Take yesterday’s management-controlled intranet, put it in the hands of employees and turbocharge it with the key features of Web 2.0, such as user-generated content and RSS feeds, and you have Intranet 2.0: a place where information flows and archives easily, thus increasing the productivity and innovation of companies that use it.
For instance, managers can save time by blogging the answers to frequent employee questions on their intranet, which is searchable by staff; and anyone can add information to a searchable corporate wiki, which not only improves access to knowledge but ensures it never walks out the door.
Is it affordable? Yes: Intel’s popular SuiteTwo software gives you Intranet 2.0 for about $100 per person per year. The bigger question is whether managers have time to blog and wiki. “Getting these tools adopted by the right people is going to be an interesting issue,” says Dion Hinchcliffe, founder and CTO of Alexandria, Va.-based Hinchcliffe & Company, a Web 2.0 consulting firm. “But organizations that can successfully do it will have an advantage.”
