Blogging practices to support project work

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

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Blogging Practices To Support Project Work

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www.ukoln.ac.uk 22

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About the UK Web Focus Blog

3

Intr

oduc

tion

• Launched in Nov 2006

• 1,000 posts, 4,684 comments & over 385K views

• Runner-up in IT Professional Blogger of the Year Award


www.ukoln.ac.uk

About YouHow many are:

• Regular bloggers• Occasional bloggers• Non-bloggers

Your interests:• What would you like to see addressed in

this session?

4

Intr

oduc

tion

Your opportunity to shape the agenda


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About This Session1. Why have a blog?2. What’s the purpose of your blog?3. Who contributes?4. What can go wrong?5. How can you measure the blog’s success ?6. What technical issues should I care about?7. Howe do I ensure the content is usable?8. How to maximise impact of the blog9. What additional functionality can we exploit?10.Managing the blog when the project is over

5

Intr

oduc

tion


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Why Have a Blog?Group Exercise:

• List ~10 reasons why your project should have a blog

Report back:• Each group to share three reasons for

having a blog• Please do not repeat reasons already

provided!

6

Why

Blo

g?


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Projects Must Blog!?Twitter/blog discussion in Feb 2009:• Projects may blog due

to peer pressure• If not done for right

reasons may be counter-productive

• Projects should be open (wider than blogging)

• Need to develop productive blogging culture

• No, project must blog!7


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Why Have a Blog?Possible Reasons

• We have to – it’s in the contact!• To disseminate• To speculate• To challenge• To encourage discussion• To use as a CMS for content• To ensure content can be viewed easily on

mobile devices• To produce RSS to facilitate reuse• To act as a CV• To provide a sandbox for experimentation• ….8

Why

Blo

g?


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Why Have a Blog?Tip No. 1:

Ensure you (and your project team) know the reasons why you are providing a blog.

NoteThis should be done for members of the project team and the funders

9

Why

Blo

g?


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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?

The need to publish the blog’s purpose:• To help user’s understand what your blog

is about• To ensure blog authors (possibly

distributed) have a shared understanding• So your funders understand the purpose• So future evaluators /markers understand

the purpose • To help in the management of your blog• To measure the blog’s effectiveness in

achieving its intended purpose10

Wha

t is

Your

Blo

g Fo

r?


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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?Summary:

• Brief summary of top left corner of UK Web Focus blog (visible from every page)

Detailed description:• Detailed summary on page linked to

from navigation barCovers:

• Purpose• Audience• Policies• …

11

Wha

t is

Your

Blo

g Fo

r?


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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?Things to consider:• Is the About

page about the blog or the project?

• Does the summary change about the project is over?

12

The About page for the JISC PoWR project was updated last week as the blog may have been regarded as the project.


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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?

Tip No. 2:Publish an About page for your blog which is:

Easily found Clarifies whether the information is about

the blog or the project Makes sense after the project is over

NoteThis should be done for readers of your blog

13

Wha

t is

Your

Blo

g Fo

r?


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Who Contributes to Your Blog?

Email is for everyone and we (should) understand the context and the risks.But blogs are a different environment

14

Who

Con

trib

utes

?


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15

Who

Con

trib

utes

?

Starting a blog can be an intimidating experience …


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Who

Con

trib

utes

?

… but so can writing a peer-reviewed paper


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Who

Con

trib

utes

?

Some people are better at writing code


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Who

Con

trib

utes

?

Whereas other can communicate complex ideas in visual ways

Visualisations produced by Tony Hirst


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Which channels do you prefer? (choose 1)[Research papers] – [synthesis reports] – [blogs] – [briefing papers] – [marketing materials] – [code] – [visualisations]

Which communication channels are you happy to use? (choose all that apply)

Which communication channels do you try to avoid? (choose all that apply)

19


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The Belbin ModelBlogging and the Belbin Model

20


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Group Exercise:• Provide one (or two) statements

describing who will publish posts on your project blog

• What are the strengthens & weaknesses of your blog contributor policy?

21

Who

Con

trib

utes

?


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Tip No. 3:Since not everyone should blog but every

project must have a blog … Identify the good, keen bloggers Provide opportunities for reluctant bloggers Consider inviting guest bloggers to add

variety Provide blog profiles to be able to

differentiate different ‘voices’

22

Who

Con

trib

utes

?


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Group Exercise:• What can go wrong with your blog?• Feel free to include:

Technical issues Content issues People issues Resourcing issues …

When Things Go Wrong

23

Whe

n Th

ings

Go

Wro

ng


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When Blogs Break

24

Fatal error: Call to undefined method Arras_Widget_Tag_Cloud::WP_Widget_Tag_Cloud() in /opt/wordpress/wp-content/themes/arras-theme/library/widgets.php on line 328

blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-beg-dig-pres/

ProblemSpam comments spotted in blogBut blog not available?!

