Blogs in the Workplace

An article in today's New York Times talks about how companies are using weblogs to simplify everyday tasks and internal processes:

Mr. Tang has also used blogs to coordinate group projects, like the recent process of interviewing job candidates for a programming position. The various people at the company who spoke to each candidate posted their comments on a password-protected Web log.

"One person wrote that a candidate was `quiet,' " Mr. Tang recalled. "There was a whole discussion about this. `What does that mean? Is it a bad thing? Does it mean he's antisocial?' There was more back and forth with the interview process. It helped everyone to get on the same page more quickly."

(...)

"People are starting to use Web logs to archive data that would have otherwise been lost," Mr. Tang said. He noted that much of the company's internal communications had been via instant messaging — and was lost as soon as the correspondents closed their chat windows. Now, though, employees are starting to post transcripts of relevant discussions on the Weblogs, he said."

I really like the straight-forward way these companies are using weblogs. No big steering-committees or insane upfront investments: Just do it - with an out-of-the box solution, small, focused groups and lot's of flexibility to adapt to new ideas and experiences...