Community Portal within an Intranet
Many companies want to embrace Enterprise 2.0, the same spirit that leverage UGC (User Generated Content), but most of them are unsuccessful. The Company Intranet has been seen as a formal platform where the information is coming from top to bottom, approval required type information and majority of staff having ‘read only’ rights. The main question has been how to create a sense of ownership, collaboration, communication,participation, and excitement when the information is majority coming in one-way direction. Let’s admit it top to bottom communication is boring, who wants to read the latest CEO’s deal or corporate press releases and why should they get excited about it?
One of our clients came up with this idea, a “Community Portal” where information is shared outside a rigid Intranet. An area where all users can create content and mashing up publicly available media such as personal Blog, YouTube Video or Flickr Photos within “Community Portal” in a corporate Intranet.
The result? Brilliant! Some users are posting YouTube video from their latest field trip, pictures from Flickr album from recent staff weddings, or some charity work they did recently. The staff feel their work is appreciated by getting feedback & comments from others, and the executive get a glimpse on what their staff have done in projects and events that really engage them.
It’s far from the anarchy that most management are often concerned about. It’s fun, interesting, and it makes an Intranet a place to visit everyday.
Mike,
I completely agree that the growing number of clients we have who are allowing users to really generate information and interact in this kind of community portal is really exciting and encouraging.
The acceptance of this is creating significantly more value when compared with more passive information layers and their focus on quality control and information management.
Our latest road map work on how to then use these techniques to foster innovation across and outside the traditional enterprise is also looking really exciting, and will leverage many of these components in a slightly different context – working alongside the same information layers but in radically different ways.
Nigel