Autodesk Rides the Blog Wave

Of all the blogs that are out there (see TenLinks list of CAD blogs), and overwhelming number (54 out of 79 listed, or 68%) are related to AutoCAD and other Autodesk products. Is it because AutoCAD is the single best selling CAD product ever? AutoCAD's popularity may have something to do with blog proliferations but I suspect Autodesk, as a corporation, has given blogs an official push.

As a case in point, consider how many blogs are by Autodesk employees:

• Amy's blog on Manufacturing Community
• AutoCAD Insider - by Heidi Hewett of Autodesk
• Between the Lines - by Shaan Hurley of Autodesk
• Between the Walls - by Chris Yanchar of Autodesk
• Beyond the Paper - by Autodesk's Scott Sheppard
• The Evangelist Speaks - by Autodesk's Kevin Schneider
• In the Machine - by Amy Bunszel, Pete Lord, Andy Palioca, Jeff Wymer of Autodesk
• Lynn Allen's Blog
• Under the Hood - by Grant Rochelle of Autodesk

Smart move for Autodesk. It got right on that wave and is riding its crest. You don't expect big companies to move so fast. As has been covered here, print coverage of products is declining. Traditional publishers have been slow to transfer content to the web. In that vacuum, blogs have sprung up and Autodesk seems to have taken full advantage.

But can Autodesk count on its ragtag army of bloggers to be faithful? Surely, those bloggers already on its payroll can be expected to loyally sing the company tune. But what would happen if things went bad? What if Autodesk had a bad day and put out a dud? Remember R13? These independent bloggers are likely to turn mean.

Does Autodesk have a plan to control the monster? I wondered this out loud to Shaan Hurley, Autodesk employee and author of Between the Lines, one of the earliest blogs and still one of the most popular. Thinking he was "in charge" of the bloggers, I sent him a list of questions:

1. Have you officially been given responsibility for monitoring/helping/creating Autodesk-related blogs? If your responsibility is unofficial, does official responsibility fall under a particular department at Autodesk?
2. Does Autodesk have an official policy on blogs? If so, can you detail it for me?
3. Does Autodesk support any blogs or bloggers financially? Either with direct pay, advertising, software, trips to Autodesk? (not including Autodesk employees)
4. It seems Autodesk employees are encouraged to blog (please correct me if I am wrong). How does Autodesk support its own bloggers? (For example, maintainenance of blogs on company time is permitted? Is having a blog is looked on favorably during reviews? Etc.)
5. Have you received feedback from Autodesk upper management re. blog content? Have the executives shown they are reading the blogs?
6. How does Autodesk or its employees react to negative material on blogs? Have you or any Autodesk employee censured a blogger? If that hasn't happened yet, is there a game plan on how to handle negative material?
7. Does Autodesk assign status on a blog based on favorable/unfavorable content?
8. What sort of information does Autodesk send to blogger? Product release info, pre-release information, etc. How is that information distributed?

Shaan got back to me a few days later saying his blog was not an an official duty, just "a geek hobby gone big." Also, we (Autodesk) "do not pay or entice customers to blog their opinions..." Well, okay, that answers my first question, maybe part of another. I was referred to someone else at Autodesk for the rest. Stay tuned....

Comments

[Matt Dillon]

As an independent blogger I have never been asked by Autodesk to post anything or to remove a post, nor have I felt pressured in any way shape or form to post anything positive.

In fact, aside from some personal acquaintances who also happen to be employees, I never receive any feedback, positive or negative, on my blog from Autodesk, which is as it should be.

[Jimmy Bergmark]

An answer to why I'm blogging about Autodesk products is that I'm using them on a daily basis. I also blog about other non CAD stuff. I think it's a great way to share back to the web community. I've learned a lot from other blogs, newsgroups, etc and I hope some can learn something from my blog. Sometimes I also post to the blog as a reminder about something for my self so I easily can find it at a later point. Then of course having a value of my blog postings and getting traffic to it also makes it easier for potential customers to find and get to know about my company and the services I can provide them with.

Do Autodesk control the "monster"? Not that I know of. I feel free to blog about both the good things as well as the bad things both at my blog and on my website. I have for example an extensive list of AutoCAD bugs on my website.

Jimmy Bergmark
JTB World
http://www.jtbworld.com
http://jtbworld.blogspot.com

[Roopinder Tara]

Just received an official response from Autodesk:

"Autodesk considers blogging to be an important channel for communicating with our customers, and our executive team fully supports the company’s blogging activities. We do not incent customers for blogging, or compensate them for doing so. Autodesk’s blogging guidelines are for internal use only."

However, the person I spoke to did not know that another Autodesk employee had already posted a response revealing at least some of Autodesk's internal policy on employee blogs.

[Chris Blocher]

1. Maintaining the Beyond the Paper blog is a secondary duty. My primary job is to be the Engineering Project Manager for development of our Quantity Take Off application.

2. Autodesk does have an official blog policy. It has many common sense things like: post at least 3 times a week, stick to what you know, be truthful, etc. An employee signs and agrees to it before setting up his blog.

3. N/A - I am an employee.

4. I am a salaried employee. I can devote time during the day to my blog as long as my other duties also get done. This is my first year maintaining a blog. I expect that it will appear on next year's performamce review.

5. Carl Bass regularly reads my blog and provides encouragement. Amar Hanspal has also done this.

6. I am allowed to put negative material as long as it is accurate. Naturally as Autdoesk employees, we do try to share both sides of a story. There are reasons why things are the way they are - even with items such as defects. I attempt to provide links to patches or share workarounds. To date, I have not been censored.

7. I provide links to other blogs based on content - not status.

8. As an Autodesk employee, I discuss unreleased software in the http://myfeedback.autodesk.com forums. These are designed for this purpose. For my blog, I am allowed to comment on anything that has been released. My focus is DWF. I even referred to AutoCAD 2007 as DWF Content Creator. I often get ideas for blog content in the news://discussion.autodesk.com newsgroups.

[Sean Dotson]

>Does Autodesk assign status on a blog based on >favorable/unfavorable content?

If they have not attempted to censor me yet then I doubt they will to anyone (perhaps unless they break a law by revealing trade secrets or other items covered by NDAs). Some of the stuff on my "blog" can go to both extremes of praise and criticism. Speak with some people at ADSK, this "fair and balanced" view is what makes me credible as a "reviewer". You have to question a blog (like a magazine review) that is ALWAYS glowing with praise.

I'd like to see Shaan's answers to the rest of those questions.

[ralphg]

While Autodesk sponsors numerous employee blogs, some of them are rarely updated.