Intranets, Portals and Organizing Knowledge

1. Presentation by -Krishnan N Ayyer Intranets, Portals and Organizing Knowledge

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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. Intranets

5. 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. Design Of Intranets

6. Organizational mission Intranet goals Information management plans Information Culture Information Politics Physical settings Information Staff Information handling Information Ecology

7. 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. Information Behaviors

8. 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’sknowledge creating and decision making process Value Added Processes

10. 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. Annotate

11. Data or Knowledge Warehouse. Knowledge Search and discovery mechanisms. Knowledge representation via an ontology. Knowledge Quality Control. Knowledge Visualization techniques. Components of KMSS

12. Layers Query Layer Retrival Layer Document Layer Search Navigation Chain

13. Annotate

14. Annotate

15. Annotate

16. 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. Policies to manage discussions

17. 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

18. 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. Organizing Knowledge

19. 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 Social Strategies for spreading Knowledge

20. 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”. Creative Intranet

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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. Key factors for creativity

25. 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

26. 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. Next Generation KM applications

27. 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. Corporate Portals

28. 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. Components of a portals workspace

29. 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. Conclusion

30. Any Questions?