IDEO uses ThoughtFarmer to power its new Intranet

ThoughtFarmer has been cranking out the news lately, this one caught my attention since I helped build, rebuild, and throw my hands up in frustration several Intranets in the past:

Recently, IDEO embarked on a new project to empower their internal communities to create and manage their own online collaborative spaces. With more than 500 employees in eight offices around the world, they sought better ways to share knowledge and collaborate across physical distances.

“We knew that wikis promised much of what we were after,” says Gentry Underwood, project lead for the initiative. “But most of the tools on the market are too difficult to use. We wanted something intuitive and straightforward, that our communities could pick up and start using without training.” Source: ThoughtFarmer Blog » ThoughtFarmer an integral component of IDEO’s intranet

Yep the easy and yet powerful Intranet.  Seems like a fools errand.  Okay seemed like a fools errand back in the late nineties when I was looking at such tools as Peachtree and Livelink.  Now, the tools are better, the computers and connections faster so this isn’t a fools errand.  Okay shouldn’t be.

IDEO must know good design and usability when they see it.  Is this the kudo for ThoughtFarmer?  Maybe.  One thing I do like to see is that Canadian technology is still on the leading edge of the industry.