There are two threads that sort of come together in the KM world. Think about the different between Google and Yahoo! Google relies much more on a Syndication model of distributing advertisements through AdSense using their network of partner sites. Yahoo! however still needs to focus on driving users to their site and retaining them there as long as possible.

In the KM world of internal corporate KM initiatives, which model would you prefer?

Historically, KM initiatives has looked for ways to motive employees to come to a central site. Motivating usage is a huge KM topic. As KM initiatives evolve, it makes complete sense for them to look more towards a Google model of syndication. Why? Because syndication will allow employees to leverage KM applications more effortlessly as part of their existing business processes. See: http://alanbaren.blogspot.com/2005/12/is-slack-time-needed-for-successful-km.html

Leveraging web services to create portlets that integrate with other corporate applications is one way to think about syndication in the KM space. In what ways should KM initiatives think about integration leveraging portlets?
* Allow content contribution from other applications in the company; ideally during the authoring process.
* Allow content searches to be driven from other applications where information needs are required within the appropriate business workflow
* Allow content to be served up into other applications on request
* Allow content to be automatically served up to other applications contextually depending on what other content is being accessed

With tight integration into other corporate applications, the issues of "slack time" and "motivating usage" go away.