Hewlett Packard's Susan Underhill -- Vice President of HP Global Certification & Partner Education -- On blogs for knowledge transfer

Susan Underhill

Source: Photo from Susan Underhill's blog

On April 3, I posted a question to Susan Underhill's blog. Here is my question and her response:
Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/underhill/
archive/2006/03/10/808.html

Ms. Underhill

How do you see corporate blogs, such as these HP Executive Blogs, contributing to knowledge transfer internally within HP and externally with business, consumers, and the general public?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com
Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/3/2006 12:21 AM

Susan Underhill's Response:

Thank you for your question, Fiona.

Though I'm a rather new member to the "blogosphere," I'm very enchanted with this medium as a way to share and exchange ideas and information with lots of people.

The popularity of blogs has certainly soared in the past year or so, as evidenced by the sheer number of aggregator websites that have popped up to enable RSS feeds.

Not every blog posting, of course, is what I would call "knowledge transfer." Nor are they meant to be. Many blogs are simply a way for people to keep in touch about their daily activities or experiences, and that's great.

In the corporate world, we use blogs to share our insights about the knowledge we have that pertains to our positions. I'll admit – these executive blogs are great for "setting the tone" or "giving the view from 30,000 feet."

But if you really want to dig into the "knowledge transfer" type of blogs, try reading some of the postings from our researchers, engineers, and product developers. Of course, you can only see the ones outside the HP firewall, such as those posted on the main blogs page under "Other blogs from HP." [http://www.hp.com/go/blogs]

I can tell you that we have some deep discussions taking place on the blogs as well as wikis inside our firewall. We see them as a valuable means of communication.

Posted by Susan Underhill on 4/13/2006 1:11 PM

Dr. Sandra Chrystal -- We Are Proud Of You!

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Dr. Mark Kann . Fiona Torrance

USC TEACHING HAS NO BOUNDARIES AWARD

(Dr. Mark Kann presents Award to Dr. Sandra Chrystal April 18, 2006)

HP's David Gee says, "Your blog is a thoughtful process"

Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/
archive/2006/02/07/747.html#Comments

Here is a question I posed Mr. Gee on his HP Executive Blog:

Mr. Gee Thank you so much for your feedback. I posted it on my blog -- http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com -- and already received feedback from an individual named Roche. He brought up the subject of outsourcing and blogging. How do you see blogs impacting outsource hubs and do you think it is viable for companies to oursource their own blogs? Look forward to your response.

Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/9/2006 5:15 PM

Here is Mr. Gee's response:

You can’t outsource your own blog – one of the reasons I can’t keep up as much as I’d like since it’s a thoughtful process

Posted by D Gee on 4/13/2006 2:00 PM

Josh Kaufman -- Assistant Brand Manager at Proctor & Gamble -- blogs about the MBA's worth

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Here is an article published on Josh Kaufman's site with some details about the personal vs the traditional MBA: http://www.joshkaufman.net/personalmba/ (part of the script is posted below my thoughts on the debate) --

Josh raises significant points no doubt born in the minds of different students over time.

What I have realized from my experience as an undergraduate at USC is that what we learn in a classroom -- professor experiences, differences in teaching presentation and styles, group interactions, questions raised by others, and that making mistakes is part of the learning process -- is a valuable contribution to our development to cope and succeed in the workplace.

An MBA allows students/employees to raise their critical thinking processes to a level that involves greater responsibility. And the research involved broadens the foundation of specialist knowledge that is needed to be an expert in a particular field. Mentors in MBA programs guide the research process so that the intended questions are properly and thoroughly addressed.

Face-to-face interaction with others teaches skills highly pertinent to the negotiation process too. People skills and effective communication strategies are needed by MBA students to be successful in business, and this cannot be achieved solely through the online community. These are aspects that cannot be learned or achieved alone in a library or at home either because the benefit of interaction with a mentor and with other students from different backgrounds is lost.

For this reason, I think it is still highly valuable to pursue an MBA degree -- if it is within your means.

A combination of the traditional and online aproaches may work well. MIT's OpenCourseWare is a great resource for online learning, and interaction on corporate blogs is also a valuable tool for students to learn. The two approaches combined are complimentary.

