I've been thinking a lot today about how to use the knowledge captured within my weblog. Once I'm in the habit of wrapping just the right amount of myself around chunks of other sites, when do I use it again? How does it pop back into my workflow? The most basic of models seems to be, "Didn't I make a post about that? Hmmm... Did I use the phrase "image management" or "picture database"?" Seems klunky. Management of meta-data is a great idea (e.g. categories), but it requires, to some extent, some foreknowledge of how you're going to want to use the information in the future. I know...there isn't a good answer. I would love to see, however, a system that would automatically add meta-data that might prove useful. I guess I'm talking about some sort of intelligent agent that could analyze my entries according to unforseen parameters. Sort of like the engines behind personal management software like Creo's Six Degrees or Enfish Personal--both applications that attempt to categorize the data in your contacts, email, and documents to present meaningful options when you're working with any of the three. What if my weblog software were "smart" like this? I guess it almost sounds like Microsoft's Smart Tags (which has always sounded vaguely sinister) in application. Let's say I make a post about a project I'm working on that deals with instructional design for web-based courses. Could my tool cruise through the archived RSS feeds of the sites I'm subscribed to and suggest links to other's who are working on the same thing? Could it look through my own archives and find posts with similar themes? How would I see these suggestions? Would they be available to those who subscribe to my weblog? At this point I have many more questions than answers. [Seblogging News]

In a recent post Will Richardson is thinking "about the really important need to find stuff once you post it." Dale Pike touched this topic too, when he wrote the other day: "How does it pop back into my workflow? The most basic of models seems to be, "Didn't I make a post about that? Hmmm... Did I use the phrase "image management" or "picture database"?" Seems klunky". A one-fits-all solution to this problem doesn't really exist. Full text indexing your Weblog through a free search service is a valid strategy but delivers mixed results. I have recently played a bit with the Metadata plugin for Manila and some of the available macros like "include message" and "view newsItem".

The DataMining page I have thrown together already solves a few issues for me. First of all, it allows the quick monitoring of all posts, and comments. Just looking at the list of "headlines" I can see where the latest statements came from. Since Seblogging is focused on the voices of particular people, names play an important role for the organization of this log. If I want to check out an original post I can simply click on the headline. I can also comment on an item directly from this list view. What you cannot see is that I can even edit it from there, too. The way I have indexed my items allows me to search for any name or surname of a seblogged eduBlogger. If I target my search to the "body" of all items instead of the "newsItem.department" meta type I receive a list of all items that include my search term somewhere within the item text. Of course, I can construct more metadata types like "topic"or "keywords" to classify the items in a more elaborate way. What I really like about this approach is that I can construct and edit metadata types whenever I want. I don't have to anticipate a full metadata sheme right from the start. [Seblogging News]

Yet it is still rare for companies to train and coach people in how to have more meaningful dialogue or seriously address the challenges of collaborative decision making. Most team and work group efforts focus on cooperation, not collaboration. We teach people how to cooperate so we can each get our work done, which is still basically an individual performance focus. It is far more challenging to learn real collaboration where we create new knowledgeötogether. [Seblogging News]

One of the most powerful aspects of Manila is the ability to collaborate with other classes both near and far, and I'm itching to do that this fall. Luckily, Barbara seems willing to explore some ideas of having her Middlebury students and my journalists do some weblog work. And I know that Joe and Terry and others have mentioned the idea and the desire. I've been thinking that much like the shared server consortium, we need a place to keep potential collaborative ideas. I'll start by adding a link on the nav bar  to a "story" where I'll list those looking to hook up with other schools or classrooms. Just send me an e-mail if you want to be added to the list. We'll see how it goes. [Seblogging News]