Sun blogs bigtime

Sun is experimenting with employee blogs ...

in an effort to improve its communications with the outside world, Sun has now set up a blogging system that lets any employee create a blog on the Sun.com site..., Sun sees its Blogs.sun.com Web site as a possible model for a new type of grassroots corporate communication, according to Tim Bray, one of the creators of XML who was hired by Sun earlier this year and has been driving its blogging effort.

The policy restricting public comments was dropped following an April 7 meeting to examine ways in which Sun might improve its collaboration and communication with outside users and developers.
(Sun is) wrestling with how a large company (can) better communicate with developers and technical users who had little use for the information coming out of the company's marketing department. "The language of marketing is the language of faceless corporations, and most people don't like it," Bray said. "I think the company got a little bit of a case of 'big company' disease. It's hard for a big company to be good at communication."
Sun executives drafted a new "Policy on Public Discourse" and Snow was enlisted to set up a server to host the Blogs.sun.com site, which would be Sun's unfiltered public face to the outside world.
"As of now, you are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first," states the policy, which is posted on Bray's blog.
To date, approximately 40 bloggers have signed up for Blogs.sun.com, which was unveiled in an internal Sun announcement on Thursday, Snow said.
By offering more public comment from those working in the trenches, Sun hopes to paint a clearer picture of its thinking and avoid the kind of strained relationship that has colored its dealings with open source developers over the years. Sun engineers will also be able to better promote the interesting work they are doing, Snow said.
While the extent of its blogging project may be novel, Sun isn't the first company to try such an experiment. In January, Microsoft Corp. began publishing employee blogs on its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site.
the kind of corporate blogging being done by Sun, Microsoft and others could ultimately have applications outside the world of technology. A company such as PepsiCo Inc., for example, could use the technology to better communicate with a specialized audience, he said.