Internal v. External Blogging

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:14:41 GMT

Recently I read (I'm sorry I did not save the link) that IBM has huge numbers of people who blog internally, that is to say only for other IBMers to read, and very few external blogging. Microsoft on the other hand has very few internal bloggers but thousands (estimates reach as high as 7,000) external bloggers. This was interesting but didn't get me all stirred up in thought until I read two blogs by Microsoft employees. One by Rory Blyth (quote below) was mostly about the Mini-Microsoft blog and the need for different thinking within Microsoft. The other was my Adam Barr and was titled Emailing Executives vs. Blogging. Adam talks abut the different sort of response he expects from a private email and a public blog. It really got me thinking.

Internal blogs are about communicating privately. Well at least semi-privately. When I was at Digital Equipment years ago there were huge numbers of computer conferences (Notes Conferences) that we private to the company. I maintained a company wide list of well over 1,000 of them. There were many conferences that which were not on the list. But clearly there was a lot of internal communication. People all over the world were talking about the company in a "safe place." People did criticize executives and executive decisions and things sometimes got changed. Executive retribution was rare and people tended to feel that they could be heard. The President of the company (Ken Olsen) had someone who followed some of these online conversations and he was mindful of the state of the company online.

Now when people blog externally they tend to watch what they say. Oh there are exceptions of course. Mini-Microsoft is pretty outspoken but he does his blogging anonymously. Dare Obasanjo recently wrote publicly about why he doesn't expect to last more than five more years at Microsoft. But people like Dare are rare in more ways than one. I lack his confidence. And I must confess that my style is to criticize privately. Praise should always be done publicly but I tend to think that if you are going to correct someone it should be done quietly and privately.

Are internal (inside the firewall) blogs something that should be promoted? Kevin Briody (Seattle Duck) believes so. He wrote about internal blogging at Microsoft recently. He’s put his time and efforts behind what he says as well. His group has an internal blog and I read it all the time.

I think that people will feel more free to say what is on their mind, especially about what they don’t like, on internal blogs. But at the same time there has to be a culture that supports this. I’m not sure how one builds a culture like that. Generally they tend to grow organically. But I think if I were CEO (or Chief Software Architect and Chairman) I would put some effort into making sure there was a lot of clear, bi-directional communication between senior executives and individual contributors. Blogging might just be a good way to do it. I don’t think email is it.

Quote

Rory Blyth - Mini-Microsoft - The most important Microsoft blog?

What's sad, then, is that Mini-Microsoft has to do this anonymously. If I were in charge, and I'm not, but if I were, I'd hire this guy to blog internally. In a sort of "Employee Safe Zone" where employees would be allowed to speak their minds openly and honestly in response to observations made by Mini-Microsoft.

Alfred Thompson the Cyberspace People Watcher: Organizations

Internal v. External Blogging