Wheat & Chaff

Happy Birthday from your Intranet

2011-09-27T10:51:00.013+10:00

I personally do not make it public knowledge when its my birthday. I get embarrassed by any fuss and am conscious of the fact that I am no spring chicken anymore. Though when I saw the following Tweet in my feed last night I thought it was a wonderful idea.

@vj2w Feel special. My Intranet is customised to wish me HB. Nice touch.

I retweeted this post and commented that I thought is was a great idea. Wouldn't be too hard to implement and it would be appreciated.

Another of my Intranet tweeps, @DigitalJonathan commented that he agreed it was a nice idea but raised a couple of relevant points.

The message should not quote the users age as that could contravene European Union laws on sharing age of employees due to possible discrimination

Would the Birthday greeting go all users as is the case on facebook, or only be sent to the individual?

In my opinion, the first point is a no brainer. No need to quote the age, even if it is a milestone like 21 or 40. Most people just say Happy Birthday when face to face and besides, according to stereotyping, no woman likes to be reminded of their age. Not many middle aged men either for that matter.

The second point is more interesting though. Some people love others knowing when their Birthday is while others are not comfortable with any fuss or attention.

If I was to implement such a feature I think I would go with the following scenario.

When a user is set up, their birth Day and Month ONLY is entered. Each user can edit their profile page and for the Birthday section they would have following options:

Having the option to publish a reminder to the Upcoming Events section would work similar to the same Facebook function. This would suit those who are comfortable to have everyone knowing their Birthday is coming up. It might even help employees born on the same day to connect and build better social relationships.

I gave a lot of thought as to what the default setting should be and decided on Send personal Birthday Message to me only.

I am confident that providing each user with the option to opt out of this function completely would satisfy any critics in my current organisation.

The other reason is, to be honest, even a casual curmudgeon like me enjoys being wished Happy Birthday once a year, but don't tell anyone and please don't make a fuss.

The future has already begun. Is your Intranet ready?

2011-09-19T10:01:00.015+10:00

After reading the recent piece by @gvanleemput, Mobile Intranet - Nice to have or must have? I was inspired to put down some personal thoughts and observations.

Over the past 6 months in my organisation I have noticed a huge increase in the number of employees being provided with iPhones and iPad's for work purposes.

Our company now offers customers most of its services via mobile applications and has a growing presence on Twitter and Facebook. Around 25% of employees now use iPad's for business purposes. I am sad to report though that our Intranet has not yet been optimised for delivery on any mobile devices and we are early on in discussions on how this will be achieved.

Data obtained from Jane McConnell's Global Intranet Trends for 2011 of last year indicated that only about 7% of participating organisations were already providing Intranet information and services via smart phones and other mobile devices and 40% of Intranet Leaders were well on the way to delivering mobile services. I can't wait to see the results of this years Digital Workplace Trends 2012 and have a suspicion that the figures for mobile optimisation will have risen significantly.

One of the benefits I enjoy from presenting at Intranet conferences is the opportunity to get to know other Intranet Managers and discuss the many common problems we experience. When discussing Mobile Intranet delivery a couple of common obstacles have been:

Concerns about security of information delivered to mobile devices
Company leaders have in the past raised the issue of the security of company information delivered to mobile devices and also the security of the devices themselves. Many a Blackberry has been left in a taxi from time to time.

Delays in deciding the mobile devices to be rolled out and supported
Blackberry's ruled business as the preferred portable device for many years. It has only been in recent times that the functionality and usability of modern alternatives has become mainstream for business users.

The future for Intranets and information delivery is very exciting. Technology is continuing to evolve rapidly. Many of the past obstacles have been removed and perceived risks addressed. Mobile computing devices once seen as science fiction are now mainstream products. I believe that Mobile Intranet information delivery is definitely a must have in today's business world.

Dilbert on Intranets

2011-09-12T06:31:00.003+10:00

I came across this cartoon while waiting for an early morning flight to Melbourne and embarrassed myself by laughing rather loudly in the flight lounge.

When I went to the wonderful Scott Adams Dilbert site I was delighted to find many strips on the subject of Intranets. I am not sure how Adams is able to pinpoint the many issues we as Intranet Managers face with next generation Intranets and the emerging social and collaborative aspects they are introducing but he definitely seems to have his finger well and truly on the pulse.

Check out lots of Dilbert's Intranet related strips here.

All credit to Scott Adams - Dilbert

Tips to help you gain executive support for your Intranet

2011-09-09T07:44:00.005+10:00

There are many reasons that Intranets often lack the support of company leadership. One of the main ones I see is that the decision makers are unaware of the potential Intranets have to provide enormous value to the organisation. Another problem is that many of these benefits, like enhancing employee engagement and loyalty for example, are not always tangible or measurable.

I have had varying degrees of success in gaining support for the Intranet and it requires a great amount of passion and enthusiasm. It is not just a case of presenting a business case to the executive committee and hoping to gain approval.

There are a few things that I tend to work hard on before I drop a proposal on an executive’s desk.

Become a goto person for key people.
I like to build up a strong relationship with executive assistants. They are people who can help you get a foot in the door. Spend time getting to know them but more importantly how you and the Intranet can help them. I have had great success in the past by providing something as simple as an online local services directory. Having all the details of the dry cleaners, florists, caterers and any other services they use regularly can help make their job easier. If you can identify how the Intranet can help them work they will be more inclined to help you when you need it.

Become known to the company leadership.
I am sure you have all had to attend things like financial results presentations, product launches and even end of year celebrations. These are all excellent opportunities to get to know the company leaders and more importantly let them get to know you. You do need to be prepared for these things though. You need to do a bit of research on each executive (thank you Google & Linkedin). Learn a bit about them, where they worked previously etc. It’s
great if you can find out what they enjoy when not working (executive assistants are excellent help with that one). That way when you introduce yourself at the next informal company gathering you will always have something to discuss that you can be reasonably sure they will be interested in. At the formal presentations come prepared. Read the company annual results, have intelligent and relevant questions prepared. Sit up the front (this is a simple thing but something many people try to avoid).

Give executives some Intranet facility for them.
Again, engaging the EA can help you find out what is needed here. Some of the things I have provided are Market Analyst Reports portal, online archive of board papers, daily media monitoring service, online communication channel like a Blog or a Vlog. Its up to you to find out what they need and deliver. The reward though is that if they have a reason to go to the Intranet daily, they will start to appreciate its value.

Become a great sales person.
After spending some time doing all the previous groundwork you will be in a better position to present business cases for further enhancement and development. Working demonstrations tend to work better that just a written proposal and presentation. For example if you want money and approval to roll out a collaboration suite across the organisation, try and mock up an example site and scenario that helps the audience visually understand how collaboration can work and what benefits it can offer. Most importantly, keep your demonstrations or presentations short, simple and relevant to your organisation.

There are some organisations that are just not open to innovation or change and even the most passionate and driven Intranet Manager has trouble selling the Intranet and themselves however there is never a reason not to try.

On many occasions I have gone ahead and implemented changes and developments without gaining formal approval. Some have worked and some have not. I do like to follow the advice of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper "If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologise than it is to get permission".

Dynamic and Intuitive Intranets

2011-09-02T08:27:00.005+10:00

Am really looking forward to presenting at the Dynamic and Intuitive Intranets event in Brisbane Australia on 23rd November 2011.

When initially asked to participate I had planned to present on the importance of good and clear governance for Intranets however on receiving the proposed line up I saw that Simon Rawson from Microz Australia had claimed a session on "Responsible governance: who owns your intranet".

So I decided that having two governance sessions in one day definitely runs the risk of putting delegates to sleep. So instead I decided to develop a session on Social Media Integration. I will be exploring how to go about determining if there is a need for Social Media on your Intranet and if so how you might successfully implement integration and obtain user buy in and acceptance.

I will also be participating in and Interactive panel discussion on "Proving the value of your Intranet". I know this is something many of us Intranet Managers struggle with and hopefully we will be able to explore how others have approached this requirement.

I am always happy to visit sunny Queensland however the clincher for me was when I saw the event was being chaired by the lovely and very knowledgeable Rebecca Rodgers one of my good friends from Step Two Designs. Rebecca and I first met when we both presented at the same conference in 2007 so the Dynamic and Intuitive Intranets event will be like a bit of a reunion for us.

Dynamic and Intuitive Intranets
Good Governance / Search & Content / Identify & Change
23-24 November 2011
Mercure Hotel, Brisbane, Australia

View the event brochure here

Sharepoint explained by Common Craft

2011-09-01T13:19:00.009+10:00

I have always been a huge fan of Common Craft and their ability to make videos to explain new technology trend in simple and easy to understand ways.

This one is all about how Sharepont can be used in a business to make communicating and collaborating easier and more efiicient.

No need for more of my waffle. Check out the video and you will see what I mean.

People often feel overwhlemed at work and tools like Sharepoint can help
manage and organize all the messages, document and calendars in one place. This video focuses on these key points:

How information overload keeps teams from being productive

How Sharepoint helps to solve this problem by creating home for a team's collaboration

How a team leader uses Sharepoint to identify team members, create a home for projects documents, calendars, etc.

How the team can use Sharepoint to find resources that prevent them from having to reinvent the wheel

For more excellent videos visit Common Craft. You can follow them on Twitter @CommonCraft.
View the original posting for this video including full transcript here.

Social Media @ Work - Must See Video from Red Sky Vision

2011-08-08T11:47:00.011+10:00

I have watched this video through at least three times and passed it onto more people than I can remember. The video quality and production is fabulous in itself though more importantly the content is just so good. If you are an Intranet Manager and having a difficult time explaining the value of Social Media to your companies decision makers and holders of the purse strings I would urge you to show them this video. It explains in clear and simple terms how these technologies are being used right now and why it is important to seriously consider how you are going to exploit the use of Social Media in your organisation. Things move very fast these days and you do not want to be left behind.

There is disconnect between how immersed and digitally connected employees are outside of the workplace, and how their internal communications are being delivered. On the ground, employees are still posting printed communications on the water cooler when they can be engaged, led and informed via the latest digital channels.

View press release in PDF format

View video from original source here

Posting Emails as Intranet news items - Just because you can doesn't mean you should !

2011-07-06T19:57:00.004+10:00

I had an unusual incident happen the other day which reminded me of the need to keep content management training content and resources up to date.

In my organisation I have a group of about 30 employees across the business who are trained as content managers and have the ability to create, maintain and publish content to the Intranet. All of those people are also able to create and publish news items to the front page.

I always recommend that content managers create news items in HTML format using the templates and tools I have provided for them however it is also possible to publish items that have been created in Word, PDF and PowerPoint format.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a news item appear regarding some changes to IT services and was very surprised when I clicked link and after a short wait, Microsoft Outlook started to open.

One of the resourceful and obviously time poor content managers had published an email they had received from their manager as a news item to the front page of our Intranet. I quickly contacted the publisher and explained that there are many reasons why emails should not be published as news items.

The primary issue with this practice is that our email system runs on Microsoft Exchange. That means that all emails on desktops & notebooks require outlook to be running before they can be opened. That slows down access timed considerably for those in the office but for those in the field using VPN it frequently grinds to a halt.

The second reason is all the non essential texts contained in an email. Subject and date stamp details for a start, but there is also the addition of Email addresses for sender, receiver and all cced. This additional content is not aesthetically pleasing, not needed and not very secure.

Since this incident I have had to revisit our training and reference documentation and also the training provided for Intranet content managers. I never thought that I would have to not only provide details of what file types are suitable for publishing online but also what file types should not be used. Just proves that you never stop learning.

Get a free copy of the Digital Workplace Trends 2012 Report

2011-06-28T07:00:00.004+10:00

Because Intranets are inside an organisations firewall it is difficult for Internet Managers to keep abreast of what other organisations are doing in their Intranet space. Jane McConnell's annual Global Intranet Trends report fills that knowledge gap.

