While researching another story, I stumbled on The Planet blog, a group blog from The Planet, a hosting company headquartered in Texas, but with data centers all over. All kinds of employees from salespeople to data center workers, post information on any topic that they think about. I found tours of data centers, one on the Halloween contest, a few puzzles, and various comments on their offerings.
The MSDN combined blog page has lots of code, some announcements of a conference, various webcast and video notes, and more. Granted there are hundreds, if not thousands of blogs on MSDN, but it's still primarily a place where people write about work. The Google blog is similar, with topics across the board about Google, their products, and the world.
I don't find a lot of companies that have corporate blogs that they encourage people to write in. As I flipped through a few companies I'm aware of, I've worked at, friends have worked at, etc., and I found quite a few with no blogging presence at all. I'm not that surprised, especially since most companies don't necessarily see blogging as beneficial.
It seems that blogging is the rage for many people, and I've recommended that everyone set up a technical blog as kind of a living resume of your skills and accomplishments. However I think that there is a lot of value for a company as well. The Planet blog seems to show off the company and what life it like working for the company. They seem to have fun and my first impression is that I'd like working there.
Good companies attract and retain talent, and a blog that shows off the company can be something that helps do that. I realize that asking employees to blog can be an addition to their workload, but by spreading it out and finding those people that enjoy it, people can have fun with it and their passion will show through.
These days most blog software includes the Metablog API, which allows you to write offline using Word, Live Writer, or other packages and easily post the content. And more importantly, you can cross post to multiple blogs, so your technical blog that you maintain, can receive the posting as well.
If your company doesn't maintain a blog, perhaps you might suggest they get one going. The recruit people from all over the company, from secretaries to developers, salespeople to facilities, and let them show off a little of what they do.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 34.1MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 26.9MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 5.5MB
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.