5. Blogging is Dead…
"We are moving to collections and
curations, to mobile content, and to
different authoring tools. Think for a
moment about the incredible popularity of
Tumblr, or of Pinterest. I believe they are
early iterations of the content revolution."
- Francine Hardaway, Fast Company
30. "Bloggers are free – nay,
encouraged – to write in the
first person. It gives you,
the reader, a sense that I’m
talking straight to you. Like
we’re buddies.”
Mari Kane, Blog Site Studio
43. Harold Jarche
Life in
Perpetual Beta
Jane Hart
Center for Learning
& Performance
Technology
Charles Jennings
The 70:20:10
FORUM
Jay Cross
The Working
Smarter
Field Book
Euan Semple
Organizations Don’t
Tweet People Do
Jon Husband
Wirearchy
You?
Fitting that this learn camp begins with blogging it’s one of the earliest web 2.0 activities
Blogging has evolved with advancing tools, platforms and mobile technology and of course mobile behaviors
How do I manipulate Google?
Wordpress? Blogger? Pistachio?
How do I make money doing this?
Maybe I can just write for or as someone else?
How to hook ‘em!
GIVE PEOPLE TIME TO LEAVE
It’s not my focus or actually expertise or actually my care.
I’m really not that tech savvy and blogging is definitely one of those things where technology is secondary in my opinion
The parchment paper slide template is symbolic - Blogs, from “Weblog” implies the technology is key, and in some respects it is but in essence this is still just about writing, communicating, connecting.
What do you want to learn today?
What drew you to this topic??
The title of this webinar doesn’t follow the typical pattern of “How To” or “Why you must” or pick your practical webinar format.
Please let me know in the comments section
So – Is blogging dead? Dying?
Take a look at this quote.
In chat do you agree yes or no?
Thoughts?
Things have clearly changed. In the hay day of blogging most were locked down to Desktop then Laptop computers
Gigaom (Giga Ohm) research article by Stowe Boyd – people are moving to smaller sets vs. scenes
Article speaks of mobile behavior and trust and work group vs. enterprise-wide interaction
But there are parallels
http://research.gigaom.com/2014/06/what-todays-messaging-surge-means-for-the-enterprise/
Twitter – a thought, a question, a link, a comment
Blog – a commentary, a solution, a deeper opinion
450 Million English Language Blogs – a new one started every half second
OR
1.415 Blogs for every single person in the US
This is said so much about social technology its cliché. But it can never be more true than it is with blogging. It is about writing, communicating and connecting. Cave paintings were never about the wall. They were about public display, they were about discussion and revision
So I conducted a survey across Twitter and G+ channels to gather insights among learning professionals about blogging
So I conducted a survey across Twitter and G+ channels to gather insights among learning professionals about blogging
Different than “Bloggers” the learning professional blogging can elevate the profession and their own practice.
As practitioners and experts informal/social connection on a global scale is what is needed most to learn and advance our craft
Why did I start?
I wanted to get smarter.
I knew smarter came through others not through courses and classes.
Novices need formal. Practitioners need informal
I was isolated. Not many near me thinking about Social Learning/ Informal Learning
Needed to find others
Validate and correct thinking
Where did I start?
Blogger
Easy platform, easy to post, edit, clean interface. Focus more on writing than layout and colors, etc.
Began when I was Ed coordinator at Quad Graphics in Saratoga Springs. A job I held for 4 months!
Informal/ Social learning
What do I get out of it?
Wife asks…colleagues ask
Balance
Personal and profession
Opportunity, motivation, connections,
Years ago my wife met a career counselor who shared an acronym I’ve draw upon a lot as it crosses over many areas really.
CARB – Challenge, Action, Results, Benefit
The counselor was seeking CARB stories to share with potential employers when on a job interview.
I saw it as an easy formula to share what it is we do as LPs
The hardest distinction was the difference between Results and benefits. Benefits imply something greater to the organization.
Tell back story and why blog it
Cool honor
CENTER FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION EFFECTIVENESS
I came in 50th – thank you very much
Had some algorithm behind it rather just a favs list
I’m a horrible writer. But what I lack in style I make up in honesty and passion I think
In addition to sharing broad concepts in social learning, approaches and insights about enterprise social networks, and changes in L&D. I’m really good at run on sentences and word usage errors.
