Isn’t it interesting that publications like Computerworld are publishing articles about corporate policies for employee blogging but publications dealing with communications and human resources have been fairly quiet on the issue?

The Computerworld piece by Jupiter Research VP Michael Gartenberg suggests companies need to (1) know what other blogs are saying about you, (2) go slowly when creating corporate blogs, and (3) set guidelines for workers who identify themselves as employees in their blogs.

Is it any wonder that the IT departments drive policies that should be coming out of HR or communications? I suspect the number of communicators or HR people reading Computerworld is pretty low, and the publications covering their own professions haven’t yet awakened to the issue. IT’s job is making sure the technology works, not governing the content published on it. I once met a VP of communications who need the approval of the CIO to send an all-employee e-mail. That’s like your printer deciding who can get your magazine. IT departments dictating what can and cannot appear on an intranet is tantamount to your printer telling you what you can publish in your magazine. It’s no different with corporate or employee blogs.

But if the initiative isn’t taken by the departments who are most suited to developing these guidelines, somebody has to do it. It would be nice, for once, if the communications world could be in the lead on these issues instead of playing catch-up.