Jane McConnell, whom led a Communitelligence Learning Academy Webinar earlier this year (Making Your Intranet Essential – CD) has summarized some online conjecturing about what to call an intranet in her article: The intranet – what is the elevator pitch?
She started an interesting discussion with her suggestion that the word “intranet” should be changed to something more relevant such as “web workplace” (which came from a brainstorming session inside NetJMC & Co on Linkedin).
It is easy to say that words do not make a difference: it’s what we do that counts. That’s true when we are in the “friendly territory” of intranet-land where Intranet managers talk to each other and to business people who have “understood”.
When we move to potentially “hostile territory” (just joking, but only a little) we need to change our language.
What term sells what you are trying to accomplish best: intranet, or web workplace?