Re: QUERY: which intranet book?

[Barry Campbell <barry -at- WEBVERANDA -dot- COM>]

At 08:37 AM 6/4/98 +0200, John Cornellier wrote:

>Can anyone recommend a good intranet book? Or discommend a baddie? Any other
>resources out there?

John,

There may be a good intranet book out there, but so far I haven't found it.
You don't say what your current level of experience is, but unless you are
an *absolute* beginner you'll be much better off (in my opinion) using the
Web as a resource for learning about intranet development.

I'm a writer and web developer (I maintain a fair bit of content on my company's
external and internal servers) and so far, the best intranet resources I've
found have all been on the Web.

Both Microsoft and Netscape have "developer" areas of their site that can
be joined for free; once there, you can read a lot of hype-laden white
papers but you can *also* pick up some pretty great how-to articles, code
examples, and tutorials.  Oh, and case studies... which will give you a
great idea of what's been popular on *other* intranets.

Microsoft's Site Builder Network: http://www.microsoft.com/sitebuilder/

Netscape's DevEdge: http://developer.netscape.com/

You can also look at the intranet areas at www.builder.com,
www.webreference.com, www.developer.com (very good!) and so forth.

Hotwired's WebMonkey (http://www.webmonkey.com) is also well worth
a look when it comes to tools and techniques.

Computer book publishing seems to operate on the Thick Books With Very Bright
Covers model these days. From one publisher to the next, these weighty tomes
are going to be crammed with screen shots and pointless diagrams ("chartoons,"
as Edward Tufte would say) and set in attractive type, but often indifferently
and inaccurately written.  75% of them at least are complete garbage and a
terrible waste of wood pulp.

I *can* recommend an excellent book on web site design in general.  The
analysis and techniques described therein will work for you whether you're
creating an internet, intranet, or extranet site:

"Information Architecture for the World Wide Web," Louis Rosenfeld and
Peter Morville, O'Reilly and Associates, 1998. (ISBN: 1-56592-282-4)

This book will help you think intelligently about what your intranet users
need and how best to give it to them.  :-)  That's the best kind of
"intranet book" there is, IMO.

For my money, web-based articles on web technologies tend to be more
complete, more current, and more useful than all but a handful of
printed books (and most of those are published by O'Reilly.)

My very opinionated two cents (and then some...)

--
Barry Campbell         | Why people tear the seams of anyone's dreams
barry -at- webveranda -dot- com   | is over my head... (Duke Ellington/Bob Russell,
40.77 N, 73.97 W       | "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me")