15,000 Workers Blogging at IBM

Posted on November 11, 2005

CNN has another story on corporate blogging at IBM. According to the article there are over 15,000 internal bloggers at IBM and of these 15,000 over 2,200 have external blogs.

"Other companies have fired people for blogging, but IBM is encouraging it," Christopher Barger, IBM's unofficial "blogger in chief," said in the report.
According to AdAge.com, IBM employees who blog are advised to follow the company's business of code conduct, respect copyright laws and to not reveal proprietary information.

The AdAge.com story says IBM sees blogs as "marketing's next big thing" and the company even has an unofficial "blogger in chief."

Christopher Barger, Big Blue's unofficial Blogger in Chief, tells AdAge, "Other companies have fired people for blogging, but IBM is encouraging it."

AdAge says the blogging tools IBM provided to employees came with a list of guidelines. AdAge syas, "The list offers simple, almost common-sense pointers, such as follow the IBM business code of conduct; respect copyright laws; and don't reveal proprietary information."

IBM needs to make Christopher Barger's position official. If they do Chief Blogging Officer is an even better title than Blogger in Chief. Earlier this year there were reports that IBM was encouraging its 130,000 employees to blog -- and with today's figures over 10% of IBM's employees were already encouraged enough to do so.