Ideal case of employee weblogs

by Lilia Efimova on January 21, 2004

Think of a company that wants to experiment with public employee (not group/project) weblogs, understanding that they would give more “human” face to its on-line presence. I wrote about possible choices and questions before, but this time I want to be more specific.

I could think of two “extreme” choices: (a) establishing a weblog space on corporate web-site and (b) personally hosted weblogs linked from corporate web-site.

A. Corporate web-site weblogs B. Personal weblogs
  • Hosted at corporate web-site
  • Clear corporate affiliation, copyright and legal implications
  • Centralised technology infrastructure and support
  • Corporate control over weblog content
  • Personally hosted weblogs are linked from corporate web-site
  • “My company is not responsible” statement and personal copyright
  • Personal choice of technology infrastructure and support
  • Personal future-proof control over weblog content
  • Example: Jupiter Research blogs

    Example: Groove Networks blogs

  • Low technology threshold
  • Employee has to take care of corporate interests while writing
  • After employee leaves: stays with a company
  • High technology threshold
  • Freedom of speech (writing :) – personal decisions on what matters
  • After employee leaves: stays with an employee
  • Bottom line: easier to start, more control and benefits for a company, but less motivation to write

    Bottom line: difficult to start, less benefits for a company, but more personal motivation

    Now I’m thinking about an ideal case somewhere in between:

    • company provides a hosting space and centralised technical infrastructure for weblogs
    • weblogs are clearly marked as a personal initiative
    • employee has an opportunity to import/export content (see who owns narrated experiences?), company has an opportunity to aggregate/reuse content

    Closest example: Weblogs at Harvard law (terms of use).

    Bottom line: low threshold to start a weblog + high motivation to write + shared benefits

    This post also appears on channel weblog research


    Please note, that although posted in my personal weblog, this post was provoked by my discussion with colleagues, written during my work hours and it is a part of weblog research we do. I’m responsible for it personally, but my company is likely to expect some benefits from it :)

    Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/01/21.html#a922; comments are here.

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