 2.0? To quote: Government 2.0 grew out of Web 2.0 in an attempt to define a new approach to governing which provides governments and their citizens more direct and immediate ways to communicate, engage and collaborate enabled by Web 2.0 principles and ...
Tags: government, web 2.0
June 11, 2009 by James Robertson
JetBlue’s test group helps enterprise wiki adoption
Stewart Mader writes about a case study of wiki use in JetBlue. To quote: The software selected provided a vehicle for JetBlue faculty to talk to one another, not just about process improvements in learning & development, but also to share photos from family vacations, weddings and birthdays. The thinking ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, wikis
June 4, 2009 by James Robertson
Use enterprise context to enhance, not control
Nathan Wallace writes about context and control, in relation to enterprise 2.0. To quote: Enterprises are rich in both context and control, while new social media sites start completely flat and without either. By embracing and extending our strengths, enterprises can take a shorter journey to successful and mature social ...
June 4, 2009 by James Robertson
A case study of enterprise wiki usage
Matthew C. Clarke has published an extensive enterprise wiki case study, covering the work done at CorVu. To quote: CorVu produces software that assists other enterprises to implement their strategy and to track their performance against that strategy over time. CorVu has a variety of channels for making its internal ...
Tags: Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, wikis
June 3, 2009 by James Robertson
A curious case of enterprise 2.0
Yuri Alkin writes about the confusion surrounding enterprise 2.0. To quote: Although 2.0 memes are everywhere, hardly any of them have generated as much controversy as Enterprise 2.0 (a.k.a. E2.0). Introduced by Andrew McAfee in 2006 and later expanded by others, the term seemed to be a slam dunk for ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
June 3, 2009 by James Robertson
Steps to a good intranet wiki/blog
Mark Morrell has written a post on 5 simple steps to a good intranet wiki/blog. To quote: While talking to people after presenting ‘Adding value to your intranet - Intranet governance at BT‘ at Intranätdagarna 2009 in Stockholm last week it made me realise some simple steps could help an ...
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Intranets, wikis
May 29, 2009 by James Robertson
Enterprise 2.0, version 2.0
Andrew McAfee has written a post on enterprise 2.0, version 2.0. To quote: I’m not satisfied with my earlier definition of Enterprise 2.0, so let’s propose a refinement (I’m sorry if this feels a bit pedantic, but clear constructs are important to academics):
Tags: Enterprise 2.0
May 4, 2009 by James Robertson
Being social at work: which communications model to adopt for the enterprise?
Matthew Hodgson has written a post on communications models for enterprise 2.0. To quote: Web 2.0 technology presents the modern organisation with a plethora of means for communicating new information to staff. While some of us are now running to install wikis and blogs as a vehicle to achieve enterprise ...
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, social networking
April 28, 2009 by James Robertson
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? ...
Tags: blogs, Collaboration, discussion forums, governance, moderation, social media
April 28, 2009 by James Robertson
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 ...
Tags: change management, culture, Enterprise 2.0
