Thoughts on blogging

I met with Steve Fulling, ITS Director, today. The first question from Steve was, "Jim, will you continue to blog?" Well, I realized that there is a bit of unfinished business here. And the answer is:

"Yes."

Of course, there are still negatives associated with blogging. It is time consuming and I struggle with meaningful topics. I have discovered that there are at least two major types of bloggers. First, there is a group that I would refer to as aggregators. These are the web logs that seem to have references to all the latest information. This is definitely not one of my strengths. Certainly there are times when I am fascinated by current events. And there are times when I like to refer to these events and point you to sites that cover issues that are pertinent and meaningful. There are so many good aggregators that often I don't feel I could offer any new or insightful information.

Second, there is a group that I would refer to as Knowledge Managers. This is what I aspire to be. Members of this group explore different issues, wade through great amounts of detail, synthesize information and, at times, draw conclusions. This is the process of turning information into knowledge. I have found myself doing this many times over the years. Now I have a forum to catalog this knowledge. The greatest benefit derived from my work accrues to me. It is personally important and helpful to see this process unfold. Knowledge Management can happen in many ways and many different styles work effectively.

Pete said something today that got me thinking. He makes the observation that it isn't how many people are reading your blog, it's who is reading it. I find that I'm one of the readers of my blogs. In fact, I find it helpful and interesting to go back and review what I was thinking, writing and learning last week, last month or even yesterday. As long as I'm reading my own blog and learning, then it is an effective tool for me.

Final thought: I've spent a considerable amount of time reading through the help files in my Radio Userland Tools. Over the next few days I'm going to spend more time in this area and a little less time blogging. I'm tired of not understanding the tools and not having all the cool features working on my site.

One more final thought: Did you catch the story about Harvard's initiative to get students and faculty blogging? Very cool. Here's the link:

Harvard puts blogging to work

My version of "found while looking for something else".

That's all for now.......
8:35:02 PM    comment []