All posts in the topic posting request for Kiwi Intranet - Decentralising Intranet Content

Hi,

I went to the ALGIM conference in Wgtn this week and heard a lot about
decentralising intranet content.

Now, we are currently creating a new intranet site and are likely to
decentralise.

Does anybody out there have any experience doing this in an organisation
the size of ACC? Any hints?




Tobin Druce
Content Analyst
Website Services
ACC

04 918 4035
    

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Hi Tobin

Two of your colleagues came to DOC a month or so ago to view our intranet and
we discussed at length the decentralised editing model we adopted a year ago -
perhaps speak to Sarah Walsh at your organisation, otherwise I'd be happy to
speak with you if required?

All the best, Pamela
    

Hi Tobin - I managed the introduction of an intranet into National Bank about
10 years ago and we moved from a centralised 3 day turnaround content service
(managed in Frontpage!!) to a fully distributed authoring environment.  At the
time we had 5,000 staff which may be comparable?  I'm not sure how big ACC is?

One of the tasks I was responsible for was developing the training material and
performing the content editor training across the Bank.  The way I did it
(which worked well) was to approach people in every business group of the Bank
and identify intranet champions and talk to them about the direct advantages to
them of updating the intranet themselves.  I ended up with 200 people that
needed training (initially) and obviously it was going to be very difficult to
get them trained in a timely manner around launch.  You have to be careful not
to train people too far in advance of the launch or they will forget what
you've taught them so...

We created a set of interactive online training modules for basic
functionality.  I can't remember the exact cost of doing this but it was less
than $30K from memory. We then trained as many people as I could cram in over a
2 week period and launched.  I trained people one on one for an hour each
initially because at that time the concept of a CMS was very new. Later I was
able to train 12 people at a go, over 3 hours.

Things I think are important in a distributed environment:
1. Freedom - you have to trust your staff, give them access to manage the
environment and make it their own. If you set checks and approvals in place
before content goes out you will grow lazy editors. If someone knows their work
will be looked at, changed and/or approved by someone else then the resulting
content is not truly their responsibility and they will behave accordingly.
Give them free rein and put their name visibly on every piece of work they do
for all to see and you will develop editors who really care.
2. Control - having said let them do whatever they like I also say - protect
your structure. Your information architecture is not a place for users to play
in.  Make sure you keep control of the structures you build and simply let your
users go to town within their comforting boundaries :)
3. Structure - have one. Don't rely on search to be your 'structure'.  I've
seen organisations decide that in order to really decentralise they would do
away with any structure control and effectively not have one.  They put all
their efforts into a kick-a**e search and felt that would be sufficient.
Unfortunately I've never yet seen this approach work. Fact is some people have
very large imaginations and some people have very small imaginations so when
you can choose any way you like to start thinking about or looking for
information the world is as big or as small as your imagination.  It has a big
impact on the words people use to search for things and sometimes people just
can't think of a word.  They need to be given some choices to start off with -
then they can follow the scent of that information successfully.
4. Let people complain or applaud.  If anyone can write content for your
intranet then anyone can QA it. I think it's important to give users a
mechanism for feeding back on page content. Each page could be ranked with sad
or smiley faces, given a star rating, or more usefully have a feedback function
where people can lay out the details of their complaint or praise.  This means
your central governing team can keep on top of things that are not working and
reward those things that are working well.  Use them as best/worst case
examples etc.

There are heaps of other things I'd love to have time to talk about but my
lunch break is now over :)

Good luck with your intranet!!
    

Steph