Enterprise Weblogging Using weblogs for communication & information management Michael Angeles

Overview Why weblogs? What are they good for? Roadmap

Why weblogs?

What are they good for?

Roadmap

Definitions, just in case I am assuming you know a little bit about weblogs Definition of weblogs A journal, usually updated frequently, sometimes categorized Usually links to other sites Can support comments and some stateless interaction Provides an XML feed

I am assuming you know a little bit about weblogs

Definition of weblogs

A journal, usually updated frequently, sometimes categorized

Usually links to other sites

Can support comments and some stateless interaction

Provides an XML feed

Scope of this talk Yes I’m not talking about story telling to the outside world Some project information can spill out into personal blogs; e.g. See Sun and Microsoft blogs Mainly internal project weblogs To some extent, personal information management blogs whose goals are to build individual and organizational understanding Not really

Why weblogs?

The elevator pitch Can your employees see themselves in the context of the whole company? Would more informed decisions be made if employees and leaders had access to internal news sources? Weblogs serve this need. By making internal websites simple to update, weblogs allow individuals and teams to maintain online journals that chronicle projects inside the company. These professional journals make it easy to produce and access internal news, providing context to the company — context that can profoundly affect decision making. In this way, weblogs allow employees and leaders to make more informed decisions through increasing their awareness of internal news and events. –Lee Lefever

Can your employees see themselves in the context of the whole company? Would more informed decisions be made if employees and leaders had access to internal news sources? Weblogs serve this need. By making internal websites simple to update, weblogs allow individuals and teams to maintain online journals that chronicle projects inside the company. These professional journals make it easy to produce and access internal news, providing context to the company — context that can profoundly affect decision making. In this way, weblogs allow employees and leaders to make more informed decisions through increasing their awareness of internal news and events. –Lee Lefever

Knowledge workers - feel greatest need to publish & share Researchers, engineers, sales force Communities of Practice (CoPs) – need to collaborate & share Communities organized around projects, products or topics (e.g. Mobility) Chief Information Organization (CIO) – concerned about standards Enterprise Information Technology people Executives – concerned about profitability, productivity, and cost savings Officers, upper managers The story is about people and their needs

Knowledge workers - feel greatest need to publish & share

Researchers, engineers, sales force

Communities of Practice (CoPs) – need to collaborate & share

Communities organized around projects, products or topics (e.g. Mobility)

Chief Information Organization (CIO) – concerned about standards

Enterprise Information Technology people

Executives – concerned about profitability, productivity, and cost savings

Officers, upper managers

Healthy information ecologies tend to be diverse Diverse set set of user types Diverse set of needs Diverse set of technologies used to meet these needs The need to publish and share is a common problem – it’s an organizational point of pain Obstacles to publishing right now Inflexibility of current tools Cost and limited human resources Why they emerged

Healthy information ecologies tend to be diverse

Diverse set set of user types

Diverse set of needs

Diverse set of technologies used to meet these needs

The need to publish and share is a common problem – it’s an organizational point of pain

Obstacles to publishing right now

Inflexibility of current tools

Cost and limited human resources

The new KM is a bottom-up effort Using story-telling at a personal level to socialize information and promote understanding Shifting messaging power to the indidual Weblogs support diverse ecologies They allow some interaction (commenting, remote comments via XMLRPC-based trackbacks) Enable information sharing (RSS/Atom feeds) Keep control of publishing close to the owners Weblog software arrives just in time The software is priced right and is easy to use Diversity is a good thing See: Nardi, O’Day on information ecologies Why they’re suitable for our current needs

The new KM is a bottom-up effort

Using story-telling at a personal level to socialize information and promote understanding

Shifting messaging power to the indidual

Weblogs support diverse ecologies

They allow some interaction (commenting, remote comments via XMLRPC-based trackbacks)

Enable information sharing (RSS/Atom feeds)

Keep control of publishing close to the owners

Weblog software arrives just in time

The software is priced right and is easy to use

Diversity is a good thing

See: Nardi, O’Day on information ecologies

Summary: What makes blogging a good fit

Interesting, but what are they good for?

