TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Intranets (#556127) From:wburns -at- MICRON -dot- COM Date:Tue, 21 Jan 1997 09:56:24 MST
Dennis writes:
>
> Fellow travelers,
>
> Do any of you have experience working with intranets? If so, could you
> explain to me if they are really like a private Internet for your
> organization, complete with company-wide Web server, or something
> completely different? Do you find them useful for information
> distribution and retrieval within your organization, moreso than say
> Lotus Notes or cc:Mail bulletin boards?
>
Intranets are virtually the same as an internet, with the exception that they
are accessible only from within a company's network (ideally). If you don't have
access to the LAN, you don't have access to the intranet.
We've created an intranet here at Micron, and our department uses it to deliver
its online documents. We store our files (HTML, PDF, Word, Excel, and so on) in
Saros Mezzanine and call them up from various static menus that we've created.
We could generate tables of contents on the fly using Cold Fusion, but our users
feel more comfortable with a uniform look and feel and a relatively stable
department web site.
We prefer this method of delivery over using some other method for these
reasons:
1. The software is cheap (unlike Lotus Notes or FrameViewer).
2. The intranet is simple to use (see item 1).
3. This method of distribution doesn't overload our mail servers
(as I assume cc:Mail would).
Intranets can be very useful, but they can also be the source of many
issues and conflicts--especially in an environment where information
is or needs to be tightly controlled.
Bill Burns
Assembly Documentation Supervisor
wburns -at- micron -dot- com
-----------------------------------------
This message brought to you by W.A.S.T.E.
and your local potsmaster.
-----------------------------------------
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