In the last survey over 400 companies participated resulting in a snapshot of Intranet trends and strategies from around the globe for 2010. I was personally interested to discover how many organisations were testing the social intranet waters and the Global Intranet Trends Report 2011 provided me with the detail I was looking for.

Jane does a comprehensive job of preparing each years survey and report and the consistent result is an invaluable and relevant reference for every Intranet Manager in any sized organisation. Get a taste from the 2011 report here.

If you are an Intranet Manager and would like to get your hands on a free copy of the Digital Workplace Trends 2012 report all you need to do is join up to participate in the survey and Jane will send you a personalised link. The 45 minutes it takes to complete the survey is time well spend as you will be referencing resulting report you receive for the next 12 months.

The more participants the more beneficial the results so join up to participate today and help make this the best Digital Workplace Trends report yet.

Sites about Intranets - Platforms & Resources

2011-06-08T12:57:00.007+10:00

This morning I received a Google Alert titled Top 10 Sites about Intranets and I expected to see all my favourite sites listed and although there were a couple of sites that I used, most of my favourites were missing.

The source was a site called Xmarks a bookmark synchronisation application which once installed registers and aggregates the bookmarks of all its users browsers. The currently narrow cross section of users of this application results in less than comprehensive results when searching for sites about Intranets. Having said that, the results are not bad and will only improve if take up of the Xmarks application grows.

It has prompted me to provide you with my list a few of my favourite sites about Intranets.

Step Two Designs
Headed by James Robertson @s2d_jamesr Step Two Designs provides vendor-neutral consulting and mentoring services on all things Intranet. The site contains a plethora of free resources in the way of fact sheets and articles. It also hosts the Column Two blog that James authors and I would advise all Intranet Managers to subscribe to the Column Two feed.

NetStrategy JMC
Jane McConnell runs this site for her Digital Workplace Strategy & Governance consulting firm. It also hosts her must read blog and is the home of the annual Digital Workplace Trends survey (formerly the Global Intranet Trends survey ). I have participated in the survey since it began 6 years ago. I encourage every Intranet Manager I meet to take part in the survey each year and as a reward receive a participant copy of the report. You can read a review I did of last years report here.

Prescient Digital Media
Intranet Consulting firm with many years experience in Intranet planning, consulting & strategy. Prescient Digital Media is headed by Toby Ward @tobyward who has been a twitter friend of mine for some time. As well as publishing excellent Intranet related articles and videos to the site there is also an excellent Intranet Blog with lots of valuable Intranet Information.

Worldwide Intranet Challenge
Run by another of my Twitter friends and fellow Aussie Andrew Wright @roojwright the Worldwide Intranet Challenge provides a wonderful service to allow your organisations Intranet to be benchmarked against others across the globe. This site constantly provides valuable reference material and insights into issues that face modern Intranets and the people who manage them.

Intranet Experience
Another essential blog to follow is Intranet Experience authored by Sean R Nicholson @seanrnicholson. Sean is one of the leading commentators in the current hot topic of Social Media on the Intranet.

Intranet Connections
Intranet Connections is an out of the box all in one Intranet software solution and although they have a product to sell they still provide oodles of valuable Intranet information and opinion for free. The organisation is headed by the wonderful Caroline Douglas @carolyndouglas and yes she is another of my valued twitter friends. The frequently updated Intranet Connections blog consistently delivers value for Intranet managers in any sized organisation.

There are many many more wonderful sites out there to help you stay informed and up to date with everything Intranet and the above are just a sample to wet your appetite.

Usability Testing - How many users should you test?

2011-06-06T12:29:00.011+10:00

One of the last presentation sessions I attended at Intranets 2011 was by Step Two's Rebecca Rogers @rebeccarodgers titled "How do you find out what staff need?".

Rebecca is a specialist at performing user needs analysis for organisations so I was keen to attend her presentation and I was definately not dissapointed. When Rebecca came to discussing Usability Testing I raised the question of how many users should be tested and referred to Jacob Nielsen's well known Alertbox article from 2000 Why you only need to test with 5 users.

The discussion that followed raised many differing opinions. Some were of the view that the research performed by Nielson & Landauer was specific to Internet Web sites & not for Intranets. Others maintain that 5 users was definitely not enough and that testing 20 users minimum was more appropriate.

My experience tends to agree with the research (now nearly 20 years old) that recommends testing 5 users at a time provides the best insight into an Internet or Intranet sites usability problems.

The Nielson posting explains the reasons why 5 users is enough:

"As soon as you collect data from a single test user, your insights shoot up and you have already learned almost a third of all there is to know about the usability of the design. The difference between zero and even a little bit of data is astounding.

When you test the second user, you will discover that this person does some of the same things as the first user, so there is some overlap in what you learn. People are definitely different, so there will also be something new that the second user does that you did not observe with the first user. So the second user adds some amount of new insight, but not nearly as much as the first user did.

The third user will do many things that you already observed with the first user or with the second user and even some things that you have already seen twice. Plus, of course, the third user will generate a small amount of new data, even if not as much as the first and the second user did.

As you add more and more users, you learn less and less because you will keep seeing the same things again and again."

This does not mean that you stop at 5 users. It merely means that you perform testing with 5 users. Attempt to fix all the issues arising from these user tests, then test again with the next group of 5.

I have found that using this method of testing, fixing and testing again makes the most of everyone's time and resources. My experience in using this method has demonstrated that by the time you have tested 4 groups of 5 users you will have identified around 90% of usability problems.

Of course careful consideration needs to be given to selecting which users to test. It is best to choose from a wide variety of employees, each with varying degrees of computer skills and diverse roles in the organisation. You need to try hard to ensure that the broadest range of employees as possible participate from the Executive level to those in call centres, outlets and on the road. This is also highlighted as an important consideration in the research.

"If, for example, you have a site that will be used by both children and parents, then the two groups of users will have sufficiently different behavior that it becomes necessary to test with people from both groups. The same would be true for a system aimed at connecting purchasing agents with sales staff."

I have always found usability testing to be fun and enlightening and while not everyone would share that view it is still an essential exercise that all Intranet Managers should carry out.

Intranets 2011 - What a fabulous event.

2011-05-22T09:49:00.010+10:00

What a wonderful conference. I was lucky enough to be asked to present myself which I must say was a little intimidating due to the high standard of speakers. The presentation line up and the way the event was organised was excellent so I just had to share some of the experience here.

Some of the many logistical touches that made this event special.

An espresso coffee cart. So much better that the usual coffee served at these events.
No delegate folders that rarely get opened after the conference. Instead a conveniently sized little booklet was provided that contained the presentation schedule, speaker bios that included the Twitter name for each speaker and plenty of room for notes
Free Wi-Fi for all - Fantastic
Power boards on each table meant notepads and iPads stayed charged for the entire event.
Smartphone charging station was a great touch that I took advantage of twice.

Then there was the excellent lineup of speakers. I was very excited to meet Jane McConnell for the first time face to face after dealing with her for 5 years online and she was as lovely and interesting as I knew she would be.

I was very impressed with Michael Sampson's live blog posts. He captured the essence of the sessions he attended as they were happening and posted them immediately. Great effort.

And then there were the excellent presentations. I have never been to an event that provided such a wonderful lineup of knowledgeable Intranet professionals.

My only disappointed was that I was unable to attend every presentation due to the dual stream format and deciding which session to go to was very difficult.

Here are a few of the presentations from the event that made it so special.

What are the global trends for intranets?
Jane McConnell (France) @netjmc

You’ve got collaboration tools: now what?
Michael Sampson (New Zealand) @collabguy

Intranet features that staff love
Andrew Wright (Australia) @roojwright

Your intranet on the go — developing QUT Virtual Mobile
Andy McBride (Australia) @andymac7

What Makes an Essential Intranet?
James Robertson (Australia) @s2d_jamesr
As blogged by Michael Sampson

If you would like to see a few more of the speaker presentations they are available Here.

Thanks to Step Two for making Intranets 2011 happen. I don't know how you will top this next year but I can't wait to see what is in store.

Preliminary feedback from this year's Global Intranet Strategies survey

2010-08-05T07:33:00.006+10:00

Participating in Jane McConnell's annual Global Intranet Strategies survey is rewarding in so many ways. Its wonderful to know that you are contributing to a survey that each year provides a valuable snapshot of Intranet trends, developments and strategies from across the globe.
The biggest rewarded comes when participants receive a complimentary copy of the report.

The annual report is an essential reference tool for any Intranet Manager in any sized organisation and I look forward to receiving my copy every year.

There is still time for Intranet Managers to participate in this years survey. You have until the end of August 2010. The more participants, the more useful the data so sign up for the 2010 - 2011 survey today.

Jane has this year provided participants with some preliminary observations from the responses received so far. Please Note that these figures are provisional but definately give you an idea of the valuable information this wonderful survey provides.

Strategy drivers for the intranet are shifting a little
Communication has become even higher as a strategy driver for the intranet: 92% consider it a primary driver compared to 87% last year. Appeal for the new work force has dropped significantly from 17% last year to only 9 % this year.

Collaboration is still in "middle land"
Over 30% say "Collaboration spaces are available from the intranet via 1 or more links, but are not well-integrated."
Just under 20% say "Collaborative spaces are well-integrated throughout the intranet in different, relevant sections."
Around 5 % say "We consider the entire intranet to be "collaborative" and do not make a distinction."
Overall, the use of social media internally is about the same as last year, hovering around 70%.
However, this year we asked you to indicate how many years you've used social media internally. The figures break down fairly evenly from "less than 1 year" up to "3 or 4 years". Percentages range from 17% to 30 % for each segment. 8% responded 5 years or longer! In the final report we will be looking closely at the difference between the early adopters and more recent adopters in terms of results, strategies, experiences and measurement.

Silos exist in the very places where they should not!
75 % of the organizations say "Our employee support functions sometimes work as silos. (HR, Communication, IT, etc.)". This figure is 25 percentage points higher than the other options: collaborative silos, geographical/language silos and value chain silos (logistics, R&D, sales & marketing, etc.). This was a new question in 2010. We will see how it evolves in 2011.

Involvement of senior management in the intranet
Nearly every participant responded to this open text question, so there'll be lots of verbatim in the final report.

If you found the above as interesting and relevant to your Intranet as I do you should definately sign up for the 2010 - 2011 survey today while there is still time.

Follow Jane McConnell on Twitter, @netjmc and subscribe to her NetStrategy/JMC blog for excellent knowledge on Intranets large and small.

Missed It

2010-07-14T12:51:00.005+10:00

I am a keen surfer and am very lucky to live near the beach here in Sydney. Unfortunately working full time limits the opportunities I have to go surfing and I am usually restricted to only being able to surf on weekends. I certainly missed out this morning. When this picture was taken at 8am this morning I have already been at my desk for over 2 hours.

Image shows the reef behind Shelly Pool going off. I really should start going to work late instead of rising with the sparrows. Certainly hope this swell hangs around for the weekend.

Image sourced from The Sea Life a pictorial surf report for Cronulla I receive each day.

Mesmerising Kinetic Sculpture

2010-07-14T07:18:00.006+10:00

Wow, I have just realise that I did not post in June at all. Perhaps it is something to do with it being the middle of winter here in Australia or perhaps more likely it is because I have been lazy.

Came across this video from the BMW Museum recently and still find it mesmerising.

"The installation consists of 714 metal spheres hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually controlled stepper motors. Covering a six-square-metre area, the spheres enact a seven-minute long mechatronic narrative, creating a representation of the form-finding process in different variations. Moving chaotically at first, the sculpture evolves into several competing forms and eventually resolves as a final shape, which hints at the outlines of well-known BMW automobiles such as the 327, the 1500, the Z4 coupé and the Mille Miglia 2006. The cycle is synchronised with a graphic light strip running around the walls and texts and audio quotes from senior BMW figures on the company’s values and design aims."

