English 312: Written
Communications in Business 302.831.8788 |
EDEC 305:
Communication in Management II 514.398.1308 |
Intercultural Virtual Team Project: Team Blog Assignment Blogs
(Web logs) can serve many purposes in business environments. Increasingly,
blogs are used in companies to help knowledge workers share and make
knowledge together, to keep employees abreast of important announcements or
key trends in the industry, and to support teamwork. In addition, blogs
invite comments from readers, who will often provide additional thoughts or
additional useful links on the topic of a blog. Finally, blogs can help their
authors to assume a position of intellectual leadership in their area of
expertise. For
a team project, their greatest value is that they allow teams to gather,
share, organize, interpret, and discuss their research and their progress on
their project. Audience and PurposeThe primary audience of your blog is your team.
Use the blog to help you accomplish the following purposes: -
Post information needed for your report (e.g. links to information
about the industry, the local context, Newark, Montréal, the company Web
sites, their charity or foundation Web sites), interpret this information,
explain how the information relates to your project goal (making
recommendations about cross-cultural adjustments in business practices),
build on each other’s findings, and manage your research. -
Build productive working relationships in your team -
Discuss and post your team policies -
Share ideas for completing your project The secondary audiences of your blog include your
instructors and other members of our classes. In addition, outsiders may
venture onto your blog, wonder what it is about, and perhaps be willing to
share their insights with you. Deadlines and Deliverables
Description and EvaluationMost important, the team blog should help you and
your team move the project along, maintain productive relationships, and have
fun in creating it together. Since blogs are a relatively new communication
medium, you will need to be patient with yourself and with your team members,
and you will need to help each other improve your postings as you go, perhaps
by asking further questions about postings that help your team members see
what may be useful in crafting the next posting. So, do your best and be
willing to learn and to help your team grow. To help you evaluate both your blog as a whole and
your individual entries, here are a few questions we will use. For the team
blog as a whole: -
Does the blog support the progress of the team as a whole? -
Does the blog appear coherent? Is it focused on the task? -
Does the blog have a useful name and a clear purpose statement that
helps external Web visitors understand what your blog is about? Does it
perhaps encourage visitors to provide insights on your team project? For your
individual postings to the team blog: Context
(Audience and Purpose) -
How well do your postings help maintain productive working
relationships? For example: ·
Do your postings refer to, build on, or recognize the value of
postings by other team members? ·
Do your postings exhibit good judgment of the kinds of messages that
are appropriate for a public log and those that should be addressed in a more
protected medium? Do they protect the privacy of outside stakeholders? ·
Do your postings avoid flaming, accusing others, mocking, or
otherwise doing harm? ·
Do your postings invite appropriate reader comments and responses? Content -
Are you contributing equally to the blog (at least once a week)? -
Do your postings help move the project along? -
Do your postings explain clearly and succinctly why a particular
piece of news, Website, blog, or idea is relevant to the project, why a
particular question should be addressed, or why you think a particular
Website is useful? -
Do your postings summarize the gist of a resource (e.g. news story)
and direct team members to the aspect that is most useful to the project? Organization
and Design -
Does each posting remain focused on one idea at a time and present the main idea up front? -
Do your postings about Web-based resources link directly to the
referenced Web site to allow your team members to read the actual resource if
they would like? Language and
Voice -
Is your language engaging, dynamic, and conversational—appropriate to
your team? -
Is your language correct in grammar and mechanics? Does it reflect
well on the team? ResourcesTo
help you understand blogs as a communication medium in a business
environment, here are some resources we’ll use. Please feel free to suggest
other resources you come across or add them to your team blog. General Discussions of Blogs Wikipedia (2004, August). Weblogs. Retrieved 8/23/04 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.
Blood, R. (2002). Weblog ethics. Retrieved 8/23/04 from http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html. The Use of Blogs in Business Cook, T. (2004). Interview with Microsoft’s Robert
Scoble on corporate blogging. Global PR Blog Week 1.0. Retrieved 08/24/04
from http://www.globalprblogweek.com/archives/robert_scoble_interv.php. Fogel, M. (2003, May). Blogging for Dollars. Inc Magazine. Retrieved 08/24/04 from http://www.inc.com/magazine/20030501/25411.html. Rosencrance, L. (2004, Jan 26). Blogs Bubble into
Business. ComputerWorld. Retrieved
8/23/04 from http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2004/0,4814,89283,00.html Wackå,
F. (2004). Corporate blogging info.
Retrieved 8/23/04 from http://www.corporateblogging.info.
|