Social Software in the Enterprise
March 15th, 2006There’s a mini-essay in EContent by David Meerman Scott about blogs and wikis in the enterprise that is worth a few minutes of your time. From the piece:
“On one side of the corporate fence, the legal eagles are worried about secrets being revealed by their employees as they create content on blogs and wikis. And on the other, there’s the feeling that so much of the information being created today is just not to be trusted. Corporate nannies want to make certain that their naïve charges don’t get into trouble in the big scary world of information.”
“Well, duh. We’re talking about people here. Employees do silly things. They send inappropriate email (and blog posts too) and they believe some of the things on TV news. The debate should be centered around people, not technology. As the examples of previous technology waves should show us, attempting to block the technology isn’t the answer. Blogs and wikis, like PCs, the public Internet, and email in previous decades are like chewing gum in your hair—they’re easy to get into an enterprise, but impossible to remove without some ill-fated hair pulling.”
This morning, I spoke to about 100 law librarians at a PLI event (presentation here). I took my usual poll of the group, asking how many use blogs internally in their firm. Only a few hands went up. I wasn’t surprised to see that, considering Scott’s argument above. Liability issues abound, even in corporate intranets, where control is not easily given over to front end staff. Getting buy-in is also tough because blogs, wikis, and other social web applications can be scary. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to push the corporate envelope.
One piece of advice that I give is to not present ideas, but something more tangible. Instead of talking about creating a blog, create one. Then, show the people in charge how they work and what they can do for your company. Show and tell is easier digested than just tell.