Blog Basics
As communication and collaboration tools evolve, the distinction between them has become subtle at the outset, and greater as the use deepens, like a fork in the road. Blogs and wikis might not seem that different on first glance, because they both enable communication of information by a person or group of people, and provide a platform for feedback. Blogs do it in the form of comments, while wikis do it by letting users directly edit the contents of a given page. This is where the distinction becomes more apparent. For example, businesses are increasingly using wikis to write documentation, and the result is better, more comprehensive documentation than a product manager or engineer could singularly write. A blog wouldn’t work as well for this, because direct editing of pages is necessary for users to alter the same text when correcting errors, improving clarity and flow, and adding new information. Wikis are better when you want information to be touched - and enhanced - by as many hands as possible.
Blogs are a better communication tool when you want to get information out to people, and want to enable feedback, but keep the original text intact. Internal blogging is frequently used to communicate about activities like product development, support issues, product releases, planning events and conferences, providing informal updates on misceallneous issues. Blogs usually encourage readers to comment, provide feedback open dialogue and exchange ideas.
Blog Usage
Internal Communications - Set the direction right
This is frequently the first wave of internal blogging. Senior executives can reinforce corporate vision, mission and priorities on a regular basis. Use your blog to reflect your company's inner soul: its mission, goals and direction. A blog is just another medium by which you interact with your employees. Corporate news – good and bad – can be communicated quickly and in more detail than an email allows. Rather than sharing their knowledge with one employee at a time (by email, telephone or in person), they can share it with everyone who sees their post in cyn.in.
Knowledge Management
An internal blog can be an effective information management tool. By recording thoughts, ideas and opinions openly, they are not only recorded for the individual's benefit, but are also available to others in the organization who might have something to contribute, or even have a use for that information. They can act as effective filters of knowledge due to their speed, flexibility and ability to spread information easily.
Business Intelligence
Although blogs are generally informal and unstructured, the signals they capture can be aggregated in order to spot patterns in information and knowledge. These patterns can alert the organization to
problems and issues missed by external business intelligence providers. For example, multiple employees blogging about a competitor announcement can quickly direct the collective attention of the organization to it. Equally, employees blogging about similar topics in different departments unknowingly form communities of interest that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Project Management Updates
Blogs also provide an effective way of capturing the unstructured or informal information and communication relating to a more structured or formal project. A project blog can be a vital resource for all project members, particularly new ones or those in virtual teams who rarely get the chance to meet face-to-face. A successful project blog isn’t just a store of project information, but a record of the ideas, opinions and knowledge of all project members resulting from the interactions between them.
Capture Tacit Knowledge
In many organizations, employees who are knowledgeable about how work actually gets done are among the least likely to write blogs. This may be due to limited computer access, temperament or job responsibilities. A classic example is the oil engineer who understands in great detail the tactic knowledge required to operate an oil rig but spends zero time in office. When this person leaves, all the valuable information that lived in that person's mind, disappears. Capture the tacit knowledge of hands on workers and make it available to others in the organization by blogging. If its in a blog, it doesn't disappear.
Spontaneous Blogs
Encourage anyone with any interest, level of expertise or ability to articulate a thought to author a blog and publish it for consumption by other employees. Studies of user generated content make it clear that more than 90% of users are lurkers - they read more content but don't contribute. While 1% of the users generate the vast majority of content.