SolutionArras theme incompatible with upgraded PHP libraryBlog viewed on mobile device, with mobile theme enabledUpdated version of theme installed

Whe

n Th

ings

Go

Wro

ng


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Spam

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Blog comments can attract spam:•Comment moderation is a barrier to people•You’ll need a spam filter•I try to delete spam daily

10 days of spam


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Managing Spam Comments

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~0.5M spam comments in ~ 4 years (~4K legitimate comments)Some legitimate comments may be trapped (& possibly retrieved).


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When Things Go Wrong

Tip No. 4:Things can go wrong, but planning can

minimise problems Spam filters Spam management policies Managing switch-off of your blog after

project ends

27

Whe

n Th

ings

Go

Wro

ng


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Group Exercise:• How should we measure the success of a

blog?• (Why do we need to measure the

success of a blog?)

Measuring Success

28

Mea

surin

g Su

cces

s


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Measuring SuccessIs this blog unsuccessful?

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The purpose of the blog was informal note-keeping using a familiar, easy-to-use tool.Should usage stats matter?


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There are needs to identify indications of success • Demonstrate value

to funders• Identify & learn from

effective & flawed strategies

• …

Measuring Success

30

Mea

surin

g Su

cces

s

Top 3% of all blogsTop 13% of technology blogs

According to Technorati Tony Hirst’s Ouseful.info blog is in:

• Top 3% of all blogs it has indexed • Top 13% of Technology blogs

based on index of > 1M blogs


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Comparison With PeersSearch Technorati for ‘jisc’ helps to spot blogs with high ranking:

• What can we learn from these?

• Can we help ensure JISC (outreach) blogs are highly ranked

31

Authority measures blog's standing & influence on scale of 0-1000 (high good).Ranking given for Technorati Authority of all sites (low good)


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WikioWikio also provides metrics for (registered) blogsList of top technology blogs shown

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Together with display of trends for ranking, nos. of posts, links and backlinks,

OUseful had peak at #18 in Nov 2008

What happened from Jun-Sep 2010?


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Measuring SuccessTip No. 5:Think about (easy) ways for measuring

success of you blogNote registering blog with Technorati & Wikio

Is trivial to do May provide evidence of successful strategies The value may be in the aggregation of JISC

blogs Funders understand that these don’t provide

league tables You’ll need to understand risks of not doing

this (which may be a legitimate decision)

33


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Interoperability IssuesBK “What technical advice should I

give?”TB “Don’t truncate RSS feeds!”

Context (for end users):On the bus, catching up with RSS

feeds on iPod Touch.If text truncated I normally don’t see

full post (and am likely to unsubscribe from such blogs)

34

Thanks to Amber Thomas for granting permission to share this example – she has updated her blog settings!


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Interoperability Issues

35

UKOLN’s Web Team Blog aggregator:• Harvests

posts for Web team blogs

• Allows them to understand their community

• Allows us to observe

Note that searches, auto-categorisation, etc. is based on RSS feed content. Restricted feed content = limited value.


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Interoperability IssuesTip No. 6:Provide a full RSS feed for your blog

It’s trivial to do If you don’t:

Humans may not see full post, especially if they use offline devices

Software will not be able to harvest full post

36

Tech

nica

l Iss

ues


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Which Platform?Which blogging platform should you use?

• Wordpress.com: My choice. Limited range of plugins.

• Wordpress.org: Install locally; can install wide range of plugins.

• Blogger.com:

What else do people use?

37

Plat

form

Issu

es


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Platform IssuesTip No. 7:Several safe options available

Wordpress.com or Blogger.com if no in-house options available

WordPress.org if Wish to use wider range of plugins Technical expertise available Wish to consider use of WP as a technology

platform (see later) May be advantages in using same platform

as your peers

38

Plat

form

Issu

es


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Usability IssuesWho normally reads blog posts:

• On a mobile device• On desktop PC

39

My morning’s reading: posts viewed in mobile RSS client

Less clutter than Web browser view

But some features don’t work (Java, Flash, ..)


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Interoperability can be achieved by writing style and links, with no technology needed

40

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/dont-just-embed-objects-add-links-to-source-too/


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In a mobile world:• Which posts stands

out?

