At our office we recently had a discussion about how to deal with our weblog. It is a good way to let internal and external people know what we are up to and inform them about new developments on innovation. But we were not really sure whether or not to make writing blogposts voluntary or mandatory.
Today I read this blogpost that tries to find an answer to the question: “When should blogging be mandatory and when should it be voluntary?” Their conclusion was that it is better to not make blogging compulsory, especially when driven by the knowledge management angle. They do state however, that in project management situations or certain process-related activities mandating blogs could work well.
In the same blogpost the author links to an opposing opinion about advantages of making blogging mandatory. In that blogpost the suggestion is made to make it mandatory for every employee to keep an internal blog and post at least once per week. I personally do agree with her point that it is important to get the everyday knowledge out that usually resides in the back of people’s brains and are never needed by the firm until they are on vacation or out sick. However, I think that this type of information is better suited for an internal wiki, because certain aspects can change over time. The wiki articles can be updated with these little changes, so all updated information is stored at one place. On the other hand, there are strong advantages of making it compulsory for employees to write down this knowledge. First of all, employees become better at writing, and secondly they develop their skills to make information digestable and relevant for others.
What do you think? Should writing blogposts be made mandatory or voluntary?
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