While researching blogs as a learning and organizational tool I read an article by Tony Karrer titled “Learning and Networking With a Blog”.
This article has a good overview of how blogs can be a positive influence for individuals, groups, and organizations. Until just recently, I had always looked at blog as a way for an individual to convey themselves. Never before had I thought about how a business or organization could implement a blog.
The author suggests that using a blog for communication within a group can be very effective. E-mail can be hard to keep up with as employees have to make sure it keeps getting sent to the right people. A blog is a good way of simplifying this by allowing multiple users to post and comment on information at one common location. It could also be opened up to the public to allow other interested parties the ability to comment and contribute.
The author also talks about how many people who blog find it to be a good learning tool as bloggers are always looking for new information to post. He also sees them as a new way to interact. Bloggers often start conversations through comments on each other’s posts and blogs. This in turn can lead to the formation of new relations and continued interaction.
I agree with the author that blogs can be a very useful tool for both workplace communication and individual expression and learning. I also agree with the author that forced blogging will not work. I think blogging should be encouraged, but if it were forced it would lead to many useless blog entries where the information would probably be less than relevant due to a blogger that is just trying to fulfill a requirement instead of offer useful information.
Source: Karrer, T. (2007). Learning and Networking With a BLOG. T+D, Vol. 61 Issue 9, p20-22
3 comments:
I as well have never thought of blogs as a business. I always just thought they were a way for people to express themselves, and keep other people updated on what is going on with them. I think blogs would be great for business. As was stated you could post information and have employees respond to that. I think that would be a great way for everyone to interact and bounce ideas off of each other!
The Blog “Are BLOGS good business?” demonstrates how Blogs have evolved into a form of Human Computer Interaction. Blogs can be used to encourage communication within an organization. For example, I use Blogs as end user surveys when rolling out new software. Users can make suggestions for improvement or ask questions within the FAQ portion of the blog. The article identified that “forced” blogging does not encourage communication. I would agree with this but I have found that if you provided an interesting or useful topic, you do not have to force employees to access and participate in the blog.
Blogs are are not good business for the corporate world. First, Companies that use Blogs must be extra careful with their employees not giving out company secrets about their products and how they are manufactured. Secondly, Employees of that company must be cautious of what information, if any that they are writing about. I think blogs should not be allowed in the corporate world, because of the danger it can imposed against the company. It could cost millions of dollars just to fix the damage that an employee could impose by writing about the company in his/her blog.
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