Chances are good that by now you are either a blogger yourself or a reader of blogs.
I was suprised to find out that blogs started showing up in 1998. By 1999 there were 23 known blogs; today estimates run in the 4-5 million range. In 2002 Wired stated that blogging was to words what napster was to music. Fortunately there wasn’t an icy hand of restraint to staunch the flow of blogging words and they continue to proliferate like tribbles. Blogs tend to live in the fuzzy world somewhere between journalism, talk radio and a voyeuristic webcam. They have an immediacy and personal touch that makes them engaging and many bloggers also invite comments which leads to a community atmosphere.
Read more about why and how to blog ...
The popularity of blogs may also reflect our growing concern about the reliability of established institutions. We no longer blindly trust big corporations, big media or big politics. A lone blogger who opens his words up to immediate feedback may have as much credibility as a New York Times journalist. In a Business 2.0 article by John Battelle, he predicts, "Blogs will soon become a staple in the information diet of every serious businessperson, not because it’s cool to read them, but because those who don’t read them will fail." That’s pretty direct!
One of the things that has fascinated me about blogs since I somewhat reluctantly became a blogger about four months ago (with the encouragement of my blogging friend, Renee Hopkins -- see "IdeaFlow" at the InnovationNetwork site) is all the possible uses of blogging. Now that I am an avid blogger, I have six blogs, including one focused on an area of learning that intrigues me -- I use it like a graphic journal, one that’s a collaborative design effort for an upcoming meeting, and one that’s a mindset starter for the people who will be attending that meeting.
I was delighted to discover George Siemen’s article on blogging and his list of possible uses. While I had thought of some of them, many were new. His list of uses for blogging is below and he states, "As an emerging tool, blogging uses have still not been completely explored."
-- Knowledge sharing and knowledge management
-- Customer service - see Blogging Goes Corporate article below
-- Interactive journalism
-- Communication
-- Self-expression
-- Learning
-- Self-marketing
-- Campaigning/social reform
-- Community building
-- Experience tracking
-- Storytelling - see Grassroots KM Through Blogging article below
Another technology I'm intrigued with is the survey process offered by Survey Monkey so I thought we should put them together and see where you are on blogging and what other ideas you can come up with
for how to use blogs.
To take the survey, go to Blog Survey.
I look forward to seeing your ideas ... Joyce Wycoff
Further reading about blogs;
Articles:
The Blogging Revolution
Grassroots KM through Blogging
Blogging and RSS - talks about blogs in education
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