James Robertson of Step Two Designs has posted a survey to find out if organizations are using Personalization tools within the intranets and portals.
I find this interesting, partially because of his definition of user-driven personalization:
“Personalisation” in the context of intranets and portals means giving end users (staff) the ability to customise what functionality and content they are provided with.
I suspect his findings will show that user-driven personalization does not exist in most org’s today, even though it is often one of the most sought after requirements described during most requirements gathering processes.
I’ve found that user-driven personalization, while it sounds appealing, often fails to provide true value to the end-user b/c it requires training to setup and very forward thinking design - to ensure that the appropriate taxonomy and tools are provided for the users.
James’s definition excludes the concept of ‘content targeting’ - which is a form of personalization, but often not driven by the user, but instead by an administrator or content author that is making the decision to target content to a particular audience group. This form of personalization can provide the user with tremendous value as it often removes content from their navigation choices that otherwise would clutter their path.
In my next post, I’ll chat about a form of personalization we’ve been evaluating to help individuals share, store and filter content within an organization. While its premature to call this the next foundation for knowledge management within organizations, I think it might be close!
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