Most people are aware of the buzz surrounding things like weblogs, “citizen journalism”, and even podcasting. They’re often used as examples of how the web is allowing greater participation from its users. But is there a place for any of this participation on a serious business intranet?

We’re currently looking at ways to develop plain old bulletin boards with two of our clients. The aim is to give employees a secure place where they can ask and answer questions, report the latest competitor sightings, or just sell their stereos. Such a board can be particularly useful when potential contributors are all over the world.

Bulletin boards are basic, but practical and useful. They’re a good way for companies to dip their toe in the water and start encouraging employee participation via an intranet.

At the other end of the scale, the BBC is usually cited as the organisation that’s been most adventurous in this direction (follow this link to find out how). Employees run hundreds of internal blogs, participate in dozens of wikis and thousands connect via a network called talk.gateway. Participation on this scale has its drawbacks, but it has great potential for eliciting new ideas and pushing collaborative projects forward. So there’s a huge range of possibilities from the very basic to the elaborate. And there’s a place for all of them on an intranet, as long as the aims are clear.

There’s no shortage of opinions on how best to use these evolving resources to improve communication within a business. Here’s an article asking whether or not you should allow employees to blog on your intranet. Business Week describes how business can use Wikis to replace e-mail. And here’s a list of bulletin board providers frequently used in business.