THE SCRIPT FROM JOSH's BLOG:

Thoughts on Traditional MBA Programs

“Whatever be the qualifications of your tutors, your improvement must chiefly depend on yourselves. They cannot think or labor for you, they can only put you in the best way of thinking and laboring for yourselves. If therefore you get knowledge you must acquire it by your own industry. You must form all conclusions and all maxims for yourselves, from premises and data collected and considered by yourself. And it is the great object of [our educational institutions] to remove every bias the mind may be under, and to give the greatest scope for true freedom of thinking.” - Joseph Priestly, Dedication of New College, London, 1794.

The debate concerning the value of traditional MBA programs is long and involved, and this manifesto won’t close the issue [1]. For the sake of brevity, here’s a short Q&A on the pros and cons of business school:

Can a traditional MBA program help you? Yes. You’ll meet a lot of great people and get acquainted with a few professors and corporate HR recruiters who can help you land a new job. You will also sink very deep into debt. If you decide to enroll in a full-time program, the opportunity cost of lost wages and future investable savings is huge.

Will a traditional MBA teach you anything you can’t learn by yourself? Probably not. Classroom discussion can be beneficial, but there’s nothing presented that you can’t learn by studying a good book on the subject.

Is a traditional MBA worth the time and money? Sorry – there’s no universal answer. If you’re looking to go into advanced corporate accounting, finance, quantitative analysis, commercial real estate, consulting, venture capital, or investment banking, an MBA or MS in a business-related field may be expected or required. In those cases, caveat emptor: once you decide to attend, the only certainty is that your bank account will be significantly smaller.

If you decide not to go to business school, the Personal MBA is a low cost way to educate yourself about business. (Even business school graduates can benefit greatly from reading these books.) Before we get to the list, however, allow me to set a few reasonable expectations about the PMBA.

Do blogs replace or compliment company Intranets?

Rishe's Comment:

Hey there Fiona!

Thansk for your feedback.

The autheticity/ ownership of blog content is always going to be a big area of possibilities. Ghost written or otherwise, so long as the companies voice is heard, I think it's a job well done.

Now for my query, What I meant to know was, can blogging be used to create dynamic online communities to make the employees feel more connected and instilled with a sense of belonging.

Can they serve as a media for internal communication, say, as against an official Intranet. Which is always suspect in the absense of content updates on periodic basis.

And so far as I knwo blogging, it defines the skew of content from, created by specialists to created by the user. So user generated content can make a difference to communication within the Internal Publics or employees.

Would look forward to your feed.

Cheers
11:04 PM

Fiona Torrance said...

Hi Riche

Blogs definitely create dynamic online communities -- the interactions on this blog between students and those in business internationally is a real example.

What I love about the IBM blogs, such as Bob Sutor's blog, is how even managers and employees are interacting -- in this sense the blog is a wonderful bonding, mentoring, and motivating tool.

In terms of official intranets and internal blogs, my view is that internal blogs create a more open platform for discussion and reduce email overload. In using an email inbox, we have to choose (by subject line and sent from line) whether or not to open the email. Sometimes people copy one another unnecessarily on emails too.

In contrast, an internal blog allows optional comment (or it can be part of workflow) and also provides time for the commenter to think about what they will say/write. Emails are often fired off in haste with detrimental backlash.

So, on a whole internal blogs provide a number of flexible and useful options.

Internal blogs can be password protected and accessible by company employees only -- not for open comment by the public. Comments can also be moderated. Certain blogs are used internally and externally as long as the blogger registers on the company blog.

My view is that we -- as bloggers -- should take ownership of our postings for credibility.

With marketers using stealth means to sell products and services, blogs are a platform that can, are, and will be used for this purpose. I have already deleted a number of comments that were advertisements because I temporarily lifted comments moderation to allow students to see their comments posted immediately. Stealth marketers can destroy credibility.

This is where Intranets (I am limited in my knowledge on them) may succeed because the content is better protected.

What do you think?

Cisco's John Earnhardt -- On starting blogs

Recently, I asked John Earnhardt, Media Spokesperson for Cisco, about the decision to start his blog. This is his reply --

My e-mail answer to Fiona:

We initiated blogging in our group to basically "extend" the reach of our staff experts.

