There are a lot of content management system (CMS) products in the marketplace, over 140 in Australia alone. There are new products springing into existence even as this is written. …

When it comes to information management or content management strategies, particularly at the enterprise level, there is a strong tendency (and desire) to create long-term plans. These plans may outline activities more than of 18 or 24 months in advance, starting with the deployment of base infrastructure, through to the final delivery of strong business functionality. These plans mostly fail, and few ever end up delivering the hoped-for benefits. While this is not an argument for abandoning strategic planning entirely, it raises a question whether long-term plans are the most sensible approach. This briefing will explore some of the issues

Getting participants for website research can be difficult, but a few simple steps can help make the process go much more smoothly. This article outlines steps modelled on the approach taken to recruiting users for a recent website redevelopment project for a tertiary education institution. The research activities included interviews, focus groups and usability testing. Gather available information As outlined in the previous article Start user research by talking with staff, an ideal place to start is with a series of staff interviews. These can provide an excellent initial picture of website users and some of the relevant issues. Staff

No longer the antithesis of working hard, online chat has become an integral part of core business processes in some organisations. Across both the public and private sectors there is a trend toward online chat as a valid business tool, particularly in call centre environments. By using online chat to supplement traditional information sources such as intranets and training folders, staff are provided with answers to specific problems and questions and access to specific staff in real-time. Online chat can be used to: to leverage the collective knowledge resources and research capability of the team as a training and management

Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness Patrick Lambe, 2007 Taxonomies are often surrounded by an air of reverence and mystique. Traditionally seen as the domain of librarians, recordkeepers and botanists, they are now hot property in business circles, but no better understood. Patrick Lambe's book sets out to systematically address these issues, by introducing, explaining and exploring taxonomies. Coming from a background as a librarian, knowledge management expert and consultant, Patrick draws together many topics to provide a rich view of taxonomies in the real world. This is not a how-to manual. While a strong overall methodology is outlined

I've just finished running a very enjoyable Intranet Planning Day workshop in Brisbane. Plenty of questions and lots of interaction, just the way I like it. For the record, here were the "big questions" raised at the beginning of the day: Getting management not to see it as a quick project? How to get staff interested and using the intranet? Best way to find out what users need? Right metadata, etc? Processes for publishing? How to engage management? Funding? Integration of systems? Content lifecycle? CMS? Search? Maintaining relevance? Ways to structure content? Content format? (HTML vs PDF) DM vs intranet?

'Personalisation' is a term very much in fashion at present. It is used by vendors to sell their products, and promoted by website and intranet managers as a way of delivering a brave new era of functionality. Separate from debates regarding the merits and approaches to personalisation, there is considerable confusion about the meaning of the word itself. As the use of personalisation spreads, this confusion has grown. Personalisation is now routinely used for everything from 'my links' functionality, to fine-grained targeting of information to specific staff roles. The absence of consistent terminology in this space is now causing considerable

We all know we should involve users when redesigning a website, but where do you start? There are various methods of 'cold calling' end-users to involve them in research activities (eg interviews, focus groups and usability testing) but there is a valuable source of information you might want to consult first. By talking with staff in your own organisation, you can leverage the vast body of knowledge on customers (aka clients, students, associates etc) who probably make up a large proportion of your website audience. This is an excellent way to not only gain an initial picture of your audience,

Due to technology improvements, personalisation is a growing feature in both intranet and portal usage. Organisations around the world have already made their first forays into personalisation, however many more organisations are questioning what to personalise and how to go about it. So who is using personalisation and how effective it is? Early in 2007 we ran a worldwide survey to establish the extent that personalisation is being used in intranets and portals. This article discusses the results of the survey, common themes within the survey and some observations on personalisation projects throughout the world. Comments from the survey respondents

With the move from paper to electronic documents, responsibility for recordkeeping within organisations has shifted to individual staff and away from centralised records management specialists. Much is made of the need for all staff to understand their recordkeeping responsibilities. To this end, many training and communication programs are conducted within government agencies (and elsewhere). To a large extent, this training has failed. While staff gain a general awareness of recordkeeping, they are not provided with sufficiently concrete and detailed guidance to make their recordkeeping successful and consistent. This article explores ways to help staff meet their recordkeeping obligations by creating