Communication Technologies

Here we'll look at where each of the application mentioned fits within an intranet, and more importantly, where they don't. Be prepared to adapt anything you find here to your own situation of course. You might also find that one technology leads into another; for instance, chatrooms can sometimes lead to some other system that records information on a more permanent basis.

Forums and Discussion Groups

Forums and discussion groups are a way of managing virtual conversations with a permanent record. They require a web server and application to manage the forum. The great advantage is that they only need to hold one record of each posting and thus are more economical on disk space than mailing lists. However they do need moderation and have to be consciously looked at by the participants rather than something appearing in their mail inbox. Moderation also means that offensive postings can be dealt with as appropriate. However if the moderator is too heavy-handed then a lot of the value of a forum is lost as it will both reflect that moderator's bias and become less used. Forums usually allow linking to other web pages or downloads - a great advantage when information needs to be available - and only those needing the download need obtain it (for example mailing lists, where everyone gets it).

If used correctly, a forum can also be viewed as an information-gathering exercise and form the basis of a company knowledge base, as can other forms of communication. A forum is already part way to being a knowledge base, because the whole series of the contributions to the discussion are visible on one page rather than in separate e-mails.

"A forum can also be viewed as an information-gathering exercise"

Mailing Lists

It's easy to set up a discussion mailing list - everyone gets everything presented to them and they can reply to the same group of people. There are numerous Internet sites where this technology is used to great effect - and many Internet users are subscribed to several mailing lists.

There are, of course, advantages. Your users get the information delivered to their inbox without having to take any further action or having to remember to visit a web site, so there is a guaranteed delivery of information. One great and important use of mailing lists is by administrators of intranet systems to broadcast news and to promote the use of the intranet.

Mailing lists are a long-standing technology that work cross-time zones, allow for easy archiving and storing, and allow access from all areas of the world. They are easily searchable too, especially if you keep a full archive that can be imported into the mailbox of new employees. Send a question via your cellphone, check for replies with your PDA, get updates on your laptop later. It also solves the problem of accessibility as most people with disabilities already have some method to handle "reading" e-mail.

If you are trying to create a continuity of information then a mailing system falls down somewhat as there will be different retentions and deletions of previous contributors' mail, unless everyone retains all the content of all previous e-mails. Clearly this will mean an incredible waste of bandwidth and disk space. In intranet terms it means that every message is stored on every person's mail storage area, either on a mail server or locally on their own hard drive, which is probably wasteful. It also means that attachments, if you allow them, will also be duplicated. Internal network traffic will increase to be able to cope with the extra demand. Whether this is the most efficient solution for you is for you to determine. Additionally if the mailing list messages are archived onto a web site, the whole company can see the whole of the message sequence - again an overhead in storage, but one you may be prepared to accept.

Chatrooms

Chatrooms can be useful as an inexpensive conference facility, especially if the users are widely distributed geographically. For informal chats they are very good, but they do not leave a permanent record. The costs are much less as you do not have a separate telephone call charge, or, if there are more than two people, the additional cost burden of a conference call.

Wiki

According to one definition, 'wiki' is a composition system; it's a discussion medium; it's a repository; it's a mail system; it's a tool, we don't know quite what it is, but it's a fun way of communicating asynchronously across the network while dynamically sharing your ideas (from http://c2.com/cgi/wiki). This said - in intranet terms it's an 'anyone edit' web page. So it could be useful for your intranet as long as your users are quite confident and web-savvy and know how web pages work. If your organization falls into this category, then it is an avenue that could be explored further, but in my opinion it is only really for the minority of intranets. It is quite hard to police - as someone has to be on their toes to ensure that postings remain on topic, are correct - all the normal policing of any discussion with a permanent record however it is hosted. However, one of the necessary features of Wiki is that anyone can edit and delete anything - so you have to be sure of your audience/users.

However it is a useful development tool for the teams developing the intranet as they can share ideas and contribute. We'll leave it just with this mention.

FAQ Lists

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - a one-way communication device. A FAQ list must be kept up to date to be of use. And how you determine what are the questions frequently asked can be a problem. All too often on the Internet as a whole FAQ lists are manufactured by the site owners and bear only a passing resemblance to real-world situations. From the use of forums you could construct FAQ lists - but this will not be interactive and probably not reflect the burning questions. However, using a FAQ for a support team may be a very good way of distributing knowledge, but essentially it is a one-way channel.

Webcasts, Conferencing, and Messaging

Voice over the intranet will save costs on phone calls for Webcasts, conferencing, and messaging. It does need sound on each client PC, something that many corporate machines do not have. If you wish to add video, then fast network connections are almost essential and you will have to add cameras to take advantage. While these hardware additions are relatively inexpensive individually, the cost of equipping the whole workforce may be prohibitive and there will be a significant bandwidth hit on your network. Several competing products (mostly not free) are available for use with your intranet. You will have to decide on how best you should proceed.

One free product that fits these purposes is Microsoft NetMeeting - more information about this product can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/