Stuart and i have been talking of blog innovations.  He asks the question Where is Blog Innovation Today ? and raises many issues :

"What's happened to Blog Innovation? Are blogs and their formats "mature"? If so why, or if not why not? ..... What do others think? What are the most innovative new functionalities appearing in blogs today? Then really do the majority of blogger really care? Would changing the blog format too much upset them? .......What new blog genre is required if we are to reinvigorate the category? Is it something with additional photo or audio input? Something else?"  

Raises more questions / issues to me.

The blog itself is a publishing innovation - and is now caught between gaining critical mass through standardization and the need to retain flexibility, versatility and allow innovations.  Here's an interesting survey of 10 websites through elements of their layout, conducted by Francois Briatte that suggests "75% of web design is normative, the rest is merely color and pictures".  And Dave Shea says 'Everything Looks Like a Blog' - a neat discussion at this post with 33 comments - i am singling this one out :

"Ö But I often stuggle with defining ó and then choosing between ó what is intuitive and natural for the user and what is simply learned and comfortable.  Going with what you know an audience has been trained to expect *is* good design, but itís also conservative and it will inevitably make a site look similar to many others. Thatís ok ó some arbitrary standardization in design is worthwhile in any class of product, whether a chainsaw or a web page (saves toes and mouse clicks too). Designing as if the audience should discard what it has learned elsewhere is foolishly arrogant.

But on the other hand, designing to encourage new ways of interacting ó ways that inform rather than negate other experiences ó is brilliantly arrogantÖ Challenging the audience can bring an unexpected delight in the moment, and it can lead to new (though maybe arbitrary) design standards too ó which makes things more interesting over time, if nothing else. And Iíd like to think it is sometimes something else: an evolution towards what is more intuitive rather than just expected......... Ed T "

Which leads me to another point - audiences.  I don't really have good enough statistics to define my audience or really understand their needs.  I'd love to know what percentage reads my blog through news readers, how many visit the blog page regularly, how many visit occasionally, how many come here through searches on a certain topic, how many visit to 'hangout', etc. 

Amy Gahran has done a survey among 132 readers of her blog CONTENTIOUS and finds :

"Speaking of webfeeds, only 30% of respondents subscribe to the CONTENTIOUS webfeed. 45% receive this blog's e-mail alerts. 11% of respondents receive both types of announcements, and 17% receive neither."

This sort of data would have implications on innovations at my blog.  For instance if i find the largest number of readers rarely visit my blog page, i am less motivated to focus on innovations and more on content.  Or if a large number comes in from search engines - i wonder if they just locate content and exit - or are compelled to stay and leave a note at my guestboard or sign my guestmap. 

Some have their music up there too - i wonder how many people actually listen.  Others have tried additional photo or audio inputs - do these work ?

And, for each of these segments i'd love to try and understand what their relationship with my blog is, what needs does it fulfil for them, what are their expectations and delights on reading my blog.

Am wondering if anyone has any information on any survey done on these issues, among readers and bloggers.  Is it time to do a more formal survey ?

Meanwhile, i'd love to ask readers and other bloggers, what is the one innovation you'd like to see most in blogs ?

7:16:03 PM    comment []  trackback []

I've had technology-community-identity on my mind for a while.  Technology as the enabler and facilitator, community as a safe environment which encourages information flows and relationships, and persona or identity as that which becomes a part of my DNA as a result, and mirrors who i am.

Some of the linkages i see around me - this is just a starting point : 

• youth tribes/communities with distinctive lingo, rites of passage, rituals and values built around shared technology like IM, texting, etc
• blogs, community and a sense of belongingness resulting in tacit or more overt membership in various communities with shared affinities
• new forms of identity - how often have you been called or called yourself a 'blogger', a 'Ryzer' - i know i have been called these often - and they are some of my sources of identity today. Orkut-ian ? Ecadem-ician ? Tribe-r ? LinkedIn-er ? Flick'r-er? Zerodegrees-er ? - perhaps SNS providers should put some thought into naming their services in order to lend themselves to easy identity - afterall they're supposed to be about community and networking - and its a much stronger statement of belonging and identity to be able to say 'i'm a Ryzer', than to say 'i'm on Ryze'

What are the benefits of these linkages - perhaps the most obvious is that you feel a sense of belonging, ownership and pride in the community you belong to.  And you begin to get addicted to the give and take.

Marketers would benefit so much from building such communities around their products and brands. MTV club, Skypers, iPod-ers, XBox-ers, eBay-ers, Amazon-ers, communities built around lifestyle brands or even insurance for that matter. For marketers, there could be so many benefits - apart from their customers feeling this sense of ownership towards the product or brand (and we know how useful that is in building loyalty), these communities could provide feedback chains, testing grounds for innovations, referral systems, and so much more. 

Would love to hear about the linkages you see between technology, community and identity.  And how communities around technology could be beneficial to you.

12:35:19 PM    comment []  trackback []

I just discovered this through a visitor's log - Maish uses my blog as an example in his feature 'Knowledge Sharing for SMEs using Weblogs', at the iKMS blog.  He calls blogs the 'silent killer application of the decade' and lists out characteristics of my blog, benefits to my blog community, benefits to readers at large, and benefits to me as the blogger.  And then makes the case for business blogs and blogs in Knowledge Management and Project Management.

Nice Maish :).  This is the second instance i have noticed that someone's done an analysis of my blog :)

More pressure to get back to regular blogging !!!

10:04:04 AM    comment []  trackback []