There were a lot of great features this week, but if you've only got time to read three, these are the ones.
Must Reads
1. To know where we're going, it always helps to know where we came from. James Dellow gave us the big picture on this month's focus with his feature: A Brief History of Social Intranets:
Lots of commentators point a dismissive finger at social intranets and enterprise social networks (ESNs), labeling them simply as vendor-driven hype. On the other hand, there is also plenty of ignorance around about the origins of social software and how it came to be used inside business. Read more.
2. Search has been on a lot of people's minds this month, as we are faced with growing challenges to how we index and locate the information we need to get work done. Jed Cawthorne shared his thoughts on the topic in this piece: Rethinking the Intranet - Where Does Search Fit In?
"There have been some great articles this month on CMSWire on the future direction for intranets, and how your organization might want to "re-think" or re-imagine its intranet. Subjects such as Information Architecture, the changing nature of work, and developing employee trust in your digital workplace have been covered. I would like to follow up with a few paragraphs on how search and your search strategy fit into your views of an ever evolving intranet. So, how is search evolving on your intranet? Are you equipped from a strategy and personnel point of view, or have you been fooled into concentrating purely on the technology? Read more.
3. Lee Feigenbaum continues his look into how semantic web technologies are shifting the way we interact with websites with a case study from the BBC: BBC's Adoption of Semantic Web Technologies: An Interview
The BBC’s website for the 2010 World Cup was notable for the raw amount of rich information that it contained. Every player on every team in every group had their own web page, and the ease with which you could navigate from one piece of content to the next was remarkable. Within the Semantic Web community, the website was notable for one more reason: it was made possible by the BBC’s embrace of Semantic Web technologies. Read more.
Best of the Rest
- 12 Common Patterns that Make Some Companies Successful with Collaboration from Jacob Morgan (@jacobm)
- Gamifying the Intranet from Hyoun Park (@hyounpark)
- New Era of Enterprise Mobility: 10-Second Mobile Apps from T.L. Neff (@verivosoftware)
- The ROI of Collaborative Technologies for Business from Ray Grainger
- Work, Play, Tablet, PC: Welcome to the New Microsoft from Jennifer Mason (@jennifermason)
- Built-In Customer Support Turns Feedback into Conversations from Joshua Ellis
- We Are Not Builders. We Are Gardeners. from Stephen Fishman (@trivoca)
- 5 Key Ingredients to Achieve a Social Enterprise Transformation from Chaitra Vedullapalli
- Open Source DAM Solutions: More Control for Those Who Need It from Edward Smith (@damgeek)
- Why is Video Different? 3 Tips to Help Plan for and Manage Video in an Enterprise DAM from Tim Padilla
- Digging Into Social Analytics with Google Analytics from Bob Clary (@webucator)
- Risk Management: Strong Governance Means Solid Foundation from Peter Spier (@peter_spier)
- 6 Things You Need to Know When Moving Enterprise Content to the Cloud from Cheryl McKinnon (@cherylmckinnon)
- Empathy: The Web Professional's Greatest Skill from Gerry McGovern (@gerrymcgovern)