Collective Knowledge: Intranets, Productivity, and the Promise of the Knowledge Workplace

Advances in communications and computing, the advent of the Internet, and the proliferation of high-speed computer networks and servers are producing unprecedented improvements in business collaboration and productivity. Knowledge Workers have become an indispensable resource—the productivity engine of the 21st-century—by using technology to streamline the capture and delivery of organizational knowledge to fellow workers worldwide. COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE describes this new Knowledge Workplace, where intellectual capital is a key managed asset and where Web-based collaborative team services, portals for information management and discovery, and broadcast delivery of information to every desktop all help enable constant productivity gains.

• THE HISTORY OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: Consider the history of knowledge management and propagation, from cuneiform to computing, and the rise of the next-generation intranet.
• THE EMERGENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKPLACE: Read about how the confluence of work and next-generation intranet technology has produced a dynamic productivity ecosystem.
• THE COMPELLING BUSINESS VALUE PROPOSITION: Discover how leading organizations are using intranets to increase productivity and reduce costs.
• INTRANET MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Obtain practical guidance for planning, developing, and managing next generation intranets—now and in the future.

Beverley Watters is president of TCE Research Solutions in Toronto. She is also executive editor of Information Highways magazine.