I'm currently temping as an editor for intranets
and websites in a government department, and trying
to develop a new career working with intranets and
knowledge management systems.
In my first career, I managed different aspects of
student administration for universities. Most of these
revolved around getting accurate and readable information
to the right people at the right time. Eventually
I felt I was doing so many different things that there
wasn't time to do any one thing properly. To focus
on information processes, I left to take an MSc in
Information Science.
I'd already seen some of the pluses and minuses of
different sorts of groupware, and the problems of
trying to develop web-based information as a spare-time
sideline. Now, alongside the core studies on information
retrieval, thesauruses and all that, I found many
writers saying the things I've been thinking for years:
concentrate on the information users' needs; define
in depth and detail what you want to use information
for before you waste money on expensive management
fads....
For my dissertation I
did a field study to see how a particular web-based
chat program might substitute for something I had
done for several years: advising prospective students
at student recruitment fairs. In the event, it taught
me how to re-design a research project when the core
experiment produces little or no data! I did at least
manage to draw up a checklist
of things to consider (rather than assume that
providing an opportunity to interact will make it
happen - and happen productively). In 'internet years'
a generation has passed since then (1999), and the
flood of new thinking and technical developments may
have outdated much of it, but it's mine, all mine...