Webinar: Intranet Secrets & 5 Steps to Make Your Intranet More Social

Tweet Darren Gibbons| March 15th, 2011 No Comments »

This Wednesday, March 16th, at 10am Pacific, ThoughtFarmer Co-Creator Chris McGrath will be presenting an entertaining yet informative webinar:

Intranet Secrets: Behind the Firewall, Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid plus 5 steps to make your intranet more social

Chris’s presentation draws practical lessons from the confessions of intranet users on our Intranet Secrets web site. It’s a live repeat of his session from the Social Intranet Summit.

Register now (use discount code I-SAW-THE-BLOG).

The Social Intranet Summit Webinar series is every third Wednesday of each month at 10:00am Pacific. See the complete 2010-2011 agenda. Registration link: http://sisw.eventbrite.com.

Darren Gibbons, ThoughtFarmer President, interviewed in Georgia Straight

Tweet Chris McGrath| March 10th, 2011 No Comments »

Vancouver’s news and entertainment weekly, The Georgia Straight, interviewed Darren Gibbons, ThoughtFarmer President, in this week’s issue in the article, “ThoughtFarmer, Google Docs make the workplace social.”

From the article:

“For us, when somebody new comes into the company, they can sit down, they can fire up the intranet, and they can get up to speed with different projects that are going on around the office, see some information about their coworkers—what their strengths are, that type of thing,” Gibbons said. “But they can also go through and look at photos from the Christmas party and that type of stuff too. They can get a feel for a little bit more about the company than they would from just having conversations with an individual.”

Read the full article.

Government & Social Intranet Software: USGS Case Study

Tweet Chris McGrath| March 2nd, 2011 No Comments »

How is government using social intranet software?

Read how the USGS Nevada Water Science Center reduced intranet staffing from two half-time staff to almost nothing by introducing a collaboratively-maintained social intranet: “Water in the Desert: ThoughtFarmer & USGS“.

“ThoughtFarmer has become the go-to resource for everything from HR information, to signing out a digital camera or boat, to checking the budget on a project, to getting a virtual introduction to a colleague on the other side of the state. ‘It has really been even more successful than we thought it would be,’ says IT specialist Shannon Watermolen.”

This is the latest of our Intranet Case Studies.

Intranet page to manage a resource -- in this case, a boat -- on the USGS Nevada Water Sciences Center intranet. Click screenshot to read the full case study.

As an agency of the United States Federal Government endorsements of specific commercial products are prohibited. The opinions of the US Geological Survey employees highlighted here reflect their personal opinions and do not constitute an endorsement of ThoughtFarmer or its developer by the USGS.

Webinar: Creating Effective Requirements

Tweet Chris McGrath| February 14th, 2011 No Comments »

This Wednesday, February 16th, at 10am Pacific, OpenRoad Senior User Experience Designer and college instructor Selma Zafar will be presenting a practical webinar for anyone planning work on an intranet: Creating Effective Requirements.

Selma’s presentation is a live repeat of her session from the Social Intranet Summit. Here’s the extract of the presentation:

Creating Effective Requirements
Defining clear requirements at the start of any project helps not only the build go smoothly, but aligns the whole project team.  Selma will introduce you to different methods for uncovering and documenting requirements that will set up your intranet project for success with a focus on the end-user.  This talk will be practical, providing you with ideas that you can immediately execute.
30 min + 15 min Q&A

Register now (use discount code I-SAW-THE-BLOG).

The Social Intranet Summit Webinar series is every third Wednesday of each month at 10:00am Pacific. See the complete 2010-2011 agenda. Registration link: http://sisw.eventbrite.com.

Tracy Hutton: Getting the C-Suite On Your Side

Tweet Chris McGrath| February 1st, 2011 1 Comment »

In mid-2005, Wikipedia was largely unknown, Facebook required an Ivy League email address to join, and YouTube hadn’t even launched.

In this nascent environment, Tracy Hutton, then Vice President of Employee Experience at Intrawest‘s Placemaking division, convinced her executive team to embrace a radical concept for their intranet: everyone would be allowed to edit everything.

They launched ThoughtFarmer, and the resulting success led to an oft-cited Enterprise 2.0 Case Study and Tracy’s nomination as a “Rising Star” by British Columbia’s powerful Human Resources Management Association (BCHRMA).

Now a professional coach and a consultant at The Marcus Buckingham Company (and a brand new mom! congratulations!), Tracy presented “Getting the C-Suite On Your Side” at the Social Intranet Summit in October. In the video and slidedeck below, Tracy shares her strategies for securing executive buy-in through the story of launching her social intranet, “The Portal”, at Intrawest Placemaking.

For more from the Social Intranet Summit, sign up for the Social Intranet Summit Webinars. The next session is “Creating Effective Requirements”, and will be presented Wednesday, February 16th at 10:00am Pacific.

Getting The C-Suite On Your Side (Video on Viddler)

Getting The C-Suite On Your Side (Slidedeck on SlideShare)

10 Web 2.0 Apps Your Intranet Will Love

Tweet Chris McGrath| January 27th, 2011 2 Comments »

(This presentation was originally delivered live at the Social Intranet Summit Vancouver. Sign up for our monthly webinars based on the summit, free with the code I-SAW-THE-BLOG.)