Personal and group information management Typical communication and information sharing questions related to projects: How do we minimize gaps in the individual's understanding of the knowledge of the larger group? How do we keep the group up to date on progress made by individuals, by the team as a whole? How do we develop an organizational memory of processes leading to decisions?

Typical communication and information sharing questions related to projects:

How do we minimize gaps in the individual's understanding of the knowledge of the larger group?

How do we keep the group up to date on progress made by individuals, by the team as a whole?

How do we develop an organizational memory of processes leading to decisions?

The goal is to foster understanding.

Information management Subject matter weblogs Document library weblog Training weblog Project management Training weblog (really a hybrid) Product requirements docs Case studies at Lucent

Information management

Subject matter weblogs

Document library weblog

Training weblog

Project management

Training weblog (really a hybrid)

Product requirements docs

Simple examples: Subject blogs

Simple examples: Subject blogs

Needs: Process for easily archiving output of face to face training Method for easily communicating updates in timely and efficient manner Place for discussion of changing Engineer’s needs and issues during roll out Context: Existing ocument repository was cumbersome and static, didn’t provide for interaction; no knowledge base for questions and answers A more sophisticated example: A training weblog: Project Summary Project: System Training on new system (Phase II of rollout; internationally and to smaller customer teams) Persona: Engineers Problem: Communicating, sharing information, developing knowledge and archive

Needs:

Process for easily archiving output of face to face training

Method for easily communicating updates in timely and efficient manner

Place for discussion of changing Engineer’s needs and issues during roll out

Context:

Existing ocument repository was cumbersome and static, didn’t provide for interaction; no knowledge base for questions and answers

Conceptual model

How are needs satisfied by a weblog?

Site architecture Published blog content Forms for posting content Instructions for posting content via web or email

Home page schematic

Home page

Blog entry schematic

Blog entry

Tagging blog entries Categorizing or tagging blog entries

Category and status tags Status flag applied when question is answered Category applied

Taking tagging further: Paragraph-level flagging for Product Requirement Docs Annotating at the paragraph level. Example using Traction Software for collaborative authoring of a product requirements document. Note status flags.

Low cost Ease of use Features and functionality match needs Distribution Archiving Interaction Weblogs a good fit for this project

Low cost

Ease of use

Features and functionality match needs

Distribution

Archiving

Interaction

Roadmap: Where does the story end?

A roadmap for the long view

Now: Blogging software Are individuals blogging already? What level of support can you provide? Select solutions that match your information ecology Centralized: Provide an enterprise blogging application Decentralized: Individuals and CoP’s select and manage own blog publishing application

Are individuals blogging already?

What level of support can you provide?

Select solutions that match your information ecology

Centralized: Provide an enterprise blogging application

Decentralized: Individuals and CoP’s select and manage own blog publishing application

Near term: Support information awareness Bloggers very often use their own news readers to track a lot of weblogs daily Ability to stay abreast of internal/external news may drive frequency of publishing Consider electronic alerting services for vendor purchased news (e.g. ABI, Factiva) and internal databases (e.g. document repositories) as RSS

Bloggers very often use their own news readers to track a lot of weblogs daily

Ability to stay abreast of internal/external news may drive frequency of publishing

Consider electronic alerting services for vendor purchased news (e.g. ABI, Factiva) and internal databases (e.g. document repositories) as RSS

Example: RSS for all databases RSS, HTML, JS feeds of database search results

Example: Social bookmarking

Encourage bloggers to use full text feeds (with entire blog entry in the RSS feed) Provide an enterprise RSS/Atom News reader for aggregation and archiving Off the shelf: Newsgator (Enterprise) Build your own or use open source software Consider some classification of blog entries Long term: Support findability of internal blogs

Encourage bloggers to use full text feeds (with entire blog entry in the RSS feed)

Provide an enterprise RSS/Atom News reader for aggregation and archiving

Off the shelf: Newsgator (Enterprise)

Build your own or use open source software

Consider some classification of blog entries

Longer term: Aggregating and classifying

Longer term: Enabling relationships

Relationships to entities in the enterprise Observe relationships Enable expert finding and social behaviors

Thank you. [email_address]