As you may have been able to surmise, my colleagues have not taken to the form as quickly as I would have liked. We're still basically at the crawl stage...hope to be walking by the end of the year.

In terms of effectiveness, I would rate it a C+...we've gotten some interaction and traction and the blog was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, so we've had some impact, but nothing super tangible.

Hope that helps.

Best,
John Earnhardt

John Earnhardt of Cisco on net neutrality and the influence of corporate blogs

Mr. Earnhardt,

You mention that "The net neutrality issue is a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist" -- would you explain what you mean by this statement?

Also, do you think that corporate/business blogs are spurring the debate on this issue?

Thank you,
Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

Posted by Fiona Torrance on April 2, 2006 10:45 PM

Response posted on Cisco's (John Earnhard) Blog:

There has been no need to regulate in this area because there haven't been any bad actors who are taking advantage of their ability to block or slow another application's traffic, yet the OTT's ("Over-the-top" providers) are advocating for Congress or regulators to regulate or legislate.

To be accurate, there has been one instance of an SP blocking a VoIP provider's traffic and that SP was quickly punished by the FCC. Again, a case-by-case basis, not a pre-emptive regulatory or legislative solution.

As per blogs having an impact on this debate, I really couldn't say. My best guess is that as there are more and more information sources out there it will be harder and harder to track what is influential because so many different sources will be touching many different people.

Posted by John Earnhardt on April 3, 2006 03:32 PM

Outsourcing and Blogs

"Roche" posted a comment on the recent post featuring HP's David Gee's feedback as follows:

Hi there Fiona!

HP indeed has taken up blogging and ppl like DG would surely make a difference in the Corporate Blogosphere. Where I am coming from is another area where blogging perhaps can make a difference. HP, besides having presence through Hardware, Imaging and so on also has 2 big outsourcing hubs in say India. Can Blogs be a great way to communicate with internal publics and also with teh blogging community at large. Would love some feedback on this. Cheers!
3:11 AM

Here is my response to "Roche":

Hi Roche

Thank you for your comments. From my understanding, you are suggesting that blogging can make a difference in the area of outsourcing. What you are saying is true because blogs allow for on-going shared business communication on a "shared" platform -- the Internet. Corporations, even those that outsource, use blogs for knowledge management. However, a new area of outsourcing blogging is emerging. You may have seen this on the net already or experienced it in your work.

Here is an example from the BeConnected site:

Link: http://betuitive.blogs.com/beconnected/
blog_outsourcing/index.html

"I dare say that more and more companies are waking up to the fact that they need to be listening to what blogs are saying about their companies. At the same time corporations are at a loss for how to effectively use blogs for positive PR and crisis response. It's a delicate balancing act that requires experienced hands. A good reason to consider outsourcing your blog design, management and content creation."

What would you think if corporations outsourced their blogs and if corporate executives posed as the authentic voice but in actual fact were not the actual true bloggers on the site?

I look forward to hearing your views.

David Gee - Hewlett Packard's VP for Worldwide Marketing Software -- On Complaints & Mobile Operators

I asked Mr. Gee in a previous post and comment on his blog about how HP views consumers who use their executive blogs to vent about HP products/services, and also about their direction with mobile operators. Here is his response:

Fiona raises a good question – the role of this and other HP blogs to vent about our products.

We’ve had some experience with this already:

http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/archive/2005/05/06/138.html.

Our blogs are open for comments and as such are fair game as long as they are not offensive, use inappropriate language and are not defamatory. This is a two way medium after all. We do however have a place to go to air these complaints:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/hurd/index.html.

I blog on software, so if you have comments and feedback on OpenView in particular, this is a great place to post.

The question about mobile operators is an interesting one. Having spent the past four months in Asia in a region with the fastest growing mobile community in the world, the mobile operators are leaving the wired world behind them and bringing with them a whole generation of users for whom the idea of having a phone number where you call a place and not a person is totally alien. China added the population of Hong Kong last month in new mobile users – the numbers are staggering.

