Internet vs intranet – What’s the difference?

All of you are Vignette content authors. You all manage content using the CMA on your public agency website. The public website addresses are www.michigan.gov/dtmb, www.michigan.gov/dnr, www.michigan.gov/mdch etc.

You may also be a content manager for your agency internal site (intranet). Most agencies have already migrated (or are in the process of migrating) their intranet sites from connect.michigan.gov to inside.michigan.gov, which is SharePoint. 

If you have content on your internal intranet site (inside.michigan.gov) the public website cannot link to it. If you are outside the state network, you will receive a broken link.

An example can be found here: http://www.michigan.gov/dmb/0,4568,7-150-9141_21738-113205--,00.html  The link titled “Requisition for Freight Services (DTMB-948)” links to: http://inside.michigan.gov/wr/maildelivery/Documents/DTMB-0948%20Requisition%20for%20Freight%20Services.aspx 

We can get to this link without any problems as long as we are at work and inside the network. If instead we are at home, we receive a broken link.

Please do not link your public website to the internal sites. The general public will get frustrated by receiving broken links. 

Consider your audience, if the content is meant for internal use, it should be housed on the intranet. If the content is target for the general public, it needs to be housed on the public website.

Remember, the inside can point to content on the public website, but the public website cannot point to content on the internal intranet.