Shiv Singh writes an excellent article for Line56 about the trends that will drive most of the large organizations intranet implementations. If you are part of one, here some good food for thought.

You may likely resist some of the points listed below, but fact is that user-driven evolution of intranets is really where the real substance is.

IT can centralize deplyoment, marketing can voice about design and consistency (though they are not used to target themselves), but content on the intranet must be the kingdom of the end user.

Once we can let go and understand the benefit of this, the intranet itself will become the corporate knowledge management repository we were all looking for.

"The trends identified below based on experiences with several large organizations will give you a hint of what's coming and how to prepare for the next wave in your intranet's evolution.

1. Intranets return to the domain of the departments

2. The records management and the legal departments get involved

3. All employees become intranet publishers

4. The corporate telephone directory loses its luster

5. The new killer app -- the knowledge management tool

6. Real-time information delivery becomes a priority

7. Information retrieval remains unsolved but there's hope

8. Employees demand a more aesthetic user experience"

To read the full details of each of these points check out the original article by Shiv Singh here.