Who owns the Intranet?

2010-05-12T15:00:00.003+10:00

The question Who owns the Intranet? was asked on Twitter by @danasml from the UK recently and my instant response was “The Users own the Intranet !” . While I am sure most Intranet managers would agree that Intranets are there for the benefit of users, what @danasml was asking was who is financially responsible. What part of the business funds the Intranet? Who has the task of taking any proposed redevelopment business case to the board for consideration? What division is responsible for including money in their budget for the operation and development of the Intranet?

In my case over the past five years the Intranet and its management has been in the IT division, the HR division, the Shared Business Services division and currently the Internal Communications division. I’m sure that if the question was asked of all the Intranet Managers out there that the answers would be just as varied.

The fact is that regardless of what division I have fallen under and who is funding the Intranets operational expenses, I have been able to maintain a kind of autonomy. I know from discussions with other Intranet managers around Australia and abroad that this is not always the case. Some divisions feel that if they fund it, they own it and have the right to use it push their own agenda.

I strongly believe that the Intranet MUST be there for everyone. It is not purely a communication tool for the communicators or a policy and process delivery tool for HR. It is not just a repository for technical documentation or launch pad for the latest browser based applications for IT. The Intranet is all of these things and more and it needs to be managed in a balanced and unbiased way. Wherever in the organisation the Intranet manager sits they need to be an impartial facilitator for all parts of the business.

I think you should try to develop your Intranet over time so that it is a business tool for everyone in the organisation from the executive group to the workers on the coal face. If you can make sure that there is at least one or two specialised functions that each staff member can use to assist them perform their specific role and more importantly ensuring that they are made aware of these tools and how to use them, when it comes time to put your hand out for money it will be less difficult to justify. Regardless of what division is submitting the business case or funding request both the requestor and the approver should have first hand experience of the value of the Intranet as a business tool.

Sound like a big ask? Not possible in your organisation? I would be very interested to hear your thoughts, observations and experiences on the subject.

If a house was dreaming

2010-04-12T06:53:00.003+10:00

I have not strayed from Intranet related topics for some time now but this morning I saw this totally cool example of public art and just had to share it.

Check out this stunning and surrealistic work of projected art, turning the facade of the Hamburg Kunsthalle art museum in Hamburg, Germany and turning it into a three-dimensional video canvas. This life-like transformation must be seen to be believed.

Art Director Daniel Rossa and creative-company URBANSCREEN used this work to illustrate the fragility and flexibility of architecture. Within it, the moving graphics seem to effortlessly manipulate the exterior wall of the museum space, making it as malleable and subject to the imagination as a computer rendering program.

"How it would be, if a house was dreaming"

555 KUBIK | facade projection

Is your intranet design working against you?

2010-03-19T07:32:00.007+11:00

I was interviewed this week by @jessicascarpati for an Internet based publication called SearchUnifiedCommunications.com . Jessica works out of Newton, Massachusetts and I am in Sydney, Australia so I am 15 hours ahead of Jessica. I always find it hard to get my head around the fact that when I send an email to the states it is usually going back in time to yesterday.

I enjoyed doing the interview and was also enthusiastic about the topic. With many Intranet analysts exploring new applications and incorporating Web 2.0 into their Intranets, Jessica wanted to remind readers that we still need to get the basic things right if your site is to be successful.

Social networking, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools on intranets are snagging all the attention as enterprises try to breathe new life into their corporate portals. But the bricks and mortar still count. Ignoring intranet design best practices can spell death for even the most application-rich portals.

"All users are different, and we may never come up with a design that is perfect for everyone," Richards said. "[But] making assumptions about user needs and habits is a big mistake. Creating a site design based purely on rules of thumb and assumptions equals failure."

Thanks Jessica for making this such an enjoyable exercise and also for putting together a very nice article.

You can read the complete article here: Intranet design best practices start by tearing down department walls

Video Snipits from Two IntraTeam 2010 Keynotes

2010-03-18T14:40:00.007+11:00

After a little confusion regarding the year my previous posts videos were produced, I am pleased to advise that the following videos are definitely from this years IntraTeam 2010 event. I have only embedded 2 videos this time and they just happen to be from two of my favorite Intranet thought leaders (Jane is my absolute favorite but don't tell James). For anyone not familiar with Jane and James, read my previous post that includes a short bio on both.

Future Intranet for New Ways of Working - Jane McConnell NetJMC

Future Intranet 2015 James Robertson

Thanks to @KurtKragh and the crew at @IntraTeam for putting together the successful 2010 event and for giving those of us who were not able to attend such a rich selection of information from Intrateam 2010

Video Snipits from Four Intrateam 2009 Keynotes

2010-03-07T19:34:00.013+11:00

Here is another example of how the organisers of Intrateam make the conference an interesting and informative event for those of us who were unable to be there in person.

I was under the impression that these videos were from this years event but I am advised by Kurt Kragh Sørensen from Intrateam that these videos were in fact from last years event. Kurt also advised that the videos from Intranteam 2010 are still to come. Something to really look forward to.

Each keynote speakers does a brief 5 minute video interview after their presentation. If you are an Intranet Manager interested in the future of entrerprise Intranets I enthusiastically recommend checking out each of the videos I have embedded below.

I have to admit that I am a little biased toward the featured presenters below having met and known two of them for a few years now and have enjoyed a professional online relationship with the others for some time also. For those who do not know these guys here is a short summary on each.

James Robertson - Managing Director, Step Two Designs
James is a true Intranet Guru. He seems to live and breath Intranet and always seems to have a finger on the pulse of what the future might hold for Intranets and Intranet management. James is also a prolific Blogger and blog reader and his Column Two blog is essential reading for any Intranet Manager. James and Step Two also run the annual Intranet Innovations Awards that I am sure many of you are familiar with.

Jane McConnell - Founder, Netstrategy/JMC
For the past 4 years Jane has produced the Global Intranet Trends Report. This report is compiled from the results of the worldwide Global Intranet Strategies Survey that Jane facilitates annually. I have participated in the last 3 surveys and would highly recommend that all Intranet Managers sign up to take part in the upcoming 2011 survey and you will be rewarded with a participants copy of the report once compiled.

Martin White - Managing Director, Intranet Focus
Martin is the author of The Content Management Handbook. He could also be called a Search Guru with a wealth of knowledge and experience in good, bad and ugly enterprise search implementations and management. Martin is currently working a another book, The Intranet Governance Handbook that is due out in August 2010.

Toby Ward - President & CEO , Prescient Digital
I have only met Toby via Twitter and have found him to be a fabulous source of Intranet Information. His blog, Intranetblog.com is a valuable source of ideas, thoughts and observations about Intranets and Enterprise 2.0. I hope one day to be able to meet and chat with Toby in person to expand on our current social media facilitated relationship.

_________________________________________

James Robertson - Transforming the Intranet into a Business Tool
Managing Director - Step Two Designs
Blog - Column Two
Twitter - @s2d_jamesr

Jane McConnell - Main Conclusions from the Global Intranet Trends Report
Founder - Netstrategy/JMC
Blog - Globally Local-Locally Global
Twitter - @netjmc

Martin White - Why is an Intranet Strategy Important
Managing Director - Intranet Focus
Blog - Intranet Focus Blog
Twitter - @IntranetFocus

Toby Ward - Pros and Cons of the MOSS Platform
President & CEO - Prescient Digital Media
Blog - Intranetblog.com
Twitter - @Tobyward

Intrateam 2011 is planned to take place in March next year and if this years event is anything to go by it will be well worth any Intranet Managers effort to attend.

Intrateam 2010 - Conference day one summary as viewed via Twitter

2010-03-04T09:03:00.012+11:00

Intrateam 2010 is an International Conference about Intranet and Enterprise 2.0 currently taking place in Copenhagen. This event is THE place to be if your are interested in the future direction of Intranets and the people who use and manage them. International Intranet thought leaders like James Robertson, Jane McConnell, Michael Sampson, Mark Morrell and Martin White have been wowing delegates with their extensive knowledge and thought provoking presentations on day one. Needless to say I am green with envy at all who have had the opportunity to attend this gathering of Intranet gurus.

Now those of you who regularly use twitter to follow information on Intranets would have no doubt seen tweets from conference attendees in the past. I have never really been a huge fan of this practice. The tweeted comments on presentations usually lack context and seldom provide any value for people on the outside looking in. But that was before I started following the #IE10 comments posted from Intrateam 2010.

Following event proceedings last night from my home in Sydney was just fantastic. The tweets from #IE10 were gems of information. Thought provoking questions, insightful observations and valuable advise were coming thick and fast in less than 140 characters. I am now convinced that provided the person tweeting from the event has the ability to communicate key points and not just a stream of topics, following conference presentations on Twitter can be an entertaining and informative experience.

Here are some of the tweets from 4 of the English sessions on day one.

Future Intranet for New Ways of Working - Jane McConnell, Intranet and Portal Specialist
(Jane presented some of the key results from her Global Intranet Trends 2010 report)

HR is a chameleon. Could be your best friend and worst enemy. @NetJMC #IE10
30% of ordinary employees have content publishing in their job description @NetJMC #IE10
60% are satisfied or very satisfied with search @NetJMC #IE10
10% is planning on optimizing mobile access @NetJMC #IE10
40% is planning access from home @NetJMC #IE10
20% have optimized commenting on intranet @NetJMC #IE10
45% have internal blogs and wikis today @NetJMC #IE10
5% use social media across the organization. More are testing and planning @NetJMC #IE10
Correction - @NetJMC Advises that her presentation stated "60 % are using social media today with another 25% planning to do so.
06 March 2010 - Thanks Jane
Janes Correct data on Social Media within organisations here.

Building the Best Practice Intranet - Andrew Wright, Managing Director, CIBA Solutions and Stephan Schillerwein, infocentric research

Andrew Wright and Stephan Schillerwein is arranging a competition about the most important for enduser @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
Personlization was rated lowest by endusers. @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
Winner was News - surprise @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
Finding instuctions for completing work tasks was better than news. Judged by endusers - Sorry @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10
The best intranet in World Intranet Challenge is run by an IT-guy walking around talking to employees @IntranetMatters @Roojwright #IE10

How Newsdesk helped Shell save $5 million - by Rossen Roussev, former Shell Enterprise Portal manager

Shell saved $15m on a budget that was 10% of that amount.#IE10
Shell portal rolled out to 142k people in 142 countries #IE10
Few users will personalise - most want content profiled for them #IE10
Use words and phrases that help management achieve their business objectives. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
More important than the (impressive) number of $ saved by shell's intranet was that it was done in a way that management bought into #IE10
shell's savings came from overlapping media contracts being stopped #IE10
Comms people were creating a lot of newsletters round the world. Replaced by centrally Newsdesk. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
Contracts rationalization 73 contracts identified USD 17 million a year replaced by internal newsfeed Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
Think about your organisation. Value and perception. Walk and talk. Rossen Roussev Shell #IE10
Don't explain to management how great the intranet is. They don't care. It's all about value and perception. Rossen Roussev, Shell#IE10
"Get out there, talk to people, do your homework!" Rossen Roussev, Shell #IE10
(PR - Loved this snipit - sometimes feel like shouting it at people)

Is your Intranet Ready for 2012? - Martin White, Intranet Focus Ltd

Try to type "confidential" in your search box on the intranet. Scared? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
(PR-Tried this morning. Not as bad as I first feared it may be)
Abandon hope for those enter here. Is that then welcome message on your intranet? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Information is not seen as a business asset. Why not? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
You can't be an intranet manger for the rest of your life, you'll go insane! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Security gets blamed for everything. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
The intranet is NOT an IT system The intranet is the only IT-system not having a specific purpose. Challenge? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Be more specific when asking about what employees do? Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
The value of your information is the sum of all salaries in the company and you are failing to manage it! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Collaboration technology gets rolled out without specifying collaboration requirements and goals. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Not many had made the requirements BEFORE installing collaboration tools. Not done with many other things! Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
Challenger launch decision. Good book about collaboration according to Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
We share information because we trust each other. Break trust and collaboration breaks. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
What is the career path for intranet managers? (We can't do the one job for the next 20 years) @s2d_jamesr #IE10
We focus on the media not the social. A social media guide does not make it social. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
The biggest intranet challenge is where they bump up to ERP. Millions invested in ERP. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10
The future intranet has to be independent on location, language, department and technology. Martin White @IntranetFocus #IE10

I plan on following the #IE10 tweets from day two of this event tonight and am looking forward to another sessions from Jane McConnell, Step Two's James Robertson, Mark Morrell from British Telecom and Collaboration guru Michael Sampson. Does it really get any better than this?
If this event is on again next year I am going to pull out all stops to attend. Just the conversations during breaks would be well worth the price of the airfare from Australia.

