About a year ago, I began planning and outlining Technology for HR: A Legal and Practical Guide for Managing E-mail, Intranets & Social Media. At the time, I considered myself fairly technologically savvy. After all, I was (and am) the master of the DVR, could build a playlist on my iPod, and even had my very own Twitter and Facebook accounts. Surely tackling the world of technology as it relates to HR would be no problem.

After some back and forth with my editor, Ralph Gaillard, we settled on the following topics for this first edition of the technology manual: e-mail, intranets, mobile technology, blogs, microblogs, social networks, wikis, online video and podcasts, and RSS. No problem . . . yeah, right.

As I dove in, my head began to swim, and I must admit I started to panic. There was just so much to learn. How could I possibly get a grip on all this information, much less distill it down into easy-to-digest nuggets? Over the next six months, I tackled each topic by reading about its history and development, looking for ways companies big and small were using the functions to improve the HR experience (for both the HR professional and employee), and, finally, wading into the deep end by actually using and building each of the items on the list.

A year later, my fear has all but evaporated because I feel like I can tackle almost any technology hurdle with enough time and effort (for those of you who don’t have the time, you can get a jump start with the Technology for HR manual). There are three rules that served me well on this technology odyssey: read more…