A centre of expertise in digital information management Blogs for all reasons Ann Chapman UKOLN...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Blogs for all reasons

Ann ChapmanUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

UKOLN is supported by:This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

About this talk Looks at three blogs, explaining the different audiences, aims and approaches used.

About this talk Looks at three blogs, explaining the different audiences, aims and approaches used.

Twitter:http://twitter.com/ukolnculture/

Email:[email protected]

Resources bookmarked using ‘ili2010-workshop' tag


www.ukoln.ac.uk

Three Case Studies

How blogs differ• Aims• Audience and ‘tone or flavour’• Set-up and Effort• What happened?

The case studies• CILIP Catalogue & Indexing Group (CIG) blog• UKOLN Cultural Heritage blog• JISC SIS Landscape Study blog

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www.ukoln.ac.uk

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CIG blog - Aims

What we wanted to do• Communicate with group members• News items (CIG and wider)• Publicise our events• Publicise our e-journal• Invite people to write book reviews• Start up discussions


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CIG blog – Set-up

Timeline• Jan 2007

• Set up on Blogspot• By ‘activist’ committee member• Posting rights – 4 officers and the ‘activist’

• Spring 2007• Move content to CILIP Web site blogging

facility• Posting rights – all committee members• Comments – anyone (moderated)

• 2009• Write blog policy and add to blog


www.ukoln.ac.uk

http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/catalogueandindex/


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CIG blog - Effort

A mixed bag• Admin by CILIP Web team (e.g. they

change who has posting rights)• CIG blog manager (spam, comments,

reminders to post)• CIG Committee (16 to 20 people) – all

able to post• CIG members – can comment but not post


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CIG blog – Review

Frequency of posts• Too erratic / too few – viewings drop• No set schedule – need to monitor

New features• Meet the Committee - once a month, everyone

takes a turn• Blogging from the residential conference

Discussion• Attempts to start discussion not successful

Viewing figures (from CILIP)• Can’t tell who is viewing (CIG member or others)• Not increasing visit / event uptake (feedback)


www.ukoln.ac.uk

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Cultural Heritage blog - Aims

What we set out to do• Complement other sections of the UKOLN

Cultural Heritage Web site• Dissemination• Forum for discussion and debate• Focus on Web 2.0 and Social Web• Cross sector appeal – libraries, museums

and archives


www.ukoln.ac.uk

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Cultural Heritage blog – Set-up

Timeline• Jan 2009

• News items• Mostly by UKOLN staff• Occasional guest posts

• April 2010• New focus on community input• More guest posts – on Web 2.0 experiences• Interspersed with UKOLN posts• Twitterfeed to Twitter (set up accounts)


www.ukoln.ac.uk

http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/


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Cultural Heritage blog - Effort

Initially (Jan 2009)• 3 members UKOLN staff• Each focus on an area• 1 member as Manager

Now (from April 2010)• 1 member UKOLN staff

• Write some posts• Sign up guest post writers• Deal with comments and spam

• Guest post writers


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Cultural Heritage blog - Review

Guest posts• Take time (contact, reminder, images, set-up)• Long posts – split into two or more parts• Mix of first timers and old hands• Generates interest (guests tweet about post)• Scheduling publication (keeping some in hand)

UKOLN posts• Was – challenge of finding suitable topics on

regular basis• Now – fit these in between guest posts


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JISC SIS Study blog - Aims

What JISC required• Project Web presence – minimum 3 years• Final report

Project requirements• Collect data• 6 month timescale – too short for usual

survey methods• Contact specific group – Web 2.0 users• Make data available to community

throughout project


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JISC SIS Study blog – Set-up

The approach• Blog posts – limited to progress ‘reports’• Pages

• ‘About’ and ‘Adding Comments’ guide• Data collection

– Page per topic (16)– Intro text by UKOLN to initiate feedback– Comments submitted (186) = raw data

• Case studies (22 completed)• Literature review

– Shared with participants (and observers)– Added items as we found them


www.ukoln.ac.uk

http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-sis-landscape/


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JISC SIS Study blog – Effort

UKOLN• Project leader and project researcher• Rsearch method – so time allocated• Blog set-up• Create Pages within blog to collect data• Find and work with case study subjects• Plan and implement close down

Participants• People posting comments• Case study subjects


www.ukoln.ac.uk

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JISC SIS Study blog – Review

During the project• Promotion to target audience difficult

• Email lists – generated little feedback• Personal contacts – best approach• Amazon voucher draw – suspect little impact

• Data collected• Relevant and useful• Used in final report

After the project ended• Closing down posts• What happens when 3 years is up?• Archiving – UKOLN or JISC?


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Key pointsQuestions first

• Who is the audience?• What is the aim?

Then plan, plan and plan some more• Identify effort

• Solo or team? Guest posts?• What happens if people leave or move jobs?

• Decide• Comments: allow? moderate?• Scope• Attribution (quotes, images, etc.)• Using twitter and twitterfeed

• Write a Blog policy• Close down – identify when and why


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Questions

Any questions?

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Name: Ann Chapman Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UKEmail: [email protected] site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/Blog: http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/

Name: Ann Chapman Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UKEmail: [email protected] site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/Blog: http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/ili-2010-workshop/

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