Blogs at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein

What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing internal versus external employee blogs in a corporate setting? Are there certain industries where one of these strategies makes more sense?

The obvious advantage of implementing internal vs. external blogs is that there are less resources required for editing of internal blogs as they are only internal and do not need to be prepared for an external audience. Internal blogs can be highly effective in disseminating information as well as bringing up issues and topics they may otherwise be ignored by other forms of internal corporate communications. However, corporations must also be aware of the fact that bloggers can also go off-topic, so blogs may become irrelevant and lead to unproductive employee behavior.

The benefits of external blogging include an innovative corporate culture and easy and fast global communication. Issues and topics that are not disseminated via traditional media forms can be discussed and discussed endlessly in blogs. However, corporate external blogging requires extensive resources. IT infrastructure needs to be developed and maintained and review for compliance for appropriate content need to be conducted. Additionally, if an adverse post gets released there can be dire ramifications.

Certain industries should probably not entertain the idea of external blogging, especially on any sort of large scale or unmonitored form. These industries could include finance, psychology, high-tech and government among others. These industries are highly regulated and any client information or company secrets that are released could have a highly negative impact and the benefits of disseminating instantaneous and spontaneous information would not outweigh the costs.

iPod vs. Cell Phone: A Mobile Music Revolution

Has the digital music market irreversibly tipped in Apple’s favor?

Right now it appears this way. As the case domonstrates there have been major efforts to hone in on the digital music marketshare, but Apple just keeps gobbling up more and more of the market. In addition, Apple stayed ahead of the market by coming out with the iPhone, the first touchscreen phone that was actually successful, incorporating the full functionality of thier existing iPod and adding web capabilities among other things. If Apple would have decided not to enter the mobile phone market there would have been an open door for a new entrant, but Apple made the right move and are moving in the direction of Monopoly.

Another point to think about is who really wants to still enter the digital music market. Has anyone turned a profit? And what is the future of digital music. It's hard to tell where iPods and other devices are in the product cycle. If Apple remains innovative and continues to be the first-mover in the digital (and next era of music) music world they will be hard to beat.