Improving online communication

My subject is intranet strategy, not audio production. It is also organizational communication. Sound and music however offer several concrete points of reference to discuss the abstract subject of intranet strategy. As do office architecture and car manufacturing for that matter. They all serve as mental racks to hang out our ideas in plain view for everyone to reflect on and discuss about.
Metaphors such as a song help us to build a mental image of the different elements and layers an intranet is made up off. For as a subject intranet has become quite complex to describe. As a result it is not always easy to discuss intranet strategy. Moreover, much of the conventional communication terminology that is used today to describe digital communication, has become obsolete. Consequently there is a lot of miscommunication going on about intranet.
Communication vocabulary is heavily rooted in the 20th century, way back before the dawn of internet and communication tools we use today, such as Google search. To a large extend communication thought behind this vocabulary is BG-thought (Before Google and pre-internet). The cone view on online communication amongst many communication professionals has been a hindering factor for progress in improving online communication. That is to say, if we define Innovation as a way to improve. (Surely you’ll agree with me that improvement is the goal, not innovation as such.)

The Sound of Intranet

Did you ever wonder what sound an intranet makes? I know, this is a weird question to start off with. And off course there is no real sound an intranet produces. But imagining a sound intranet makes enlightens the ways we perceive intranets. For instance, would you associate the intranet-sound with a desert, a waterfall, a city hub maybe, or a turbine? These each produce quite different sounds, which instantly paint a mental image of the respective source, and its purpose. A desert has a quietness and openness about it that a city hub lacks.
What sound does your intranet make?
Does this ‘sound’ fit the image of your (organization’s) intranet? In other words, is your collaboration site buzzing like a city hub? Is your knowledge system humming like a turbine? Or is there a gap between its purpose and its output? Is your collaboration environment for instance producing desert like sound effects? Give it a thought. I’ll come back to sound later.