Assessments of various blogging options.
This discussion of various Blogging Platforms looks interesting, and very timely for me. I am currently evaluating platforms to use (internally) for blogging within my company as a collaboration and idea exchange tool (external blogs may or may not come later). As a part of an overall innovation program, I think internal blogs will be very useful – even within a relatively small company it is really easy to be completely unaware of cool things others are working on.
I also love the Mind Map in that post – I use mind maps everywhere, and love to see others using them.
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About
A bit about myself. I have been working in the world of technology for 20-odd years. I am an entrepreneur and consultant, focused on software solutions, social networking, and innovation processes. Currently, I am a Principal Consultant with T4G Limited, specializing in Portal Technologies (including SharePoint), software/systems development, service oriented architectures, and many other things which I will probably not remember until I need to use them.
Prior to that, I was VP of Technology at Whitehill Technologies, Inc., where I spent almost 9 years helping to grow the company from a startup to one of the most successful private software companies in Canada. Prior to that I worked on internet conferencing using early VoIP, and on large military communications projects. Before even that, I worked in satellite control, and remote sensing. Going way back to university, my focus was on theoretical physics and astrophysics.
Currently my interests revolve around most aspects of software development, from technologies to management, and in the area of defining sustainable, repeatable processes for innovation within technology organizations. I also have a particular interest in Tablet PC technologies – I have been using one for several years, and I love it.
On the personal side, I still have a strong interest in all aspects of science, especially physical sciences, as well as philosophy and comparative religion. In addtion, I am into music, playing guitar (badly, I am sorry to say), and reading almost anything I can lay my hands on.
I am also a member of the IEEE/IEEE Computer Society, and of the Association for Computing Machinery.
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Fred
It’s a great idea to start with an internal blog, so everyone can get used to the process, learn some dos and don’ts and develop a level of comfort with sharing ideas in this way. And it could be very good for a business owner or chief exec even in a small firm to have a blog and encourage others to have internal blogs to start – even small organizations suffer from the “nobody ever tells me anything around here”, “why am I always the last to know?”, “when did we agree on that” type of internal communication challenge. An internal blog – which I believe can be an “intranet with soul” – can help overcome that.
Des,
Thanks. I agree that it should be helpful. We are a growing company which up until about 8 months ago was about 100 people all in one location. Midway through last year we acquired another company of comparable size, which is about 1000 miles away. We have made a conscious decision to maintain both sites, including R&D labs at both locations. This has led to some challenges in R&D and innovation. If we want to just let both labs run as they were, and get a simple 1+1=2 result, then it is not a big problem. However, if we want to truly leverage the combined brainpower, then we need to find a way to foster continuous cross-site information and idea flow. I see the introduction of blogs as a first step. I hope to build on that with other technologies, as things progress.
I also like your “intranet with soul” comment – that is an issue I see in many places where the intranet is set up (intentionally) to be a one way information channel – it just does not live up to all it could be in terms of idea exchange and innovation.
Fred