A Portal is not a replacement for "know-how" knowledge

By Nick Hortovanyi

I'm seeing an interesting phenomenon developing in the IT industry where an immediate reaction to uncertainty regarding a question, is direction to a section of a corporate Portal. This is seeming to be the mantra in interacting with the larger vendors, where the shear volume of information is daunting.

I've sat through a number of presentations where lots of effort was spent directing me to a particular section, upon finding it and investigating the material, I've found that it is out of date and does not relate to the material just presented. Personally I think, if such effort is to be made to direct people their, the information has to be up to date and relevant now, not in three months. They won't return back.

There are added dimensions appearing as well, related to people's current level of knowledge and experience to a topic, subject or meme.

A portal helps to facilitate communication and finding knowledge. Where a great portal stands out is when through using it, it helps facilitate activity in a way that supplements the "know-how" knowledge of the participants. To achieve this it still means that people need to communicate, a portal can't be used as the universal answer to eveyone's problems and questions.