With the passing of the century comes the passing of the Intranet Professional torch. Howard McQueen, who, having so ably initiated and edited this publication since May 1998, is passing the keyboard (so to speak) and editorship to us. Howard and associate editor Jean E. DeMatteo created a newsletter to provide information professionals with quality insights, experiences, and advice on designing, implementing, and developing intranets. Given the positive reader response, they certainly met their goal. Thank you Howard and Jean for providing a publishing platform for knowledge-sharing regarding intranet technologies, roles, challenges, and opportunities among information professionals.
 

Who We Are
We are two of those information professionals. During our respective careers of more years than we care to discuss(!), we have evolved from cataloguing and reference librarians to managers of large corporate information functions incorporating business and technical libraries, archives and records management, and on to information industry consultants. For the past 7 years we’ve been working with libraries and organizations to review their information and knowledge-based services, technologies, functions, and processes, and to develop strategic and tactical plans for ensuring their value, validity, and visibility. We also work with information industry suppliers, testing product concepts and marketing approaches—and planning programs for a number of conferences, including Internet Librarian 1999, Computers in Libraries 2000, and Internet World Canada 2000.

As Stephen Covey points out, our background heavily influences our perspective and philosophy. Like many of our information profession colleagues, we believe that networking and sharing experiences are critical for growing our professional competencies and capabilities. We also believe that we enhance our learning and our understanding by looking beyond our boundaries to other professions, other industries and other processes. We have gained numerous “ah ha’s!” about information-related services when working on corporate projects outside the information realm; we don another type of “lens” that allows us to see things differently and to ultimately make crucial improvements to information functions we have never before envisioned.
 

Our Philosophy
Our philosophy for Intranet Professional—IP—is to inform and incite, to engage and excite. Our profession has incredible opportunities, particularly with regards to intranets, extranets, knowledge initiatives, and content management. The more we know, the better. The more we think about what we know, the “more” better. It is often when someone makes us uncomfortable about our stance that we drill down into our understandings and unearth the true riches of our knowledge and our potential.

IP will continue along the path Howard has cleared, sharing cases and expertise of information professionals, highlighting intranet tools and technology trends, as well as discussing knowledge and content management issues. It will also feature “The Other 80 Percent,” focusing on that 80 percent so critical for intranet success, with practical advice on training, marketing, licensing, and measuring. Authors and other contributors will be librarians, information systems and technology professionals, business process professionals as well as clients of the information profession.
 

In This Issue
In this issue, Fred Isbell, Intranet Solutions Services Marketing Manager for Compaq, discusses how enterprise portals link intranets and knowledge management. Fred worked with Mary Lee Kennedy, formerly manager of Libraries at Digital Equipment Corporation and now director, Information Services, Microsoft Corporation, and he currently works with Andy Breeding, Manager Web Development at Compaq. Andy updates us on Compaq’s WebLibrary’s status and strategies.

Joe Helfer is in the knowledge management consulting environment. Joe works with a range of clients, from Andersen Consulting to IBM, to align enterprise IT architecture, knowledge architecture, and business strategy. Joe recently spoke at KM World ‘99, ASIS and has published in Searcher, Knowledge Management Magazine, and Quality Magazine. While at Internet Librarian ‘99, Joe reported on the “Intranet Librarians” track.
 

On the Horizon
Future issues of IP will investigate the “make-or-break” decisions of corporate intranets, review the intranet toolkits invading the market, and offer practitioners’ experiences as solo librarians, intranet Webmasters and managers, and more.

Let us know what you like, and what you’d like to see. We invite your comments, suggestions, and article submissions. If you have an idea for an article, or are willing to share your experiences, successes, or war stories and don’t feel you have the time to write an article yourself, contact us! There are many creative ways to take a story from conception to publication. We hope to hear from you, at rjones@inforamp.net.