Posted 4:07 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Robert Scoble is not only an industry veteran; two recent developments have defined his role in the rapidly emerging blogging world:
1. He recently joined the Microsoft development team for Longhorn.
2. He has become probably one of the most respected Microsoft employee bloggers. Why? Because he has figured out the fine line of building credibility with a (potentially skeptical) external audience while maintaining internal respect amongst his corporate peers at Microsoft. Yet he does not hold back on initiatiing discussion of controversial issues.

These days he is encouraging debate on the role of "employee bloggers" within the overall Microsoft corporate communications activity (note I did NOT say "strategy") where there is the potential for "free thinkers" to embarrass the company. (Having participated in an employee cc:Mail bulletin board for free thinkers a decade ago, that potential is real.) So he is seeking a Bloggers Best Practices code.

In this discussion is reference to a Corporate Weblog Manifesto he authored a year ago. Employee weblogs can be a powerful force in demonstrating the human side of what are seemingly corporate monoliths. If you want to study how Microsoft works and how to work with Microsoft The Scobilizer makes an excellent reference piece.

Weblogging is here to stay. Just as ten years ago the corporate world had to figure out a role for the Internet as a enterprise communications medium, today the world needs to figure out the role of blogging within the enterprise marketing environment.