No, Not All Of Us Will Blog
I had decided to not write about Forrester's vision. I figured everyone would see that it is ridiculuos. But it's being quoted, and I feel a need to have a say.
Charlene Li writes this: "Forrester envisions a day when new employees on their first day will be handed a sheet of paper with their phone number, email address - and a URL for their blog. The company would give all of its employees a personal internal blog where they could provide project updates, trip reports, and market intelligence - anything that they think others should know about the work that they are doing".
Big sigh.
Take it from someone who's been trying to get people to write for years. I have supported, trained, tried to persuade all kinds of professionals - managers, product developers, daycare staff, professors, nurses, doctors, consultants, politicians, marketers etc etc. And basically we can talk about three groups.
1. Those who just wont write. It doesn't come natural to them. They never feel a need to have a say - and if they do they much rather speak than write. They could have the blog URL tattoed on their forehead, and they still wouldn't write.
2. Those who wants to write, but don't have the knowledge or time. This is the group where support and training (maybe even a blog URL) could make a difference.
3. Those who would write even if we crashed their computers and stole their pencils. (Read: Many of today's bloggers...)
Ok, maybe Forrester is talking about certain businesses. Maybe Forrester realize that a lot of dead internal blogs would be the result of their vision. But Charlene doesn't say that. And to people passing by the business blogosphere, wondering what's going on here, those kind of visions is exactly what makes us look like psychedelic blog evangelists with a serious lack of reality check.