Personal vs. Corporate Weblogs

Michael Gartenberg | May 21, 2003, 06:45 AM

I got some interesting mail the other day asking why I don't get more personal when I write here. The answer is that this is not a personal Weblog. Unlike other bloggers, I get paid to blog. It's part of my job and I get to do it on company time. There are no disclaimers here that what I write does not reflect the views of my employers. (That's not a conflict for me since my personal and corporate views mesh rather nicely.) What it does mean is that you won't find my views on politics, links to my favorite cheesecake recipes or other insights that make other blogs more personal. I currently write research and analysis at Jupiter, a monthly column for Computerworld and this weblog. All of them represent a different voice but all are business related and not personal.

Corporate weblogs serve a different purpose than personal blogs. Unlike a blogger who might happen to also work for Microsoft, Jupiter's weblogs are corporate sanctioned and therefore will have a different tone. As more business professionals begin to blog, it will be important for companies to set clear guidelines at what is appropriate for a corporate blog and what is not. It's an interesting challenge and one I'l be discussing in freater depth at the conference in June.