On the Hong Kong underground system, I get 5 bars of GSM/GPRS/EGDE and 3G coverage while on the trains and two or three stories under the surface – better coverage in fact than I get from my mobile provider in the Bay Area.

HP as a company helps mobile operators deliver new services, reduce churn and maximize the revenue potential of their network investment – we offer software in the form of the OpenCall platform for example that enables pre paid services, push to talk and MMS capabilities.

Our technology is embedded in many of the large network equipment providers as well as hardware and services for many of the world’s largest operators, you can read mere about it here:

http://www.hp.com/go/nsp

and here:

http://www.hp.com/go/opencall

Posted by D Gee on 4/5/2006 12:32 PM

Neville Hobson to the Rescue!

2 Responses to “The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #125: April 3, 2006”
Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
1 Fiona Torrance Apr 4th, 2006 at 12:13 am

Hallo Neville

Today I’ve been reviewing your blog and I absolutely love the layout and how you present information.

I added a post from your blog that is relevant to my Independent Study at USC on Corporate Blogging: “Student Questions About Corporate Blogging” by Dr. Carl.

Recently, I’ve been trying to add RSS feeds, the ability to share Podcasts, and a StatCounter to my blog housed at Blogger.com. But I am new to this and find that when I follow instructions (such as at FeedBurner) and past the relevant HTML into my template, I lose information on my blog.

For someone starting to learn the use of this “new” technology, what is your advice in adding such features to a blog?

I look forward to hearing from you and — if you have time to look at my blog — any advice that you may have.

Thank you,

Fiona Torrance
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com


2 neville Apr 4th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

Fiona, thanks for visiting and for your compliments.

Good questions re customizing your Blogger blog. I’m not that familiar with Blogger these days, I’m afraid, not having used it for a couple of years now. The best place for advice to start with would be the comprehensive help system, especially the section on templates.

As for the general advice you ask about, I think it really depends on what you want to achieve with your blog by adding features such as you mention (RSS, etc). In any event, FeedBurner has a terrific help forum where I’m sure you’ll find good advice from knowledgable people there re the specifics of how to add an FB feed to a Blogger blog. The same with StatCounter.

I’ve looked at your blog. It seems to me that you know more than your give yourself credit for!


1 Fiona Torrance Apr 5th, 2006 at 4:00 am

Thank you for this valuable feedback, Neville!

The reason I think it is valuable is because blogging is relatively new to me and there are so many techi things available to bloggers. Knowing what to add, why, and how takes a bit of deciphering.

My blog was initially set-up as a knowledge management system for an Independent Study on corporate blogs (BUAD 490 class at USC). I started off analyzing 32 blogs that are listed in my blogroll. Since then, I’ve included communications with corporate executives and student interactions from classes where I serve as a Teacher’s Assistant.

The blog became part of a research paper I submitted for USC’s undergraduate writing competition and it won first place in Professionalism. Thereafter, I took a chance and submitted it to USC’s Webfest 2006 and it won grand prize for that — which was amazing because I’m not technically a techi person and some of the websites presented are so creative!

My goal is to continue the blog when this semester ends. I would like to include links to articles (like the one I posted that is on your site) and I thought RSS feeds may help with this. Also, I want to be able to give audio discussions (bizblogcasts) about articles featured in the Wall Street Journal/Business Week about corporate blogging to create dialogue.

Knowing how to project quality content that readers can access easily(or in their preferred manner)and creating a stream of thought — whether people answer it or not — is important to me. I just want to express and put it out there to be part of the social computing evolution.

Blogger.com is a great site in many ways, but I have lost my content a number of times and had trouble publishing posts. Talk about a sleep problem! Would you suggest moving the blog, and if so, which blog do you think I would find more compatible?

Blog for Traffic or to Communicate?

In the WSJ article, "The Inside View", William Bulkeley states that, "According to search-engine experts, that jump is partly because search engines like Google look for constantly changing content like blogs and rate it higher in search results than Web pages that aren't updated regularly."

