Post on 16-Apr-2017
Institutional BloggingSharing and linking organizational knowledge, one post at a time
Cornelius PuschmannUniversity of Dsseldorfcornelius.puschmann@uni-duesseldorf.de
Max Planck Digital Library5 September 2007
Blogs? Blogging?
A blog is...
Blog (n): a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.
blog(v): to maintain or add content to a blog.
A web log or online diary. Blogs have been identified as an increasingly popular source of online publication, especially regarding political information, opinion publication and alternative news coverage.
A shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies
A blog is...
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.
A weblog or internet diary. Weblogs enable users to publish short comments and ideas instantly for other people to read. Blogging can be an effective communications tool for small groups of people to keep in touch with each other.
So is it...
a publishing technology?
a form of writing (personal diary, journal)?
a way of communicating and collaborating in a group?
A blog can be any or all of these things, depending on how it is used.
A few facts
Technorati (blog search engine) tracks about 70 million blogs worldwide
120.000 new blogs are created each day that's 1.4 every second
1.5 million entries (posts) are published every day
virtually every language on the planet is represented in blogs
blog content is very accessible to both humans and search engines because it is usually syndicated via web feeds (RSS & Atom formats)
blogging software (Wordpress, Movable Type) is open source and free to use, as are hosted services (Blogger, LiveJournal)
Blogs and the news
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Blogging is often associated with certain stereotypes
it's for teenage girls
it's for the self-involved and would-be celebrities
it's for people with too much spare time
it's for extroverts and narcissists
Really?
Yes, but...
Different ways of using blogs
CorpBlawg: my research blog about corporate blogging (talk about meta!)
personal knowledge management (KM) tool
I write down ideas for papers and things relevant to my dissertation
I can share, link and archive these ideas
initially, I didn't care whether or not anyone else found my blog interesting
Use of blogs in institutions
Areas where blogs are used
Business
Education
Law
Political activism
Art
...
Companies that blog
Providing institutional news: UN Dispatch
Talking to clients and partners: If broken it is...
But it's public!
on the Net public not longer means everyone, it means potentially anyone
the smallest relevant audience for a blog is its writer
is there a reason for something not to be communicated publicly?
creating connections where previously none existed - you never know who might read (and respond to) your blog
Observations
a blog is a versatile publishing tool that can be used for a range of purposes
blogs are compared with diaries and journals not because they always deal with personal issues, but because individuals have control over them
this means that organizations can use them
in the traditional way of communicating with the public
in new areas that are not associated with mass media publishing (e.g. knowledge management, communication, documentation, relationship-building, crisis management, collaboration, ...)
whatever the use, blogs are a cheap, fast and simple way of engaging in these activities
Thanks for listening!
Institutional BloggingSharing and linking organizational knowledge, one post at a time
Cornelius PuschmannUniversity of Dsseldorfcornelius.puschmann@uni-duesseldorf.de
Max Planck Digital Library5 September 2007