Establishing a Weblog on Your Organization's Intranet June 7, 2005

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Establishing a Weblog on Your

Organization's Intranet

– June 7, 2005

Sabrina I. Pacifici

Founder, Editor, Publisher, Web Manager

LLRX.com (

www.llrx.com

), the unique, free, independent

webzine on legal research, resources, applications, and

technology for librarians and legal professionals, since 1996.

& Author of beSpacific (

www.bespacific.com

)

Accurate, focused law and technology news, updated daily, since

2002.

Dennis Hamilton, dennis.hamilton@kzf.com

Information Services Manager,

KZF Design

, an architectural,

engineering, interior design and planning firm in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dennis began

KLINKS

, his internal blog, August 2004.

Presentation Overview

• Why blog

• Blog stats

• Blog apps

• Blog features

• Blog guidelines

• Blog facts

• What to blog about

• Got Content!

• Blogging Essentials –

benefits, people, time, cost

• Elements/components of

good blogs

• Content creation and

management

• Marketing and branding,

in-house and to the public

• Blogs as knowledge

management tools

– Adjunct to portals,

websites, intranets

• Examples of focused, topical

blogs

• More reasons you should

blog

• Tech companies lead the

way in corporate blogging

• News and resources on

corporate blogging

• Blog biblios

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Sabrina I. Pacifici and Dennis Hamilton

Why Blog?

• Inexpensive, non-techie,

easy/quick to launch

• Capture, annotate information

– Indicate document relevancy,

provide taxonomy, create info

relationships

– Make info visible that would

otherwise be overlooked

– Document management tool,

from micro to macro (personal,

departmental, organizational)

• Excellent adjunct/alternative to

email overload

– Leverage your research and

ability to disseminate it

• Create and promote key

relationships within and across

departments, groups and

services

• Expand services to those across

your organization

• Increase productivity and info

exchange through better time

management and resource

allocation

• Seamless access via internal

network

– Read the website, receive RSS feeds or updates through email

• Promote internal marketing for

individual, group/dept. and/team

initiatives, projects (long and

short term)

• Content is searchable,

browsable, archived and users

can comment

– Alternative to vast, impenetrable file folders of emails

– valuable database is created and expanded continuously

– Inexpensive, practical KM system that does not require lots of $

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The Viral Nature of Blogging – from a posting on IBM

developerWorks, May 16, 2005 -

http://tinyurl.com/de472

• “Behind the scenes, a small handful of

technical innovators developed and deployed

an internal blogging service that has grown in

a period of just 18 months to just shy of

9,000

registered users

spanning

65 countries

,

3,097 individual blogs

, 1,358 of which are

considered active, with a total of

26,203

entries and comments

-- all of which has

been put together strictly through

word-of-mouth promotion. And it's still just a pilot.”

Enterprise collaboration with blogs and wikis, 3/25/05

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/25/13FEblogwiki_2.html

• “Because BlogCentral is searchable and because

you can easily see the latest postings across

BlogCentral as a whole, it can help you discover

colleagues throughout the company with interests

similar to your own,” Gruen says. “We’ve seen people

using blogs to diary their daily experiences using a

new technology or building a new kind of system,

monitored by others as a sort of real-time virtual

apprenticeship, which lets them observe events as

they unfold and see the issues that arise and how

they are addressed.”

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From

Dave Pollard's

How to Save the World – The Knowledge Process,

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/

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How many blogs are there? According to Technorati….

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According to The Blog Herald…

And According to McDonalds

http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/news/corppr/2005/cpr_04152005.html

• 50 million customers in more than 119

countries served each day…..but

no…blogs…

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Stats on Corporate Bloggers:

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Blog Software – Comparison of selected user-side installed options

http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

Key hosted blog sites

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Software Considerations

• Hosted services vs. stand-alone.

• Commercial vs. Open Source.

• Might require extra help to load.

• Audio and video can be supported.

• RSS is available.

Blogging Tools Start To Catch On In The Business World - March 7, 2005

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Blogs – can they replace an intranet?

