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Intranets – why you should care Web Standards Group, Sydney 31 st May 07 Patrick Kennedy, Step Two Designs

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A bit about me <ul><li>Computer Systems Engineering </li></ul><ul><li>Web designer </li></ul><ul><li>Lead developer </li></ul><ul><li>Information architecture and usability </li></ul><ul><li>Consultant at Step Two Designs </li></ul>

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Intranets are the beast you love to hate

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What is an intranet? <ul><li>Not just an internal website </li></ul><ul><li>Powerful business tool; a place to get things done </li></ul><ul><li>Think of a transactional websites </li></ul>

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So why are they so unpopular?

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Reasons [notes] <ul><li>mostly concerned with strategy, planning and management </li></ul><ul><li>‘ internal project’ syndrome </li></ul><ul><li>lack of support and resources </li></ul><ul><li>“ It’s just a couple of web pages, you can just whip that up this afternoon right?” </li></ul><ul><li>Balancing all the things they could possibly do, versus day to day </li></ul><ul><li>Intranets are a journey not a destination but quite often it’s seen as a discrete project </li></ul><ul><li>Lack of recognition of their plight and the resources needed </li></ul><ul><li>Interfacing with ‘corporate systems’ </li></ul><ul><li>long, hard slog </li></ul><ul><li>burn-out, feeling overwhelmed and unsatisfied. </li></ul>

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But seems to be more like <ul><li>Most intranets suck </li></ul><ul><li>Internal website </li></ul><ul><li>Low profile </li></ul><ul><li>Not sexy </li></ul><ul><li>Insignificant </li></ul>

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So what can we do?

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What can we do [notes] <ul><li>Cross pollination of skills </li></ul><ul><li>Selling the benefits of intranets </li></ul>

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Problem 1: cross-pollination of skills

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Cross pollination <ul><li>Expertise might be found where you least expect it (the ‘long tail’ effect) </li></ul><ul><li>Learn from each other </li></ul>Intranet folks Web design UX WSG

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Problem 2: selling the benefits of intranets

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Selling the benefits of intranets <ul><li>Greater satisfaction </li></ul><ul><li>Empowering users </li></ul><ul><li>Captive audience </li></ul><ul><li>Bigger challenge </li></ul><ul><li>More functionality </li></ul><ul><li>Freedom to experiment </li></ul><ul><li>Commercial free </li></ul><ul><li>No mistakes </li></ul>

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When they’re good…

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Next generation intranets <ul><li>Enterprise 2.0 </li></ul>

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Where do web standards fit in?

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You have the power <ul><li>You have the power, people respect your views </li></ul><ul><li>You can drive things forward </li></ul><ul><li>As with web standards, IA, usability etc </li></ul>

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Need to keep a grip on 2.0 <ul><li>Enterprise 2.0 is amassing momentum as per web 2.0 </li></ul><ul><li>And it might actually be even bigger </li></ul><ul><li>Wiki, blogs, RSS, IM, ajax </li></ul><ul><li>We need to reel it in so it doesn’t get out of control </li></ul><ul><li>Standards will need to be developed </li></ul><ul><li>Need to be promoted within business not just on the outside </li></ul>

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Questions? <ul><li>Your feedback is most welcome </li></ul><ul><li>Patrick Kennedy [email_address] </li></ul><ul><li>Blog: www.gurtle.com/ppov/ </li></ul><ul><li>Website: www.steptwo.com.au </li></ul>