Why do CxO’s blog…

People often comment on the fact that as civil servant I am unusual in running a blog, well firstly I have always thought that I work for the Ordnance Survey, so although technically I am indeed a bowler hat wearing member of Her Majesties government, I describe myself as the CTO of the OS.. so a better question to ask might be why as a CTO do I run a blog.

A growing number of American chief executives rate blogs highly as employee communication tools, although to be fair a majority of them are not planning on starting their own..

In a study conducted by Burson-Marsteller and PRWeek., about 59 per cent of CEOs surveyed said they find blogs, useful for internal communications, while 47 per cent see them as tools for communication with external audiences. I completely agree with these findings, my blog certainly is read both inside the office in Southampton and around the UK, and by a wider external audience around the world, many of whom are our customers.

For me I think it is also important that a blog retains a certain about of independence, I make it clear that the comments I make here are my own and do not always represent the views of my employers.. now this is a fine line to tread and it has in the past resulted it a fair about of personal angst as my views have conflicted with the official OS line, nevertheless I think as demonstrated by late Scobleizer blog, recognising that an organisation is not perfect, is actually respected by a blogs readership, and reflects positively on the organisation itself.

What do you think ? I present a series of CxO blogs that, to a greater or lesser extent correspond to the above princple…

Microsoft CTO (and boss in waiting): Ray Ozzie
NOVELL CTO: Jeff Jaffe’s
SUN CEO: Jonathan Schwartz
ESRI Director of Products: David Maquire
Autodesk Director of Technology: Geoff Zeiss

Oh and no I don’t actually own a bowler hat, or a tie for that matter !!

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.