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The in-house provider base.

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Users, users, users.

Their needs, preferences, and experiences within the environments we build for them form the mantras, marching orders, and priorities around our enterprise search projects. Behind the feedback forms and slick interfaces, there is one universal response from users. They want content--not just any content, but content good enough to use--quality content. And for that, we need providers.

Ten years ago in 1998, the enterprise content world was all abuzz about the adoption of big ticket, multimillion-dollar knowledge management systems: knowledge-based economy meets knowledge-managed practices. The early believers of the dot-com era sounded more like alchemists than mere IT evangelists, heralding in the harnessing of corporate brain power.

How has the original promise played out in actual practice? How closely do content realities resemble the preaching of 10 years ago? Are these systems as outdated as yesterday's energy prices? Or did yesterday's "flavor of the month" become a fixture? As it matured, has it become another information silo--one stop along the way for your go-to-market teams--or an indispensable tool for succeeding in those markets? Either way, how will content earn its keep in tomorrow's business culture?

Users and Providers: Publishing Model

Most of us end up as both users and providers. In the more traditional publishing model, the content world continues to revolve around its many consumers in three ways:

1. Data-centric: That wobbly mess of internal files in your digital landfill whose importance is measured by the pain of losing them--not the joy of finding them.

2. User-centric: That internal customer base whose fleeting satisfactions are grounded in the knowledge-seeking habits of Google-educated recruits--not in how they engage with the content tools and resources we provide them.

3. Business-centric: You've heard the familiar mantra. It goes, "The right information at the right time to the right person." You haven't heard it? Go to any trade conference.

Strangely, in the content world that we know as the corporate intranet, the publishing model doesn't recognize the contributions of content providers either--in fact, the relationship is largely ignored and seldom discussed.

The Centricity of Content

Intranet managers and information architects know all too well the critical role that internal "publishers" play. Not only do internal publishers improve content quality, they also influence the way others collaborate and share their insights within the larger community. But looking to the provider base for leadership? What buttons does that push? Info pros can all tell tales of just how difficult it is to get domain experts to contribute their knowledge, let alone identify work they consider premium, regardless of who provides it.

The lack of a provider base is understandable. First of all, while many experts are attracted by seeing their name at the top of a search set or their opinion on a frequently visited landing page, many others would gladly shed their stature as a cross-enterprise content star. They prefer to test their ideas in a limited forum where "breakthrough thinking" passes the muster of peer review. They prize innovation, but also privacy--especially after receiving endless emails from less-seasoned colleagues asking for information requests on established practices better addressed by a training demo.

Expert participation is...

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