During a meeting about training today, one of my colleagues and I were discussing how the same taxonomy could apply to several different “bodies of knowledge” about Acquia and Drupal. We’re envisioning a taxonomy that could organize a “Drupal Body of Knowledge” collection (akin to the PMBOK), training curricula, a certification exam, and a knowledgebase.
During our discussion of different areas that the taxonomy would influence, I got to thinking about IAN and PETE, the knowledgebase and project collaboration tools that we used a Context Integration. I got my start in consulting at Context, and these tools were a key part of our success. I think back longingly to them each time the discussion of knowledge management comes up. In fact, I originally decided to apply to Context based on a Fast Company profile of the company that started with a story about IAN saving the day.
IAN was limited by the times—it was a Lotus Notes application and pre-dated social publishing. One of the cool things about joining Acquia to build out a PS delivery team was that I’d get to recreate a modern version of IAN with the Acquia Drupal social publishing platform. Extending the forums, knowledgebase, and other features of IAN with blogs, wikis, and collective intelligence will be a big win.
I’ve lost most if not all of my files from Context Integration, so I can’t even locate a manual to help with recreating it’s features into our new system. To see what might happen, I Googled “context integration” ian manual and, after a few snifles for what could have been, found a Google Books search result for Chapter 10 of Realizing the Promise of Corporate Portals. I ordered a copy of the book right away to start selling my colleagues on building the next generation of IAN.
