I thought I had better add a new post as it is now 2010 and I have not updated my blog since late November of last year! I have been pretty busy of late with research etc. but hope to get quite a few more postings and updates on here…
Luckily for me the first post of 2010 is good news as I have managed to get a journal paper accepted in the journal “The Learning Organization“, publication for May 2010. The paper is called: ‘Organisational blogs: benefits and challenges of implementation’.
The writing of this paper was of great benefit to my research as it allowed me to examine and focus upon organisational issues that might impact on the implementation of new technology in an organisation. The technology that I was concerned with addressing were blogs. In my paper I also devised a set of practical guidelines for management who may be contemplating using blogs in their organisation but who are unsure of how to successfully implement them. These guidelines can also be referred to by academic practitioners who may be interested in conducting their own study of blog use within an organisation.
Details of the inaugural issue of the “International Journal of Information Technology Project Management” (IJITPM) are now available from IGI Publishing. The special issue is about “Managing Virtual Project Teams.” Any queries regarding topics to be discussed as well as general submissions should be directed to the Guest Editor, Professor Peggy Beranek at: mberanek@uccs.edu Submission due date is: January 15, 2010.
The theme for E.C.L.O.’s 17th International Conference is: “Learning Excellence: A Survival Guide in Troublesome Times.” Those interested in contributing a paper and presenting should contact jim.jack@eclo.org. The current conference submission deadline is: 23rd December 2009 of a 200 word contribution abstract.
How blogs are used and the nature of blogging itself is often viewed from a technical, personalised or social perspective. One research issue that I wish to address in my research is whether blogging is really all about the technology or the use of it? The answer to such a question could be either yes and no.
Software platforms that support the running of blogs inevitably play an integral role in facilitating the evolvement of blogging in terms of what blog users can do to improve the format of their blogs. The fact that the developments surrounding Web 2.0 are evolving at such an accelerated rate means that bloggers must be aware of them. Such observations throughout the ‘Blogosphere’ will allow bloggers to improve upon the overall appearance and usability of their blogs. It is important though that the developments surrounding blogging software continues to support the fundamentals of content generation.
Despite the technical aspects of blogging being of the upmost relevance what really makes a blog is its content. The fact that blogs revolve around an individual’s personality in terms of ‘their voice’ and what they wish to say means that blogging software must keep abreast of technological developments elsewhere in the sphere of Web 2.0. From this I mean that we can already see how integrative blogs are with blog users being able to incorporate other aspects of social media within their blogs e.g. podcasts, video files and graphics. Within higher education, course management systems such as Blackboard and Moodle are quickly evolving into e-learning platforms that can accommodate various types of social media e.g. wikis, forums and blogs for the purposes of collaboration for project work and feedback. These course management systems will continue to develop through the innovations of social media and with the gradual introduction of Web 3.0 (though I think that many people still have to grapple with the concepts of Web 2.0 prior to Web 3.0’s introduction).
Blogging software (in terms of use and design) is all about supporting what blogging really evolves around – the writing and generation of content. I wish to expand upon this theme in a subsequent post that will discuss issues relating to writing in a blog as well as perceived problems associated with this.
For anyone wishing to know about the new social interactive communication phenomena called ‘Google Wave’ the video below which I came across on YouTube explains it very clearly and concisely. I still think that ‘Google Wave’ has extremely good potential to be used for collaboration and information sharing in organisational project environments.
An issue that has often been raised during my research about blogging in organisations is that surely you could write in an e-mail message what you might in a blog post? Is there the need to use a blog to post messages to colleagues when you could simply e-mail what you had to say? Most organisational employees would argue that accessing internal e-mail would be easier than having to search for their company or departmental blog (e.g. on their Intranet or wherever the blog was hosted). Furthermore, dependant upon whom and how many individuals you were sending your e-mail to, e-mails might be viewed as being more private than adding a ‘communal’ post to a blog. With an e-mail, you can also attach documents to it as likewise you can share documents on a blog. Blogs though allow you to upload various types of media file such as video and multi-media graphics.
The main distinction and individuality that I see between blogs and e-mail use within organisations is one of format. The way in which blogs are designed makes them more presentable and easier to use in terms of searching for and locating relevant information. The information contained within blogs is stored chronologically. So if you know the precise information you are looking for it should be easier to ascertain as opposed to looking through countless e-mail folders or trawling through your inbox. The more an individual uses their blog within their organisation, accessing it should become a mere formality and less time consuming to do as first initially thought.
It could be argued that e-mail is a more efficient organisational communication medium when a ‘quick’ response to a question or query is required. A comment to a blog post may not be as initially instant. However, the useful thing about blogs is that when such a response to a post does occur the information contained within it can be stored in a logically presentable way for future reference when called upon in the future.
Here is a useful video I came across on You Tube that briefly and concisely explains what Twitter is and how it works. Well worth a look for anyone curious about Twitter or possibly thinking about subscribing to the site.
The social networking and micro-blogging site Twitter is becoming a increasingly popular communication channel for individuals to communicate (i.e. send and receive) via short text-like messages known as ‘tweets’. People can subscribe and become ‘followers’ to an author’s page to find out what that person is up to, anything new about them etc. As the popularity of Twitter continues to grow the use of the service will no doubt branch out and be used in other contexts e.g. it has already been used politically in the U.S. (2008 Presidential campaign). Twitter appears to be primarily a social networking site that is used for the purposes of ’self-promotion.’ Though the site is used on a social basis for communicating among e.g. friends and family there may be uses for twitter in an organisational capacity. Twitter could have its uses in organisations that commonly use the form of ‘virtual teams’ to conduct project work. The use of Twitter as a communication medium would provide an alternative channel of communication and one just as easy as e.g. e-mail, texting (sms). The shortness of the ‘tweets’ might make it easier to quickly update colleagues on what stages those within a project team are at as well as what sections of the project requires to be completed. The question of whether Twitter can be viewed as a useful channel to facilitate ‘organisational learning’ remains to be seen. The uses and format of Twitter may alter through time so it might be difficult to envisage how useful Twitter might be for learning purposes within organisations. This of course depends upon how you interpret the concept of learning….
I have been pretty busy of late with research etc. but hope to get quite a few more postings and updates on here…
