Prescient Digital Media
is conducting another global intranet survey. The preliminary results
(400 respondents) and data of the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010 reveal
that 49% of organizations have employee or executive blogs on their corporate
intranet. However, the biggest blogging challenge for these organizations and is
getting people to participate.

Prescient Digital Media
is preparing a comprehensive report on the topic, based in part on the findings
collected from the survey. The survey takes approximately 6-8 minutes to
complete. The more people who take the survey, the better the results. Ensure
you get a free copy of the full Intranet 2.0 Global Study Report and analysis
by spending 6-8 minutes taking the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey 2010. It is
available to take until April 23.

This post combines two FastForward posts as I wanted to continue to share this story with a broader audience. The US military
is using an enterprise 2.0 style collaborative network to help coordinate its
relief efforts in Haiti.  As
reported by David Pierce in Wired in Pentagon’s Social Network Becomes Hub for
Haiti Relief:

“TISC (”the
Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation”) is a new iteration of APAN, the
All Partners Access Network, which was developed by the Defense Department a
few years ago. Initially, the military was using APAN to communicate across
borders, particularly in countries without sophisticated communication
technology. Even in third-world countries, Internet connection seemed to be
frequently accessible, so the APAN system was built to work over the Internet,
to facilitate the sharing of classified files, as well as things like
coordinating calendars.

The system is
designed to be as simple as possible, and is as easy to use as a site like
Facebook, says Ty Wooldridge of the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii. It uses
file-sharing applications, wikis, blogs, and calendaring tools, among other
things, to coordinate information and action among people, no matter where they
are. Though there are obvious military implications to that kind of network,
its first battlefield test is ongoing, on the ground in Haiti.”

I recently spoke with Walton Smith from Booz Allen who
was involved in the development of APAN to get the details (see my series on
how Booz Allen, itself, uses enterprise 2.0 within the firm). First, I will
cover how it works and then cover how it came into being and then its use in
Haiti.

We have been reading about the logistics troubles in
Haiti but they might be even worse without the TISC. Haiti is the first
activity of scale to use the system. When you are determining ROI based on
number of hospital beds filled and people who receive much needed food, the
benefits take on a different meaning. The TISC concept is to help the US
military better coordinate with NGOs and other countries when disaster strikes.
The objective is to a create system that not only helps with particular
disasters but also builds an archive of best practices, key
people/organizations and useful information to better handle future needs, as
well as a platform for efficient cooperation.

There are several main components of the system: forums, wikis,
chat and blogs. In the forums, people are able to ask questions (how to find
experts, etc.) and make requests (can you help with this issue, etc.), as well
as offer help or point out resources that others can draw on (e.g., available
hospital beds or safe landing areas). The forum tags content and sets up a
treaded dialog on the specific issues. 
The chat tool allows for real time secure communications.  Then the content is organized and
placed in a wiki for ease of retrieval. Finally, the best practices are
abstracted and put into blogs to attract comments and be available for use in
future disaster relief efforts.  In
the future, there will be expert locators and profiles. 

This version of APAN began two years ago when the US
Pacific Command (PACOM) wanted to develop an online community for the free flow
of information between validated people from the US military, NGOs and other
countries.  Ty Wooldrige and Jerry
Giles led the effort for PACOM. Booz Allen was asked to create the system with
PACOM, and James Kaina and Tim Gramp are the Booz Allen leads.

The system was first tested on some small efforts. The
support for mobile devices was strengthened. The US Southern Command asked the
PACOM to provide an operational demonstration of the system. The PACOM team was
in Miami for this demo when the Haiti earthquake struck. The Southern Command
said to forget simply doing a demo and decided to put the system into real use
to help with Haiti. Now APAN is providing real-time help, validating the
concept and vision, gathering useful content, and the Haiti effort is providing
a significant test of the system to make further improvements.

The US military was one of the early leaders in
knowledge management and the use of after action reviews and lessons learned.
It is nice to see it acting as one of the leaders in the use of Enterprise 2.0
concepts that take the vision of knowledge management significantly forward
with new tools, transparency, and capabilities.

The Defense News also
reported on how on APAN has evolved into a broader communications and
coordination tool that's proving vital to those who want to help and those who
need it. Governments, companies and private citizens are using it to post what
they are offering, allowing disaster relief officials to pick and choose what
they need.  Defense News also
pointed out the usefulness of Web social media such as Twitter and Facebook, as
well as geospatial systems such as Open Street that was been used to create
detailed maps of damaged areas.

I remember how a
very basic use of wikis helped with the Katrina efforts (see: Katrina
PeopleFinder Project). In this case a call for virtual volunteers to help
populate a centralized missing person database was meet over 20,000 people
within a day. It is great to see social media and its users helping out again
and the evolution of its capabilities. However, the basic human drive to help
others in need continues to drive these efforts. Social media just allows a
much greater way to productivity channel this human drive. 

I conducted a series on
interviews over the past two months on how Océ Is implementing enterprise
2.0. Océ is a leading international provider of digital document management
technology and services. Most interviews were with Samuel Driessen, Information Architect at
Océ. I spoke about their SharePoint
efforts with Jan van Veen, Manager Internal Communications, in Corporate
Communications and Tom Dombret, the technical team lead on the SharePoint
effort. I spoke with Samuel and Peter Kruizinga about their social bookmarking
experiences. This post provides a summary of some key points and links to each
of the five posts.

Samuel’s
responsibilities include both the information architecture for structured
information in applications such as PLMS and SAP and the unstructured
information in places such as email and knowledge management programs.

I really like this dual
architectural role for both structured and unstructured information. It makes
so much sense to have these two information sources under the same
architectural leadership. The approach is to define information architecture principles
and then convey these principles to management and employees so they will see
the logic behind the approach. This is move away from rigid top-down rules. The
implementation details will change faster than the principles and managers and
employees will be able to make intelligent decisions aligned with the
principles.

This granting mangers and
employees the right to make decisions is reflected in all of their enterprise
2.0 work and is consistent with the principles of enterprise 2.0. Samuel also
provides guidance on the capabilities of each medium so users can make
intelligent decisions. I think their effortts serve as a good model for others.

Creating Information Architecture at Océ in the Age of Enterprise 2.0

Lessons Learned from Implementing Social Bookmarking at Océ

Implementing Enterprise Micro-messaging with Yammer at Océ

Lessons Learned from the Océ SharePoint Implementation

Implementing Wikis in the Age of Enterprise 2.0 at Océ

Charlene Li’s Altimeter Group is hosting a wiki that provides useful information on social media resources. There is a list of social media policies and a listing of social media agencies and consultants. The social media agencies and consultant are divided into five groups: independent consultants and experts, social media boutiques – US, social media boutiques – non-Us, PR agencies, and interactive marketing and search agencies. 

Anyone can apply to be listed. I am listed under independent consultants and experts. Two of my business partners are listed under social media boutiques – US,. Beeline Labs manages the AppGap and FastForward blogs. I am also working with Pistachio Consulting on Twitter client engagements. 

This wiki is a nice service and great resource. There is more than simply resource lists. Check it out.