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/blog.html

Movable Type: Powerful Business Blog Tool

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CyberJournalist.net has created a model Bloggers' Code of Ethics

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php

May 16, 2005 posting by James Snell, a member of the IBM's Software Standards Strategy

Group announcing IBM’s blogging guidelines

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Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/004725.html

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Sun Policy on Public Discourse

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/05/02/Policy

Thomas Nelson Blogging Guidelines

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beSpacific archive on Blogs

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/cat_blogs.html

Facts about blogs

*Easy to

publish/update

*Simple design

*Permanent

links – no link

rot if well

sourced

*Allow

comments

*Easy to

disseminate

*Easy to

publish/update

*Simple design

*Permanent

links – no link

rot if well

sourced

*Allow

comments

*Easy to

disseminate

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Anatomy of a blog – consider which features to use

*Picture of author,

company/department logo

*Calendar of dates when

content was posted

*Links to archives

*Content displayed with

most recent entries first

*Add links to outside

sources…books, web links,

photos, audio/video

*Readers can comment

*Topics – read all postings

about a subject

*Recommended links: to

in-house docs., resources and

to externals sources

*Picture of author,

company/department logo

*Calendar of dates when

content was posted

*Links to archives

*Content displayed with

most recent entries first

*Add links to outside

sources…books, web links,

photos, audio/video

*Readers can comment

*Topics – read all postings

about a subject

*Recommended links: to

in-house docs., resources and

to externals sources

Chronology

• January 2004 - Began hearing about weblogs and thinking I might be

able to use one for the library.

• March 2004 - During goal setting for the coming year, determined

weblog would be useful for the entire company, plus a tool to promote

the library.

• April 2004 - Began researching weblogs, concentrating on enterprise

weblogs.

• May 2004 - Attended webcast titled “Using Weblogs To Promote

Library Services: It’s Easier Than You Think” by Darlene Fichter of the

University of Saskatchewan Library.

• Decided on weblog’s name: KLINKS.

• June 2004 - Attended SLA conference in Nashville, hoping to find

programs on blogging, but was surprised there weren’t any!

• Made commitment to Solo Librarians Division to present a program in

Toronto.

• July 2004 - Purchased software and made arrangements to have it

loaded.

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KLINKS - Types of Articles

• Announcements

• Community related

• Did you know?

• Employee news

• Facility news

• Florida office

• For fun

• General architectural news

• Internet websites

• KZF events

• Library news

• Media coverage

• Project related

• Useful tips

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Images

• Images can add much to article, and they are easy to

use.

• Image software is needed.

• Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements.

• “Reduce the image size so that it will comfortably fit

in the space provided by your weblog at a resolution

of 72 dpi.”

• Photos are best as .jpg files and graphics are best as

.gif files.

• Store images in a directory within your weblog

directory.

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Steps taken to post an article

• Write article.

• Review.

• Review again.

• Place in Preview mode.

• Review.

• Publish.

• Review.

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Issues to Consider

• What type of blog (content and scope)?

• Will you be the author, or someone else, or a team?

• How often will you post?

• Write for your audience (Enterprise is to a “closed” audience).

• Politics.

• Don’t criticize your company or the professions of your

company.

• Always remember the bottom line.

• Can you justify the weblog?

• Confidentiality.

• Tool for new employees.

• Encourage employees to submit ideas for articles.

• Look to the future.

Blogging Essentials – benefits, people, time, cost

• Is a blog the app you should

choose

– Who are you trying to serve,

and why

• Needs assessment

– Have a specific goal, review

progress and assess value

• Who is responsible for

maintenance/updating

• Blogs can be “back-office” or

front and center

– Determine scope…or niche

• Establishing and populating the

blog(s) with content

– review resource options with

key members of departments,

practice groups or areas whom

you wish to serve.

• Obtain stakeholder buy-in

• Demo the service, request

suggestions, comments and

input

• Respond quickly by adapting

the blog to incorporate

additional data

– narrow or expand content and

specifications

• Is one blog sufficient, or do you

need multiple blogs?

• Address usability, functionality,

value for time spent

• Stay on message…focus, focus,

focus – readers have limited

time

• Verify, vet, validate content

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What to Blog About? Share the Knowledge

• new or ongoing projects – close the loop

• new services, or current ones that require better promotion/info

dissemination

• KM initiatives

– Evaluation, design, implementation, roll-out, testing

• Tasks – group/departmental

– Organizational tool, management tool

• Password database, subscription database, calendar of events

• training

• presentations

• topical/subject specific research

• practice development

• clients

• virtual reference, electronic services, cataloging

• from topics specific or broad, it is up to you!

What Does Blogging Involve – Got Content!

• Assignment: monitor, track, locate (through all

avenues available…fee and free)… find needle in

haystack and make it look easy!

• validate, verify, analyze

• review, edit, append info as req’d (PDF, Word docs,

Excel, graphics, audio, video)

• seek feedback, comments, contributions

• publish, disseminate, update (the updating part is the

real kicker)…commitment is key!

