![[WebEmpower.com logo]](images/WebEmpower_logo.gif){kind=logo}
The purpose of WebEmpower.com is to develop, test, and refine a generic mechanism (an electronic forum system) for enhancing information flow within organizations to improve their functioning, empowering employees to communicate across organizational barriers and creating a model can then be cloned for specific organizations.
Over the passage of time, organizations tend to fragment into fiefdoms—self-contained units headed by managers skilled in bureaucratic infighting whose primary intent is to defend and enlarge their empires. Barriers to communication among employees are created and the organization's mission becomes secondary to "following the rules," which may be written or unwritten. Enhanced information flow, especially among staff members, helps counteract this tendency.
These processes are illustrated in these three diagrams:
Although not developed under an explicit public license, WebEmpower.com is in fact an open source project, and community participation is welcomed via posts and the Suggestion Box. Others are welcome to create a similar or identical electronic forum system for their own organization. Individual posts, however, are covered by copyright law. In the tradition of open source software, donations to support the project are accepted.
The WebEmpower.com forum system uses phpBB, an open source software package available for several different operating systems. Suggestions for improving the phpBB configuration are welcome, as well as comments and suggestions concerning the concept, the forums, their organization, and how they are moderated.
It is the intent of WebEmpower.com to preserve the anonymity of its users. For this reason, this site does not collect any information other than that posted by visitors and the total number of visitors to the home page. To help preserve anonymity, the IP addresses of visitors are not logged. If preserving your anonymity is a concern, you can use your home computer rather than a computer at your organization to post comments. For even greater assurance of anonymity, you can use a computer at a library, a photocopy shop, or an Internet cafe for postings. Although anonymity is respected, posts with objectionable content will be rejected or removed.
FranklinCovey — Tools for Highly Effective Organizations
Senge, P. M. 1990. The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday. 423 pp.