Blogroll paper

Blogs are the next big thing
Okay, so I’m a little behind the times I know, and this is only Week 2 of my ‘Life as a Blogger’, and the last day or so has been a little rocky now that people have worked out how to leave comments… But I’m of a generation that still thinks that digital watches are a pretty neat idea and once got a thrill out of a DEC Writer saying ‘Hello World…’ But I’m now thinking that all companies that employ white collar workers – or staff that are desk-based for at least some of the time – should consider blogs to be as essential a tool as Microsoft Word and email.

A couple of years ago, there was a flurry of management speak phrases that used the word ‘knowledge’ in them, such as such as knowledge economy, knowledge management and knowledge transfer. A lot of the bigger companies had already cottoned on to this idea many years before. They were quite aware that it wasn’t just staff that were the asset, it was what was in their heads. Henry Ford said that the‘…only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability…’ at a time when computers only existed in science fiction.

Brain bug
But short of acquiring an alien creature like the one in Starship Trooper, getting that knowledge out of peoples brains and recycling and developing it has always been the problem. Large companies such as banks and insurance companies had the luxury of whole departments responsible for producing volumes of staff procedure manuals, training staff and even providing in house help desk facilities. Procedure manuals are on the intranet, the training is online and the help desk may be overseas, but the principles are still the same. Smaller companies had to rely far more on word of mouth and handwritten notes, ‘sitting with Doris’ and ringing a mate who ‘used to work here’.

Everything changed with the internet. Now you can download templates and follow best practice and industry standards. You can Google it, search a wiki or even other blogs. But if your job is in a niche area, or your query is confidential then you cannot always plunder the seemingly limitless bank of human knowledge that is out there.

But your colleague or even your predecessor may know the answer.

Intra-blog?
So: What if all companies provided their staff with the facility to maintain their own internal work related blogs as a matter of course? No more irregular emails ‘for information’ or weekly reports that few people read (let alone remember). The company intranet as a means of knowledge management within the average SME is generally lacking and costly to maintain, or so I am told...

Searching blogs could be the first port of call, and updating and maintaining them would simply be part of your job and as natural as completing your timesheet. Bosses shouldn’t be too anal abut the content – they should let it evolve over time and just provide a few basic guidelines to avoid abuse (Peter!), as they already do with internet use and email. Established blogs rely on content, not control. Many people actually like seeing their words in print - or type – look at me! And if people want a footy blog then let them have it as long as it can be filtered out. Find a couple of power users and let them show the others what can be achieved.

And with all that knowledge recorded and available, you’ll not be thinking to yourself, “I wish she’d given us a proper handover before she left.”

Oh, and there is such a thing as a blogroll, so there…