While attending Enterprise 2.0 in Boston this week, it was easy to get caught up in the enterprise blogging and wiki frenzy.After all, these tools give the unsung voice a stage. They truly flatten organizations. The CEO posts a blog, the technical writer, who sits umpteen layers below him corrects a misstated fact by posting a comment. Truly amazing.
Truly amazing, yet these tools are more akin to weapons. In the wrong hands, while unintended may result in more harm than good. For those who use blogging as a self-promotion tool often neglect basic protocols that one might employ over email or in a face to face conversation. Since the audience is anyone in the enterprise, better filters need to be applied to content that is just thrown up on a blog in haste. No, I am not suggesting censorship. In fact, the exact opposite. Let the readers, colleagues and fellow experts decide via ranking and reputation engines. Have these ratings apply to the specific subject matter and not generally to the individual. Incorporate published documents, previous work experience, projects and other tangible evidence in the rating. Et voilà, you get a balanced view of how much of a trusted source this person is on a particular subject in relation to others.
Finally, layer in a recommendation engine that’s as effective as Amazon’s and the weapon has not only been disarmed, it’s been taken out of the enemy’s hands.
