Blogs are like email to someone you don't know yet
Martin Roell has been interviewed (english-language page) by Michael Rossa of Siemens AG about the "Blog 100" effort that Siemens has been running internally (testing blogs for 100 days). The interview is about 20 minutes and contains some interesting items. Oh, and it's in English.
I listened while puttering around the office, so I probably missed some pithy comments. But I had to replay one section around 4 or 5 minutes into the interview on why people should be blogging in an internal blogosphere. These are not direct quotes, but close enough:
Why should one blog internally: Ask questions. Posit ideas and ask for feedback. Ask for additional ideas. Help get your work done.
Why not to blog: Not just because journalism isn't good enough. Not for "nice blog content." These don't provide any value or interest.
Give people a tool to help people work more effectively.
A little later (9 - 10 minutes) in the interview, they were talking about reading external blogs and how that might be helpful for people inside the company. Don't just tell people "go read blogs." Martin suggested that businesses be clear about how they expect people to take advantage of blogging. For engineers, "How can an external blog help your engineer(s) be better engineers?"
These ideas paired together (why write; why read) are something I find important about blogging amongst people who have shared interests and needs. And it usually gets missed in the first-pass descriptions of "what blogs are." The writers get the opportunity to tap into a larger group of people who share the same interests, and the readers get the opportunity to hear and see what a wider range of people are discussing. And in the blending of the worlds, some readers and become writers, either by commenting on the blogs in question or writing their own blog.
Finally, Martin related a quote that someone else spontaneously gave him on describing what weblogs are:
Oh, blogs are like email to someone you don't know yet.
3 Comment(s)
Jack,
The sad thing about that last quote is that it will probably resonate more with most people than any other - better - description of what blogs are/can be, because most people today live in e-mail. (Those that are connected, anyway.) I've had many experiences trying to implement collaboration systems in which the main question was, "Why not just use e-mail?" In fact, I still get that question when I ask co-workers why they aren't using IM.
We've come a long way, but still have a way to go.
said:
Right, Brett. The email link is easy for people to make, but I sensed the Martin was going down the path of the blogs-as-community discussion. With that in mind, the idea of posting an article onto my blog, is not unlike posting a note to my friends - some of whom I just haven't met yet.
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I should use trackback, but blogger doesn't have this. But it is nice to know I used the quote:
http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2006/11/technology-one-liners-that-stick-in.html