For the second year running, Step Two Designs have run the Intranet Innovations Awards programme, which seeks to recognize not innovative intranets as a whole, but rather individual innovative ideas and concepts. Last month Step Two released the report for the 2008 awards programme, and I have a copy … and I recommend that if you are involved with intranets, SharePoint and collaboration, you should buy a copy for your place of work (US$189).

Trying to judge a complete intranet is a daunting task, but beyond the challenge of judging is the bigger challenge of readers being able to apply those ideas. With the road taken by Step Two, however, the reader of the report is able to read ideas that they could apply to their own intranets, or to have the ideas in the report spark off new ideas that would be helpful. I think the main benefit a reader gets from this report is the sense of what’s considered ‘world class’, and thus a good plumb line for their own work.

I said above that if you were involved with “intranets, SharePoint and collaboration” you should buy a copy. Although the report is focused on “intranet” innovations, one of winners … Transfield Services from Australia … won for its entry about governance of SharePoint team sites for collaboration. If you are rolling out SharePoint team sites, you owe it your future to read Transfield’s approach.

James Robertson of Step Two asked me for a review paragraph, and I sent him this:

“James Robertson and the team at Step Two Designs have discovered a fantastic approach to giving credit to people doing innovative work on their intranets, while simultaneously facilitating the sharing of innovative ideas with the wider intranets community. I have just read the 2008 edition of the Innovative Intranets Awards report, and I’m delighted to see the ideas that have been profiled this year. Given the stepwise increase in innovative ideas from 2007, I look forward to reading the 2009 report and observing how far we have collectively come. This report should be mandatory reading for every intranet team across the world.“