Social Media Revolution

2010-01-29T07:42:00.003+11:00

Is social media a fad or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics.

I love discovering all these statistics like "If facebook was a country it would have the 4th highest population in the world" and "Ashton Kutcher & Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers that the entire population of Ireland, Norway & Panama".

Great information for those who are trying to convince your organisation about the importance and taking social media channels seriously.

Making Sense of Google Wave

2009-12-08T07:22:00.003+11:00

I have had numerous invitations to join Google Wave and have been confused as to the best way to get value from it. Luckily I came across this presentation that Gina Trapani made at Web 2.0 Expo NY 09. She has a total passion for Wave and does a great job of helping demystify this new web technology.

Founder of LifeHacker.com Gina explains why Google Wave in her opinion is the most exciting web application ever. A Wave convert, she explains how in 4 weeks she and her coauthors created a book on Wave using Wave.

You can check out Gina's book The Complete Guide to Google Wave also, its free to preview.

I came across this video via Seek Omega in a tweet from @Intranets20

Future principle: ubiquitous access

2009-11-23T22:02:00.009+11:00

James Robertson writes in his latest Column Two Post.

In 2015, staff will have ubiquitous access to information and functionality, delivered at the point of need, regardless of where they may be. This means going beyond the “intranet as an internal website”, a concept that has been holding back intranet teams for many years.

James has a clear vision of how Intranets will be expected to deliver by 2015. Full and seamless access to all the information you require to do you job quickly, efficiently and conveniently and the ability to do so wherever you are is certainly a worthwhile goal for an Intranet.

I have recently been investigating the possibility of providing key intranet content like contact information and employee self service function via mobile device. But first I am told I must decide on which mobile platform I am going to deliver my Intranet content to. Blackberry or iPhone?

I think I am going to tread water for a little longer before I commit and see what smart middleware developer can come with something that will handle both..

If you are such a developer or supplier, feel free to post comment and we can discuss.

What do successful intranet managers have in common?

2009-11-23T21:32:00.008+11:00

I believe I have mentioned previously that I am a member of the Sydney, Australia chapter of the Intranet Leadership Forum. This group is facilitated by Step Two Designs and is made up of like minded professional Intranet tragics. The manager of the ILF is a wonderfully likable and and engaging lady named Catherine Grenfell. This week, another of my favorite people, Jane McConnell, interviewed Catherine about her article entitled What do successful intranet managers have in common?

Now I know I am biased because of my friendship with Catherine and long distance admiration for Jane and her work but regardless I am sure that if you are an Intranet Manager you will love what Catherine has to say.

Highlights from the Global Intranet Trends for 2010

2009-11-10T07:32:00.007+11:00

Those of you who read my blog will know I am a huge fan of Jane McConnell. Jane works very hard to produce a Global Intranet Trends Report annually and the 2010 version will be available to purchase later this month.

I have been a contributor to the survey that allows this report to be compiled for the last three years and as such am lucky enough to receive a contributors copy of the report.

For those who are not so lucky, Jane has just published an overview of highlights from this years document on her excellent Globally local - locally global blog.

Highlights from the Global Intranet Trends for 2010
I'd like to share a preview of some major observations from this year's survey. These points and others are developed in the Global Intranet Trends for 2010 report.

As I mentioned above, if you take part in Janes annual survey you get to see a contributors copy of the report before anyone else. That alone is well worth the time it takes to complete her survey. The bonus of contribution is that the more companies that take part, the better the data in the report becomes so it is definitely a win / win.

Intranet 2.0 after the global financial crisis?

2009-11-09T07:26:00.003+11:00

I am constantly amazed at the amount of work James Robertson from Step Two Designs gets through. Just a couple of days after the release of this years Intranet Innovation Awards announcement and report he is busily capturing his thoughts on the impact the Global Financial Crisis has had on company Intranets. As usual, well worth a read.

Intranet 2.0 after the global financial crisis?
Heading towards the end of
the year, it’s interesting to start to look back on what has been a
roller-coaster of a year. The Global Financial Crisis seems to have transformed
everyone’s thinking, and the ripples are still being felt in every industry.
So what has this meant for the present and future of intranets?

Avoid the intranet dumpster

2009-10-26T08:16:00.003+11:00

Really liked this video and though I like to believe that it does not apply to me or my Intranet. Truth be known it does ring true in some part.

The below video is from ragan.com. The video echos the sentiments made by Gerry McGovern in the article Intranets are not information dumps .

CEO Mark Ragan shares seven tips on how to avoid letting your company's intranet become a dumpster of content.

Why are Intranet Teams undervalued?

2009-09-17T11:25:00.007+10:00

It frustrates me a little that so many people still view Twitter as a useless service that has no value. "Why do I need to know what kind of sandwich an acquaintance enjoyed for their lunch?" is fairy typical of the statements you hear time and again when Twitter is discussed.

I on the other hand get very excited by the potential of the micro-blogging service to build professional networks and the ability to share views, tips, techniques and experiences with like minded professionals across the globe. Ok, I will step off the soapbox and get to the point.

My company seems to value the power of our Intranet for timely communication and delivery of online business applications. Not so much though as to be forthcoming with allocation of budget and resources. Through my association with Intranet professional forums and groups I have heard similar comments from other Intranet managers and was interested to send the question out to the Twitterverse and obtain the views of my network of Intranet & Knowledge Manager followers.

The question I posed and a glimpse of the ensuing conversation follows.

I would like to hear thoughts on why Intranet Teams seem to be always under resourced and undervalued.

@awmitchell There's the obvious one about not being good at selling the benefits in stories and data. But not whole story.
@Peter_Richards Agree that success promotion and personal flag waving are skills that don't come naturally to many. Proving ROI also difficult.
@awmitchell IMO (In My Opinion) we also need to realise the feeling is common in many (maybe all) "support" or "cost centre" areas so it's more general than something specific to intranets.
@ccrask What and who isn't under resourced and undervalued? That's what I would really like to know.
@awmitchell Also a barrier of irrelevance. Executives / owners understand how value is created but don't usually have a personal relationship with the intranet themselves.
@Peter_Richards A problem I observe is that execs have minions to collect knowledge for them. The rest of us need to retrieve ourselves.
@awmitchell How relevant are intranets to the organisations leaders? Indeed. I encourage my team not to over service our directors but it is very hard.It's probably even broader than "support" functions.
@RichardHare People expect intranets to work: improvements and the way things used to be are quickly forgotten, Also, employees see few other intranets, so main comparison is the web which they always feel is superior
@Peter_Richards Great points, comparison with quickly evolving web raises Intranet expectations to ridiculous heights.
@RichardHare Lastly, perhaps related to last point, many employees don't understand what the intranet is *really* for
@RichardHare I still speak to people who want sites so other people (never them) can "share knowledge"
@seanrnicholson Intranets are cost centers & not revenue centers & orgs have done poor job proving that intranets can improve biz process.
@Peter_Richards Most can accept that Intranets save time by streamlining biz processes. But to measure Time is Money is a difficult task.
@seanrnicholson Most biz models see Intranet as overhead. Necessary overhead, though, in todays times of doing more with less.
@Peter_Richards So we are seen as an overhead? Difficult 2 quantify what is done with the time saved when business processes are streamlined.

So here is some advise on ways to address some of the issues identified in the Twitter conversations above.

Intranet Managers & Teams need to sell the benefits of the Intranet to users & sponsors more frequently & more effectively.

Promote enhancements frequently (I am producing a bi monthly update containing user tips, latest enhancements & reminders of functions that users may not be aware of)

Talk about the Intranet and promote its benefits whenever you get the chance. Be proactive and offer advise to business partners and stakeholders about how the Intranet may be able to add value to their project, knowledge base or initiatives.
Try not to over service very senior managers. Of course gleaning support from executive management can be very beneficial (big stick & bag of money supporter) however they are seldom your core user group. Better to focus more effort on identifying and implementing business process improvements that can help the broader user group work more efficiently. Even better if time and/or money savings can be measured and demonstrated. Bottom line savings can gain senior management support very effectively.
Stay Informed and keep up to date on current Intranet trends and developments. Most people today use the Internet daily and see the how it is constantly and quickly evolving. Constant changes in user interfaces, site design, information architecture, multimedia and social networking services help to raise user expectations on what they think they should be able to be delivered on the Intranet. Keeping up to date helps give you the knowledge to be able to manage expectations and in many cases offer alternative solutions. Participating in Jane McConnell's annual Globel Intranet Trends survey is one great way to do this. Read Intranet blogs (which you are doing right now), Join Intranet professional groups and forums. All essential things for effective Intranet Managers to remain on top of things.
Plan well ahead for platform upgrades, site redesigns, update the CMS etc. All the big ticket items. Get use to producing business cases for the things on your big picture wish list and submit them for consideration (not all at once obviously). Even if you do not get your plans approved, don't give up. Keep trying. Being able to write a compelling and effective business case is a skill that will be valuable throughout your career so don't think of a knock back as a failure, just think of it as practice. There is a truth in life that I personally have to consciously remind myself of and that is, if you don't ask you don't get.

So there is my 2 cents worth. I do try and practice all the points I have made above personally. But I am still a team of one with a limited budget, so although the advise I have provided seems to work for me in many ways, there does not appear to be a magic bullet solution. Any advances we make in gaining recognition and support are incremental and require constant vigilance of effort.

I would greatly appreciate the hear any advise, ideas and comments anyone has on how Intranet Teams might be recognised and supported for making the valuable contribution to our organisations that we all know we do.

Big thanks to @seanrnicholson, @RichardHare, @awmitchell, @ccrask, @carolyndouglas for contributing to the conversation and for ReTweeting my original query.

Intranet Site Visits - August 31 & September 1, 2009

2009-09-04T19:49:00.009+10:00

This week I attended an Intranet Site Visits event in Perth, Western Australia. These events are invaluable for Intranet Managers as it gives the opportunity to see inside other organisations and see their Intranets first hand. Because of the fact that Intranets are internal facing and seldom seen by outsiders I value events like this. It also reinforces the fact Intranet Managers and Teams everywhere share the same kind of problems and issues regardless of the size and success of their organisations.

We got to visit 3 very different sites:

Some of the points I found very interesting from the presentations and the live demonstrations.

