Collaboration

E1. Track Keynote: Implementing Large Scale Intranets

Delivering a great customer experience depends on employees having the tools, information, and motivation to provide it. This means ensuring employees are engaged, collaborative, and also having a rewarding experience. In this session Ernst & Young and Marriott International share their strategies and experiences building large-scale intranets that create engaging digital experiences for employees.

E3. Digital Workplace Strategies for Knowledge Sharing

It has been seven years since David Weinberger shared his insights about “digital disorder” in Everything is Miscellaneous. He championed user control of information, methods of discovery, organization and application. The value of information is enhanced when the user is driving how they will find it, where they will seek it and for what it will be used. This session will further the notion that internal, narrowly bounded intranets do not meet Weinberger’s standard of information management to meet user needs. On the other hand, role-based applications, when modeled for specific user needs can deliver high value, when monitored and governed to adapt to changing business needs. Our two speakers will offer their perspectives on how an initiative involving content management technologies must first be human need-based in its focus.

E4. Ways to Increase Reach and Collaboration

Sveta Kouznetsova: 8:30 – 9:00, Accessible Content: Quality Captioning and Transcription as Universal Design
To attract a wider audience, you need to make your aural information - audio, video, events - accessible via quality captioning and transcription. It is not necessarily for those with hearing difficulties. It also helps foreign language speakers, remedial readers, individuals with learning disabilities, those in noisy or quiet environments, and many more. Just being able to hear is not enough. Businesses would also benefit from captioning as it improves user experience and SEO of their aural information and attracts more loyal customers. Sveta will dispel common myths about deaf and hard of hearing people, share personal experiences, and discuss case studies of good quality captioning that goes beyond universal access and can be enjoyed by anyone and anywhere regardless of hearing abilities. Come and check the presentation signed by the deaf speaker, voiced by interpreters, and open captioned in real time. Let’s think outside of the ears! 

Donald DePalma: 9:00 – 9:30, Can't Read, Won't Buy: Why Language Matters on Global Websites
If you read English natively, you have enjoyed the best of the web since its creation. Content in this language has dominated the medium for nearly two decades while companies have catered to English-speaking markets and the enormous spending they generate. However, many corporations realize that billions of people don’t read English at all or well enough to make buying decisions, so they’re increasing the amount of information that they offer in other languages. As they reach out to global prospects, the big question is: If they localize their websites, will more buyers come? If they translate product literature, will they sell more? How much will localization help them grow? Common Sense Advisory surveyed consumers in 10 non-English-speaking countries to test the hypothesis that companies can increase their sales by localizing their products and websites. In this presentation, Dr. DePalma summarizes the results of this 2014 survey, analyzes the linguistic preferences of consumers, and discusses the impact on their online behavior.