Triangles of information delivery
Categorised under: Enterprise 2.0, Information management, Intranets
This diagram captures some of my evolving thinking on intranets, information management and enterprise 2.0. It outlines three scenarios:
Scenario A
This is the “now” scenario, typical of most intranets and information management strategies.
Information is mostly published at the corporate level, delivered to “all staff”. The closer you get to any one staff member, the less the information is targeted to their their needs. All staff are basically considered the same, and there is no personalisation or tailoring.
Scenario B
This is the “ideal” state, as outlined in the web 2.0 and enterprise 2.0 world view.
The individual is at the centre of all things, and information is specifically delivered to meet their specific needs. This may be via customisation, tailoring, or self-driven social networks. This recognises that organisations are made of up individuals, who need to be effective and engaged.
There is, however, a huge change from scenario A to scenario B. While portals and other technologies have offered personalisation functionality, this has often failed to be used. “My page” and other personal homepages are commonly left empty. Adoption of “enterprise 2.0″ and “social” tools is still in its early stages.
Scenario C
Perhaps this is the middle ground we can work towards in the short term.
While information is still published at the corporate level, there is tailoring of information at business unit level. Call centre staff have relevant information delivered to them, distinct from that delivered to sales staff, engineers, or admin staff.
This is relatively easy for intranet and information management teams to handle. There may be anything from a few to many dozen business groups to target, but this is much easier than trying to address the needs of thousands of individual staff.
Putting it all together
This is just some early thinking, but what I’m looking for is a way of bridging the gap between the corporate on one side, and the individual on the other. This is the middle ground that we need to play in for the immediate future.
So, does it make sense? Do the diagrams help?
(Don’t forget that there is now commenting on this blog!)
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, governance, Information management, Intranets, personalisation, triangles, web 2.0
James Robertson is the Managing Director of 
4 Comments:
Hi James!
I can’t help thinking that diagram “C” implies a net increase in the amount of information being delivered, per the increased surface area of the shape. Which leads me to ask: what does the width of the x-axis represent? My guess: the amount of focus the organization puts on a particular area.
If that’s the case, why not reduce the width of the “corporate” dimension in diagram C to show that you are diverting some attention from a corporate focus to a departmental focus?
Hi James – yes, this is useful. It is very consistent with the “information neighbourhood” idea that Maish Nichani and I been playing with for a while now – “business unit” can mean any collaboration unit actually, including project teams.
Hi Patrick,
Yes, “business unit” is any “middle” grouping of staff, including team, project, community of practice, etc. And I love your “information neighbourhood” metaphor, very powerful.
The x-axis is supposed to indicate both the amount of information being delivered, and where the attention is being focused.
In scenario C, there is an overall increase in information delivered. In practice, I don’t think the corporate information will be reduced, but potentially there should be a move towards a more “syndicated” model, rather than trying to get everyone to visit the corporate homepage every day…
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