While intranets generally may be stagnating, there are resources that can help intranet managers bring their networks to the levels we take for granted on the web. One recently-released resources comes from Melcrum Publishing, a book titled “Transforming Your Intranet,” isn’t cheap ($395 US), the value a company could accrue from paying attention to its advice makes it a bargain.

Kathleen Gilroy has released Chapter 2 in PDF format—which she co-wrote with Bill Ives—on her blog, and it’s a good one, focusing on the application of social media—RSS, blogs, and wikis—to intranets. The chapter is titled, “Preparing for Intranet 2.0: how to integrate new communication technology into your intranet.”

Regular readers of this blog (or any of the other PR blogs) won’t find much new here, but for those just starting to think about evolving their intranets, the chapter provides an excellent summary. Its real value, though, would come from passing it along to the next-level manager who who doesn’t know a wiki from a Ruth Bar to help make the case and bolster the notion that adding social media tools to an intranet would pay off for the organization. The chapter comes full of case studies, like the use of learning networks at a global financial services company.

Not bad for free—and the quality of the content could just motivate a few folks to pony up the $395 for the rest of the book.