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The Elements of Intranet
Style Those Who View an Intranet Project
as a Technology Project Will Fail. Managers are
accustomed to viewing projects involving many computers as technical tasks
to be turned over to "real people" only after the technicians have had
their say.
An Intranet project most wisely
begins with a group of non-technical people who know the kind of
information they need and the kind of information others are asking
for. AN INTRANET IS A COMMUNICATION PROJECT; TECHNICIANS MAKE IT HAPPEN. Exclude Technical Specialists From Early Intranet Look and Feel PlanningThe technology is changing so rapidly that there is no benefit in including technicians in look and feel planning. They will only slow the process by discussions of bandwidth and streaming.
Let communications people get excited about what can happen with an Intranet.
Then bring in the technicians In the Beginning There was
Adam, not a Computer. Your Goal Should be to Make the Intranet a Network
of People, not of Wired Machines.
The goal of a network of people isn't as natural
and obvious as it may seem. At its core, the Intranet is a network People, on the other hand, have
to be "made" to exist on the network by means of applications of various
kinds that force the rules of the Intranet to apply to them, e.g., Email
and Directory Services. Concentrate on technology that
strengthens the people relationship of the network; avoid that which
unnecessarily strengthens the machine's position. If a technophile tells
you that streaming is essential for your system, your question is always:
"What people function will this technology assist?" In order to avoid yet another
round of expensive unfulfilled expectations, the Intranet must be placed
primarily in the hands of general business professionals. If the
exclusivity normally granted to technologists during times of rapid
technical change can be transferred quickly to these professionals, the
promise of the computer age will finally be realized. The corporate
Intranet will be the means of fulfilling that promise. Intranets will, on the one
hand, offer technophiles the opportunity to practice their craft in
exciting new dimensions, while, on the other, extending to traditional
management the real ability to obtain real business
results.
An Old Concept Reapplied: The "Media"
and "Message" Apply to an Intranet.
(In Intranets, the Media is Definitely
not the Message.). Concentrating on the technology of
the Intranet is like having the writer of a novel worry about the kinds of
presses and typesetting used to print the publication. We would never
think of having printers worry about content (plot of a novel for
example), or have a writer insist on a DocuTech5000 printer. Yet, most
Intranet projects are led by technical personnel (the printers) operating
in just that illogical way.
Business
generalists (writers)should be responsible for message; technicians
(printers) should be responsible for how the message is delivered, that
is, the media.
BOTTOM LINE
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