HRTS Helpdesk's blog

April 27, 2004 Welcome to HRTS On-line. This blog is being established to discuss the various ways that you can maximize your HRTS on-line experience. Periodically, we will start a new discussion on a different aspect of the new HRTS site. The following is excerpted from the winning Perfect Corporate Weblog Pitch Competition by Lee LeFever with some additional comments from Matthew Phillips, the HRTS's web design consultant, and resident expert on on-line social networking in general!

So what is this Blog I keep hearing about?

One of the most exciting and innovative ways to use the Web is found in the blogging ("Web logging") phenomenon. While bloggers chronicle the news, they also chronicle their own lives. Some bloggers use their sites to post personal journals and diaries. The difference with blogs, of course, is their public nature. What's fascinating is how many people want to make the most personal and private details of their life public.

BLOGS: First, think about the value of the Wall Street Journal to business leaders. The value it provides is context — the Journal allows readers to see themselves in the context of the financial world each day, which enables more informed decision making.

With this in mind, think about HRTS as a microcosm of the financial world. Can the HRTS members see themselves in the context of the whole HRTS membership? Would more informed decisions be made industry wide if members had access to internal news sources?

Weblogs serve this need. By making internal websites simple to update, weblogs allow individuals/members and teams to maintain online journals that chronicle projects inside the Industry. These professional journals make it easy to produce and access internal news, providing context to the Industry — context that can profoundly affect decision making. In this way, weblogs allow members and leaders to make more informed decisions through increasing their awareness of internal news and events.