Fifty corporate podcsts. 50,000 employee downloads in the past two months.

Though business is certainly a driver, not all IBMs podcasts are business. IBMers like Ethan Rand McCarty of IBM’s strategic communications team are podcasting on the intranet: "Ethan McCarty's Rock and Roll Podcast."

According to another insightful article by Julie Moran Alterio in the Journal News (Podcasts a hit inside IBM) IBM is podcastinga storm…

McCarty, part of IBM's strategic communications team, is one of the people helping lead IBM into the new world of blogging and podcasting.

IBM started to encourage employees to read and create the online journals known as blogs last May. Shortly after, IBM started pushing podcasts — subscription-based audio downloads that can be listened to on laptops, iPods or other MP3 players.

IBMers like McCarty are recording podcasts on the company intranet.

In addition, the investor relations department has created a podcast for the public called "IBM and the Future of..." with installments that explore how technology will affect activities such as driving, shopping, banking and online gaming.

Ben Edwards said the podcast, like the annual report that he and his colleagues create, gives investors a sense of where IBM is headed strategically.

"The podcasts offer an opportunity to communicate with our investors on a more frequent basis," Edwards said.

*   *   *

All IBMers can record podcasts using the built-in microphone in their company laptops. Simple online tutorials make it easy even for novices.

One of the first podcasts was a tutorial on how to start a blog. Other podcasts are on such topics as work force diversity and career development.

At least one executive is using a podcast to replace a conference call. Tim Carroll, a vice president in IBM's supply chain, used to lead a weekly call with the 7,000 employees around the world who report to him. The phone bill for the call was hundreds of thousands of dollars a year…

Read IBM’s Podcast Guidelines(compliments of Toby Bloomberg).

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Some 7,500 blogs last year have increased to about 15,000 corporate blogs this year, according to an IBM company survey of employee bloggers highlighted in a Journal News article Big Blue bit by the blogging bug.

IBM doesn’t just encourage certain people to blog, they’re encouraging all employees to blog – to the outside world and on the corporate intranet. As long as they adhere to the corporate blogging policies developed last year (developed by open contributors to a corporate wiki that formed the final blogging policy), employees can blog what they want.

To quote Julie Moran Alterio in her Journal News article:

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's vice president of technical strategy and innovation and the company's highest-ranking blogger, said Big Blue is encouraging employees to bone up on blogging for the same reason it asked them to get savvy about Web commerce in the 1990s.

"We absolutely recognize that blogging, just like the Internet, World Wide Web, Linux and open source, is a major initiative in the marketplace that we should be part of. This best way to be part of it is not to observe it passively but to do it actively," Wladawsky-Berger said.

IBM had the same idea when it rolled out tools last May that allow every employee to create a blog on the company intranet.

So far, 16,416 people have registered and 2,291 have

created active blogs.

Among the most popular bloggers is an IBMer from Japan who likes to discuss idiomatic phrases in English and a researcher in California who is running a pet contest.

I predict that within the next year we’ll see corporate blogging used by the sales force that demonstrates a positive ROI and a direct correlation to increased revenue. IBM is a leader in corporate intranets, blogging and ROI measurement – I can think of no better candidate to deliver that kind of ROI announcement.

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Podcasting the intranet at IBM

"Intranets are an anachronism. They're gonna die, it's just a matter of time."

These are the prophetic words (see Sun's Schwartz@Syndicate: Intranets are gonna die)of Sun Microsystems president and COO Jonathan Schwartz at the Syndicate Conference in San Francisco last month. Pathetic; the over-embossed hype of an ego-driven media hound with a ponytail (yes, he actually wears a ponytail).

Actually I apologize Jonathan, I’m sure you’re a fine person and I won’t attack you personally. However, your credibility to predict the future of intranets is best summed up by the relative performance of Sun’s stock price of the last five years…

If stock performance doesn’t turn you on then perhaps you’d be interested in knowing that Sun has done nothing but lose money the past four years with operating income losses of more than US$4 billion. More than US$2.4 billion last year alone.

Here’s a tip John: the purpose of a company is to make money. Anyone can spend a loss of $4 billion. Save the prognostications for areas where you have credibility.

What is Schwartz’s rationale for the death of intranets? Blogs. Hehe, I know I am laughing too. Say John, how does a blog run an employee directory, web mail, benefits enrollment, corporate forms, etc.?

Schwartz on employee communications: " There's very little communication internal to Sun that you want to have private…. I just have an external blog."

Schwartz on open Internet access for employees: “"Some people say that if you allow people some conveniences or allow them some connectivity, it will be bad for business.  My fear is that when you give connectivity to your employees, they take [their work] home all the time."

Oh my. Nice work. I really like the ponytail though, hotshot.