CIO INSIGHT on Blogs

A través del recientemente inaugurado Blogspotting, de BusinessWeek, llego a un artículo de Edward Cone, publicado a principios de abril en CIO INSIGHT.

Se trata de un artículo sobre blogs y empresa - corporate blogging - donde, aparte constatar la magnitud del fenómeno y su relación con otras herramientas colaborativas como los wikis, el autor repasa algunos casos de aplicación de este tipo de plataformas de publicación web en el entorno corporativo.

Destaca el caso de Sun Microsystems, donde la adopción de los blogs como herramienta de comunicación corporativa y su utilización por parte de los empleados, parte de la dirección y se regula por las propias normas de confidencialidad y comunicación que la compañía ya aplicaba; creándose además un conjunto de "reglas", un tanto informales, que recogen el sentido común y la práctica de los propios blogueros que las han formulado:

Rules for the Unruly

According to the old rules at Sun Microsystems Inc., employees could be fired for speaking about the company without permission. That changed last year, when senior management embraced blogging. "As of now, you are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission," say the guidelines compiled by Sun bloggers. Company lawyers approved the policy; bloggers who register at Sun's site must acknowledge remaining restrictions on discussing financial data and other confidential information.

It's a Two-Way Street. Whether or not you're going to write, look around and do some reading, so you learn where the conversation is and what people are saying. If you start writing, remember the Web is all about links; when you see something interesting and relevant, link to it.

Don't Tell Secrets. It's perfectly OK to talk about your work, but it's not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces. There's an official policy on protecting Sun's proprietary and confidential information, but there are still going to be judgment calls. If the judgment call is tough?on secrets or one of the other issues discussed here?it's never a bad idea to get management sign-off before you publish.

Be Interesting. Writing is hard work. There's no point in doing it if people don't read it. People like to know what kind of a person is writing what they're reading . . . [but] a blog is a public place and you should try to avoid embarrassing your readers or the company. Write what you know.

Avoid Legal Hassles. Talking about revenue, future product ship dates, roadmaps, or our share price is apt to get you, or the company, or both, into legal trouble.

Looks Count. If you're not design-oriented, ask someone who is whether your blog looks decent, and take their advice on how to improve it.

Think About Consequences. The worst thing that can happen is that a Sun sales pro is in a meeting with a hot prospect, and someone on the customer's side pulls out a printout of your blog and says "This person at Sun says that product sucks." Using your weblog to trash or embarrass the company, our customers, or your co-workers, is not only dangerous but stupid.

Post Disclaimers. Many bloggers put a disclaimer on their front page saying who they work for, but that they're not speaking officially. This is good practice, but don't count on it to avoid trouble; it may not have much legal effect.

Use Tools. We're starting to develop tools to make it easy for anyone to start publishing, but if you feel the urge, don't wait for us; there are lots of decent blogging tools and hosts out there.

Creo que se trata de un caso práctico de aplicación que ilustra muy bien los aspectos que tanto se han debatido en la blogosfera al respecto de la utilización de los blogs en la empresa; un terreno abonado para el crecimiento de este fenómeno, hacia su integración como parte de las plataformas corporativas, con lo que ello significará para su rentabilización como línea de producto o como negocio en si mismo.

En poco tiempo el calificativo de blog será anecdótico y servirá sólo para hacer referencia al fenómeno que provocara un cambio radical en la fisonomía y la fisiología de la web, amplificando su naturaleza hipertextual e interactiva para conformar entornos orientados a la colaboración y la comunicación multimodal - tanto sincrónica como asincrónica - en todos los ámbitos sociales, personales o profesionales.

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