In most organisations authors are vital to the effectiveness of the intranet. Despite this, authors are often given the task of updating content with little or no thought to their skills, suitability or desire.

Intranet teams generally have little influence over who becomes an author. As intranets mature and become better understood as a business tool, it is to be hoped that this will change.

This article focuses on what intranet teams can do to empower authors by providing effective and targeted tools and resources. In the context of this article the term authors broadly includes staff who, write and publish content, publish content written by others, write content only.

Any tools or resources that the intranet team develops for authors need to take into account the:

• turnover of authors, that is the average length of time staff are responsible for authoring
• geographical location of authors, and whether they are all in one main office or spread around the country or the world
• cultural drivers for the organisation and the specific factors that influence management, change and peer groups in the workplace
• capacity of the intranet team to deliver support, tools and resources

In many cases the intranet team has an untapped resource in the number of authors in an organisation. Providing the right tools and resources can help harness this power.

[December KM Column by Catherine Grenfell, read the full article]