Intranets and collaboration are two sides of the same coin

In the days before Enterprise 2.0, we had Intranets. And many companies still do. These are internal websites, where if set up correctly, provide a central place for your work life where you can access information and individuals across the organization to help you do your job and understand corporate bric-a-brac such as vacation schedules and family leave policies. All of this helps you become a better employee, but the problem is that they haven't always worked as planned.

Sara Redin writes this week on the J. Boye blog about what she calls "the Intranet mantra: Connect, Communicate, Collaborate." She says these three words represent the goal of the Intranet. Well, if you think about it, they also represent the goals of social media tools, which have been designed ideally to help you do these same three things.

When I read this, it hit me that Enterprise 2.0 is really not new at all. It's just a new label for something we have been trying to do for ages inside the enterprise, and that's connect with the people we need to connect with, work and collaborate and communicate better. Social media tools provide the possibility for achieving these goals. Perhaps we should use the Intranet as an object lesson that while technology may provide us with the tools to achieve a certain set of desirable goals, the technology in itself doesn't always achieve those goals unless implemented carefully with Redin's goals clearly in your sights.

For more information:
- see Sara Redin's post on the J. Boye Blog

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