41

Note:• Growing importance

of personalised newspapers

• Need to stand out form the crowd


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UsabilityTip No. 9:You can’t ignore mobile devices

Even if you don’t read blogs on a mobile device, your readers might

Mobile usage will grow There are some simple techniques you can

use to enhance experiences on mobile device

42

Usa

bilit

y


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What About Twitter?Is Twitter:• Trivial & time-

wasting• Valuable for

rapid discussions with peers

• Useful for marketing

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Twitter Evidence (1)

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URL Bit.ly/foo+ gives usage stats


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Twitter Evidence (2)What happened in June 2011 which caused spike for peer-reviewed paper on “Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access”

45

Probably:• A tweet on 17 June • A marketing opportunity

(Promote #UniWekk campaign on Twitter day)

• Use of popular hashtags

"Openness in HE: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access" paper on ways of exploiting openness: http://bit.ly/a9wglM #UniWeek #UniofBath


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What About Twitter?Tip No. 10:You can’t ignore Twitter

Build up your community (100-500 followers to ensure critical mass)

Engage in relevant discussions Tweet about things you care about Tweet links you feel are useful

46

Twitt

er


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Commenting & LinkingMany blogs publish automated links to their postsThis illustrates benefits of citing posts

47


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Commenting & LinkingComments can be indicative of community building (but may be difficult on project blog)

48

You may prefer to be notified of comments:

• By email• In your RSS reader

You may also wish to have comments to blogs of interest in this way


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Comment on Other’s BlogsComment in response to post on Google Scholar Citations (& question on proactive use of service)

49

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/


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Email MattersWhat if your users:• Are not into blogs• Don’t use RSS readers

Encourage them to sign up to an RSS to email subscription service e.g.

• Feedburner(93 subscribers to all posts)

• WordPress (85 subscribers)

50


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Comments, Links and EmailTip No. 11:Comments, links and email matter

You can encourage comments by your writing style (e.g. open questions

Providing links to relevant resources helps users in following ideas

Providing links to blog posts can generate traffic back to you blog

Posts can be delivered by email (but you’ll have to make it obvious how to do this)

51


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You Are Not Alone!Work collaboratively:• You are not alone• You gain benefits by

sharing

Research360@Bath MRD blog plans covers:• Content for static

pages• Content for blog posts• …

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You Are Not Alone!Research360@Bath MRD blog plans covers:• Content for sidebar• Target audience• …

Provided under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) licence

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Searching Across the Community

54

A Google Custom Search Engine (GCSE) searches across (current) JISC MRD blogs

GCSE can be embedded in Web pages

Note should have OPML feeds to add blogs to RSS aggregators


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Browsing Across the CommunityJISC RDM blogs added to Google ReaderGoogle Reader allows:

• Browsing (shown)• Export of OPML file for import to other RSS tools

Compare this with the silos of conventional Web sites!

55

Produced by Jez Cope, Research360@Bath


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You Are Part of a CommunityTip No. 12:Don’t reinvent the wheel!

Learn from what others are doing Share what you’re doing

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Why not write a post about how you’ve implemented your blog? Other may find this useful, and they may be motivated to give you suggestions on enhancements


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Advanced BloggingBlogs can provide:

• Easy-to-use content management system• Tool for creating mobile-friendly content• Mechanism for getting feedback

But in addition:• Can manage semantic content• Content can be created by automated

processes• …

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Example from Southampton University

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AnnotumAnnotums’s objectives are to develop:• A simple, robust,

easy-to-use authoring system to create and edit scholarly articles

• An editorial review and publishing system that can be used to submit, review, and publish scholarly articles

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Joss Winn’s session on WordPress at IWMW 2010

If you’ve 6 mins to spare see the video:


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Blog Engine as a PlatformTip No. 13:A blog engine can be a powerful technology

platform

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It’s All Over Now!

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The projects over – and was a great success But the blog:

• Is full of spam• Has out-of-date content• Has stopped working• Used as indicator of

poor dissemination for next call


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IWMW 2011 blog

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Calendar removed

Is this risky?


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A Blog Isn’t Just For Xmas! Tip No. 14:Your project blog will still be relevant after

the project is complete: It can undermine future work if

closure isn’t managed It can demonstrate the value of

previous work

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See "Approaches To Archiving Professional Blogs Hosted In The Cloud“, iPres 2010, Kelly, B & Guy, M.<http://opus.bath.ac.uk/20327/>


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ConclusionsYou should

• Document blog’s purpose• Provide an About page• Develop plans for content providers• Have a spam management policy• Consider ways of gathering metrics• Provide a full RSS feed• Ensure posts are usable on mobile devices• Encourage comments – and comment • Work collaboratively• Understand additional opportunities for blog platform• Manage the closure of your blog

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Questions

66

Blogging practices to support project work

Education

mobile device

group exercise

project team

open source

open access

open standards

writing style

reviewed paper