Last year the September/October issue of Intranet Professional covered Northern Lights enterprise solutions, Intranets 2001, and knowledge architecture. Little did we know then how dramatically the world would change just after the issue was published. In recent conversations with the Research Leader for Information Services at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, Donna Scheeder, some interesting topics came up. We now know that September 11, 2001, was a knowledge management disaster of catastrophic proportion. It was first thought in immediate post-9-11 debates that we did not have the information to avoid the catastrophic events. However, in the year that followed we have learned that we had the dots but did not know how to connect them. We had the information but it was in silos that did not work in our favor.

The importance of community sharing and collaboration as well as bringing together different disciplines will be a focus for organizations in the months and years to come. Intranets are a key tool for bringing communities together by providing productive meeting places for information to grow and be exchanged. Given the increased security risks for strategic business and knowledge assets, controlled access may become even more important for intranets as part of knowledge-sharing solutions.

The technology exists, but the challenge is creating a knowledge-sharing environment where it can be effective. The intelligence and law enforcement communities will have a tough time with this one. But for most of our organizations, knowledge sharing can lead to competitive advantage and successful innovation. In the months to come, Intranet Professional will look at the topics of security and e-learning as well as collaboration tools and strategies.