A Radical Reform to Save the Corporate Intranet

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  napdynmite@...06/11/08 Report as spam
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  Intranet Impediments

  A few things that have impeded the development of a usable, helpful intranet in my experience:
  
  -Unwillingness to contribute content. Some folks don't like to share their "secret" knowledge, whether it's best practices, tools, customer information etc. They like having a walled garden for their project team or department.
  
  -Difficulty in submitting content. You touched on this in your article and I agree that setting up a structured, rigid method for providing intranet content seems like a good idea at first, but people won't jump through hoops to share. It needs to be dropdead simple and as automated as possible.
  
  -Getting people to USE the intranet. People forget to use intranets. They find it easier to simply make a call or send an email when they can't find something because it's what they're used to. The intranet has to be coupled with email alerts, RSS, etc., whatever it takes to remind people it's there. And, of course, you need to make it worth visiting or they'll never come back.

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  barrycampbell06/12/08 Report as spam
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  RE: A Radical Reform to Save the Corporate Intranet

  I think this is right on the money... I've been involved in a number of knowledge management initiatives over the years, and the ones that worked tended to be "bottom up" initiatives, rather than "top down" designs with exquisitely detailed taxonomies and information infrastructures.