NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2008 » An Unconference on Web 2.0 and Blogging

An Unconference on Web 2.0 and Blogging February 13, 2008

Posted by Kiruba Shankar in : Event Updates, Sessions, Speakers, Uncategorized , trackback

It was a refreshing change to see a complete overhaul of the usual conference format. Even if it was just for one session. When Sharad Sharma, CEO of Yahoo R&D, started the session on blogging, he intrigued the audience when he said that there won’t be a speaker. He then proceeded to say that there will be many speakers and promptly pointed his finger to the crowd. He said that the event will follow the Barcamp model where the audience is involved in the flow of the discussion. Everyone has equal right and in-fact encouraged to their points of views.

The success of an unconference likes in the participation of the audience and Sharad made for a great moderator who encouraged the crowd to open up. Understandably, in the beginning, the crowd was a bit reticent and Sharad had to force it across a few folks. That greatly helped break the ice and as the crowd warmed up, there was more points flying across than he could handle…which is always a good sign!

Most of the discussion was on blogging and Sharad started by focusing on internal blogging within an organization. While many agreed that blogging is something that’s important, there were very little corporates in India who embraced it. Amongst the reasons, the most important was the fear of lack of control over what people say. A few corporate examples were discussed and the conclusion was that there should be healthy open culture in the organization and the ability to digest and value critical feedback.

The second reason for internal blogging not taking off was the lack of interest levels amongst the employees in blogging internally. This could be a reflection of the lack of management support. The drive should come from the top and a quick look around shows that the best organizations that embrace internal blogging effectively are the ones where the CEOs or the top management understanding the value of corporate blogging.

There was a discussion if blogging is really that popular in India and is it just a hype? Sharad had a good answer to this. While he agreed that there is an element of hype, blogging will definitely go mainstream and turn out to be an important medium in a couple of years.

An employee from Logica said how the internal blog was very effective when there was a top management change. When a new CEO came on board, there was a lot of questions amongst the rank and file. The CEO, Andy Greene, started a blog to explain his stand and that helped greatly in allaying fears and explaining his vision for the company.

When Sharad pulled the plug after an hour, the crowd was just beginning to warm up and could have gone for a few more hours. The session, in terms of sheer participation, was the best of the event so far.

One Response to “An Unconference on Web 2.0 and Blogging”

Pratap Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 2:33 am
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Incorporating Facebook ( & other social media means) as an intranet- might sound radically insane but might be a novel way to grow internal bloggging and bonding among employees!
There are companies that have begun to see the utility of allowing employees to spends their time facebooking; and even having a Facebook Friday for staff. On the flipside, there are also the other extreme of HR departments banning this - due to supposed lack of productive time usage by their staff.