Yesterday I was watching Twitter and:
You’ll need more than bribes I thought. For several years I blogged at the University of Sydney. I was also involved in providing a blogging platform for staff. Later I moderated the student blog. In all cases I was disappointed by the lack of actual blogging.
So what’s the problem?
The idea of a blog always sparks up great enthusiasm in people, especially managers. A couple of years ago it was seen as an easy way to make your organisation seem abreast of the times.
“We need to do something about our website, make it a little more sexy, or something”
“We could do a blog”
“Hey yeah, that’s a great idea, we’ll get the web people to set one up tomorrow!”
(Unfortunately they discovered that technically it’s easy to set up a blog, making people write is hard).
Then there was the phase that saw it as a solution for staff communication (soon overtaken by wikis).
“We need to make sure everyone is getting the right information. I think staff need to share information a bit more. Make sure everyone has everything documented”
‘Yeah, we could do a blog”
“Great idea. Let’s get the techies to set one up tomorrow”.
(Unfortunately they discovered that people don’t really like documenting processes and giving them a blog to do it on isn’t going to make them do it).
Then there was the blog-as-humaniser. CIOs were given blogs to make them more ‘human’. Or something.
“Hey, the CIO wants a blog. He reckons it’s important that everyone sees him as a human and approachable.”
“Great. I’ll set one up tomorrow”
(Unfortunately they discovered the CIO had no time to blog, nor could he write).
Some success
There are two settings where I have seen blog success in an organisation:
1. The university-run student blog
There is one big reason why such a blog works: money. Students are paid to write. It doesn’t guarantee a spectacular blog but it does ensure that posts are going to be relatively constant. The blog will thrive with skilful moderation and management. I saw one particularly good case of this at Sydney (and no, it wasn’t me!) Like all employees, student bloggers need management, they need coaxing, they need positive feedback and sometimes, hand-holding.
2. The enthusiast blog
This blog is essentially the child of one or two people who take it upon themselves to write it. Typically they like sharing information, they are excited and passionate about their topic and they can write. They are committed enough to write often and they don’t mind going the extra mile to moderate comments, seek out similar blogs and promote their own. They comment on other blogs, they respond to comments on their own blog. They keep abreast of their field and they feel it is their job to keep others up to speed, whether it is written into their job description or not. This is a critical point: there will be very few job descriptions (in a university setting) that include blogging. And with no requirement to do it, why would someone devote so much of what is essentially their own time to writing a blog for work?
And finally
The number of people who blog in general (and I mean serious, effective blogging of a high standard) is very low. A good blog requires enthusiasm, skill, commitment and knowledge. Despite what some will have you believe, not everyone can do it. Transpose this then to the work environment and trying to impose a blogging regime is doomed to fail. Unless there is already a culture of blogging that respects the place of blogs and takes them seriously it is very hard to convince people of their worth. This doesn’t mean there is no place for blogs in the workplace, there most definitely is. Just don’t be surprised when only a small percentage of people read the blog(s) and an even smaller percentage want to write, do it well and do it often. Value the ones that do it well, know your limits and don’t be defeated by the tens of abandoned blogs set up because someone thought it was a good idea.
Filed under: blogging, higheredweb |
Tags: blogging, highered, university
I have to thank you, Georg, for the shameless plug.
Today I emailed the Dean of Science a begging letter — I have been invited to speak at the Nature Publishing Group’s Scientific Blogging Conference in London at the end of August, but can’t afford the airfare. We shall, I think, see how committed is the University to blogs.usyd.
Value the ones that do it well she says. Let’s hope so.
No worries at all
Well, I hope they give you some support. Something like that goes way beyond blogging and I hope someone has the ability to see that. Good luck.
Whee. Just had a visit from the HoD. His first comment was
“What’s this ‘blogging’ thing?”
Inauspicious beginning. But it turns out that the Dean had sent him to find out if this was a hoax I was trying to pull. He (the Dean) is actually pretty keen, it turns out. I had to explain how I knew Labrats and my blog at Nature were so popular, but that was easy.
I will have to be the subject of a Uni News item, but that’s hardly a hardship, and is, in fact, the entire point of this ‘blogging thing’. So. Yeah. Looks hopeful. Because, frankly, if it didn’t I’d be seriously considering the future of the exercise.
Congrats! That is fantastic news. I am so pleased for you. Let me know how it goes.
I can see why you would question even bothering if they had ignored you. Although, something tells me you would blog even if you thought no one was listening…when blogging for work I often questioned why I bothered and considered giving up. I have some strange compulsion however to do it, even if I wanted to stop I think I am at the stage where it is almost impossible. Which is what I was trying to say in this post, some freaks like us will do it but unless you have that compulsion it’s going to be a hard slog.
Yes - it is a compulsion. But I’m starting to be more disciplined as regards writing: I am trying my hand at a few short stories and poems, and gearing up towards a novel (for examples see here and here).
I also have a personal weblog and the one at Nature, so it’s not like there wouldn’t be an outlet for the compulsion. I’m not likely to explode from un-vented creativity
I hear you in regard to the discipline. I am trying hard to do the same. Trying to do things like revise, rewrite etc. I do tend to dash off stuff for blogs and publish immediately.
No, doesn’t sound like you will be exploding any time soon due to bottled-up creativity but I suspect you are like me in that blogging seems a natural part of work now. Writing about work and sharing stuff with others is just another part of daily work life. There are not many people who are like that. Well, not that I have found. I’ve seen plenty of discussions around the old “why do we blog” chestnut but not so much in a work context.
I’ll take a look at your links
Hey Georg…
News. I’m off to London in August. The Dean put up $1000 on condition that my HoD would, too. And he did. DPM weren’t interested/”had no remit”.
I think I sold it by pushing the Web 2.0 aspect to J*s Ch*mbers. The Science Fac seems committed, even if DPM isn’t (having said that, N*ck Ev*ns sounded quite apologetic about it).
(names mangled to fool the googlemonster.)
Well, congratulations! That is fabulous. I had noticed that you had recently purchased tickets to London so I suspected it had all come through. I hope it is spectacular.