Jonathan Schwartz is CEO of Sun Microsystems, a Fortune 500 company (#211) with about $11 billion in annual revenues. He became CEO earlier this year when longtime CEO Scott McNealy stepped down. He’s evidently the only Fortune 500 CEO to have a weblog.

He’s been posting to his Jonathan’s Blog since June of 2004 where he listed his reasons for starting one:

First, I’m a big believer in the idea that innovation is self-sustaining when it loses its predictability. I figured I’d do my part to promote self-sustenance. Second, to change the format and fidelity with which what I say is transcribed. No more comments from the pundits “in context.” Now you get them straight from me. Third, to get unfiltered feedback from the community… I promise to listen – from all the constituencies we serve (customers, stockholders, developers, consumers, suppliers… all).

He’s got a tough job ahead of him… slashing thousands of jobs and getting the company back on a profitable track. But after reading a few of his recent posts with his new CEO hat on, I like how he’s using his blog. Some examples:

This April post on why he’ll continue blogging emphasizes the importance of “… unparalleled transparency into everything we do, precisely because it’s the most efficient mechanism to accelerate change…” He sees his blogging as an example of this transparency, and specifically said so again two months later in this post: “You can tell I’m a big fan of transparency – that’s why I write a blog (with comments on, and yes, I read every one, as do a host of others at Sun). It’s why I encourage others to drive the conversation in the market, as well. Transparency’s at least a part of the solution. If not an outright competitive weapon.” This paragraph was preceded by a link to a blog host by a very unhappy customer.

He also walks the talk by hosting a visit from a competitor, a well-known Microsoft blogger named Robert Scoble, who in turned blogged at length about their lunch. They both caught quite a bit of heat from the comments attached to their posts.

I like it that he’s regularly mentioning specific employees in his blog posts, detailing what they do, their recent accomplishments, or their new assignments. He really should include photos in these posts, however, as any mention of a real person with a photo, especially an employee, propels that entry into the blogosphere and email inboxes with a force many times a text-only post.

Lastly, his posts seem to be increasingly less frequent. I’m guessing he’s fallen into the trap of thinking he must have Big and Important Things to blog about because otherwise he’s too busy. He’s not yet mastered the art of blogging very short stories that can be as effective.

Karen Christensen is CEO of Berkshire Publishing Group, a small (dozen employees) publisher in Massachusetts. I’ve been looking for women CEO bloggers and her Berkshire Blog: a global point of reference weblog is the first I’ve come across. She’s been blogging since late 2004.

In January, 2006, she used this post to explain her reason for blogging: “I love the chance to write about things that catch my eye, without worrying about how they fit into a book, but the point of this blog is really to give our friends, colleagues (many of whom are friends, too), and customers (ditto) a look at what’s going on at 314 Main Street, Great Barrington.”

In that same post, she announced that others from the company were going to be contributing to the blog, but other than a few posts from her editor, Marcy Ross, that effort has apparently failed… a common occurrence with group blogging, for reasons I’ve detailed in this podcast. To her credit, she’s kept up her blogging, with unusual frequency for a small business owner.

The first thing I noticed from her recent posts: she’s very good at incorporating small amounts of storytelling into her blog entries. In this June 20 post, note how the first paragraph is the simple, engaging personal story that sets up the announcement/promo info in the second paragraph.

She even tells a teeny tiny story here, as a way of encouraging her blog visitors to read an article, something I rarely see in a media diet blog post. This is a perfect example of what I wrote in my Guide, “There’s hardly a blog post that can’t include some elements of storytelling. Imagine yourself talking to a colleague or friend about what it is you’re blogging and then bring that tone to your post.”

I could go on about other things I like about her blog, eg, her opinionating about publishing issues, her discussion of company projects in the works, her short personal blurbs about authors she knows. Lots to like about this blogger.

I’d like to see her write more about her employees. And I’d like to see more photos and images. She made a stab at using Flickr back in March but that evidently hasn’t worked. I understand why and that’s my rationale for helping some of my current clients learn to use the blogging application, Zoundry Blog Writer… which I’m using to compose this post.

[This profile is part of my ongoing Leaders who blog series that I began in June, 2006]

David Miliband is the UK’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He started an internal weblog in late 2005 when he was Minister of Communities and Local Government and took it public earlier this year.

His “About this blog” statement:

This blog is my attempt to help bridge the gap – the growing and potentially dangerous gap – between politicians and the public. It will show what I’m doing, what I’m thinking about, and what I’ve read, heard or seen for myself which has sparked interest or influenced my ideas. My focus will be on my ministerial priorities. This supplements the existing ways of doing day-to-day business with me and my department.

It appears as though he’s actually authoring his own blog entries, though one never knows for sure. He’s got a personable writing style, posts frequently, and links to other sites to allow his readers to go deeper. Examples: this recent post titled: Environment as Public Service? or this one titled Um…Errr….Errrr….Um…..

I also like it that he often refers to those who attach comments to his blog entries, for example in this entry when he wrote “Many thanks for the comments on the drought in the South East (remember the majority of regions are not suffering). Harry, Holger and others mentioned the idea…”

I’m not going to do a complete analysis of his blog (Hansard Society is doing that) but there are a couple of things I’d like to see him do:

• Include photos of people who he mentions meeting. For example, in this post where he writes I met residents of the Victoria Hostel for the homeless in Westminster yesterday evening… The photo need not include him in the photo — some might accuse him of self-promotion if that’s done too much. Including photos not only makes a blog entry more visually appealing. It’s a good way to recognize/affirm/acknowledge the people who were there. And it encourages people to pass around the permalink of the blog entry.

• Include more posts about what his department staff/employees are doing that reflects some of the strategic initiatives he’s emphasizing, as well as the overall values he espouses. Leadership for someone in his position not only relates to public leadership, but to the many (dozens/hundreds/thousands?) of government employees who are part of his department.

[This profile is part of my ongoing Leaders who blog series that I began in June, 2006]