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As children, we were always warned never to hang around with those little hell-raisers so full of pent-up energy that they always seemed to get into trouble wherever they went. And when they did — whether it was for breaking window, cutting class, or graffiti casting the school principal in less-than-flattering light — everyone known to hang around with them was automatically assumed to have been an accomplice. This is what's called guilt by association.

Fast-forward a few decades, and this advice should still be heeded — but it's going to take much more than a grounding and the loss of TV privileges to control. As intranet developers and owners we have to prevent non-sanctioned internal Web sites and applications from adversely impacting users' perception of the official corporate intranet. Accomplishing this begins with an understanding of the three Cs: cause, consequence, and cure.

The Cause

Web sites are notoriously easy to build. Web server software and site authoring tools can be downloaded for next to nothing, and a Web site can be put together in a matter of minutes without any experience. This spells opportunity for wannabe designers and developers, but disaster for IT personnel and content owners who are trying to maintain some type of infrastructure standard with the organization's official intranet.

Great care and consideration is often taken to implement a solid framework for the development and management of a corporate intranet — a tool developed specifically to support an organization's business processes. But then, with the ease with which Web sites can be built, a whole slew of small, non-compliant sites begin to appear all over the network. And, whether directly or indirectly, they become associated with the official corporate intranet. As more and more of these sites spread throughout the network, they will threaten to unravel the cohesiveness you tried so hard to build.

There are two types of non-official sites that all corporate intranet owners need to be aware of:

1. Water cooler sites that affect users' perception of the intranet
2. Renegade applications that affect the physical intranet infrastructure

Personal or group water cooler sites are what I call Web sites built for the sake of entertainment or curiosity. They're usually put together at the spur of the moment with whatever tools are easily available and offer nothing substantial in terms of adding value to the official corporate intranet. Water cooler sites are designed by either neophytes just entering the world of Web design or by more advanced programmers testing a new tool or technology. While there's nothing inherently wrong with these types of sites, they may be looked upon as frivolous in the eyes of management and the user community — especially if you're in a conservative business culture that may not support water cooler sites.

A far more dangerous influence to the official corporate intranet are non-sanctioned renegade Web applications that are built outside the development and infrastructure standards of the corporate intranet environment. These sites are developed by experienced, non-IT affiliated programmers who take matters into their own hands — whether because of prior bad experiences with IT or assumptions that it would be quicker to bypass them — and develop an application independent of the official intranet for use solely by their own department or workgroup.

Renegade developers have a good level of programming or design skill, but they will use whatever tools and technology they are most comfortable with, regardless of corporate development standards. While this may seem benign to casual users — after all, if it helps their department and immediate users, why not? — it will have greater meaning and far-reaching consequences to IT and intranet content owners.

The Consequence

As was the case with those schoolyard hell-raisers, unofficial sites that have nothing to do with the corporate intranet may become falsely associated with it by mere proximity. The risk here is that the user community may cast a blanket opinion of the official intranet and all other unrelated sites as a whole rather than the distinct and separate entities that they are.

Users' perception of the intranet as a business tool will be affected when they see general interest water cooler sites with comic strips and movie listings alongside database applications. Water cooler sites, while not officially part of a corporate intranet, are a fun way to get to know your colleagues and can help improve morale — but they can quickly undermine the integrity and credibility of the official intranet if they become too closely associated with it.

Page 2: Renegade applications can have more damaging consequences...