Both Sharepoint sites had used pretty much out of the box implementations. They have learned that heavy customistion of the Sharepoint product can produce great results initially however can cause significant problems when future product upgrades are considered or needed.
An open source solution as used by Lotterywest provides a very flexible platform on which innovative and unique Intranet applications can be developed and delivered. Providing you have a couple of talented and enthusiastic web developers handy to help.
Every organisation and every user is different. I am never surprised by this as it is something I have discovered time and time again. Those who end up with successful Intranets are those who put the preliminary work in on determining User Requirements via Workplace Observation, Contextual Enquiry, User and Stakeholder interviews etc.
Get as many end users involved in the planning, development, implementation and testing stages as possible. Users that have played a role in the development and decision making stages maintain a loyalty and pride in the end result that is invaluable.
Expectations of Intranet Managers and Intranet Teams are high however ongoing support and provision of adequate resources both monitory & physical are rare. The value of an executive sponsor that recognises the value of the Intranet and is prepared to champion the cause is immeasurable.

On day one of the event I held a workshop entitled "What Will Make You An Intranet Superstar?". Apart from having a blatantly over the top title, I aimed to provide participants with a few tips and techniques to help them better organise their time and focus their efforts on activities that would help gather support and gain momentum and hopefully get noticed.

I am a big fan of the Step Two 6x2 Methodology and try to regularly deliver Intranet features and enhancements that are both Visible and Tangible. I showed the group how to judge a proposed enhancement to ensure they were able to deliver on a tight timeframe, an available budget and receive the maximum possible exposure from the result. Hopefully those present were able to get some value from this thinking.

Another exercise I introduced was to define attributes of the Ideal Intranet. Using the Microsoft Product Reaction cards, groups were asked to pick 6 terms from a total of 118 possibilities that they felt described their vision of a perfect Intranet. The task is fun, it generates lots of discussion and after the exercise is completed you have 6 terms that can be used as an inspiration.

When you complete some new work you can measure it against your 6 ideal terms and see how many of them fit. If you can ever match the 6 Vision words with something you have delivered to your users you should be able to retire contented.

Unfortunately I was unable to take comprehensive notes while facilitating the workshop but I did manage to jot down the results from one table and the 6 terms they chose from the 118 possibilities were.

Work Cloud from http://www.wordle.net/

Two of the three groups participating in the Intranet Vision exercise had one term in common and all picked very similar terms which demonstrates that as Intranet Managers from different backgrounds and organisation we all seem to share a similar vision for the Intranet we manage and the users we serve.

I must say I enjoyed the event immensely. I loved visiting Perth, it is a really lovely looking city and I also loved Fremantle and the colonial look and feel of the place. The fellow Intranet professionals I met were wonderful as were the sites we visited and Intranets that were demonstrated for us. Thanks to the site hosts ( Tracey-Anne, Glenn & Donna) for letting us see under their hoods so to speak and thanks to the event organisers (Aimee & Erin) for giving me the opportunity to attend and speak at the event. Will do it again anywhere and anytime without hesitation if asked.

5 Tips To Create a Successful IntranetPart Three - Front Page News

2009-08-13T08:34:00.016+10:00

Should every Intranet have a news section on the front page? This question is bound to be a contentious one. The front page news section has historically been seen as an essential item for every Intranet but this may not be true for every organisation. You need to cast an objective eye over the news section and evaluate if it adds sufficient value to justify its prime position.

I have recently done just that, evaluated the content of all news items posted over the past month, checked the monthly access stats to see what the actual readership numbers for news items are and reviewed the amount of space taken up by our news panel.

My conclusion for our Intranet was YES, the news section does provide value for users and we seem to have the balance pretty right. I have to say though that it was a pretty close call.

Many internal communications professionals see the intranet news as a vital communications channel to enhance employee engagement and indeed there is some truth to that. My evaluation of our news readership however demonstrated that items about company performance, executive appointments, project milestones, marketing media releases and the like are interesting to a very limited number of staff. The bulk of my users who check the news are interested in information that provides them personally with opportunities and items on issues that affect them directly.

The usage results table below shows the top 10 ranked news items for the month of July 09. There were 38 news items published in the 31 day period. We have approximately 6000 daily intranet users and the top ranking item was viewed by just under 8% of those users. Number 10 was read by just under 5%. You can interpolate that number 38 for the month would be a very small number of views indeed.
The content of the top 10 items can also be broken into 3 clear categories.

Offers and opportunities for employees
1 - Discount show ticket offer taking number the one spot
2 - Bulletin Board is a place where employees can buy and sell items amongst each other
3 - Shine Winners is a list of those who have won $250A employee of the month award
9 - Pre Sale Ticket offer to purchase major sporting tickets before the general public

Monthly News Letters
(Magazine type publications that contain a lot of articles about individuals)
5 - Corporate
6 - Sydney Casino
10 - One of our core business arms

Information that directly affect employees
4 - Government tax changes to employee share plan
7 - Government changes to company superannuation contributions
8 - Major company acquisition being considered

As a comparison I have provided another chart that shows the top 10 Functions and Features accessed over the same period. You can see the numbers are much higher with the number 10 ranked item being accessed more than the number 1 news item.

There are a few tips that you might like to consider about the provision of Intranet news.

Good volume of news items
Make sure you have plenty of news contributions from across your organisation. If a news item stays on the front page for an entire month it is really just taking up space. Not many people re read yesterdays newspaper.

Limit the space each item takes
Headings should be short but descriptive, and a very brief synopsis can be provided. Users should be able to get an idea if they are interested in an item by reading its title. They can then ignore it or click in to read more. Presenting a large chunk of the item is really once again just taking up space.

Good variety of information
As illustrated above, users are interested in items that directly affect them, offers they can take advantage of and information about other employees. Posting company media releases, marketing information and self congratulatory corporate information alone is not of great interest to employees on the coal face.

Learn about your users
This is a very important thing that every Intranet Manager needs to do for everything on the Intranet. Each user is different, every location is different and every organisation is different. It is up to you to identify their interests and needs. There are many ways to do this and I am sure I will elaborate on some in future posts.

Consider alternative methods of news delivery
If you have a small volume of news or your contributors are limited you might consider a different delivery method instead of the traditional front page panel. Perhaps a prominent link of the front page "Current News - Last Update MM-DD-YYYY". Maybe provide an RSS feed that those interested can subscribe to. There are many options and I am sure some unique ones I have not considered that would work in your organisation.

In conclusion, the analysis and information I have outlined above is about my organisation and the Intranet I currently manage. There is no strict set of rules or guidelines that apply for every Intranet. The correct way to do things for your Intranet is what works for your users and organisation. I would however advise all Intranet Managers to take a critical look at how the news is managed on your Intranet. As my mother has always said "Just because everyone else does it doesn't mean you have to as well" and mothers always know best.

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

2009-08-05T14:18:00.005+10:00

This slideshow is very long, 83 slides, but it contains some fascinating social media statistics. Well worth a look. Apparently it has also become a global viral success and it is clear to see why.

Sourced from http://www.brandinfiltration.com/ . This is a follow up to the original What The F**K is Social Media? . Interesting to compare the stats from then and now.

What are the top 10 factors when implementing Twitter in your organisation?

2009-08-05T08:09:00.011+10:00

Yesterday (Tuesday 4 August), the Canberra chapter of the Intranet Leadership Forum met for day one of a two day workshop and one of the items discussed was whether Twitter used inside an organisation added value. Though I was in another state and unable to attend, I was able to follow the debate via Twitter #CanberraILF. It appears that the room was split into 'For' and 'Against' camps with the 'Against' side slightly larger. There was a few undecided.

Some of the positives the 'For' team raised:
Emergency situations, have conversations within intranet author user groups, solve problems instantly.

Some of the issues raised by the 'Against' team:
Long term sustainability, potential to be a time waster, quality of information, low care factor, FOI (am assuming that was Freedom of Information), number of characters prohibiting getting message across and information overload.

Late in the afternoon the group decided to come up with a list in answer to the question "What are the top 10 factors when implementing Twitter in your organisation?".

The factors they considered were:
(In no particular order)

Governance for managing
Investigate security/technological requirements
Content
Team collaboration
Executive buy-in
Monitoring
Policy around guidelines for users
Solid business case
Who gets permission to tweet
Whether responses are trusted.

While the above list is by no means definitive, there are many inclusions that need to be carefully considered if an organisation intends to allow all employees internal access to Twitter.

Personally I think the ability to follow proceedings of events like this ILF workshop remotely and in real time is an overwhelming vote for the positive however the bureaucracy that exists within most organisations and breaking down the suspicions of management are realities that few have overcome.

Overall, an interesting and enjoyable debate and I would love to receive comments for things people feel should be included in the list, more arguments for the 'For' case as well as views of those in the 'Against' camp.

One final note, I came across this Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments made available by the UK Cabinet Office and have found it extremely useful. Thanks to @CraigThomler and @fanbloodytastic for tweeting the link to the template.

Thanks also to @RichardTuffin @readingroom_au @ACSnewsfeed @adriankhall @awmitchell @Alex_Manchester for contributing to the days discussions via twitter.

Intranet Manager Blogs v Intranet Consultant Blogs

2009-07-27T18:29:00.006+10:00

The author of the fabulous Globally Local - Locally Global blog and the annual Global Intranet Trends report, Jane McConnell has compiled a list of Intranet specific blogs. In her posting she compares the number of blogs written by Intranet Consultants to those written by Intranet Managers and found the comparison to be 50/50.

Who's playing in the Intranet online space?
It's a tie! At last, there are as many blogs by intranet managers as by intranet consultants. Bravo!
I just redid my lists of intranet bloggers and online groups and divided them into 3 categories:
Intranet managers, Intranet blogs (consultancies) and Intranet Groups Online.

I am flattered to be included in the list along with so many knowlegable Intranet specialists and get great pleasure from the fact that our Intranet Professional community is about sharing information and not all about selling services. I have been a long time subscriber to many of the blogs included in Jane's list from both fellow managers and consultant companies and find them all an invaluable source of knowledge and ideas. I would recommend any Intranet managers out there check out the blogs in Janes list and subscribe to some or all to share in this wealth of information.

5 Tips To Create a Successful Intranet Part Two - Positioning Your Search Functions

2009-07-21T08:42:00.015+10:00

My second tip in this series is very simple however it is something people often overlook.

You should make your People Search & Information Search accessible ALL THE TIME. This means having the search fields visible on every page of your Intranet and preferably in the same position on each.

My current Intranet has slightly more that 5000 daily users and every month our usage statistics confirm that the most heavily used functions are People Search & Information Search. Our usage stats for last month were:

The figures quoted above may indicate to many that the Intranet is just used as an expansive & expensive phone book and its true that some of my users have in the past commented that they only use the Intranet to look up contact numbers. Regardless, if the function is useful and widely used then I should make it as easy to access as possible.

It is interesting to note the figures also illustrate that the Information Search is used a lot less that the People Search. This may be an indication that the site search function is not as useful or reliable as possible. We are continually tuning our search engine and keep an eye on this figure to monitor if usage increases. Of course the smaller usage figure may just mean that my Information Architecture and Navigation is so good and intuitive that users have no need to use the site search! (Yeah right, that's it for sure - I just looked out the window and saw a pig fly by ;).

The image below shows how our Information & People Search fields are formatted. This component is presented in the top right corner of every section of the Intranet.

The following images are snapshots of three different sections of our Intranet and demonstrates how the People & Information search facility remains accessable from wherever the user chooses to navigate to.
As I explained in my opening, this tip may seem obvious to many however I believe it is worth mentioning as simple things are sometimes easily overlooked when managing the design of a large and extensive Intranet site.

5 Tips To Create a Successful IntranetPart One - Solid Branding

2009-07-04T13:05:00.014+10:00

There always seems to be a debate on whether to give the Intranet a name or not. From my experience I think it is essential that the Intranet has a name and an individual design that differentiates it from any other company website or information sources. The name along with the design become your Intranet Brand.

Visual components within your design should align with the company or organisational brand but not copy it. Perhaps there is a graphic component, font, colour or shape that is recognisable as part of your corporate identity. This can be used within your Intranet branding. However there should be no risk that an employee can be confused whether they are viewing the Intranet or the external web site.

