Locus for action. There is no room for people in intranets. This has been my impression too.
Who Needs an Intranet?. Martin White has an interesting answer for managers of small companies wondering about intranets -- you probably don't need one! I concur, companies under about 50 employees, with everyone located in the same facility, can likely forego the expense and ha [b.cognosco]
I think this is where I begin to diverge from mainstream thinking on Intranets. My thinking here is along the same lines as my previous post on whether an Intranet is a factory or a gallery. I agree with Martin that a 50-man organisation doesn't need a gallery intranet to reflect upon work done or to showcase the HR policy set. But who does? More often than not I think these sites are built with an eye on senior management approval. Hence: glossy, bright colours, simple headlines and little substance.
However if an intranet is living work, an embodyment of the spinning flywheels and turning cogs of the organisation, then why is it any less relevant to a 50-man, or even 5-man organisation? To me it's just as relevant. In a small organsiation there are less people doing the work, everyone needs to be that bit more focused on it (don't I know it!) In a large organisation there are more cracks for things to fall through, but the idea is the same.
An intranet should help to collect things together and provide a locus for action. The intranet should be part of the process, embedded in the work not separate to it. As Terry says in response to the gallery post:
In "The 21st-Century Intranet" Jennifer Gonzalez describes four types of intranets ranging from the asynchronous broadcast model to the symmetrical interactive model. Almost none of the later exist and I belive it is becasue of the point you make -- there is almost no room for people. Even the idea of adding people to the intranet draws gap-mouthed stares from executives in many companies.
I don't think a change in workflow alone will do it. As numerous k-log threads have discussed, the cultural and personal barriers are greater than a simple change in workflow can address. But a comprehensive approach, will solid management support, could drastically change the nature of intra-company communication.
The basic point is this: If the Intranet is about the people, and their work, then why does the number of people matter? [Curiouser and curiouser!]
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