Maybe a little more time editing will move me to #49!
So why do this? Why put “yourself out there” what’s the risk and reward?
Learning – experience, practice. Conversation, reflection
It’s the bottom right I fear we don’t put enough time or emphasis on. We learn in our jobs, through our practice and we can use social media like Twitter for conversation
But when do process and make sense of it all. Blogging is a big part of PKM
Brilliant… but wait! Why not a private journal or diary even online to support images, links, etc?
just how transformative blogging has been in my life.
How much more aware I am of my thoughts and feelings - and of the world around me.
Once you have a blog you notice more, you start to think “I might write about this on my blog” "What do I want to say?” “What will people’s reaction be?”.
Over time you get better at noticing and the better at noticing you get the more noticed you get!
You end up in the wonderful collective web of “Oooh that’s interesting” which I now wouldn’t ever want to be without.
21st Century Resume
It’s not what you’ve done, but what you’re doing, what you’re thinking
LinkedIn.. About.me … etc still present you concisely but you are complex!
Blogging is the personal made public and it adds a layer of stress that a journal or diary cannot
Heat and pressure make diamonds from coal
Passion and Public
Saying something anonymously vs. owning it
We can walk away or disconnect from the idea much easier when we are unknown
And We learn when we teach back
What makes you angry? What inspires you? What do you find mind blowing, What do you find admirable? What tools do you use? What was that conference like? That webinar? THIS webinar? What did you learn today? This week?
Anyone know the scene? Used in which TV show?? 90’s?
Seinfeld was essentially a show about nothing
It worked because it was an observation of life
I run into so many learning professionals doing so many cool things and nobody knows!
Think Twitter not Facebook
This is not the bard
Size doesn’t matter but think chunks – people are more mobile than ever
I still do most of my “work” on an iphone
Blogging is personal. It’s a presentation. Its informal, casual to a fault
Be human, its OK to error – the crowd corrects
Today’s critics and trolls exist
Engaging them is feeding them
know the difference
Remember when you were a kid in a musical or play or dance group. You may not have performed as well as you liked, but so many others don’t even try.
Compare yourself to know one.
Is it worth reading?
Who are you writing for?
Share with a few directly – get feedback
Use other channels
Expect attention ebb and flow
We get better at writing by writing
Think Facebook not Twitter
Sure you can lockdown your tweets by making them private.. But Facebook has always been about the group, the friends
OH by Mark Ohlert
Little ideas
Break up larger posts
“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”
— Henry David Thoreau, writer and philosopher.
Remember your audience is global. Be conscious of jargon, Western terms, places, etc
Outboard your mind. There is no magic number for how frequent but if you think with with sharing public first, making connections, growing… the rest follows
Use technical Performance support!
Mobile 1st – most ideas, influences, serendipity about work seems to happen outside of work
I’m in line at the grocery store, waiting for lunch to arrive, walking the dog…
Evernote - text
Say-n-go - voice
Use Human Performance Support
Others are out there.
CNY Bloggers Group feeds off each other, inspires, criticizes in a safe place
Take it inside
Social tools like blogging is a great vehicle to enhance/improve formal learning
Aspen Dental effort
New hires 10 week program (70/30)
Casually introduced – part of the program
Trainers, supported and encouraged field blogs (journals)
Show Your Work
Blogging as a formative evaluation
Blogging as peer-support
Trainers got a sense of what was sticking, what needed tweaking/ reinforcing
Trainers could adjust instruction before cohort returned
Blogs and comments kept cohort “together” when they were apart. Helped with morale.
The bloggers I follow.
“When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real.” – The Power of Habit
The blogs I follow inspire and point me to the practical.
In the chat window, who are some of yours?
In my mind it’s the best, most powerful post because it summarized where I’m at and want to be
This post really cemented what I believe and what I do and my thoughts about the place of traditional L&D in an organization.
It did not garner much attention as in reads or comments. Maybe its been said before. Maybe it makes no sense…
But it was mine and it has left a huge mark on my direction and serves to support me when I am in doubt
I have 58 drafts. Never seen the light of day.
As I write my thoughts . My thoughts can change. Sometime the intent and direction shift and in the end I find my initial idea was wrong.
I could see this as a failure. A waste of time… but Aren’t I better for having begun?
This sums up my advice. It’s the best way to start and the best way to stay
Questions?
