Comments on: They work inside too! http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/ Tom Raftery, social media consultant, speaker, blogger and podcaster Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:52:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Doing Business In India » Blog Archive » Business Blogging http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-116737 Doing Business In India » Blog Archive » Business Blogging Thu, 15 May 2008 18:24:48 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-116737 [...] If you have a dispersed workforce blogs serve as a powerful tool for sharing stories. Blogs help in streamlining operations where knowledge is shared openly. They assist in building personal networks within the oragnisation and helps the employees to showcase their expertise. There is more to read on this topic by “Tom Raftery” [...] [...] If you have a dispersed workforce blogs serve as a powerful tool for sharing stories. Blogs help in streamlining operations where knowledge is shared openly. They assist in building personal networks within the oragnisation and helps the employees to showcase their expertise. There is more to read on this topic by “Tom Raftery” [...]

]]> By: Vivek P http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-115129 Vivek P Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:48:40 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-115129 This is a cool resource for businesses. More importantly for small business owners who need to communicate internally and externally in an economic manner. I intend to provide a link to this page on my blog. This is a cool resource for businesses. More importantly for small business owners who need to communicate internally and externally in an economic manner. I intend to provide a link to this page on my blog.

]]> By: Tom Raftery http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104829 Tom Raftery Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:40:02 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104829 @Colm - great ideas (some of these may be better suited to an internal co. wiki - wikis are said to cut down on email traffic by around 30%). IT Architect - absolutely, the biggest problems in these projects is the initial inertia. Once the project is up and running, the content keeps bringing people back. Krishna - looking forward to meeting up in Dublin once more - we keep missing each other! Antoin - that's true. What you also need is an internal champion who is also a good communicator! Not always easy to find! @Colm - great ideas (some of these may be better suited to an internal co. wiki - wikis are said to cut down on email traffic by around 30%).

IT Architect - absolutely, the biggest problems in these projects is the initial inertia. Once the project is up and running, the content keeps bringing people back.

Krishna - looking forward to meeting up in Dublin once more - we keep missing each other!

Antoin - that’s true. What you also need is an internal champion who is also a good communicator! Not always easy to find!

]]> By: Antoin O Lachtnain http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104828 Antoin O Lachtnain Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:01:25 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104828 I think the trick with this is to start with the information people actually need to do their jobs better and work backwards from there to figure out who can blog it and how, rather than starting with the idea that people should blog and then looking for an audience. That's not to say that blogging things like status reports and anything else is a bad thing - it isn't, it's great -. But it's a matter of where the priorities should be. I think the trick with this is to start with the information people actually need to do their jobs better and work backwards from there to figure out who can blog it and how, rather than starting with the idea that people should blog and then looking for an audience.

That’s not to say that blogging things like status reports and anything else is a bad thing - it isn’t, it’s great -. But it’s a matter of where the priorities should be.

]]> By: Krishna De http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104797 Krishna De Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:45:03 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104797 Tom - I completely agree and that is the focus I take when talking about corporate podcasting and business blogging - it's an aspect of what I covered at the Corporate Podcasting Summit Europe that I spoke at last month. I'm also covering this in a conference on Talent Management sponsored by the Irish Times in early May. I hope we get chance to connect on this when you are in dublin this next weekend. Tom - I completely agree and that is the focus I take when talking about corporate podcasting and business blogging - it’s an aspect of what I covered at the Corporate Podcasting Summit Europe that I spoke at last month.

I’m also covering this in a conference on Talent Management sponsored by the Irish Times in early May.

I hope we get chance to connect on this when you are in dublin this next weekend.

]]> By: IT Architect http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104728 IT Architect Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:59:19 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104728 Combine this with email notification of new posts/comments and you could *possibly* overcome some of the inertia by participants Combine this with email notification of new posts/comments and you could *possibly* overcome some of the inertia by participants

]]> By: Colm Ryan http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104690 Colm Ryan Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:55:34 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/they-work-inside-too/#comment-104690 My feeling on internal blogs is that they provide companies potentially with a very efficient and cheap way of managing and retaining knowledge. What if everybody used internal blogs instead of writing up status reports? What if all company announcements (new hires, changes to policies etc) were made on a blog instead of the usual method of email flooding? What about using your personal pages to assess who is the right person for a new project? Link that up to Google Desktop Enterprise Search and, hey presto, you probably have a cheap yet efficient Knowledge Management system. The great advantage being that it is unstructured "bottom up" data that is easily maintained while also being easy to search through. There are also some potential advantages to be gained through close collaboration. Subscribers to internal blogs would be more ready to add value to a blogger's thoughts and suggestions, meaning that no-one would need to work in a vacuum. It's more a peer review model than the usual method of hierarchical review. I think a key issue to work through however is gaining critical mass within an organisation. Some people like writing, others not so much. The usual "what's in it for me" problem may surface for a large proportion of people. To take full advantage of the potential of a system such as this, certain up-front training would be necessary I think, and there might need to be a discipline enforced on people to use the blogging system for certain types of communications. Another question is enterprise size - a small company would probably not need it, but for how many people would it start to make sense? My feeling on internal blogs is that they provide companies potentially with a very efficient and cheap way of managing and retaining knowledge.

What if everybody used internal blogs instead of writing up status reports? What if all company announcements (new hires, changes to policies etc) were made on a blog instead of the usual method of email flooding? What about using your personal pages to assess who is the right person for a new project?

Link that up to Google Desktop Enterprise Search and, hey presto, you probably have a cheap yet efficient Knowledge Management system. The great advantage being that it is unstructured “bottom up” data that is easily maintained while also being easy to search through.

There are also some potential advantages to be gained through close collaboration. Subscribers to internal blogs would be more ready to add value to a blogger’s thoughts and suggestions, meaning that no-one would need to work in a vacuum. It’s more a peer review model than the usual method of hierarchical review.

I think a key issue to work through however is gaining critical mass within an organisation. Some people like writing, others not so much. The usual “what’s in it for me” problem may surface for a large proportion of people. To take full advantage of the potential of a system such as this, certain up-front training would be necessary I think, and there might need to be a discipline enforced on people to use the blogging system for certain types of communications.

Another question is enterprise size - a small company would probably not need it, but for how many people would it start to make sense?

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