This statement highlights two differences between blogs and websites:
1. Blog content is updated more frequently than Web pages
2. As a result, blogs are rated higher than Web pages on search engines

Depending on the blog objective, traffic generation (the amount of visitors to a blog) may or may not be that important. Some blogs are used for personal expression, such as my TourEsprit blog. If the purpose of a business blog is to promote products and services to increase sales, then traffic is important. The same is true for communication if the blog's purpose is to generate feedback from customers to improve products and services. Either way, traffic plays a role.

Microsoft's Director of Developer and Platform Evangelism -- Jeff Sandquist -- says, "I don't blog for traffic. I blog to communicate" (qtd in Bulkeley, WSJ 4/3/2006). Even Evangelists need an audience, but purely blogging for traffic to increase ratings on search engines may reduce the quality of the communication and dialogue on blogs.

Blogrolls, permalinks, and feeds -- who bloggers link to -- are also a means of generating traffic to a blog. About a week ago, I discovered an interesting dialogue published on Steve Rubel's Blog, Micropersuasion, after Steve (Senior VP with Edelman & Marketing Strategist) had removed a colleague's blog link from his blogroll:

(Click on picture to enlarge)

The blog, in general, is not without its politics, even on the best of blogs. Steve Rubel's blog contains vast amounts of useful and interesting entries for students (faculty and others) to understand the use of technology in media and what makes a corporate blog successful.
To learn more, visit this link:
http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/04/index.html

Employment Law Alliance: Blogging and the American Workplace Survey

Here is the link to the survey mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article: "The Inside View" [of Employee and Corporate Blogs]:

http://fm.employmentlawalliance.com
/ela/FMPro?-DB=ela_articles.fp5&-Format
=article.html&-RecID=33678&-Find

http://fm.employmentlawalliance.com
The News Room
Polls & Surveys

WSJ Inside View of Corporate Blogs

In today’s WSJ, William Bulkeley makes the statement: “Employee blogs can put a human face on companies. But that’s not always a good thing.”

* Because many corporate image specialists foresee a confusing array of corporate messages – some so sanitized that they lack credibility.

* Because lawyers fear that some employees’ thoughts may provide fodder for plaintiffs’ lawyers or give away company secrets or advice that a company prefers to sell.

Knowing these risks, corporate blogs are growing in number – Why?

Because being left out of the online community by not adopting this ‘burgeoning communications medium’ is a greater risk to business.

Corporate blogs provide the means to:

* Get to know companies (such as GM’s current challenges and changes)
* Contribute to company policy (such as Thomas Nelson who uses suggestions from comments on their company blog)
* Confront controversy (such as Cisco’s response to critics over their equipment used by the Chinese government to censor)

Companies need to establish blogging policies:

Companies and employees blog to communicate, but discretion is involved. With employees fired (“dooced”) for blogging, such as the reporter from Dover Post, companies are including blogging policies within company policy.

A survey of 1,000 employees by Employment Law Alliance found only 15% of companies have blogging policies. Blogging policies are needed to justify the firing of an employee for inappropriate blogging that harms the company.

Companies also need to require bloggers to use their real names because, “Many fear that a blogger who isn’t using his name will still be identifiable as a company employee and attract attention by denigrating rivals, blasting politicians or sneering at the boss”, reports Bulkeley. When bloggers take ownership of their posts it encourages constructive input and accuracy.

The credibility debate continues between top executives that may not seem believable compared with independent bloggers who are free to write their wants.

Companies can preserve credibility by publicly accepting criticism:

Yesterday, I discovered a great example of published public acceptance of criticism on the Hewlett Packard Executive Blog of Duncan Cambell – Vice President of Marketing, StorageWorks Division: (Click on picture to enlarge)

http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/

Some corporations are open to this strategy to validate individuals who have concerns, and to take action on the criticisms where reasonable and appropriate.

Many companies, such as IBM and HP, expect bloggers to register before leaving comments that removes the “anonymity” issue, guides decent expression, and builds credibility.

In addition, many of companies also moderate the comments before they appear on the corporate blog.

The blogs mentioned in this article are listed in my blogroll for reference.

Post from Neville Hobson's Blog: Student Questions About Corporate Blogging

Links:
http://www.nevillehobson.com/
http://www.bloglines.com/public/prblogs

Student Questions About Corporate Blogging
By Dr. Carl

For this past Tuesday's class students read the 95 Theses from the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Edelman/Intelliseek report "Talking from the Inside Out: The Rise of Employee Bloggers."

