An Intranet: just browsers and a server?
| Date | 01 February 2000 |
| Published date | 01 February 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040743 |
| Pages | 3-10 |
| Author | James Currall |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
An Intranet: just
browsers and a
server?
by James Currall, University of
Glasgow
Introduction
There are few people who would claim that a
library is simply a collection of books. The con-
cept of a library embodies an acquisitions policy,
collection management, finding aids, disposal
policy, a variety of services to readers, a lending
policy and so on. Without these additional facets,
a collection of books
is
just that and not a library.
In the same way, a collection of digital documents,
even if linked together via hypertext links is not an
intranet (or any other sort of net for that matter),
although much that has been delivered in the name
of intranets is no more than a collection of digital
documents.
The other papers in this volume examine a number
of approaches to intranets and there are several
case studies which highlight the technical,
infrastructural and, most importantly, the human
aspects of intranet development. The aim of this
article is to examine what an intranet is (or could
be) through a discussion of what facets are re-
quired to raise the value of
a
collection of digital
documents to intranet status. This endeavour is no
simple academic exercise. Making documents
available in some digital, rather than hard-copy,
form is extremely easy; on the other hand making
information available in a digital form is neither a
trivial matter nor a cheap one. Digital availability
is also not without its drawbacks. If a wholesale
move to the digital order is to
be
justified in cost
(or any other terms), significant value must be
added to the information and this must be achieved
when judged right across the organisation building
the intranet and not just in terms of moving costs
from one part of
the
organisation to another.
An intranet within a university might reasonably
address information from five sources:-
• information used and generated by the
university decision making machinery;
• information which gives guidance to staff
and students carrying out their work and
study;
• information which is part of
the
major
systems used to administer the university;
• information in the domain of university
learning and teaching;
• information concerning both contract and
academic research activity and results.
The term 'document' occurs frequently in this
article, it should be taken to mean a collection of
information that is processed as a unit and in-
cludes: text, images, audio, video or any
combination of these. It might also refer to a set
information which is generated dynamically 'on
demand' in response to a request, which has never
appeared in exactly that form before and will never
do so again. At times document appears in single
quotes, this is to emphasise that a meaning broader
than a 'traditional' text document is intended.
Digital information
In essence digital information is not fundamentally
different from hard-copy based information. The
same problems of authenticity, storage, privacy
and access affect both types. The major difference
is in the flexibility of handling and processing.
Hard-copy 'documents' are static, have fixed
boundaries and formats and are slow to move
around from place to place. On the other hand in
the digital order 'documents' are capable of
overcoming all these limitations and thus present
us with almost limitless possibilities (assuming
that we have the imagination to overcome our
previous conditioning).
Turning hard-copy 'documents' into some sort of
digital form is relatively easy, although on a large
scale the sheer volume of information may make it
a costly enterprise. Creating new digital docu-
ments is also relatively easy as most hard-copy
documents are actually produced via a digital
form. What is not easy is organising digital
information and making it more effective, useable
and efficient than the hard-copy equivalent.
What is available
Many information repositories contain a large
amount of material of a sort that was easy to obtain
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