I often talk to people who are looking at ThoughtFarmer and hoping for Application Nirvana. Application Nirvana is having ONE APPLICATION that lets you monitor critical systems, see your key performance metrics, enter your timesheets, check your to-do list, manage projects, publish documents, write emails, brew coffee, iron your shirt, etc etc.

Is ThoughtFarmer that application? No. Application Nirvana is an enterprise architect’s delusion. There will never be the One Single App that does everything.

Fortunately, with modern web applications like ThoughtFarmer, it is very easy to integrate best-of-breed applications. Here are 10 of my favourites.

1. FriendFeed

2. Google News

3. Delicious

4. PollDaddy

5. Google Maps

6. Viddler Business

7. Meebo

8. Wufoo

9. Intranet Statistics

10. Optimal Workshop

Are you using any of these applications on your intranet? Are there any other web apps you’ve integrated on your intranet? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Webinar: Intranet ROI – 5 Approaches

Tweet Chris McGrath| January 18th, 2011 1 Comment »

This Wednesday, January 19th, at 10am Pacific, OpenRoad Senior Consultant & Analytics Lead Bryan Robertson will be presenting a webinar on a topic everyone’s fascinated in: Intranet ROI.

His presentation is a live repeat of his session from the Social Intranet Summit. Here’s the extract of the presentation:

Intranet ROI: 5 Approaches
Not sure where to start in finding Return on Investment (ROI) for your Social Intranet business case? Bryan takes a look at some of the Intranet value and ROI models in the industry and helps you categorize your organization for best fit. This review will put some structure around your thinking and give you a launch pad for having the ROI discussion with your CFO.
30 min + 15 min Q&A

Register now (use discount code I-SAW-THE-BLOG).

The Social Intranet Summit Webinar series is every third Wednesday of each month at 10:00am Pacific. See the complete 2010-2011 agenda. Registration link: http://sisw.eventbrite.com.

“Social Intranet”: I think we’re on to something

Tweet Chris McGrath| January 13th, 2011 No Comments »

In March 2009, Darren and I were planning the launch of ThoughtFarmer 3.5 and a new web site. We had previously marketed ThoughtFarmer as “intranet 2.0″, a “wiki intranet”, and as “social software”. But none of those terms felt like they captured the essence of ThoughtFarmer.

Jive had come out with their “social business” positioning. We were looking at their web site, when one of us cried (I can’t remember who), “Social Intranet! That’s what we are!” And in May 2009, we launched our new web site proclaiming ThoughtFarmer as Social Intranet Software.

That’s the first use of the term I had seen. But I’ve been stoked over the last few months to see the term co-opted by many intranet consultants and competitors:

On Google Insights, we see that “social intranet” only began appearing on the radar in 2010 (the spike at “A” is the Social Intranet Summit):

Similarly, our Google Analytics report on visits to thoughtfarmer.com from the term “social intranet” shows steady growth through 2010:

Additionally, our SEO consulting firm Outcome3 tells me that “social intranet” gets about 10% as many searches on Google as “intranet software”. For a new term, that’s impressive.

And finally, ThoughtFarmer, the original social intranet software solution, saw 86% revenue growth in 2010.

All this is a long way to say: I believe social intranets are poised for phenomenal growth in 2011. Indeed, with few exceptions, every new inquiry we get is from an organization looking for a social intranet, whether or not they refer to it as such. I’m glad we had a part in creating this wave; I intend to ride it.

Andy Jankowski on the Digital Workplace Maturity Model

Tweet Chris McGrath| January 11th, 2011 1 Comment »

How mature is your intranet?

In this video and slidedeck from the Social Intranet Summit Vancouver, Andy Jankowski, Director of Intranet Benchmarking Forum (IBF) North America, helps those responsible for managing their company’s intranets and digital workplace understand where they are in terms of the overall user experience and think strategically about future directions. Andy provides a high-level overview of the model and illustrates ways you can begin using it in your organization.

For more from the Social Intranet Summit, sign up for the Social Intranet Summit Webinars. The next session is “Intranet ROI: 5 Approaches”, and will be presented Wednesday, January 19th at 10:00am Pacific.

Video (26 minutes)

Slidedeck

Webinar: Measuring Your Intranet’s Activity With Social Network Analysis

Tweet Chris McGrath| December 13th, 2010 No Comments »

This Wednesday, December 15th, at 10am Pacific, ThoughtFarmer Vice President Gordon Ross will be presenting a fascinating webinar on Social Network Analysis.

His presentation is a live repeat of his session from the Social Intranet Summit. It was rated the best presentation of the day (82% of attendees scored it “Great”). It’s a rather in-depth topic, which, if you know Gord, will come as no surprise. (Gord’s the one who writes all the heavy-duty blog posts on the ThoughtFarmer blog with words like “determinism” and “temporality“. I write the simple ones. )

Here’s the extract of the presentation:

Measuring your Intranet’s Activity using Social Network Analysis
Sure you know how your intranet content is performing, but how about who’s collaborating and communicating with each other? What’s really happening on your social intranet? Learn how to gain insight into your intranet’s activity using social network analysis.
30 min + 15 min Q&A

Register now (use discount code I-SAW-THE-BLOG).

The Social Intranet Summit Webinar series is every third Wednesday of each month at 10:00am Pacific. See the complete 2010-2011 agenda. Registration link: http://sisw.eventbrite.com.