Knowledge Management Technology

Blogs

A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order, and represents one of the most accessible means of online publication. It is used when an individual or Community of Practice wishes to share news and ideas with others, often for comment, and where this cannot effectively be done face to face. Most blogs invite comment and discussion from the readers, and therefore can introduce a topic to a community of learners.

Although many blogs are contain commentary and diary-style entries, they can also be used for sharing knowledge. Journaling an experience to be shared with learners is a standard use of a blog. Project teams may use a blog as an online version of a project log. A leader can use a blog to communicate news and developments. Blogs can be published by individuals, by teams or communities.

A typical blog combines text, images and links to other blogs, web pages and other media related to its topic Although blogs in Sharepoint can be set with access permissions, blogs on the world wide web must be assumed to be public domain. You will need some sort of blogging software, and a publishing site. These are available on the world wide web free of charge. Rules for making blogging effective are as follows;

• Know the purpose. Is this a personal blog, of your own thoughts and opinions, or it is an organisational blog, logging the activities of a division or team?
• Know the audience. Who is this for? What discussions do you want to stimulate?
• Write with conviction, but keep it short. A Blog is a set of soundbites rather than a lecture series.
• Add lots of links. Allow people to find supporting resources (websites, documents on Sharepoint etc) when they need them.
• Visit your blog regularly, read comments, answer comments, post new thoughts.