Your branding should carry on through the entire site. Have standard page designs and style sheets throughout. Use a specific colour palette across the site. Maintain a standard site structure and navigation. Some business sections will want to create their own identity and be seen as individual but you will need manage this and find a way to provide them with some uniqueness while at the same time maintaining the look and feel of the rest Intranet (this can be difficult but can be done).

A successful Intranet brand will:

Help engage employees and build trust in the Intranet
Become synonymous with accurate and timely delivery of information (this is a big ask and will take a lot of effort but is an achievable goal)
Be instantly recognisable

The following example is from an Intranet I managed about 5 years ago called "The Lounge".
The colour palette used was the same as that used in our Corporate Logo. This helped align the site to the organisation without having to have the actual company logo on display. The branding imagery was contemporary and funky without being viewed as inappropriate for the business.

We successfully used cross promotion in other communication channels across the organisation. For example, within printed newsletters, articles would include a line at the end " for more on this story visit The Lounge". On promotional posters where there is usually limited space for great detail the tag "Visit The Lounge for more details" was used to drive people to the intranet for further information.

The Lounge site was a great success and received strong support by the company leadership who were able to recognise its value for staff engagement and its eventual position as the primary communication channel.

As the Intranet Manager of this site I got a great sense of satisfaction when I would overhear conversions like:

Did you read about the new travel policy on The Lounge this morning?
or
Q. Where can I find the Leave Policy?
A. Its on The Lounge

Many may disagree with my thinking but I maintain that a strong Intranet Brand plays an essential part in making your Intranet a success.

Maintain your social media profile and still remain employable

2009-06-24T11:08:00.006+10:00

Earlier this year I was invited to sit as an independent representative on a selection panel for a large state utility. The position was for a Web Content Manager and we spent a day wading through the applications and culled to a manageable group of prospects. We then sat through 2 days of interviews after which the most promising and suitable candidate was recommended and eventually offered the position.

After the candidate accepted the role there was a rather lengthy period where the bureaucracy within this organisation went through the process of probity checks, approvals, sign offs, form processing etc etc etc. Apparently this process was viewed by the candidate as unreasonable procrastination and began to voice their views to friends and acquaintances on Facebook.

A couple of days before the new starter was due to commence duties, their future department head decided to do a little online checking and came across their Facebook account. Needless to say the apparently no holds barred criticism of the organisation was not well received and when the new employee finally reported for their first day they were told that they would no longer be needed.
This is a classic example of what can happen if you neglect my essential rules of using social media, regardless if it is Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or any thing else.

Rule #1 - Never put anything anywhere that you would not want your Partner, your Mother or your Employer to view.
Rule #2 - See Rule #1

The fact is that if you use Social Media sites wisely they can actually enhance you prospects for employment and the article from JobQuirk linked below provides some useful and common sense ways you can evaluate your social media footprint to determine how you might be viewed as a candidate.
Do you pass the Social Media Recruitment Test?

Intranets are falling behind what people really need

2009-06-23T08:47:00.004+10:00

Many of you may recognize the name Jane McConnell. She is the marvelous lady who puts together the Global Intranet Trends report each year and also the author of the Globally Local - Locally Global Intranet blog. I have participated in the last two Global Intranet & Portal Strategies Surveys that helps Jane gather the data needed to put together this fabulously useful report. I would recommend to any Intranet Professional that you register to take part in the survey each year and as a reward for your participation you will receive a copy of the report.

The Global Intranet Report is an invaluable source of data and trend information from Intranets around the world that will help you put together business cases and strategies to move your Intranet forward.

The below video is an Interview with Jane after speaking at the Copenhagen IntraTeam event held in March this year. In it she speaks about some of the conclusions that are included in the 2009 Global Intranet Trend Report.

Spider - Impressive short film by David Michod and Nash Edgerton

2009-06-08T13:10:00.002+10:00

I really love this short 9 minute film. Please beware as it will keep you on your toes or grabbed to your seat! It’s premise is “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” Directed by Nash Edgerton, written by David Michod and Nash Edgerton, soundtrack by Ben Lee, and funded by Qoob. It was shot in Sydney; starring Nash himself (as Jack) and rising star of the Australian film scene Mirrah Foulkes (as Jill).

I Want a Dvorak Keyboard

2009-05-21T15:33:00.003+10:00

The QWERTY keyboard was patented in 1874 and was developed specifically to be used with mechanical typewriters and one of the primary objectives of the key placement was to avoid the mechanical typebars from clashing together and jamming (those old enough to remember these typewriters will know exactly what happens).

These days no such risk exists but most of us persist in using the 19th century QWERTY keyboards.

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is a keyboard layout patented in 1936 by August Dvorak and was designed specifically to be easy and efficient to operate.

I am told that after quite a short period of time the Dvorak keyboard is easy to get use to and can quicky increase typing speed by near to 50%. I am going to have to get me one of those!

Thanks to Alex Manchester & Michael Sampson for alerting me to the benefits of the Dvorak Keyboard. You can find out more about the Dvorak Keyboard here.

Clever solutions for those who don't use chopsticks

2009-04-13T10:50:00.006+10:00

I adore all Asian food. Sushi, Noodles, Thai, Teppanyaki, too many favorites to mention, and over the years I have become very comfortable using chopsticks.

There are many of my friends and relatives who struggle with them and much rather the western style eating implements. The below solutions help cater for all with clever thinking and simple design.

The break apart solution, simple but very clever thinking.

Silver fork attachment looks quite elegant as part of the table setting.

This item was discovered via an RSS feed from Doornob. If you love interesting and new designs of many varied types you should check out the Doornob feed for a few weeks.

The Intranet Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-08T15:56:00.016+10:00

I recently completed a revamp of one of our businesses sections on our Intranet. We culled a lot of outdated and superfluous content and drastically reduced the complexity of the navigation. After about 3 months worth of work we released the new section. Our standard communication methods were used to spread the word. These include a carefully drafted news item that displays on the Intranets front page, a banner add that also displays on the front page and an email message to everyone in the business unit from their General Manager which congratulated the project team and urged staff to visit the new section.

The revamped site was released on 6 March 2009 and usage statistics indicate that over the first 20 days visits the new homepage increased by 203% over the same period the previous month.

The project team wanted to follow up the initial launch with a competition specifically designed to not only maintain a high visitor rate but also to encourage users to navigate through the entire site, the Intranet Easter Egg Hunt.

How it worked
An image of an Easter Egg (60 x 60 pixels) was placed on 6 pages throughout the new site. There are 30 pages in total and the pages containing egg images were selected because they were considered key pieces of content.

An example of how the egg images were placed.

I created a html entry form that allowed users to submit their entries via the intranet. The online form allowed us to capture user ID and location of all those submitting an entry. This also allowed us to limit entries to one per user.

The prize on offer was a Cadbury Chocolate Egg & Bunny Hamper at a cost of < $100 AUD and the winner was to be drawn from all correct entries received by the competition close date.
The competition was launched via an Intranet news item on the 26th March 2009 and was set to run till Saturday April 4th, a total of 10 days.

The Results
User statistics over the 10 day competition period showed 362 visits to the sites homepage. This is an interesting statistic when compared to the actual number of entries we received. Were the additional users still interested in viewing the recent changes to the section? Have they found something of use or interest? Hopefully yes but time will tell.

Another very interesting statistic discovered was that the average number of visits to the pages that contained Easter Egg images over the competition period was 430. This is around 18% higher that the visits to the home page. I can only surmise that some crafty employees upon finding the location of an egg were emailing the links directly to colleagues. These people could then go directly to the egg location and bypass the homepage.

All in all the launch of the sub site redesign combined with the running of the Easter Egg Hunt competition was shown statistically to be a success. The Business Units Intranet presence was pushed to the top of the monthly ‘Most Popular Homepage’ list and the total number of unique visitors to the Homepage for the month soared to 858 as compared to 235 for the previous month.

The challenge now is for those responsible for maintaining the sub site to try and maintain its high ranking and as most of you Intranet Managers will know is not an easy task.

I have to conclude with the obvious pun that our Intranet Easter Egg Hunt was an Eggcellent idea.

Italian Car Envy

2009-03-23T08:34:00.003+11:00

I came into the office the other evening and saw a car in our garage that I have never seen before. Turns out it belongs to an executive from a different company who uses some of our office space for his company. I enviously checked out the vehicle and discovered it was a Maserati GranTurismo. Why are these Italian cars so desirable? I have no idea but I know I would absolutely love one. Such a classic sports car look. Reminiscent of the classic E-Type Jag of the 60's (my uncle has a 1962 V12 E-Type that I have drooled over for many years).

The GranTurismo has a price tag of $298,800 Australian Dollars. While this seems good value compared to the Ferrari 599 GTB at $650,000 I can not in all honesty see me driving round in a sparkling Maserati in this lifetime. I can still dream though.

Computing Utopia of the Future

2009-03-19T08:18:00.009+11:00

This video shows what Microsoft thinks the future will look like. Microsoft's Business Division President, Stephen Elop, recently presented that vision as part of this year's TechFest. In the video below you can get a glimpse of a personal identification device that could replace your wallet, lots of Microsoft Surface action extending from tables to walls. Is this computing utopia?

&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;amp;amp;amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;amp;amp;amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;amp;amp;amp;from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage"&amp;amp;gt;Video: Future Vision Montage&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;

I stumbled across this video on the fantastic Engadget site. I highly recommend subscribing to this feed.

The Nike Principle 'Just Do It'

2009-03-13T14:21:00.004+11:00

I have just completed a small modification to the way some of the information on our Intranet is accessed. To ensure that communication and consultation to all business was maintained during the scoping and decision making process, I assembled a group or representative from each business unit and department across the group. Each time a change was proposed, these representatives went back to the business leaders requesting feedback which they would then bring back to the table to be incorporated.

After three months of back and forth communications and consultation the changes were agreed and implemented.

Oh, I forgot to mention, there were a handful of department heads who never provided comment for feedback during the entire process.

Changes go live and guess who were the first to raise issues about how they were not happy with the outcome? Their information is not visible enough or it is not accessed the way they want and they would like to get some changes made.

Now this is not the first time this has happened and I know it wont be the last. I am sure that many reading this post will have had the same or similar experiences.

I am starting to believe that a better way of doing this kind of work might be to 'Just Do It' using best practices, rules of thumb and good intentions and then wait for the valuable feedback and advise to pour in. The process might be way different but the outcomes will be the same.

Do I sound bitter and cynical? I bet some of you project managers and project methodology experts are shaking your heads disapprovingly. Truth be known, I will never make major changes to any navigational or functionality facets of my site without first trying to gain feedback from all interested parties. But jeez louise its frustrating.

Dilbert made me Laugh Out Loud

2009-03-11T15:15:00.005+11:00

I read Dilbert daily and usually get a little smile at the apathy of staff and ruthlessness of the development and marketing departments but this one did make me LOL.

http://dilbert.com

Rules of Social Media???

2009-03-11T07:53:00.004+11:00

I am fascinated by the way Twitter is constantly evolving. Since its beginning in March 2006 this micro blogging service has developed its own etiquette and language all generated by its users. Its direction and how people are using it were never imagined by its original developers. A very interesting New York Times article 'Twitter? It's What You Make It' explains this and is well worth a read.

One thing that strikes me with all new and emerging social media tools is that rules of use evolve which the majority seem to follow. But then someone comes along, breaks the rules, and either makes a fortune or just makes a difference through their nonconformist ways.

The catalyst for this posting came from a blog entry I read this morning on Mashable '5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded' again, well worth a read if you are interested in the phenomenon that is social media.

BTW, Mashable is a fantastic source of the latest news, views and ideas in the world of social media. It has an RSS feed available that I highly recommend.

