There is a lot of interest at the moment in Web 2.0, a catch-all term for ways of making websites much more dynamic and socially interactive. What is a pity is that all the jargon about mash-ups and social media might suggest opening up your online presence this way will require lots of investment in arcane or unproven technology.
A White Paper on Social Networking DFeborunar'yt 2 0s08a y Web 2.0, say Intranet 2.0
Don't say Web 2.0, say Intranet 2.0 How to provide a quick and easy way to deliver the benefits of Web 2.0 without huge up-front investment. There is a lot of interest at the moment in Web 2.0, a catch-all term for ways of making websites much more dynamic and socially interactive. What is a pity is that all the jargon about mash-ups and social media might suggest opening up your online presence this way will require lots of investment in arcane or unproven technology. Far from it. You already have 90% of what you need, only you don't call it your social networking site - you call it your intranet. This document sets out to help senior business managers understand the key benefits that SharePoint and other social tools can bring to become a more efficient and collaborative operation in affordable steps. The material is based on our experience and that of our customers who we have helped in a number of SharePoint projects. The document offers insight and material covering how established Microsoft SharePoint technology can be used to integrate things like blogs and wikis to create a dynamic intranet to really excite your customers: o Understanding the need for a company intranet built on SharePoint technology o The benefits of the latest evolution of SharePoint
Net Gains "Implementing a portal in organizations can lead to increased productivity, improved work collaboration, knowledge sharing, and maximized investment on expensive back-end packages." - 'Portal Software Market Opportunities, Strategies, and Forecasts, 2006 to 2012'. Wintergreen Research. September 2006 It's a reality that not all intranets have lived up to earlier expectations, perhaps. You may be in the position of a lot of organisations and have the intranet owned by the IT department, or perhaps Marketing, with little involvement or buy-in from other parts of the business. It might be very static, getting updated with new information as little as once a month. Probably all the good information you have there is not always easy to retrieve. All too often we have seen intranets that started out with a real mission to help staff and customers better communicate get out of date very quickly and end up as glorified company 'news' sites with a telephone directory attached. To truly engage, your intranet needs to be much more fluid than that - a real community bulletin board and meeting place. This is after all what blogging and a lot of the Web 2.0/new media chat is about, too. People are now using social networking sites such as YouTube, Bebo, Facebook and so on every day - and they may also have
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experienced how easy it is to manage and produce their own content also, using blogs and wikis, even if it's just looking up things on Wikipedia. Any company online site that doesn't keep pace with the demands of users will fail. Organic, flowing and daily dialogue with customers - by which we mean in a two-way, interactive, back and forth fashion - is not just possible, it's beginning to be an expectation. If you are not using your intranet to engage with the people who care about your business, from customer to partner to supplier to staffer, then you are wasting such a site's potential. Before you rush off and try again, be warned that the intranet is not the place for safe, slick corporate communications. People want to hear what the Managing Director thinks yes, but do they want the PR version or the message that sounds like it's from the heart? That's what will engage people. It may not be as slick as the old version you tried, but it's real - and anything else will push people away, not invite them in. This kind of dialogue is about building the equivalent of the town square online - a place where people can meet and participate. Companies like Microsoft understand this. Not only have created the engine to make this kind of dialogue possible with the latest revs of SharePoint, but Microsoft has also fully embraced the philosophy of Web 2.0 and the social networking ideal. Look at its own practice: it has encouraged everyone in the organisation to blog, build a community and ... [download for more]
