Mark Pilgrim: Assume we have a can opener. This is my response in a continuing discussion about the idea of companies giving every employee a weblog to be published within the company. John Robb kicked off the idea initially. I responded by saying that it was a great idea in theory, and technologically sound, but that it would never work for a variety of social (not technological) reasons. He replied with some very interesting comments. This is my response explaining why I think John is missing the point.
Others have chimed into this discussion. Robert Scoble thinks weblogs wouldn't fill up with junk, although he agrees the company e-mail fills up with junk (and John has previously said that the main purpose of weblogs would be to capture the “knowledge” that was lost in company e-mails and instant messenger conversations, so I don't know what to make of that). And, on a related note, Duncan thinks that teachers' weblogs are great, but will never supplant face-to-face lectures. I agree completely; weblogs are extremely well-suited for an educational setting, where the goal is to communicate, learn, and challenge each other's thinking. But none of these goals describes the corporate environment. [diveintomark]