There have been a number of good intranet-related articles Iíve come across recently. James Robertsonís ìKeeping your intranet healthy and effectiveî (http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_healthyintranet/index.html) is worth a read.
Iíd like to highlight a couple of good points:
Robertson recommends that organizations ìmake the intranet [a] part of daily activities.î This bit of advice is an oldy, but a goody (see my previous entry for another article that says basically the same thing). The most important thing Robertson mentions on this front is that there is no one ìkiller appî for an intranet. The features that will draw users back on a daily basis are going to be unique to an organization. A user-centered requirements gathering process is clearly one of the most important aspects of an intranet project.
Robertson also argues that the intranet should be positioned as a strategic resource. Iíll go him one better and argue that an organizationís information resources (including, but not limited to, the intranet) should be considered a strategic asset. And, like all assets, the organizationís information should be managed and directed to ensure that these resources match up with the organizationís goals.
One cultural shift that can help promote this idea of information-as-asset is to, as Robertson mentions, ìprovide authors with sufficient time and resources.î Activities like adding content to an intranet, an internet site, or a weblog should be a part of a staff-memberís regular responsibilities.
There are a number of other good points in this article, but I'll leave those up to the reader to discover.
Posted by Karl
October 2, 2002 10:10 AM