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Articles by Martin White
I think that 2011 will be seen as the year that mobile access arrived, and 2012 will be a year of significant development. Interestingly, two of the award winners in the 2011 Intranet Innovation Awards, which were run by Step Two Designs Pty Ltd., were mobile implementations. When the next "Intranet Design Annual" report from the Nielsen Norman Group is published in early 2012, I expect there will be a significant increase in mobile application development.
The Social Organization; The Digital Workplace: Redefining Productivity in the Information Age
Designing Search: UX Strategies for Ecommerce Success; Search Analytics for Your Site Conversations With Your Customers
A proposed deployment of SharePoint by corporate IT departments tends to be regarded by the department as an opportunity to provide a very flexible application that can meet a range of current and future requirements. But it's often regarded by intranet teams as being a highly disruptive challenge to the technical status quo of the intranet. One of the reasons for this is that, in most cases, SharePoint has appeared suddenly.
In the U.K., UKeiG (www.ukeig.org.uk) runs an intranet forum as a community of interest for intranet managers. At a recent meeting in London, there were about 20 attendees, but none of them had the title "intranet manager." One of the main reasons was that their intranet management role was only a part-time position.
Global Intranet Trends For 2011 Report; Professional Microsoft Search: FAST Search, SharePoint Search, and Search Server
Designing Intranets: Creating Sites That Work; IntranetLounge
User Adoption Strategies; The Accidental Taxonomist
Information 2015: Reforming the Paradigm; Réussir un projet Intranet 2.0
Once upon a time, when the pilot shut down the engines of the aircraft, there was a short period of calm as passengers readied themselves for the torment of the baggage carousel. Now, the silence is broken by the noise of mobile phones being switched on and the beeps of messages arriving. We live in a world where being away from email and text messages for even an hour means that we are concerned that decisions have been made without our invaluable input.
Search Patterns: Design for Discovery; Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age, second edition
Intranet Design Annual 2010, Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results
Reviewed this issue: SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration and FUMSI Reports: Survey on Intranet Management, Folio on Intranet Management
Reviewed this issue: What Every Intranet Team Should Know and Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories
I am tired of seeing the information architecture of an intranet homepage severely compromised by the need to have the entire center section full of news, with each item in full and accompanied by a picture. I am all for intranets being communication applications, but there are a number of issues that I would like to explore about the way in which news should be managed.
Reviewed this issue: Intranet Design Annual 2009; Seamless Teamwork: Using Microsoft SharePoint Technologies to Collaborate, Innovate, and Drive Business in New Ways
Reviewed this issue: Where in the World is My Team?, Nature.com, Global Intranet Trends Report for 2009.
I was at a meeting of intranet managers in London late in 2008, and the question was raised about what the impact of the economic recession was going to be on intranet budgets. Several of those present were very downbeat, reporting on intranet budgets being moved to other projects and an overall feeling that the half-empty glass was leaking water very quickly indeed. Others in the room were much more optimistic, reporting on initiatives to highlight the role that the intranet was already playing in their organizations and how it could step up to further support operations as the companies are forced to reduce head counts to maintain margins.
Reviewed this issue: Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work, Collaboration and Social Media 2008 , and The Impact of Information Technology (IT) on Businesses and their Leaders
Reviewed this issue: The Enterprise Social Software Report, Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide, Enterprise Web 2.0 blog
Q: How much attention should I be paying to Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0? I have more than enough to do with just keeping our intranet afloat.
Reviewed this issue: The SharePoint Report 2008, CMS Watch; Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management; and CMS Watch Trends
Reviewed this Issue: Intranet Usability Guidelines; Better Connected Intranets: Emerging Good Practice in Driving Internal Efficiency; and Beyond Search
Reviewed this Issue: Intranets for Info Pros; Global Intranet Trends Report; and Privacy International
Reviewed this issue: Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator; The 2008 Enterprise Search Report; and Sharepointsearch.com
Q: The company I work for as an intranet manager has taken the decision to upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS03) to SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS07) to manage our extensive collection of project documentation. Our current SPS03 intranet is now looking quite tired, so should I use MOSS07 or a CMS for the upgrade?
Reviewed this Issue: Laughing at the CIO: A Parable and Prescription for IT Leadership; Essential SharePoint
2007: Delivering High-Impact Collaboration; and The Enterprise Search Center
Reviewed this Issue: Making Search Work; The Data Administration Newsletter; and Enterprise Search
Deployment, Usage, and Trends
Reviewed this Issue: Managing Without Walls; ECM Suites Report; and The Content
Wrangler Blog
Q. We have just had our website benchmarked against those of our competitors and now my VP wants me to do the same for our intranet. How should I go about doing this?
A.
here are various approaches to benchmarking an intranet, but what I can say for certain is that you are
not going to be able to do so against those of your competitors. In the U.K., there is a very active Intranet Benchmark Forum...
Reviewed this Issue: 6x2 Methodology for Intranets; The Impact of Organisational Culture on Knowledge Management; and Groxis Inc.
Reviewed this Issue: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web; Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration; and Ross Mayfield’s Weblog
Reviewed this issue: Global Intranet Strategies Today and Tomorrow; The User is Always Right:; and The Oracle Pressroom
Q. We need to improve the search on our intranet and my manager has told me to buy the Google search appliance as Google is the best in search technology. Do you agree?
A. There are actually two questions here. Let me deal with whether Google is the tops in search technology. In some respects they are (as are Yahoo! and Microsoft) but there is more to search than searching the web...
