Weblogs 101: What You Need to Know About Blogging

Weblogs 101: What You Need to Know About Blogging Terence K. Huwe | Lincoln Cushing Institute of Industrial Relations University of California, Berkeley Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Part One: The Big Picture • Terry Will Cover: • Blogging as a new information management tool • Focus on the question, “What for?” • Blogging and organizations • Applications with broad relevance • Some guiding reference principles, based on life in the Web era • How the IIR Library developed its Blog • Q&A, Short Break Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Part Two: Blogging Nuts and Bolts • Lincoln will cover: • Weblog “How To’s” • Using Radio Userland to start Blogging • XML and HTML in Blogging design • Desktop Clients • Other software for Blogging in brief • Blogging plug-ins and cool applications • Q&A and wrap up Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Blogging is “Hip High Tech” • Internet Librarian ’03 had a full track on Blogging, and it was a hit • Computers in Libraries ’04 repeated the blogging emphasis • Librarians look at Blogs and see potential • Fast movement of content to the Web, without touching a server—what’s not to like? • The platform is ideal for topically focused sites you can build on the fly and maintain fairly easily Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Two Value Points • Speed: • Using Rich Site Summary (RSS) to build a “breaking news” resource (RadioUserland) • Easy Web Publishing and Archiving: • Take a topic, build a resource that has longer term value, including news and locally authored stories, Web links and articles Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

How Relevant is the Blogosphere? • Can this self-publishing platform become a money maker? • Can it become part of a stable Web-based service? • Will it morph into something different? Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Blogging And Organizations • Information management platforms are only useful if they meet the needs of users in the local information ecology • Information professionals who are interested in Blogging need to survey the information ecology, and plan strategic services that Blogging can provide Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Academic and Public Organizations • Quick alerts to patrons, students and faculty • News aggregation that is pertinent to communities of scholars or civic life • Easy (though limited) repository management of past discussion threads, documents and Web links • Ability to add search features for your Blog • Blogging can be a very useful add-on to robust Web sites—but probably can’t replace them Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Corporate Environments • Michael Angeles, Information Architect at Lucent Technologies: • “Weblogs are increasingly important as parts of the overall information architecture and ecology” --Computers in Libraries, March 2004 Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Strategic Blogging in Firms • Verizon tracks competitors with RSS • Daimler/Chrysler uses Blogs to monitor production/quality problems • A large insurer relies on Blogs to keep track of discussion threads about client needs—helping the sales force remember past lessons Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

The Blog as “Knowledge Log” • Blogging can be a form of “guerrilla IA” • Employees can post anything they wish (within the cultural rules of the firm) • Employees can take a good idea and run with it • Librarians, with knowledge of metadata, CMS and other skills, can turn a Blog into a useful element within the overall information ecology Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Perceptions of Blogging Are Evolving • Deloitte: “Bridging the gaps between people and systems depends on first creating the conditions that allow people to participate in KM locally rather than enforcing technology-based KM policies. These local activities are bridged in loosely coupled Knowledge Networks.” • Forrester: “Organizations have begun to move away from single-solution KM packages.” Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Important Considerations • Centralize Blogging—with a Blog master • Keeping tabs on what’s published • Decentralized Blogging • maximizes employee freedom of speech • “Bottom Up” IA solution, driven by users • Mediated Blogging • —hybrid, some control, but a “light touch” Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Key Value Points for Firms • Blogs can help foster “Communities of Practice” • Blogs can help leverage expertise by improving its findability • People can “watch” what others “publish” on their Blogs—sparking creativity Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

In Today’s Firms, Relationships and Information Use Are Deeply Entwined Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Some New Examples of the Corporate Information Ecology Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Blogging Activities with Broad Relevance • Quick and easy Web posting • Reference Blogging—publishing a highly polished, thorough Blog on a specific topics • RSS—Rich Site Summary • Aggregating both news and internal information • Archiving Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Blogging As A Reference Tool • As a technology that derives from the lifespan of the Web, it’s best seen in tandem with more “solid” resources • Web content in the form of IP-authenticated databases is a foundation upon which to build a reference Blog • Reference-intensive Blogs build on digital libraries instead of duplicating them Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

The Best Reference Value of Blogs: RSS • Blogging is a craft, often a labor of love • The people who follow topics on their Blogs are often expert in the area they cover • Newspapers and Blogs are a perfect fit for editors who want to publisher between editions Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Comment on the Impact of Blogs on the Press: • Jay Rosen, Chair of the Department of Journalism, NYU: “The old system was, ‘Here’s our news; take it or leave it’…Now, sovereignty over the story is shifting.” --New York Times, Thursday, April 1, 2004, p E3 Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Blogging Works Well in Conjunction With Related Web Pages • It’s effective as a pipeline for email alerts to communities served by special librarians • Other reference librarians can find and use a good blog on an ongoing basis • The general public, citizen-researchers in particular, appreciate systematic, topical Blogging • Blogging goes well with standard Web development Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

In Our Opinion, Blogs Go Together With Standard Web Development • Quick and easy to aggregate news by topic • Fair easy to create new commentary, opinion and stories • Nice place to build Web links on the fly • --But not necessarily easier than uploading HTML files, by conventional means, for complex pages Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

What We Did • The Institute of Industrial Relations is a unique community • Our Blog reflects our belief about what was needed locally • We didn’t dive in over our heads, but got started quickly • Here’s an overview—Lincoln will demonstrate nuts and bolts later Special Libraries Association Professional Development Program

Weblogs 101: What You Need to Know About Blogging