As a company with 90,000+ employees Microsoft is a forward looking company when it comes to things like blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It is well known for letting its employees have a fairly free hand with what they share on the web but as with most companies it doesn’t really like having its dirty laundry being talked about.
That hasn’t stopped people like Mini-Microsoft from becoming the go to blog when employees want to have their say about things that Microsoft would prefer being kept in-house. As great as Mini-Microsoft might be it still is only a single voice among many, many that probably would like to express their opinions about the company without fear of any corporate backlash.
At least this is our feeling here at WinExtra and after thinking about it for sometime we have decided to give those people a soapbox to express those opinions. Sure they could be like Mini-Microsoft and set up their own anonymous blog but that might mean more of a commitment for what might just be a single post.
So what we have done is create a single anonymous posting account that any Microsoft employee or partner employee can use to express their thoughts and opinions. Now this isn’t an open account as there a few guidelines that go along with having access to the account.
The first guideline is that you must contact me (steven @ winextra . com) via email with your real name and position, as well as a general idea of what you would like to post. This information will be kept totally confidential and any emails received will be destroyed immediately after sending you the login information you will need to get started.
The second guideline is that all posts will be held for approval by one of the administrators and while we are pretty open about the subject, as long as it pertains to Microsoft or the company’s products, we will not post anything that resembles a foul-mouth diatribe.
As well we have also changed to anonymous comments on all posts for mush of the same reason why we are offering the anonymous posting account. We have gone this route because just as with posting many employees want to be able to comment on posts with fear of getting into trouble, as is evidenced by the popularity of the comments at Mini-Microsoft.
We will know return to our normal sealed lips status.
Related posts:
- WinExtra on Windows Episode 2 – Microsoft, finding its aggression
- WinExtra on Windows Ep. 5: Microsoft needs a James Bond
- WinExtra on Windows Ep. 10: Microsoft silently connecting the people network
- Change of commenting policy at WinExtra
- WinExtra on Windows Ep 11: From eanings to licenses Microsoft has an interesting week