• don’t start what you can’t continue – Feed the Blog!

• time management is essential

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More Reasons Why You Should Blog

• Identify and target your users

• Provide channels of information

– Choice/selection in data stream

– From the general to the

granular, your readers can

choose if you offer them a

range of content

• Supplementing

info/data/resources from

websites, e-newsletters, paid

subscription services, online

databases

• Aggregate your current

publishing formats

– Intranet

– Portal

– Websites

– Handouts/brochures

– Power Point presentations

– Emails

– Newsletters

• Branding/marketing vehicle for

your library – good PR

– Offers tangible, ongoing

documentation of work product

– Justify resources, staffing,

additional services

• Where is that report, news article,

survey, training manual?

– Promote, maximize internal

collaboration, knowledge base

management of resources, tasks

and projects

• Real time publishing

– Direct, no intermediary req’d

• You are the expert

– Blogging will focus and expand

upon your skills

– Level the playing field…minimize

barriers and increase visibility,

communications, integration of

resources

A Product Blog

"By announcing a new product on a

blog you are creating an invitation to a

discussion about your product. On-line

press releases don't allow readers to

post comments to provide feedback or

to ask questions. As more and more

blog readers use newsreaders, people

are very apt to grab an RSS feed for a

blog they find interesting. That creates

an opportunity for the blog to continue

the discussion that starts with a new

product announcement. “

http://contentcentricblog.typepad.com/

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Blogs facilitate organization of, and access to, relevant data by

topics

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Browse content by month/year

How to Find and Monitor Relevant Blogs

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Library Weblogs

http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html

Directory of law related blogs

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EU Commissioner for Institutional Relations and

Communication

http://weblog.jrc.cec.eu.int/page/wallstrom/

Law Firm Librarian’s Blog – Firm branded

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Boeing Flight Test Journal

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/777family/200LR/flight_test/index.html

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Example of a very focused topical blog: GM Smallblock Engine Bloghttp://smallblock.gmblogs.com/

Government News for Montana

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Example of a topical blog with broader focus but still subject oriented – stays on message.

Vice President, Marketing, Boeing

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Consider the options, value and flexibility offered by RSS Feeds

• Really Simple Syndication

• News feeds help you “get the

word out” about updates to

your blog

– In-house or to the public

– Offer your

readers/community an

alternative to email only, or

as a supplement to it for

those who “opt-in”

• Review websites you use that

offer feeds

– To locate feeds, look for

the orange icon or button

that says RSS, XML,

Syndicate or Atom.

Sun Embraces Blogs

Sun

Microsystems

promotes

employee

blogging

more

aggressively

than any

other

technology

firm.

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Microsoft has over 1400 employees blogging (2.5% of total)

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CEO’s Who Blog

From the WSJ Free Features, March 1, 2005

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The Latest Tech Initiative in Congress: Blogging

http://leahy.senate.gov/MFTF/MoreFromtheFloor.html

Links to State Legislators' Blogs and Legislatures with RSS Feeds

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/NALIT/blogs.htm

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RSS - Bloglines

Law Journal Feeds

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Yahoo Directory RSS Feeds

http://dir.yahoo.com/rss/dir/index.php

CompleteRSS: search for and subscribe to thousands of RSS feeds

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http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/appdev/stor

y/0,10801,99349,00.html

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http://www.knownow.com/products/docs/whitepapers/wp-RSS.html

News and Resources About Corporate Blogging

• Blogging for Business

– “With readers flocking to their Web postings, execs are

finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products but their points of view.”

Business Week, August 9, 2004

http://tinyurl.com/4mukc

• Blogging With The Boss's Blessing – “More companies are helping employees

to speak freely -- and bond with customers.” Business Week, June 28, 2004

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_26/b3889107.htm

• Blogging behind the firewall

– “InfoWorld’s internal Weblog started as an

experiment. Already, it’s indispensable.” InfoWorld, May 24, 2004

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/05/21/21OPconnection_1.html

• The Corporate Blog is Catching On, New York Times, June 23, 2003

http://tinyurl.com/f10d

• Google sees benefits in corporate blogging, “Company says internal blogs

can be used to track meeting notes, share diagnostics information and code.”

InfoWorld, November 18, 2004

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/11/18/HNgooglecorpblog_1.html

• HP quietly begins Web log experiment

– “Hewlett-Packard Co. has become

the latest IT vendor to dip its toes in the wild world of Web logging, or blogging.”