Strengthening online communities

I am a member of numerous sorts of online communities, e.g., Delta Intercultural Academy, my MS-OTL classes, my workplace, a group of 4 friends on two continents, Facebook, the ASTD CPLP community, and so on. Some of these online communities seem to serve their purposes/ functions better than others.

One that seems to me that it could be much more efficient and effective is my "work community." My organization has about 5000 employees worldwide, with a bit fewer than 3000 of those at our headquarters here in Reno NV. The company has an Intranet with links to the various departments, makes use of a (rather complicated it seems) Sharepoint to store and retrieve documents, touts an LMS, and sends out numerous emails with announcements of various kinds. And yet, all of the above, although containing a wealth of information, seems rather piecemeal and disjointed and does not convey a strong sense of community, even just among the employees on our local campus. For example, although I have access to lots of information, I hardly know who the top people of the company are or what visions they have for the organization.

I wonder if it might be possible to research and find a better way to pull all of these electronic loose ends together in such way that the employees could understand how all of this fits together and benefits the individuals, thereby perhaps creating a greater sense of community, of pulling together toward the same goals.

If others on my team have experienced similar situations in the organizations they work for, then a possible topic for our project might be something like, "Creating the optimal online work community."