Contrarian view on corporate blogs from InformationWeek's Secret CIO

Christian Crumlish

(via Unsere Kleine Digitale Welt) InformationWeek warns CIO's about the risks of blogging in the corporate sphere:

If you think your staff spends inordinate amounts of time designing PowerPoint presentations now, just imagine what these would-be artists and authors will do to productivity when their creative powers are unleashed on the world of computerized diaries and ever-expanding hyperlinks.


Finally, and perhaps most compelling, is the litigation issue. With the exception of research labs, where you write down everything to fight for patent protection and government certification, the last thing you want are uncontrolled and ever-expanding records of individual activities and opinions. As Microsoft has learned from keeping old E-mail too long, in this age of writs of discovery, what you've said way back when may really hurt you. Before you embark on a company blog initiative, best have a chat with your chief counsel.



On the other hand, I do see real opportunities in the world of the blogosphere, even if the acceptance of blogs doesn't quite pan out the way their proponents envision. We surely can expect to see the emergence of new business ventures for anti-blog filtering and tracking software. Maybe we can even provide employment for lawyers who can teach seminars on what you can, and can't, put on your personal company blog. If you come up with other entrepreneurship ideas, be sure to blog them for sharing with the rest of us.