The challenge for web editors and communication staff in a task oriented intranet #intra10

Key note number 1 at Intranet 2010: Gerry McGovern.

Here are my notes of Gerry's talk!

Describes the trends in publishing: from controlled publishing to uncontrolled editing.

If you have a 5000 page intranet you should be in an AA meeting for intraweb developers.

The intranet will no longer be controlled by Communications, unless they change. People don't like to be communicated at!

A successful intranet is an intranet that helps people do the things they came there to do. The number 1 purpose of the intranet is efficiency and productivity. The intranet is a survivor's guide to a shitty week.

Don't create an idealization of your intranet users (persona's...).

News is important, but it's only a component to a good intranet. Step away from the rivalries between the disciplines (IT, Communications, etc).

Constant analysis of the use of the intranet is important. This leads to an intranet that actually works. Look at click-behavior, navigation behavior, come-and-leave behavior. The approach to intranet is master-apprentice. Learn from your users!

Gives an example of the LCAweb, Microsoft's legal intranet site. People hated it. They decided to take a different approach: Let's start managing tasks. Compared old and new navigation. They started asking other departments what they thought of the content. From Legal to Marketing. Legal strongly opposed to this approach at first. But gave it. Cleaned up the page and the content, simpler navigation, etc. They now manage on tasks, not on content and navigation.

The only navigation that really works is task-focused. He shows some of the other approaches to top level navigation (at Tetrapak). Social media relates well to this: finding people. Gerry says they have at least 125.000 euro savings based on this new approach.

We have to make visible the time the users are spending on the intranet for get things done (tasks).

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