Reviewed this issue: Portals: People, Processes, and Technology; Risk Management for IT Projects: Transforming
Your Intranet; and The Workplace
Reviewed this issue: Work Goes Mobile:Nokia’s Lessons from the Leading Edge; Risk Management for IT Projects: How to Deal with over 150 Issues and Risks; and Arnold IT
Reviewed this issue: Integrated Intellectual Asset Management; Beyond E-Learning; and The Gurteen
Knowledge Website
Question: I have been asked to write a three-year business strategy for our intranet as a condition for getting additional funding. Do you have any advice on how to structure the document?
Reviewed this issue: Improving Intranet Search; Intranet Design Annual 2006: Ten Best Intranets of the Year; Wine.com
Reviewed this issue:Ambient Findability; Useit.com; IAI Intranet Review Toolkit
Reviewed this issue:Making Knowledge Visible: Communicating Knowledge Through Information Products; Intranet Blog; Enterprise Search Guidebook
Question: We need to make a substantial investment in our corporate intranets, including implementing content management and search solutions. I have been asked to present a business case using an ROI analysis, but I just can’t get a handle on the numbers. Any suggestions?
Reviewed this issue: The Google Legacy: How Google’s Internet Search is Transforming Application Software; The Gilbane Report; Knowledge Mapping: The Essentials for Success
Reviewed this issue: The Records Management Report, Portals and KM, Staff Directories: Designing and Implementing an Effective Online Staff Directory
Reviewed in This Issue: Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations, 2nd Edition; Content manager.net; and The Content Management Handbook
Reviewed this issue: Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations, 2nd Edition, Contentmanager.net, and The Content Management Handbook
Question: Our intranet has been owned by just about every department in the organization. It started in IT, who then handed it over to marketing because they managed the corporate site. It turned out that they had no interest in internal communications, so our corporate communications team took it on. Now this team is being disbanded and our intranet is about to be rudderless. Any suggestions as to who should be taking responsibility for the management of the intranet?
Question: Our intranet has been owned by just about every department in the organization. It started in IT, who then handed it over to marketing because they managed the corporate site. It turned out that they had no interest in internal communications, so our corporate communications team took it on. Now this team is being disbanded and our intranet is about to be rudderless. Any suggestions as to who should be taking responsibility for the management of the intranet?
Reviewed this issue: Why Intranets Fail (and How to Fix Them): A Practical Guide for Information Professionals, Search Tools for Web Sites and Intranets, and The Enterprise Search Report: Requirements, Costs, Products & Practices
Reviewed this issue: FreePint,Information Auditing: A Guide for Information Managers, and Collaborate to Compete: Driving Profitability in the Knowledge Economy
Read_Me_File...Print and Digital Reviews
Reviewed this issue: Enterprise Content Management What you need to know , Web Accessibility Survey Site, and Intranet Roadmap
Question: Over the years, our engineering company’s intranet has expanded enormously, but it is actually a collection of about 20 individual intranets and a corporate homepage. We’re getting comments about difficulty finding information and think we ought to set some standards. However, the intranet team manager says that standards inhibit creativity and is not willing to support us. Do you have any suggestions?
Answer: I ran a workshop on standards and good practice at Intranets 2004 and was somewhat surprised that companies in the engineering and manufacturing sectors seemed to have the most problems with getting standards established. It was almost as though employees were so fed up with having to work to very high standards in everything else they did, that not conforming to an intranet standard was a relief. However, knowing that a tool we use at work or at home conforms to standards creates a feeling of confidence in it and usually speeds the time it takes to learn how to use it as well. An intranet is no different...
Reviewed this issue: Information Strategy in Practice, Information Nation, and NetStrategyJmc
Reviewed this issue: The Hidden Power of Social Networks, Creativity in Virtual Teams, and www.findability.org
Question: I have circulated a proposal to our senior management group about implementing a CMS, but our CIO says that what the organization needs is a portal that enables staff to personalize the information they need to access. What are your views?
Answer:As you walk around a gallery or a museum the door to each room holds a wonderful collection of paintings or artifacts, each labeled and placed in context. Yet few people ever wonder about the skill and effort involved in creating the display. A few years ago, enterprise information portals (EIP) were all the rage. Circa 2000/2001, there were over 100 vendors, and everyone was forecasting the death of the intranet. Luckily for my consulting business they were wrong, and, as it turns out, Plumtree is about the only independent portal vendor left standing...
Reviewed this issue: Leveraging Web Services, Practical Intranet Development, and WebServices.Org
Reviewed this issue: Information First, Step Two Designs, and Boxes and Arrows
Reviewed this issue: Proven Portals, IntranetInsider, and Intranet Journal
Question: Since we re-launched our intranet a few months ago, the number of hits each month has gradually decreased, and I am under pressure from my manager to re-justify the investment in the new content management system. Do you have any tips on how to increase the use of the intranet?
Answer: Before I suggest some ways of increasing use, maybe the problem is not as bad as it may seem; page hits alone do not tell the full story...
There are three elements of an intranet strategy: an information/content strategy, a technology strategy, and a governance strategy. It is in the development of a governance strategy that most organizations fail to take account of organization issues, especially organization culture. Governance is more than “management,” although a management structure is required.
and revised.
Search User Interfaces, Global Intranet Trends for 2010
As the early American settlers set out on their journey of migration to the west in the early 1820s, they first had to cope with the Appalachian Mountains. Then the next 1,000 miles or so were fairly easy in terrain terms-though still immensely challenging and dangerous. You can imagine their disappointment as the Rocky Mountains appeared on the horizon. Over the last few years, this process has been reenacted in most organizations as the work begins to migrate content from one CMS to another.
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