Intranets, Portals and Organizing

Knowledge

Presentation by
-Krishnan N Ayyer
 Intranets

What are Intranets?

• Intranet is Intra+ Net so an Intranet is an
internal or private Internet used strictly within
the confines of a company, university, or
organization. "Inter" means "between or
among," hence the difference between the
Internet and an Intranet.
 Intranets

Some formal definitions of Intranets

• Brown & Duguid: “Intranets help present and
circulate boundary objects”
• Choo, Detlor, & Turnbull: “Intranets…
support the creation, sharing, and use of
knowledge”
• Stenmark: “Intranets are organizationally
restricted”
 Intranets

A technical definition
• An Intranet is a network based on the internet
TCP/IP open standard. An intranet belongs to
an organization, and is designed to be
accessible only by the organization's members,
employees, or others with authorization. An
intranet's Web site looks and act just like other
Web sites, but has a firewall surrounding it to
fend off unauthorized users.  
 Design Of Intranets
Steps
• Analyze the organization’s information ecology
• Identify the typical problems experienced by
users
• Analyze the information behaviors of these set
of users
• Create value added processes to resolve the
problems of users and to improve the
Information Ecology.
 Information Ecology
• Organizational mission
• Intranet goals
• Information management plans
• Information Culture
• Information Politics
• Physical settings
• Information Staff
• Information handling
 Information Behaviors
• Identify Information users and their
information seeking characteristics.
• Dimensionalize the structure of work related
problems they typically face.
• Chronicle and examine the information
behaviors and practices they employ to resolve
problems.
 Value Added Processes
• Intranets may be designed to improve the
organizational information ecology.
• Intranets provide a unified information space in
which users can communicate and collaborate
with others.
• intranet applications and services may add value
by supporting the organization’s knowledge
creating and decision making process
                                                                                                                                    

                                                 
 Annotate

• Annotate is a specific Knowledge management

support system (KMSS) designed to support
the KM of document collections. It is a
collaborative tool which enhances Information
retrieval.
• Annotate in an Intranet increases the
throughput by increasing the flow of relevant
information across business units.
 Components of KMSS

• Data or Knowledge Warehouse.

• Knowledge Search and discovery mechanisms.
• Knowledge representation via an ontology.
• Knowledge Quality Control.
• Knowledge Visualization techniques.
 Search Navigation Chain
Layers
• Query Layer
• Retrival Layer
• Document Layer
Annotate
Annotate
Annotate
 Policies to manage discussions

• Incentives and rewards for adding annotations,

Conversely sanctions for non participation.
• The level of anonymity of the annotator can be
specified as anonymous, semi-anonymous or
non-anonymous.
• Annotation controls must be imposed.
 Organizing Knowledge

• To take a knowledge based view of the firm as

opposed to the traditional transaction costs
view.
• Knowledge is generated by communities of
practice , which are social often informal
organizations.
• Communities of practice are organized around
knowledge sharing.
 Organizing Knowledge

• Collective practice leads to form of Collective

Knowledge, shared sensemaking and
distributed understanding that does not reduce
the content of individual heads .
• Improved search and retrieval facilitates better
Knowledge transfer.
• Knowledge is not easily commodified, as in
the market model.
 Social Strategies for spreading Knowledge
• Translators
framing one communities interest into
another's perspective.
• Knowledge brokers
bridging internal communities by participating.
• Boundary Objects
objects or techniques that are used differently
but forge links between the communities.
eg-Contracts
 Creative Intranet
• Intranets are suitable for supporting and facilitating
corporate creativity and the knowledge creation
process.
• Organizational knowledge is created through a
continuous and dynamic interpersonal interaction
between tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka &
Takeuchi). They call it the “Knowledge Spiral”.
• The Knowledge Spiral includes activities like
sharing of experiences, exchanging explicit
knowledge and embodying by “learning by doing”.
 Key factors for creativity

• Non Preconception principle

It is impossible to know who will be
involved in a creative act, when it will
take place or how it will occur.
• To encourage shrunk work
Creativity is aided by low formalization
and larger degrees of freedom.
 Key factors for creativity

• Serendipity
An accident can result in a useful innovation
only if the potential is realized.
organizations should encourage tinkering and
experiments.
• Diverse Stimuli
expose employees to cross disciplinary input
(kaleiodoscope thinking)
 Key factors for creativity

• Within company communication.

Use horizontal and vertical communication to
facilitate the flow of information.
Create a helping and sharing culture
• Trust and Reciprocity
 Key factors for creativity

• Intrinsic motivation
When people are primarily motivated by their
own interest and enjoyment in the job it breeds
creativity.
• Rich Information provision
Browsing and Information Retrieval
techniques.
 Next generation KM applications
Data Mining Applications
• Biography generator
summarizes information about the author
based on the documents in the system.
• Rate of Absorption
It demonstrates how quickly a group within
an organization
incorporates a new subject area.
 Next Generation KM applications
• Old Boys Network
is a network on who knows who internally
based on discussions
• Communities Of Practice
grouping people based on their recent
involvement in a particular subject area and
the level of expertise.
 Corporate Portals
• Corporate portals are single point web browser
interfaces used within organizations to promote
the gathering, sharing and dissemination of
information throughout the organization.
• Corporate portals differ from intranets in that a
portals primary function is to provide a
transparent directory of information available
elsewhere not act as a separate source of
information itself.
 Components of a portals workspace
• Content space
To facilitate information access and retrieval
• Communication space
To negotiate collective interpretations and
shared meanings
• Coordinate space
To support co-operative work action.
 Conclusion

• Merely establishling various technological

tools like Intranets does not imply that
Knowledge will flow within an organization,
people have to be committed to the KM efforts
for it to succeed.
Any Questions?