Bold directions in marketing on social networks

2009-03-05T07:17:00.004+11:00

Masterfoods this week released a bold strategy of using social networking sites to become the forefront of their marketing. They first tested the water using Twitter as the homepage of their Skittles brand however did not seem to enjoy the tasteless comments some tweeters found humorous. The homepage of Skittles now sits on a Facebook fan page and time will tell whether users of this media channel will be more restrained.

Bound to cause much discussion, this new direction my be the way of the future where control over brand and comment is left solely to users.

Is It Really Worth The Risk?

2009-02-10T07:32:00.009+11:00

My son and I were last night pondering the crisis we are currently experiencing across Australia. Massive floods in Queensland with some areas under 12 metres of water. Devastating fires and loss of life in Victoria. Extreme temperatures (44 Degreed C or 111 Degrees F) in NSW and Victoria. Today in Sydney it is raining and mild. Very strange weather. How much proof of climate change do we need before those in power make the decisions needed to address the problem?

I then watched a wonderful Australian Story 'The Heat Of The Moment' about Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg who has been trying to flag the plight of a dying Barrier Reef due to coral bleaching caused by rising water temperatures. He has been trying to flag this problem for over 10 years. Still today there are so called experts claiming that this is a natural cycle and people like Professor Hoegh-Guldberg are alarmists. I found myself getting very angry at the arrogance of the then Minister for the Environment, Senator Robert Hill who left a conference on the risks to the reef dismissing the claims as alarmist overreaction.

I remember seeing the simple whiteboard presentation below last year. Using the premise "What is the worst that could happen" it compares the risks we face from doing nothing about climate change versus those we face by taking action (even if the global warming claims are wrong).

Professor Hoegh-Guldberg's studies indicate that we could lose the entire Great Barrier Reef within the next 20 to 30 years. Is that possibility really worth the risk?
Australia is a relatively small contributor to CO2 emissions on a global scale but that is no reason to not take action. A glimmer of hope has been flagged this year with the election of the new President of the United States, Barack Obama when he committed to "roll back the spectre of a warming planet," in his in his inauguration speech.

Lets hope that the Australian Government follows the US in the fight against global warming as enthusiastically as we followed them in the fight against Saddam.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

2009-02-04T14:11:00.004+11:00

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to host a presentation in our office by Michael Sampson the author of a fantastic book Seamless Teamwork. This book is an invaluable guide for business teams on how to use SharePoint effectively. The presentation focussed on the 'out of the box' functions and how to use the collaboration tools to better run projects with teams that are seldom in the same office, state or even country. There is an overwhelming number of tools and techniques available in the 2007 version of this Microsoft product that have the potential to revolutionise the way we work and run projects and I found Michaels plain English explanation of the methodology informative and easy to understand.

Throughout the presentation I could not help but think about some of the set in their ways almost luddite managers I have worked with in the past and what a daunting task it would be to persuade an entire organisation to change the way they work.

A fantastic example of people who feel they do not need to learn new technologies happened in my company about 6 years ago.

"An Executive Manager was working late one evening when only himself and another Executive were in the building. Exec number one wanted to print out a few emails so he could take them home with him ( this was well before the days when most of us had home access and PDA's). He had never had to print anything before as his EA usually performed tasks of that kind for him. Between the two company leaders neither could work out how to print the content of the screen. Then one came up with the idea that if they could drag the photocopier closer to the desk, then they could lift the PC monitor onto the copiers scanning surface and photocopy the screen. The result was a very poor quality yet still readable copy of the screens content."

Now I am sure that if someone had shown these guys how simple it is to use the print facility available within most applications they would not have had to resort to this ingenious solution. The fact remains though that neither had felt they needed to learn about the tools they had because the way they worked in the past was fine for them and they saw now reason to change.

From my past experience, persuading employees to learn new technology and embrace a new way of working is one of the most difficult facets of change management and is a challenge many of us have struggled with in the past. If anyone out there has a simple and effective solution to overcome this problem please let me know and we will put it in a box and make a fortune.

A Perfect Union

2009-01-22T07:07:00.003+11:00

This video was created a year ago but seems quite poignant given the hope and energy being generated by the new President of the United States of America. This creative work spells out the preamble to the United States Constitution with forty friends in a high school gym in New York City.

Created by Andrew Sloat, Music by Roland Slatterwhite

Photos in the Intranet phonebook.

2009-01-15T07:49:00.004+11:00

My company is spread over 4 states of Australia and many of us travel regularly to the different sites. A common problem we all face is that we can deal with so many people across the organisation via phone and email without ever meeting them face to face. I have personally experienced the embarrassment of visiting a different site for a meeting with someone I have dealt with for some time and walking past that person many times prior to the meeting without realising that they were who I was there to see. Putting photos in our corporate phonebook will allow us to see what our colleagues look like prior to meeting them. It also adds a personal feel to everyone so that we can picture their face when phoning or emailing.

My biggest challenge in this organisation of over 11,500 employees is "how do we start?". Technically it is easy to allow an image to be linked to individuals profiles but obtaining the image is the challenge.

So far I am toying with a few options however each has its pros and cons.

Use the security photos that we each have on our passes.
Everyone in the organisation has a security photo taken when the commence employment with us however many of these images were taken years ago, they are often very poor quality images and usually very unflattering.
Start with a single generic image for each person and allow them to upload the image of their choice.
People will usually be happy with the image they have uploaded themselves however there is no physical way to ensure that the image is current, appropriate (not lewd) or an actual photo of themselves (not their pet, their child or a cartoon etc).
This option could be backed up by corporate guidelines and policy however might require a task of manually checking each image uploaded and even then it is difficult to confirm that an image is of an individual you have never met.
Submission of individual images to a central location so they can be checked and then uploaded by an administrator.
This option would require a lot of manual effort for someone and also require broad and prolonged promotion to ensure every employee provides a suitable image. There is also the problem that some people still do not have digital cameras or digital images of themselves

There are many other possible options including combinations of the ones mentioned above. My largest hurdle is initial implementation and image population. Moving forward I would include a step in the induction process of all new employees where a quality image is taken and then the HR representative could upload the image as part of the normal commencement process. I estimate that we could initially count on most of our 2500 nine to five office employees to load their images without too much hassle. The additional challenge would be for the other 9,000 employees who are hospitality workers on rotating 24hr shifts and only kiosk access to the Intranet.

Spelling out my options and many of the problems above makes me realise that this task is going to be a lot more difficult than I initially assumed.

Wish me luck!

100 Fabulous iPhone Wallpapers

2009-01-07T07:19:00.005+11:00

I came across this site containing 100 wonderful images for use as iPhone backgrounds via a tweet from Guy Kawasaki . I have included a few examples below but you can check out the full 100 at www.smashingmagazine.com .

Wonderful Sand Sculptures

2009-01-05T06:59:00.005+11:00

I love sand sculptures. It never ceases to amaze me that people can create such intricate sculptures out of sand. My feeble efforts to make anything in the sand end in a crumbling mess.

Some examples from elLfhouSE 08.

Time is relative to fun!

2008-12-29T10:19:00.002+11:00

Why is it that time seems to go so slow when you are involved in something boring or tedious and seems to speed up when you are enjoying yourself? I have found this to be true for as long as I can remember. I have been away from work for four whole weeks. Doing everything I enjoy, surfing, reading, catching up with family, eating, relaxing, running, shopping. Those four weeks have absolutely flown by.

I remember being a child and waiting for what seemed like an eternity for Christmas morning to come around. Then when Christmas finally arrived it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

I would be very interested in hearing any theories as to why time seems to speed up and slow down on these occasions.

Any way, lucky I enjoy my work because I am back here for another whole year.
I trust you all had a fabulous Christmas and wish all readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Christmas Vacation

2008-12-14T10:38:00.005+11:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I am currently on vacation and will not be back fully online till after December 29th. I have just returned from a fabulous break on Queenslands Gold Coast where my partner and I had a fantastic time.
Christmas is a very busy time for most people and it gets a little more so for me as my son Simon has his birthday on Christmas Eve. To ensure Simons birthday is always special I arrange some kind of party activity for him and his friends. Last year it was Go Kart Racing, this years it is Laser Tag. Followed by a family party at my parents house.
I hope you all have a very happy and safe Christmas and I look forward to more blogging in the new year.

Kinetic typography - Love it.

2008-11-27T07:13:00.007+11:00

I religiously follow Garr Reynolds blog. Thanks to Garr and his fantastic book "Presentation Zen" I have been able to make my conference presentations stylish, entertaining and enormously more effective. His latest post draws attention to the use of Kinetic typography. Using only animated text to deliver your message is a powerful and creative way to add emotion, create mood, add emphasis. The presentation below is a fantastic example of this method. The particular message in this presentation is an important one and the way it is conveyed is outstanding.

Should we allow PDF content on our Intranets?

2008-11-19T10:27:00.002+11:00

I recently was asked the the following question about using PDF documents on the Intranet.

Apart from not complying with accessibility requirements (although I hear technology is on the horizon, making PDF files readable) what other reasons are there for not creating PDF links on sites? What is the better alternative?

On our Intranet site we have so many information contributors that it is impossible for me to impose strict formatting rules for content published.

My preference is for HTML, Flash, ASP and other mainstream web formats. However if I was to try and get all contributors to only publish in web friendly formats I would be perpetually training content managers and doing much more information formatting myself. I am also confident that the amount of content contributions would greatly diminish.

I have had to compromise by allowing the contributors to create and publish their information in the format that is easiest for them and their divisions.

Instead I have focussed on training staff across the business to create better optimised PDF, Word and even PowerPoint documents using only compressed images and paying close attention methods of reducing the final file sizes.

We enjoy a very wide bandwidth internally and have minimal problems with viewing these file types over the Intranet.

I would be interested in others views, opinions and solutions to the problem of best Intranet content format that I am sure many have experienced.

Attacking the Email Monster

2008-11-12T07:41:00.004+11:00

This article contains lots of useful tips to handle the ever increasing number of emails we all receive. Many are common sense but did find a few new ones that I am going to try out.

"Exploding email in-boxes are an ever-increasing source of suffering and frustration for today's knowledge workers. In my one-on-one coaching with clients I sometimes see daily email loads hitting 200-350 emails per day. How is anyone supposed to keep up with that!?

I've collected below several ideas for how to overcome email overwhelm. The ideas focus on the basics of how to manage an inbox, and the practices individuals can do to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the emails they send and receive."

View the complete article on Michael Dolans blog "On The Road To GTD (Getting Things Done)" Attacking the Email Monster

Amazing Japanese Fountain

2008-11-10T16:18:00.004+11:00

Many of you may have seen this already however for those who have not it is really amazing. Obviously computer controlled and operating in a kind of dot matrix (remember the old printers?) this fountain is in a mall Canal City Hakata in Fukuota, Japan. Mesmerising.

Addicted to Alltop

2008-11-05T07:22:00.005+11:00

I have been using Alltop for a few months now and find that it has become one of the few site that I religiously visit every day.

Alltop is a Internet information aggregator that gathers together loads of news and information about specific topics in one place. It is described as being a "digital magazine rack" of the internet. You can search on a specific topic and are presented with an extensive list of information from hundreds of Internet sites about that topic. Everything from politics (US of course) to surfing to shoes. The list of topics aggregated grows daily. Unfortunately as yet there is no topic covering Intranet but I am sure one will come over time.

When you view a topic it provides a couple of suggestions for additional topics that might interest you. One thing I found very funny is that when you view the topic of Australia it suggests that you might also be interested in the additional topics of Beer and Rugby. They certainly seem to have Australian popular culture accurately summed up.

How to use social media in the workplace.

