GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START ON INTRANETS

Here are the nuts and bolts of creating an intranet. First, Curtin def ines an intranet, why to use the technology, and the benefits of using an intranet. One advantage of using intranets for training and perfor mance support, says Curtin, is an organization isn't tied to one suppl ier's proprietary delivery system. Lest you think that intranet develo pment and implementation are easy, Curtin points out several road bloc ks, including limited network bandwidth and browser capabilities. For example, a user's browser determines which media types and HTML-format options he or she can view. Curtin covers many of the technical consi derations of implementing an intranet. They include network-use patter ns, data type, graphics, audio, video, and data size. She also address es some features of effective intranet design. For example, it's impor tant to make sure that pages aren't overloaded with topics or content. It's also important that users can navigate easily through the traini ng program without getting ''lost'' in cyberspace. Before building a s ite, you must the site. You should also determine which web-site creat ion and maintenance skills should be kept inhouse and which should be out-sourced. A few questions to ask before implementation include: Wha t are the organization's standards for browsers, servers, and other so ftware? Are plug-ins part of the standards? What network bandwidth is available? Does the bandwidth vary between regions or from building to building?