Post on 16-Jan-2015
description
How does Blogging Create and Support Knowledge
Communities
Jack VinsonKnowledge Jolt, Inc.
www.jackvinson.com jackvinson@jackvinson.com
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Communities: formation
About: Common interest In public: science, religion, family, shared
history, neighborhood In organizations: work processes, work
problems, academic discipline, company history
People gathering In a physical space Online at a specific venue: bulletin boards,
forums, mailing lists, …
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Communities: existence
Why do they stay together? Leadership Common interest / purpose Shared space (physical or virtual)
Why do they disband? Passion (central purpose) fades Change / Loss of “space”
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Weblogs / Blogging
Individual author (generally)Frequently updatedReverse chronological postingsTopics to the author’s interests
Lightweight content management system
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Blogs – general layout
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Layout – single entry
Title
Quote
Comments
Body
Other articles with the same topics
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Blogs and communities?
Communities are about common interestBlogs are about my interests
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Blogs and communities?
On the other hand, blogs are all about connecting with the larger world “Here’s something I find interesting” “Here’s something Jane wrote, and this is why I
think you should read it.” Would I write if no one were reading?
Hints of community: calls for help, quotes, links, blogrolls, comments, trackbacks
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Hints of community in blogs
Community of readers A-list bloggers have thousands of readers Readers are willing to help when directly called
upon Very much a one-way street
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Hints of community in blogs
Favorite sources Many blogs list their favorite blogs in the
sidebar (blogroll)
Quoted sources Many bloggers quote other bloggers and other
websites that inspire their writing
Get a sense of the wider world in which the blogger operates
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Hints of community in blogs
Comments Readers can leave their responses directly on
my website Sense of community can develop around those
who write Little opportunity for participants to interact
without the blog
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Hints of community in blogs
Tools that can find who is talking about what has been written here Trackback Search
Technorati: www.technorati.com Google site search / blog search TalkDigger: www.talkdigger.com
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Community in blogs
A community of bloggers Write about similar topics Read each others’ blogs Get to know one another Draw on each others’ writings to extend ideas
and share their point of view
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Community in blogs
Traditional online community behavior Frequent writers Discussions in comments Discussions across blogs Plenty of readers who belong to the community,
yet are not actively vocal (“lurkers”)
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Discovering a community
Comments, Blogroll, Trackbacks, SearchAnalyzing linking behavior
SNA - Who links to whomText analysis to find similar blogs
WayPath, Watson (both mothballed)
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Building a blogging community
Is it possible to engineer a blogging community, akin to creating a Community of Practice in your business? Will they participate? Critical mass? Technology?
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
Building a blogging community
Issues How to make the connections? Champion / Leadership with individual
ownership of blogs Passion and engagement
Need Active writers, readable commentary Passionate writers Topics that matter to many people
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
In the end
Communities of bloggers existBuilding the communities can be just as
difficult as with traditional CoP Communities are about shared interest Blog communities are about shared passion
October 2007 Jack Vinson, Knowledge Jolt
References
McKinsey Quarterly Harnessing the power of informal employee networks,
2007 Number 4 The role of networks in organizational change, Web
exclusive, April 2007 Mapping the value of employee collaboration, 2006
Number 3 Lilia Efimova has written extensively about weblog
conversations and done some of these analyses (http://blog.mathemagenic.com)
Anjo Anjewierden has been writing tools to analyze blogs from a number of perspectives (http://anjo.blogs.com/metis/)