Patrick Kennedy — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:32:52 GMT

Hi Laurie, I would normally not agree with the statement that an “intranet just a website whose users are internal” (but then again you were asking a question :-)

Anyhoo, on this occasion I am willing to agree that yes, in terms of the IA methods used, intranets are very similar to public facing websites. But as you point out, it’s the sticky issues which make all the difference. In particular the purpose of the site. Most people are able to tell you what their website is for, but when it comes to intranets you get some very wishy-washy answers. The fact is that intranets need to have a well defined purpose, there’s no point having one for the sake of it (which you might get away with with a website).

So the methods might be same but the outcomes and the political maneuvering are quite different. But hey, maybe we’ll conclude that I’m wrong and there’s nothing special about ‘IA for intranets’....if I write the article we can find out.

BTW: I’m delighted to have two ‘yes’ votes so far :-)

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Patrick Kennedy