I tailed my previous blog post with the question:
What is the SII of your organisation’s intranet?
By “SII” I mean Social Intranet Index – a metric I have proposed to measure the degree of social functionality afforded by the platform. From 1 through to 10, the SII represents an increasing level of sociability.
I posed this question to 23 intranet managers from around the world, and they kindly rated their respective platforms against a 10-point likert scale. The results are displayed in the following graph.
Graph 1. The current distribution of Social Intranet Indices across 23 organisations
I also asked the respondents to rate what they thought the SII of their organisation’s intranet would be in 12 months’ time. These results are displayed in the next graph.
Graph 2. The future distribution of Social Intranet Indices across 23 organisations
While my sample size is no doubt too small to indicate statistical significance across the wider population, simple observation suggests the following:
We expect our intranets to become more social than they are today.
As you can see in the first graph, the ratings are quite spread out across the scale (x̄=5.1 σ=3.3). In other words, the level of social functionality is variable among our different intranets. Plenty of us are still using the platform as a broadcast medium, while others have added social elements.
As you can see in the second graph, however, the ratings shift noticeably to the right (x̄=7.5 σ=2.4). In other words, we expect the level of social functionality to increase over the short term. Whether we are planning, hoping or praying for this to happen, plenty of us think that in a year’s time our intranets will be personalised and our target audiences will be producing the content.
As an e-learning professional with a passion for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, I hope we realise this future state sooner rather than later.
E-Learning Provocateur 
Nice work!
I doubt an Intranet Manager exists who doesn’t want his or her company’s intranet to become more social than it currently is. So, reassuringly, your observation seems very realistic.
I’d love to see some more SII data from a larger pool of participants, to get a feel for how the industry’s getting on. I guess for that to happen we first need Intranet Managers to start being more social?
Thanks Mike.
We all want our intranets to be more social! What surprises me, though, is the tight turn-around time in which we expect it to happen. 12 months isn’t too far away, so I hope the future-state forecasted here reflects something more substantive than wishful thinking.
I too hoped to survey more intranet managers, but in the end I was appreciative of the 23 who cared to respond. I laughed out loud when I read your line “I guess for that to happen we first need Intranet Managers to start being more social” – Oh, the irony.