Abstract
In this article, we will, after reviewing the literature, analyze the cultural dimension of Intranets as knowledge management tools within organizations. Intranet is an Information Communication Technology (ICT) based upon the Internet (http:// www, TCP/IP) technology. The Intranet phenomenon has been introduced in the early 1990s by the idea that it can integrate all the computers, software and databases within a particular organization into a single system that enables employees to find and share all the information they need for their work (Bernard, 1997, Cortese, 1996). Intranets function as a Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tool and are used as computing networks used for sharing organizational information. While Internet technology is leading, access is restricted exclusively to organizational members (by means of electronic firewalls). In a study to the role of Intranets in strategic management decisions, Curry and Stancich (2000) define Intranets as ‘…private computing networks, internal to an organization, allowing access only to authorized users’ (p. 250). The term private indicates that Intranet is a network that can be accessed only by members of a particular organization. The term network emphasizes the connection between computers that enables corporate communication. Intranets run on open but controlled networks that enable organization members to employ the same www servers and browsers, which are distributed over the local area network (LAN).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Intranet: An Intranet is a restricted-access or internal network that works like the Internet (www://http). It enables employees or those with access to browse or share resources. Intranets are private computing networks, internal to an organization used for sharing organizational information.
Bandwidth: Term used to denote the capacity of a communication channel for information: a narrow bandwidth implies slow or limited communication. It describes the carrying capacity of the users connection or the server connection. It is commonly measures in bits or bytes per second instead.
Local Area Network (LAN): A group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line or wireless link and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area.
Organizational Culture: This term refers to the way people give meaning to their actions in an organizational setting. Because of cognitive and normative diversity within an organization, the attribution of meaning is complicated and leads to organizational cultural integration as well as fragmentation; unity as well as diversity.
Communities of Practice: Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. For a community of practice to function it needs to generate and appropriate a shared repertoire of ideas, commitments and memories. It also needs to develop various resources such as tools, documents, routines, vocabulary and symbols that in some way carry the accumulated knowledge of the community.
Intranet 2.0: The introduction of Wikis in Intranet-technology. Wikis are a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser (see: www.wiki.org ). Intranet 2.0 makes the Intranet more interactive and collaborative representing the evolving collection of social Web tools.
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC): A general term referring to a range of different ways in which people can communicate with one another via a computer network. Includes both synchronous and asynchronous communication, one-to-one and many-to-many interactions, and text-based or video and audio communication.