Tracing Influence through Intranets of Compliance

This paper introduces a new type of intranet – the compliance intranet – and describes its socio-technical shaping. Compliance intranets serve to enforce industry standards, to measure the performance of a company against industry or governmentally established standards, or to establish standards within the organization or within a larger domain. These intranets may be quality management systems used to achieve ISO 9000 certification; health, safety and environmental regulation support systems used to furnish data to OSHA, EPA and other agencies; or Y2K status tracking intranets. They differ in important ways from high profile intranet applications, such as knowledge management systems, most notably by enabling collaboration across organizations, industries and institutions. Compliance intranet applications are shaped largely by external, interorganizational influences and informational environments; but internal considerations regarding available skills and support also guide intranet choices.