2008-11-02T15:52:00.007+11:00

I came across this via a tweet from guykawasaki. It is quite an old item but one I found very interesting. Its an excerpt from a Forrester webinar talking about Incorporating Social Media Techniques Internally. The webinar was originally held in October 2007.
Here is a taste:

"General Motors used social media to embrace community members. When they previewed their new Camaro on the Fastlane blog, they posted a video of one of the designers driving and giving users a look at what it’s like to be behind the wheel. Not surprisingly, users then commented and created a dialog with the people at GM about what features or downloads they would be interested in seeing. GM was then able to incorporate these things into the new design."

View the complete piece here

Internet Censorship for Australia?

2008-10-29T14:42:00.011+11:00

News.com.au this morning reports:

"The Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia. Australia's level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and the Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter when it is introduced."

Read full article here

I am of two minds with this. We all are aware that there are a lot of sick sites and people out there on the web. Every kind of sick pornography imaginable, instructions on how to commit suicide, racist propaganda, how to build bombs etc etc etc. As the parent of a very smart teenager I know that he has probably come across some of this garbage already and as a caring parent I would prefer that he was not able to get to any of this stuff. On the other hand however, censorship has the potential to suppress the exchange of radical ideas and inhibit creativity and art. Who makes the decision as to where the censorship line is drawn and what moral measure do they use? Will be watching this issue with great interest,

The Urban Legend of Corporate Intranets

2008-10-29T06:56:00.004+11:00

I just read an interesting article in Design Mind online magazine from frogdesign that outlines some of the myths about corporate intranets. I certainly recognised a few truths from my own corporate experience and I am sure anyone who has been working with Intranets for some time will have come into contact with people who believe that all the businesses problems can be solved with the latest software or technology. This article was discovered via twitter thanks to intranetwatch.

"Case studies that tout Facebook as a successful corporate Intranet are a variation on the Intranet Business Urban Legends (BUL). In this version, the marketing and sales teams become best friends when both groups realize a common love of golf and baby animals. A bit older is the legend that a wiki will stop information hoarding, as everyone moves to swap secrets about key client relationships and brownie recipes. Or one of the original myths: an effective content management system will turn everyone into articulate and succinct writers."

Click Here for the full article.

More of the same please

2008-10-28T08:06:00.006+11:00

I live in Cronulla, a beach suburb in the south of Sydney Australia and have been a keen surfer for more years than I like to remember. We have been suffering from a prolonged flat spell for many weeks. It gets very disheartening to rise before dawn intent on getting some early waves only to discover that the effort has been wasted due to a lack of swell. Well Saturday broke the drought and my friends and I enjoyed a long morning session of fabulous 4 to 5 foot waves. Its been so long and we were all keen to repeat the effort on Sunday morning only to find that the swell had once again dropped to disappointing 1 foot. I am sure the waves will return sometime and at least we have had one day of great surfing in the past 8 weeks.

This is how I like to see it.
It can still look fabulous even if it is too small to ride.

Do schools kill creativity?

2008-10-24T07:36:00.004+11:00

I was shown this presentation originally as a demonstration how effectively some people can present without the assistance of slides, props and whiteboards. Indeed ,Sir Ken Robinson shows that this can be done to great effect. I also however found the content extremely entertaining and profound. In it he makes a moving case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity. Since initially seeing this presentation (first published in 2006) I have shown it to numerous friends and colleagues and everyone who has seen it has thought it to be one of the best. It is little wonder that it is one of the most viewed presentations on the TED.com website.

A List of Business Uses for Social Media

2008-10-23T07:32:00.003+11:00

I came across this list of Companies using social media tools and was quite surprised at the number. This is quite a list. Companies are using Facebook, Video, Wiki's, Blogging, Photo Sharing and more for a multitude business uses from Marketing to Recruiting. Some really interesting examples from very large companies are amongst those included. View The Resources List Here as it appears on Ray Schiel's Blog, The Social Media Network - Social Media Marketing. The original research was done by Peter Kim and published to his blog, Being Peter Kim, in September 2008. View original here.

I wish I was young and talented!

2008-10-21T18:52:00.010+11:00

I have a 16 year old son named Simon. He is a very accomplished guitarist and I have to admit that his guitar skills overtook mine a few years ago. Simon is lucky enough to attend a school that actively encourages creativity in music, dance, drama and film. I firmly believe that this is a fabulous thing as it encourages the students to explore their creative side rather than wholly focus on the standard academic pursuits of Maths, Science and English.

Simon has a friend at school named Matt McGuire who, as well as being an accomplished musician, also excels in movie making. Below are a couple of films that this boy made recently. If you take the time to watch these films, keep in mind that they were made by a 15 year old teenager. I am astounded at the concepts and the technical quality of these examples. We need to consider that the production resources required to create this kind of film 20 years ago were simply not available to everyone but now all that is needed is a video camera, a computer and an imagination. That aside, this lad is destined to be a future Baz Luhrmann.

Bus Trip

Kon

Three ways to update the staff directory

2008-10-21T08:17:00.009+11:00

James Robertson from Step Two Designs has published an article on methods of keeping your staff directory up to date.

"Internal phone directories and staff directories are only useful if the details in them are complete and accurate. This is not easy, and a mix of approaches will be needed. In general, there are three ways of keeping staff directories up to date:
centralised updates
self-service updating
integration with other systems"

Ensuring the accuracy of the Staff Directory is very important in our organisation but due to the large number of staff and the high attrition rate we have with casual hospitality workers I know there are many amongst over 12,000 records that are incorrect. Our Intranet staff directory gets over 40,000 hits a month and is the most used tool on our site, so in our case it is worth putting some time and effort into ensuring its accuracy. We currently use 2 of the methods James describes and are working towards a full intergration with the pay system in an effort to improve accuracy and reduce the maintenance requirement.
Check out the full article here.

What Is Wheat & Chaff?

2008-10-20T14:22:00.008+11:00

When trying to come up with a name for this blog I had what I considered to be an inspired idea. I have heard the phrase "Separate the Wheat from the Chaff" many times while growing up and understood its meaning to be to separate the Wanted (wheat) from the Unwanted (chaff - the name given to husks and stalks). So the blog name Wheat & Chaff means you will get information that you might want or need along with whimsical items that may be of no use to you at all but I found amusing or interesting.

I have come across many very bright people of late who have never heard the expression so I thought it might be a good idea to provide clarification. BTW, I did check my understanding of the phrase to be sure I was not using it incorrectly and the definition can be found many places on the net including UsingEnglish.com.

Still Love Musicovery

2008-10-19T10:20:00.008+11:00

Although it has been around for some time now, I have recently rediscovered Musicovery the fabulous interactive web radio flash application that allows you to find music to match your mood. You can select from a list of genres, decide if you want popular songs or slightly more obscure and even select the desired time period you would like the results to come from.Finally, decide on your mood and musicovery will map out a playlist to match you criteria. Worth checking out.

Web 2.0 - In Plain English

2008-10-17T07:39:00.005+11:00

Wiki's, Blogs, RSS, Social Media, Social Bookmarking the list of terms seems never ending and though Web 2.0 has been bantered around for some time now there are still many people who nod and smile knowingly without really having a grasp on what is being discussed. As my partner often points out "not everyone has a job that allows them to spend each working day in front of a computer connected to the Internet".

There was a time not so long ago when I had to find out what these things were and that's when I came across CommonCraft. These guys make short clever animations that explain lots of the Web 2.0 tools and concepts in a way that is both entertaining and informative.

I have used these short videos numerous times in the past as they are an excellent way to pass on the idea of these newer technologies to people not experienced in the internet world.

I have included below two of the videos. The first is an oldie but one of my favorites explaining Wiki's and the other is a newer video explaining Web Search Strategies. Check out the CommonCraft web site for others. Well worth it.

Intranets Live - The world’s first intranet media channel

2008-10-16T07:10:00.005+11:00

Checking my Twitter streams this morning I noticed and interesting overnight tweet from intranetwatch about Intranets Live. To quote contentmanager.net "Intranets Live is a new online programme that will bring the world’s best intranets live to the desktops of intranet managers around the globe".

The Intranets Live Site states "Intranets Live, the world’s first intranet media channel - unmissable for anyone interested in intranets, portals and information workplaces"

The first Intranets Live world wide virtual forum is due to take place on November 4, and free guest passes are available for programme 1 (see the site for details).

I have submitted a registration request and am awaiting for it to be processed so I really do not have much more information however it does sound interesting.

Will keep you posted as I find out more about this.

Skills Analysis Star Chart

2008-10-15T07:15:00.016+11:00

Every Intranet team I have worked in has been ridiculously under resourced. The business expects content to be maintained, development to take place, new sections to be created, content managers to be trained, new solutions to be explored and implemented and much, much more. In order to fulfill these expectations I have in the the past had to rely on the kindness of others to provide the specialist skills needed to carry out specific tasks. This is usually always done as a one off or favour because "that is not part of their PD" (man I wish I had a dollar for each time I have heard that one).

Recently, I was told I could enlist the assistance of some other people in my division (on a casual basis of course) to help with "The Intranet". The skills these people had varied greatly so I needed to choose people who had particular skills that I needed. Enter the "Skills Analysis Star Chart".

I came across this visualisation concept a few years ago thanks to Dr Jianzhonh Lu, a fellow member of the Intranet Leadership Forum. It is simply a way to plot the skills already present in your team and to graphically identify areas where you could use help. By quickly rating some of the key skills on this speadsheet, I can produce a graphical representation of skills that can be shown to managers, included in submissions or simply used to decide yourself what type of people to recruit.

The tool linked below is a simple speadsheet. It can be easily modified to add more or reduce the number of skills shown. If you need help formatting this tool, contact me via the email link included in my profile (click my picture).

SharePoint - Tell Me The Truth

2008-10-13T07:38:00.009+11:00

I spoke last week at the ark group's "Advancing Effective Use and Management of Intranets in the Public Sector" conference (quite the mouthful) and heard from many people in various sections of the public service. Many attendees mentioned they were going to implement SharePoint specifically for the collaboration functionality, however few seemed to have concrete ideas as to how this is to be done, why they are doing it, how it would be managed and what benefits (if any) they could expect.

My advice to anyone fostering the idea of going down the SharePoint path is to learn as much as possible from Michael Sampson. I have spent a little time with Michael as well as heard him present on SharePoint and so far have not met anyone as knowledgeable with the product, its advantages, its features as well as its flaws and limitations. Michael has no barrow to push as far as MicroSoft goes and I find his information and advise unbiased and helpful. So for anyone toying with the SharePoint solution, subscribe to Working with People You Can't Be With and purchase his excellent book Seamless Teamwork to reap the benefit of Michaels experience.

Start here: Intranets - Step Two Designs

2008-10-10T07:59:00.011+11:00

Its no secret that I have long been a fan of Step Two Designs. The people who work there are highly knowledgeable about all things Intranet and many have become very good friends of mine over the years.

The sheer volume of information that has been produced by these guys has become so large that finding exactly what you need when you need it can be difficult. To address this they have created an entry point for intranet teams. Start here: intranets is a new section of the Step Two Designs site that brings together the key resources into a single location, giving quick access to best practice thinking on intranets.

Taken from original article on James Robertson, Column Two blog. View Original Here

Paris for President

2008-10-10T06:48:00.014+11:00

Hate to admit it but these did make me laugh.
I absolutely loved the west wing too so I am a little biased.
Really not so far fetched a concept either. Have you seen Sara Palin interviewed???

Financial Crisis Explained

2008-10-09T08:06:00.006+11:00

Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) are apparently partially to blame for the current world wide financial crisis. What are they and why do they matter? Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch whiteboards a simple 6-minute presentation he calls Financial Crisis 101: CDOs explained.

Thanks to Garr Reynolds for publishing to his Presentation Zen blog.

Well Hello

2008-10-09T08:01:00.000+11:00

Well I have finally gone and started a blog. Never really thought I would get round to it but I find I discover so many things on the net from day to day that I think this will be a good way to share rather than sending links to people.