3,600+ blogs: A glance into IBM's internal blogging
Through the central blog dashboard at the intranet W3, IBMers now can find more than 3,600 blogs written by their co-workers. As of June 13 there were 3,612 internal blogs with 30,429 posts. Internal blogging is still at a stage of testing and trying at IBM but the number of blogs is growing rapidly -- and they are appreciated, with everything from water cooler talk to discussions about IBM's business strategies.
Click for larger screenshot
The most common way to find internal blogs is the central blog dashboard, says Philippe Borremans, PR Manager for IBM in Belgium and Luxembourg. It's found on an area of the intranet that is dedicated to collaboration tools.
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| Philippe Borremans' internal blog. Click for larger screenshot. |
Catalyst for discussion
Michael Lowry (external personal blog) works for IBM in Sweden as a consultant and instructor for IBM software. He writes one or two posts per week minimum about whatever is going on in his workday, including product updates or product changes.
"Every once in a while it'll be a catalyst that'll start a discussion", says Michael. "I've received positive feedback saying 'I read your blog and find it useful, I've run into the same thing and it's great you write about it'."
Blog topics
IBM hasn't studied what topics people generally are writing about but Michael gives me an idea of the most common topics.
News or events that affect the businessSensitive? Think of yourself as a reporter protecting your source
"When IBM sold the personal computing division rumours were flying around before it actually happened and people were blogging about that, giving their opinions about what was going to happen and how it would affect IBM."
Metablogging
"It's a new technology of special interest to people who blog."
Administrative things
"The little changes going on in the company -- the water-cooler talk."
Product announcements
"Not necessarily of general interest but of interest to the specific community working with the product."
Hints and tips
"...for example about what bloggers have found interesting on the intranet."
Some of these could include potentially sensitive subjects. Philippe says (and Intel learned) "anything you write internally can go externally. It's a copy-paste world. But people know that we have to respect intellectual property, confidential information and all these things."
"I can usually find a way to write what I want to write without hurting anyone's feelings or revealing anything confidential. If I have to I'll think of myself like a newspaper reporter trying to protect a source. I can change the wording a little bit to make it more general but still convey what I'm trying to convey", Michael says.
Blogs on their way to become standard tools?
Internal blogging at IBM is just one of many internal communications tools, of course. Actually it's one of the less known tools, according to Philippe. The main internal channel is the intranet which more and more is moving towards a personalized portal. Employees also have a wide range of other social tools to use: chats, very active electronic forums etc.
"Blogging is from a communications point of view not considered a standard tool, although this will probably change. The Communications function is starting to look at how we can communicate official internal communication through blogs", says Philippe.
Technorati tags: internal blogging, corporate blogging, enterprise blogging, intranet, ibm