The result is a loose but fast-growing association that now numbers some 5,500 people. At last count, Eureka encompassed 19 different communities, with discussion topics ranging from physics to geomatics (the science of applied geography). "It's fairly chaotic, and that's good," says Edmundson. "You can't force these things. People will use groups the way they want to -- or they won't use them at all."
Eureka can help a Schlumberger engineer in Vietnam who wants to know how to do geophysical interpretation in granite. "It's a real freak of nature to find oil in granite," Edmundson explains. "Perhaps the only major places where that occurs are Vietnam and Libya. But put out a query to the reservoir-interpretation community, and someone who worked in Libya a few years ago -- who might be anywhere on the globe now -- can reply with some answers."
The chairman's original mandate has had a powerful effect, says Edmundson. "There's been a message to management that says, 'Don't mess with this. Don't tell people what groups they have to belong to, or how they should use the groups.' Our technical population is our most vital asset, and past programs have failed because they were too top-down. So we went for a bottom-up approach."
Managing an intranet, it turns out, is an organic process -- one that revolves less around owning a patch of online real estate than around carefully tending what grows there. At Anadarko Petroleum, the IT department has standardized certain formal elements of each intranet page: where the tool bar goes, how users are guided back to the company's home page. At the same time, says Phil Sandoz, Anadarko's frontline employees call the shots with respect to creating actual content.
"Think of it this way," says Sandoz. "Our IT team maintains the trunk of the tree. But each department is in charge of maintaining its own branch."
George Anders (ganders@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor.
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