Company Secrets
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Blogs
Essentially an online diary, blogs make it easy to post text to the Web from anywhere. A new form, the "moblog," uses camera-enabled cell phones to post pictures from anywhere, too.
Read more here about new styles of blogs and RSS.
IT: If your companys bigger than about 1,000 people, youve probably got a blogger in your midst. And since these public journalists spend most of their days at work, theyll probably end up exposing your company secrets online.
Make it someones job to assiduously search blog engines—such as Technorati and Feedster—for any mention of your company. When you find a blogger, shut em down under threat of termination!
Users: Blogs are a great way to share information among workgroups, as well as a wonderful exercise in narcissism. If you want to talk about your company, though, better use a pseudonym.
Middle ground: Internal blogs, inside the firewall, can be great for sharing project information or communicating from management to employees. Theyre even free.
Microsoft shops should consider the open-source, dot-net based Dot Text (what we use for our blogs here at Ziff Davis Media), while Googles Blogger and Movable Type will set you up with secure blogs as well.
Click here to read about Movable Types decision to charge for its update.
And take a cue from famously secretive Microsoft. A public blog, written by a well-informed and coached employee, can be a great thing for your corporate perception.
The Scobleizer is a great read, and a good thing for everyone as well. Set up guidelines for what can and cannot be posted, and make sure your users agree to them.
Wiki
Groupware from the ground up. An inverted form of Notes, these Web sites allow anyone with a user name and password to change or add pages at will. Sort of a multiuser blog, but so much more.
IT: Locking down Wikis will be tough. Set your routers and firewalls to support only outbound traffic to certain key, trusted domains.
Users: Since they behave just like any other Web page, just dont tell anyone youre using it, and youll be fine.
Middle ground: Lotus Notes shops will be amazed by how much more useful and productive effectively managed and supported Wikis can be. I recommend that users and IT meet in the middle here.
Create a Wiki server that fits within your permission and access hierarchy and sits inside the firewall. Take a look at Ross Mayfields SocialText for a Wiki thats at least trying to be corporate-friendly.
Next Page: The ups and downs of peer-to-peer capabilities.
Read more here about new styles of blogs and RSS.
Click here to read about Movable Types decision to charge for its update.
And take a cue from famously secretive Microsoft. A public blog, written by a well-informed and coached employee, can be a great thing for your corporate perception.
The Scobleizer is a great read, and a good thing for everyone as well. Set up guidelines for what can and cannot be posted, and make sure your users agree to them.
Wiki
Groupware from the ground up. An inverted form of Notes, these Web sites allow anyone with a user name and password to change or add pages at will. Sort of a multiuser blog, but so much more.
IT: Locking down Wikis will be tough. Set your routers and firewalls to support only outbound traffic to certain key, trusted domains.
Users: Since they behave just like any other Web page, just dont tell anyone youre using it, and youll be fine.
Middle ground: Lotus Notes shops will be amazed by how much more useful and productive effectively managed and supported Wikis can be. I recommend that users and IT meet in the middle here.
Create a Wiki server that fits within your permission and access hierarchy and sits inside the firewall. Take a look at Ross Mayfields SocialText for a Wiki thats at least trying to be corporate-friendly.
Next Page: The ups and downs of peer-to-peer capabilities. 