When students came to class I asked them to take out a blank sheet of paper and write down any questions they had about corporate blogging, either from the readings or anything else they wanted to know.

We discussed a number of those questions in class, related to: the different types of corporate blogs, uses of corporate blogs, and how blogging might affect their career paths. They also had a number of questions that we didn't have time to discuss so I told them we would could discuss them on Friday when John Cass from Backbone Media guest lectures on his study "Corporate Blogging: Is It Worth the Hype?"I would also invite anyone in the blogosphere to offer their perspective on these questions as well.

In having such a dialogue I hope we can address some of the so-called "Blog Anemia in Academica" ;-)** Here are the questions we didn't get a chance to discuss:

- Who reads corporate blogs? What do we know about the audience of a specific corporate blog? How can you find out this information?

- How do you market a corporate blog? Is there anything special a company should do?

- For companies who have fired corporate bloggers (like Google, Friendster, Delta, Waterstone's, etc.) how are they managing corporate blogging now? For example, what is the status of the
legal cases? What are their new policies or guidelines?

- How do blogs by executives compare to blogs from employees at lower levels in the hierarchy? Are they similar or different in terms of content, style, etc.?

- What are the societal effects of corporate blogs? Specifically, what is the relationship between corporate blogging and the "digital divide," if any?

- How are some of the practical issues of blogs managed? For example, does the phenomenon of information overload that applies to e-mail also apply to corporate blogging?

- What were the effects of the Cluetrain Manifesto on corporate blogging?**

If people are interested in blogging and academia be sure to check out the 2003 Chronicle of Higher Education article on "Scholars who blog", the "scholar bloggers" at Crooked Timber, and the 2006 HigherEdBlogCon conference.

Fiona seeks Neville's advice:

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Dr. Sandra Chrystal on "Exploring Ethics in Business"

Marshall School Students Explore Ethics in Business

"Most students believe they've learned what's right or wrong, but few have examined typical on-the-job dilemmas and formed any strategies for solving them.

In fact, when our Advanced Writing for Business class conducts anonymous surveys, many students are surprised to learn that classmates disagree on values and decisions.

Discussing a variety of decision-making strategies, providing positive individual and corporate examples, and formulating strategies to communicate ethical decisions encourages improved critical thinking and socially responsible actions.

The Advanced Writing for Business classes at USC's Marshall School of Business already includes an assignment for students to write at least one article exploring ethics in business.

To extend the writing classes' ethics study, a subcommittee of the faculty is compiling a six hour module for any professors who want to add it to their current syllabus."

Questions for Cisco -- Answers for Students

John Earnhardt is the spokesperson/media person for Cisco Systems, Inc. who posts to Cisco's blog: http://blogs.cisco.com/gov/

Recently, Mr. Earnhardt discussed net neutrality on the Cisco Blog, so I posted the following questions for him:

Mr. Earnhardt,

You mention that "The net neutrality issue is a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist" -- would you explain what you mean by this statement?

Also, do you think that corporate/business blogs are spurring the debate on this issue?

Thank you,

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

We look forward to hearing Mr. Earnhardt's views on this issue.

Will HP Contribute to Student Knowledge?

To further our knowledge about corporate blogs, I posted a number of questions on Hewlett Packard's Executive Blogs. Here are three examples:

1. To the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Software, Technology Solutions Group

Mr. Gee,

As an executive blogger, how do you feel about customers using your blog to vent complaints about HP products?

Also, how do you see the role of mobile operators evolving in the social computing environment? What are the changing needs of mobile operators and how is HP positioning itself to meet those needs?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/

2. To the Vice President of HP Global Certification & Partner Education

Ms. Underhill

How do you see corporate blogs, such as these HP Executive Blogs, contributing to knowledge transfer internally within HP and externally with business, consumers, and the general public?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/

3. To the Director, Venture Management

Mr. Wu,

How effective do you think the corporate blog is/will be as a recruitment tool for business?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

4. To the Vice President of Marketing, Storage Division

Mr. Cambell,

Do the intiatives to privatize the Internet and make consumers "pay-per-click" impact remote office consolidation/storage networking solutions? And, if so, how does this impact HP objectives in this area? Also, if you have time: What are your views on Corporate Blogging for internal and external business use?

