We use them via our corporate web portal, we also use blogs, wikis and a version of twitter that came out long before the current flavor got traction.

We don't really moderate it that much as we're a moderate sized company and if you're there spouting a bunch of misinformation you'll lose any credibility fairly quickly. We also have a fairly large older community within the firm and some use the "social" forms of messaging but most don't. That would be the key driver from my perspective is do you have enough interest to make it a real value or is it going to be a time sink for a small group of people who want to blog, wiki, tweet or post to really no one.

The only real message boards or blogs that get any readership are the ones that are setup specifically for projects or if you have an SME that writes on a specific topic or project.

I wouldn't let the fear of change or "mis-information" be the reason not to do it, but realize that it will have some credibility issues if people, like many here, just bloviate with no real basis in truth.

We have had a whole variety of these at Boeing at one point or another - internal usenet newsgroups, project / organizational wikis, sharepoints, heavy use of the company intranet, IM, other discussion forums, etc. These are in addition to "official" sources inside the company. Some of these are access controlled based on employee ID, citizenship status (for export control compliance, among other things), many are not. Most of the ones that I know of are not officially moderated, although they will have an owner that can manage content if the need arises. The more specialized the communications channel is, the less the problem of "bad" information seems to be - if you're not working in Structures for preliminary aircraft design, odds are that you're either not reading or posting substantive content to the forums devoted to that area, and if you are, then any mis-statements are quickly corrected by specialists in the area. Overall, I'd say that these informal channels have been very successful at getting questions answered or finding an expert on a topic, often more quickly and effectively than more official channels.

We've even had our own equivalent to the LR - an unmoderated internal usenet newsgroup called boeing.general that was only accessible to employees. This came and went a few times over the years, and while the names of the players were different the character of the place was remarkably similar to here. It finally died several years ago when someone in management decided that posts in that newsgroup could plausibly be construed as sexist / racist / etc., and that since this content existed on official Boeing IT systems the company might have some exposure to lawsuits.

Thanx a lot guys. Anyone else?

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

yes. I work for a defense company and we use a variety of stuff, including wikis, tfs and sharepoint and some homegrown stuff as well.

very helpful since not all of the company is in the same geographic location. no moderation since it is work-controlled, the assumption is that you wouldn't say anything you wouldn't also say in an email, e.g. HR is prolly going to read it.

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"It's too bad stupidity isn't painful."
-Anton LaVey

 
It got quite a response, mainly by the older people who immediately wanted to shoot it down out of fear of bad information permeating through the field. I also think that these same people can't appreciate the positive benefits of such a forum.


We use an internal wiki /message board for our ~60-person lab. I think it's a tremendous benefit.

I don't see a problem with "bad information." To the contrary, it serves as a sort of continuous peer review. People can identify errors or make suggestion to your work in the interval between design reviews /peer reviews.

I think it helps motivate the lab as well. When people start throwing up cool results, it creates competitive pressure within the lab.

It's also a great store of institutional knowledge. Much institutional knowledge used to be tied up in email, and when someone left generally all their email is considered private and goes with them, and a lot is lost. But with message forums/wikis that knowledge persists, and is easily searchable.

Barry,

Most of the technical software companies I have worked with all have forums, although typically used for technical support and building a technical community. It is an external site, but obviously, a great resource for those outside the technical team (i.e. sales, marketing, etc.) to get an idea of what is happening.

Internally, I don't think I've had any type of forum for over 10 years. We do use MS Office Communicator, which is an instant messaging type system. It works for us, as probably half of our company are either on contract providing engineering services, or sales staff out making calls, and if someone is online it is easy to ask a quick question.

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Craig Preston - President / Preston Presentations
Saving the world with more professional, powerful, and persuasive presentations - one audience at a time.

My company uses SalesForce (tm) CRM tool, and there is a "chatter" feature on there for posting/discussions, stuff that usu.ends up dwelling around in e-mail in-boxes.

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It's simple, but it isn't easy.

All good stuff. Thanx again!

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

GM is in the process of rolling one out. I have been using it for several months.. They/We evaluated two and they finally choose one. It has since been closed to new users as they prepare the roll out. But with a few thousand signed on it has been great. Any mis-information gets quickly corrected by those in the know. But Mis-information is limited. More likely someone asks for help and in short order is pointed to someone who can help. We have on Top executive who even gets on to let us know his thoughts on some of the topics.. He came across once as a bit aggressive and several folks let him know that.. He restated his point to clear up the confusion... But it was great and is great to be able to have that kind of communication. Someone from communications is on and we get most of the BIG announcements that way before the press loop, or our emails get to us. Not moderated but your real name is there so that helps keep people in check.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

We use a variety of tools as well (EDA software company) - some homegrown, some not. Field services/support tends to be the biggest and most historical users of this. But there is a corporate wide push to leverage these tools across all organizations. We have 5,000 people dispersed globally, and it really accelerates how teams interact...with themselves, and with customers.

Like Trail says, bad information isn't too much of an issue as anything is in a constant state of informal peer review.

SharePoint has a discussion forum option that can be an easy way to pilot it with a small group.