Is Your Corporate Blog Flame-Resistant?Is Your Corporate Blog Flame-Resistant?

I got a surprising answer when I asked a question during today's "Web 2.0 Gets Business Chops" panel discussion at the information 500 conference in Tucson, Ariz. My question was, "How do you handle off-topic discussions or inappropriate postings on corporate blogs and wikis?"I expected the panelists, who included executives from Dell and from Wells Fargo, to say that some form of moderation was needed to prevent flame wars, fantasy football discussions, and so forth. Instead, they came down almost unanimously in favor of open, unfettered discussions and letting the power of the group steer the discourse.

"You want to err on the side of letting people open their mouths and discuss things, without fear of being censored," said open-source pioneer Brian Behlendorf, now the CTO at CollabNet.

I might have expected that opinion from a Web 2.0 guy like Behlendorf, but what about Frank Lee, the senior VP and chief systems architect at Wells Fargo?

"Some types of forums might require moderators, but others you want to just let them flow," said Lee, who noted that blogs have become an important form of engagement and problem-solving at the San Francisco-based financial institution. "It's a constant challenge, but it provides a barometer of what's really going on in the organization."

That an SVP for one of the country's largest banks has such an open-minded attitude toward employee online forums is indicative of how accepted the notion of Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise has become. This is a recent development; only a couple of years ago, most companies viewed blogging with a certain amount of dread, and plenty of employees got fired for just mentioning their day jobs in their personal blogs.

Now many corporate execs agree with Lee, who said, "With wikis, anybody at any level of the organization can go in and start a subject, then other people whether inside or external to that group can go in and contribute and evolve the subject into an application or a strategy or any number of things. That has provided a great opportunity within Wells Fargo."

Personally I suspect there was a certain amount of happy-talk going on on the panel -- many executives still view the whole blog concept as rife with risk. Just ask Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, whose outspoken comments on his blog almost derailed his company's acquisition of rival natural grocer Wild Oats and could still land Mackey in hot water with the SEC.

But it's clearly a new day when executives at major companies are willing not only to launch their own blogs but to encourage free and open-ended discussion both within their organizations and with external customers, shareholders, and so on. This in turn could help lead to the reform in corporate governance that many business analysts in this country consider long overdue. You can add blogging, and blog management, to the lengthening list of abilities the 21st-century CEO needs to have.

"It's really a new leadership skill for managers," remarked Behlendorf, "how to engage in the conversation, and how to keep it focused and productive. This skill of leading and shaping the conversation within the organization is ultimately a way of shaping the company's overall culture and direction."