Thank you,
Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/3/2006 12:07 AM

With interest, we await their responses.

HP Executive Blogger -- Mr. Ray Wu -- Uses Blog For Recruitment

This post appears on Mr. Ray Wu's Blog (Hewlett Packard Director of Venture Management):

(Click on picture to enlarge)

HP are using corporate blogs to recruit.

Blogger.com Problem with Archives

There is currently a problem with Blogger.com in viewing past Archives. When you click on January thru April, you will notice that only the March and April posts are viewable. I am contacting Blogger.com about this problem.

Today -- 3 April 2006 -- Blogger Support emailed me the following which includes my response:
Thank you for your help, Blogger!

I've discovered that posts disappear when I try to add items like RSS feeds or StatCounters. Because of this difficulty, I've decided not to bother with this for now.

I pasted in my saved template and all is as it should be!

Thanks,
Fiona Torrance

On 4/3/06, Blogger Support wrote:

Hi there,

Thanks for contacting Blogger Support.

Since we cannot always respondpersonally to every message we get, we encourage you to check BloggerHelp, where you can find answers to many common questions. Here are someof the top articles which could help you out:
CHANGES ARE NOT APPEARING ON YOUR BLOG
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=639
A BLOG IS MISSING FROM YOUR DASHBOARD
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=656
HELP WITH HTML, CSS, OR TEMPLATE CODE
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1116

If you don't see what you need in these articles, you can use the searchform in the upper right corner of any Blogger Help page. Be sure also tocheck our Status page and our Known Issues page. These cover many knownbugs and current operational problems.

BLOGGER STATUS
http://status.blogger.com/
KNOWN ISSUES
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=791

You can also check out our Blogger Help Group, to talk to other users, askquestions, or see if anyone else has had the same issue as you.

BLOGGER HELP GROUP
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help

If your question or problem is not addressed anywhere in ourdocumentation, please simply reply to this message and let us know. Besure to include your Blogger username and the URL of your blog.

For future reference, note that you can attach your Blogger information toyour help request automatically by signing in and using our Help form,rather than sending direct emails. This makes it easier for us to help youmore efficiently.

This form is located here:
http://www.blogger.com/problem.gSincerely,Blogger Support

Bob Sutor's advice to students on how to address corporate executives when blogging

Hi, Fiona, this is Bob Sutor.

Thanks for all the attention you've given my blog. It's definitely something that is evolving as am I in my thinking about it and how to make it effective. One thing that might be interesting to look at is the pschology of the blog in the sense that they ebb and flow in terms on content and whether they seem to be upbeat or less optimistic. You asked me in the comment to my blog if it is fine to address me as "Bob" in the comments. Absolutely! Note, though, that if someone uses a very formal name in their Blog "Dr So and So" then it is probabbly best to use the title. This is probably more applicable outside the US, but people should bear it in mind.

Bob

Students discover value of corporate blogs

Here is a comment posted by one of the students in Dr. Sandra Chrystal's Advanced Business Writing classes in response to the post, "Non-Traditional Business Communications -- The Blog":

"I had learned from Professor Chrystal what a blog really was and also learned that businesses were starting to use them because e-mails were beginning to fill up with spam mails; but to tell you the truth, before reading the article I was not really aware that people were using blogs to comment on different companies. I now see that a blog ste is very crucial to a companies reputation. Although a lot of people still are not aware of these sites, they are beginning to become more and more popular and are impacting the oppinions of the business and its consumers. I believe that blogging provides a quick and easy way towards solutions and can also benefit the companies in the long run" (Writ340 student).

Students are learning the following:

• What a corporate/business blog is
• To be aware of corporate blogs
• Why businesses use blogs
• The impact of blogs on company reputations
• The growing popularity of corporate blogs
• How blogs impact business and consumer opinions of companies
• That blogs provide a platform to discuss solutions and build strategies